Louis the XV of France had a large diamond necklace made for his mistress Madame Du Barry. This necklace cost around 15.1 million US dollars today and made from diamonds. Before the necklace could be complete he passed away. Louis’s grandson then banished Madame Du Barry from court. Suddenly there was no one to pay for this very expensive necklace and the jeweler, Boehomer, was starting to panic.

He went to the new king Louis XVI and asked him to buy the necklace. No one in the world could afford a necklace like this and besides, it would look great on Louis’s new wife, Marie Antoinette. Louis refused and when Boehomer tried to sell it to Marie she declined. Mare said the money could be used to better France rather than buy necklaces and Boehomer left, wondering what the fate of this necklace would be.

Enter the biggest idiot and an opportunistic woman, Cardinal Rohan and Jeanne Remy. Cardinal Rohan had fallen into Marie’s mother bad graces and Marie held the same grudge. the Cardinal was desperate to et back in the good graces of the queen and Marie, every the con woman, sensed an opportunity. She told  the Cardinal that she and the queen were friends and she might be able to help him get back in her good graces and so the Cardinal began talking to the “queen”. This was in fact not the queen, this was Jeanne.

The Cardinal became enamored with the queen and asked Jeanne for a meeting. Jeanne agreed and dressed up her husband’s lover to look like the queen. The Cardinal fell for it and the letters continued and “the queen” asked the Cardinal to get the necklace for her and that she would totally pay it back.

Well he got the necklace for her and Jeanne sold it. When time came to pay and the Queen didn’t pay the Cardinal confronted her directly which queen told him that she never ordered the necklace and she had no idea who Jeanne was. Jeanne was arrested and sent to prison but for some reason the public loved her and it made the Queen look bad. Many thought that it was a front and the queen really did order the necklace.

Several parts of this are really funny when you dig into it. For one Jeanne slipped up several times in her letters as “the queen” to the Cardinal. French royalty signed letters with their Baptismal name which is normally a first name, several to a dozen middle names, and last name. Jeanne signed the letters and Queen Marie of France. So yeah, I guess it just takes the world’s dumbass cardinal to steal a king’s necklace.