Affair of the Diamond Necklace

The Affair of the Diamond Necklace was an incident in 1785 at the court of King Louis XVI of France involving his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. The reputation of the Queen, already tarnished by gossip, was ruined by the implication that she participated in a crime to defraud the crown jewelers of the cost of a very expensive diamond necklace. The Affair is historically significant as one of the events that led to the French populace's disillusionment with the monarchy, which, among other causes, eventually precipitated the French Revolution.

In 1772, Louis XV of France decided to make Madame du Barry, with whom he was infatuated, a special gift at the estimated cost of 2,000,000 livres (approximately $14 million in 2015 USD). He requested that Parisian jewelers Boehmer and Bassenge create a diamond necklace that would surpass all others in grandeur. It would take the jewelers several years and a great deal of money to amass an appropriate set of diamonds. In the meantime, Louis XV died of smallpox, and du Barry was banished from court by his grandson and successor.

The necklace consisted of many large diamonds arranged in an elaborate design of festoons, pendants and tassels. The jewelers hoped it would be a product that the new Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, would buy and indeed in 1778 the new king, Louis XVI, offered it to his wife as a present, but she refused. According to Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan, the Queen refused it with the statement that the money would be better spent equipping a man-of-war. Some said that Marie Antoinette refused the necklace because she did not want to wear any jewel that had been designed for another woman, especially if that woman was a courtesan she disliked. According to others, Louis XVI himself changed his mind.

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