The backstory on the scandal that helped sink the French monarchy, in this excerpt from In the Shadow of the Empress
traces the life of Empress Maria Theresa, the only woman to rule the sprawling Hapsburg lands in her own name, and her daughters—the most famous being her youngest, born Maria Antonia but better known as Marie Antoinette. This excerpt traces one of the many damaging controversies that erupted during her reign as Queen of France—the Affair of the Diamond Necklace.
This harsh maternal indoctrination would be the saving of her; one day, one of those fine coaches stopped, and a tenderhearted marchioness took pity on the bruised and starving eight-year-old. She paid for Jeanne’s education, had the girl’s genealogy authenticated by the court, and even arranged for her to receive a small annual income of 800 livres from the royal treasury in recognition of her lineage.
The cardinal was not, however, the only quarry that Jeanne caught with her stories of cozy little tête-à-têtes with the queen. A jeweler by the name of Böhmer was also deeply in need of a friendly go-between to approach Marie Antoinette. For years, Böhmer had been trying to sell an over-the-top necklace, made of approximately 650 large, flawless diamonds that the jeweler had painstakingly collected from all over Europe.
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