Affair of the Diamond Necklace erupts

On August 15, 1785, the Feast of the Assumption, Cardinal Louis René Édouard de Rohan was publicly arrested at Versailles in connection with what became known as the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. Though Marie Antoinette was entirely innocent of wrongdoing, the scandal involved a con artist, Jeanne de la Motte, who had forged the queen's signature and impersonated her in secret meetings to swindle Rohan into purchasing an extraordinarily expensive diamond necklace on her supposed behalf.

The affair, despite Marie Antoinette having had no actual involvement, was catastrophic for her public image. The French public, already primed by pamphlets and gossip portraying the queen as frivolous and extravagant, readily believed she was somehow complicit. The subsequent trial became a sensational public spectacle, and Rohan's eventual acquittal was widely seen as a repudiation of the queen's credibility rather than a vindication.

Historians consider this scandal a pivotal moment in the erosion of royal prestige leading up to the French Revolution. It crystallized public perception of Marie Antoinette as corrupt, wasteful, and disconnected from the struggles of ordinary French citizens, even though she was a victim of fraud rather than a perpetrator. The affair demonstrated how vulnerable royal reputation was to rumor and propaganda in the volatile pre-revolutionary climate, and it significantly weakened the monarchy's moral authority just a few years before 1789.