Arnaque monumentale au château de Versailles !

L’affaire du collier de la reine, ça vous parle ? Il s’agit d’une des plus grosses escroqueries car elle concerne le collier le plus cher de l’histoire : 30 millions d’euros actuels !

Le roi Louis XV avait commandé ce collier de 674 diamants pour la comtesse du Barry, mais il faut du temps pour qu’une telle œuvre se réalise. Lorsqu’il est enfin achevé, le roi est mort depuis 4 ans… Alors qui va acheter ce collier d’une valeur pharamineuse ? Jeanne de La Motte, une autre comtesse, a l’intention de l’acquérir, mais elle le fait grâce à une arnaque qui a été menée avec brio.

Alors comment va-t-elle se procurer cette somme ?
Va-t-elle être démasquée ?
Pourquoi cette histoire a secoué toute la royauté française ?

Dans ce nouvel épisode de Monumental, Jamy vous raconte cette histoire…monumentale !

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À tout de suite 🤓

Montage : Robin PLOMB
Mixage son : Gilles Bawulak
Écriture : Victor Pierson et Jamy Gourmaud

In seventeen eighty-five, a whiff of scandal is in the air at the court of King Louis the Sixteenth. A diabolical scam will inevitably and severely tarnish and damage the Crown of France. It’s a 29-year-old countess named Jeanne de la Motte who’s orchestrating this unbelievable scheme, known as, The Scandal of the Queen’s Necklace. Cardinal de Rohan, who is the grand almoner of France and also the bishop of Strasbourg, arrives at Versailles to conduct the Assumption mass in the chapel of the castle. But just before the service, he must see the king, Without explanation, he’s been summoned to the king’s private apartments for a meeting. Rohan is quite surprised, and tense, since it’s not like Louis the Sixteenth to disrupt his usual daily schedule. And actually, The cardinal is right to worry. This meeting is going to end up being a nightmare. When he comes out, he’s looking as white as a sheet, and shortly after, as he makes his way across the Hall of Mirrors, the royal guard swoops in and arrests him, dragging him away like some common criminal, to the Bastille prison. I’m innocent I can prove it The courtiers who are witnessing the entire scene just can’t believe it. What crime could this man of faith, have possibly committed, to be treated like this? To really understand, we need to go back thirteen years earlier, to seventeen seventy-two. At that time, Louis the Sixteenth is not yet sitting on the throne of France. It’s his grandfather, Louis the Fifteenth. He’s not young anymore, but he still hasn’t given up his lifelong passion for women. Louis the Fifteenth had quite a number of mistresses throughout his life. The latest one is the Countess du Barry, a woman for whom, the king is actually willing to go to any lengths, And indeed, That year, to please her, Louis the Fifteenth orders from the German jeweler Charles Böhmer, the most beautiful necklace. This jewel, of two thousand eight hundred forty-two carats, includes a hundred pearls, and a total of six hundred seventy-four diamonds. Well, Its price is really high. one million six hundred thousand livres, which is approximately, equivalent to about 30 million euros. It’s the most expensive necklace in history. For Böhmer, it’s an honor. But this jewel, is also, a constant pain in his side, Indeed, He’s gotten used to financing orders all on his own. So he’s had no choice but to take on a lot of debt, to buy some expensive jewels, which he really struggles to gather. So much so, that many years slip by, and the necklace is still not completed. In seventeen seventy-eight, when it’s finally completed, Louis the Fifteenth has been dead for four years. So, who’s going to pay for the necklace? Böhmer persistently offers it to the new queen of France, Marie-Antoinette. Her husband, Louis the Sixteenth, is willing to give it to her, despite its price, But several times, the queen declines the offer. After making the rounds of the European courts, the jeweler has to face the facts. No one is really interested in his necklace. He finds himself, with huge amounts of debts, a jewel that can’t be sold, and now there’s absolutely nothing left but tears. It’s at this moment, that Joan, steps in, the Countess de la Motte. She’s 28 years old, She’s pretty and she comes from a noble family, but she has no fortune, So, to secure her future, she uses her charms, That’s the reason why, she gets close to Cardinal de Rohan, Admittedly a man of the cloth, but a rich one and a fan of pretty women. To attract him and extract large sums of money, Jeanne skillfully navigates the situation, She makes him believe that she’s in touch with the queen. She knows very well that’s his weak spot, Rohan has been actively seeking Marie-Antoinette’s friendship for years to obtain a ministerial position. However, The queen royally ignores him, she despises him and she absolutely refuses to grant him any audience whatsoever. To prove to the cardinal her closeness to the sovereign, Joan presents him with fake letters, imitating the queen’s handwriting and signing Marie-Antoinette of France. The cardinal, should’ve realized right away that it was a fake. Because the queen never signs like that. Her letters are always marked with simply her name, just Marie-Antoinette. The cardinal, doesn’t suspect a thing. He’s totally convinced that his mistress is finally going to help him get in the queen’s good books. Rohan has taken the bait, Well Now, Joan can move on, to the second phase of her plan. She’s going to make him think that the queen is ready to have a conversation with him. For this, she’s doing it again coming up with fake letters, and this time around, addressed to the cardinal. In these ones, the supposed Marie-Antoinette is asking him, for a bit of money, to take care of some personal expenses. Without informing the king. Rohan is feeling pretty flattered. He sees this, as a great opportunity to get closer to her. and maybe be rewarded one day. So he entrusts the money to Jeanne, who, of course, keeps it all for herself. Following each payment, she gives the cardinal some fake thank-you letters supposedly from Marie-Antoinette, in which, she assures a meeting will happen soon. But this long-awaited moment just keeps on getting delayed. Every single letter seems to endlessly push back the planned date . Cardinal de Rohan starts to doubt, For Jeanne, who doesn’t want to lose her cash cow, it is high time that the meeting became real. It’s planned for one evening during the summer of seventeen eighty-four, through a letter in which the supposed queen proposes to meet Rohan, in a secrete and discrete way. On August 11th, in the grove of Venus. in the gardens of Versailles. On the big day, at the agreed spot, the cardinal waits, nervously. It’s 11 PM, the night has already fallen, but the queen, still hasn’t shown up. Would Marie-Antoinette have stood him up? No, Here she is at last. Her face is wrapped up in a black piece of fabric, which is slightly transparent. She hands Rohan a red rose and whispers something to him, You can always count on the past eventually being forgotten, These words make up and seal their reconciliation. At least, that’s what he thinks, But the conversation, doesn’t have time to go any further. Joan, who is present, suddenly warns them. Watch out, the king’s sisters are approaching, The cardinal gets scared, and makes a quick getaway. Of course, what he doesn’t know is, The woman he has just crossed paths with is actually, A prostitute, that Joan took on for the special occasion, In the darkness, the cardinal was completely fooled. Jeanne, actually pulled off a masterstroke. In the following weeks, Rohan without realizing, keeps handing over small sums of money to Jeanne. who pockets them, as soon as he leaves. The fish, is ‘hooked’. The schemer can now move on, to the third phase of the plan. A diabolical move, that will allow her to finally get her hands on the famous necklace that Louis the Fifteenth had ordered. Jeanne de la Motte is well aware that the jeweler Böhmer is trying every possible way to sell the necklace. Its price, has been set at one million six hundred thousand livres. With such an amount, she would finally be rich, And for a long time, To get her hands on it, She decides to get closer to Böhmer, She lets him know that the queen is finally willing to buy the jewel, But secretly, without informing the king. via an intermediary. This intermediary is going to be the cardinal of Rohan, a very famous name. which reassures the jeweler, So, is Rohan going to fall into the trap once again? To convince him to pay the necklace in advance, she goes ahead and writes a new letter, In it, the queen, or rather Jeanne, asks him to commit to Böhmer in four separate installments, and each installment being four hundred thousand livres, He shouldn’t worry she will reimburse him for each payment, And to ensure her plan, Joan calls on an accomplice, the Count of Cagliostro, a protégé of the cardinal who claims to be a medium. The countess asks, the mage, for a considerable amount of money to certainly convince the cardinal to advance the sum for Marie-Antoinette, Cagliostro, agrees, and somehow manages to make the prelate, who is really quite naive, believe that a bright future awaits him, If he goes through with it, It’s certain, he’s going to be named Prime Minister in the near future, And once again, Rohan falls for it, On February first, seventeen eighty-five, Rohan heads over to Böhmer, he pays him the sum of four hundred thousand livres, then leaves, all trembling, with the necklace in a box. Following that, he makes his way to an apartment Jeanne had rented in Versailles to give her the jewel. This is then entrusted to a fake valet, who is supposed to deliver it immediately, to the queen. But as soon as the cardinal leaves, Jeanne, retrieves the necklace, and carefully removes the precious stones from it. She could sell each one on its own for a really good price. Time goes by, And of course, The unfortunate Cardinal de Rohan has no news of his promotion, He also wonders why he never sees Marie-Antoinette wearing that particular necklace. It’s normal, Jeanne quickly retorts. No grand occasion has come up just yet, But it will, The cardinal, has another concern, and it’s a really big one: the repayment of the four hundred thousand livres, Promised by the queen, in his mind, A serious doubt is beginning to settle in, Is Marie Antoinette “actually” planning to give him the money back ? On this matter, Jeanne isn’t very reassuring. She mentions to him that the queen is facing some difficulties in pulling the money together, but, No problem at all, Everything will work out in the end. In the meantime, Somebody has to pay for the second installment of four hundred thousand livres. So, she’s going to ask the cardinal if he can front the costs once more. On his side, the jeweler is also losing patience. He no longer has the necklace, and three-quarters of the promised amount still has not been paid to him… Furious from waiting, he decides to speak directly to Marie-Antoinette’s chambermaid about it. who of course, is completely shocked. What are you telling me? The queen definitely never gave an order for this jewel In the following days, everything speeds up. In the grand halls of Versailles, everyone is trying to sort out the truth from all the many lies. Marie-Antoinette asks her friend, the Baron de Breteuil, to help clear up this whole mess. He’s a sworn enemy of Cardinal de Rohan. He’s absolutely delighted to make sure everyone knows about this scandal. The case is causing a real sensation, The situation unfolds in a way Joan couldn’t have predicted, Panicked, she desperately urges the cardinal, to pay the jeweler so that this emerging scandal can be hushed up. And meanwhile, King Louis the Sixteenth has no idea of what’s going on. He’s finally informed of the scam, on August 14th. Furious, he summons Cardinal de Rohan the next day, that is the famous day of the Ascension mass. In front of the royal couple, the prelate, stammers and struggles to defend himself. He suddenly realizes, that he has been tricked by his mistress. Marie Antoinette, is beside herself. She demands that this fool who had the audacity to think she was secretly meeting him in the castle gardens be immediately thrown in jail. The poor cardinal, begs in vain, The king, is inflexible. I’m doing what I really have to do, As a king, and as a husband, Get out. I’m innocent, I can prove it This incredible mess, is going to have serious consequences for the royal couple. The affair rapidly spreads throughout the entire kingdom, and it gets exaggerated, distorted. Marie-Antoinette, already very unpopular with the French, is going to pay a high price. The population doesn’t believe she is innocent. Paris is overflowing with pamphlets that poke fun at this queen, who has a notorious reputation for draining the kingdom’s resources with her lavish spending. Louis the Sixteenth, on his side, comes across as a simpleton, unable to see what’s happening behind his back. Meanwhile, Cardinal de Rohan is tried for the crime of lèse-majesté, for tarnishing the queen’s honor, but he’s eventually acquitted by the Parliament of Paris. This extraordinary affair somehow managed to discredit both the nobility and also the clergy, and it weakened a regime that was already on the edge, which will be overthrown, Two years later. When it comes to the real culprit, Countess Jeanne de la Motte, She is arrested, and branded with a hot iron, with a V mark for being a thief. Locked up for life in a correctional facility, she managed to escape to London in seventeen eighty-seven, where she writes her memoirs. She leaves behind, one of the most incredible scams ever masterfully organized.