Why did this most expensive diamond necklace in the world lead to the death of Queen Mary, who owned billions of jewels and squandered the entire treasury?
The young queen took off her usual elaborate and gorgeous dresses and sparkling jewels, and amid waves of condemnation and abuse, she met her tragic end.
She raised her eyes and met the crowd below, but there was no trace of fear in her eyes, as if she was still sitting decently in the midst of luxury, holding a folding fan, surrounded by maids.
When a dynasty is on its way out, the first to fall is surely the gaudy yet brilliant "Bourbon Lily" adorning the top of the Palace of Versailles.
The priceless diamond necklace that should have belonged to Madame du Barry became the reason why Marie was pushed to the guillotine.
Arrogant, debauched, and extravagant...all the bad words were thrown at this once noble and delicate body.
Until the end, Marie Antoinette shed a tear. Was it for the crime she should not have been charged with? Or was it the regret for her extravagant spending that led to the fall of the dynasty?
All the bizarre coincidences and strange secrets
All were buried deep in the darkness along with this diamond necklace.
One day, the truth will be revealed along with this diamond necklace.
1 Priceless necklace
"There are quite a lot of people in the Palace of Versailles today, right?"
"Yes, it is!"
As the Crown Princess, Marie's disdain for Madame du Barry caused heated discussions in the court. In order to save the king's face, Marie finally condescended to speak to Madame du Barry.
Madame du Barry, a prostitute of humble origin, stood on the same floor with the king thanks to the king's favor - the most noble place in France, the Palace of Versailles.
Portrait of Madame du Barry, Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, 1782, National Gallery of Art, United States.
Mary's father was Francis I, the Roman Emperor, and her mother was Maria Theresa, Queen of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia.
Marie Antoinette used to be the most noble little princess, with sparkling golden wavy hair and skin as white as snow, but now she is the noble Crown Princess of France.
On the day she became the Crown Princess, she wore a Rococo-style wedding dress woven from gold and silver threads. The huge white skirt was inlaid with diamonds and pearls that symbolized purity.
It is said that the wedding dress made in advance was seriously not the right size, and Mary had to wear an unzipped skirt throughout the wedding.
I am of noble birth and pure blood, but now I am here talking to a prostitute. Is there any more ridiculous joke in the world than this?
But when you live under someone's roof, you have to bow your head. Even a spoiled little princess understands this truth deeply.
In 1774, the old King Louis XV unfortunately died of illness. Louis XVI officially succeeded to the throne, and Marie Antoinette, who was only 18 years old, became the new queen.
Marie exercised her power as queen and finally drove Madame du Barry out of the Palace of Versailles. Little did she know that this decision would worry a group of jewelers outside the palace.
During the lifetime of Louis XV, in order to win the favor of Madame du Barry, he specially ordered craftsmen to create an exquisite diamond necklace.
Madame du Barry's diamond necklace (a highly restored modern replica)
The necklace is decorated with a giant bow ribbon and contains 647 flawless diamonds, each weighing 3-5 carats.
The neat and closely arranged combination makes each diamond shine with charming light. It is no exaggeration to say that they are stars from the sky fallen to the earth.
Pirate also paid tribute to this beautiful diamond necklace in the Dior Haute Couture show
When the necklace was about to be completed, Louis XV suddenly passed away, and Madame du Barry lost her former favor, so the diamond necklace became ownerless.
A priceless diamond necklace would be a waste if no one paid for it. The craftsmen suddenly had an idea and decided to sell the necklace to their new queen, Mary. After all, she loved diamonds so much that she would not refuse.
Through the portraits of Queen Mary, it is not difficult to see her obsession with diamonds.
"2,000,000 livres? That's enough to buy a battleship!"
Mary did like jewelry, but she was not stupid. A necklace was so expensive, especially one left by that nasty woman.
Battleship by Louis Crépin
2 million livres is equivalent to about 14 million US dollars today, which is over 100 million RMB. At that time, a Téméraire-class battleship with 74 guns cost about the same.
Knowing that Marie liked diamonds, Louis XVI, who loved his wife dearly, gave her a lot of priceless jewels to please her.
This pair of exquisite and elegant Rococo-style diamond earrings was a gift from her husband.
The earrings are inlaid with two large pear-shaped diamonds, weighing an astonishing 14.25 carats and 20.34 carats respectively. The entire earrings shine with bright light, like two shooting stars across the night sky, breathtakingly beautiful.
Queen Mary Diamond Earrings
To match the dazzling diamond earrings, Mary's jewelry box also contains a number of diamond necklaces of astonishing size.
In the movie "Marie Antoinette", Queen Marie's luxurious jewelry collection was displayed many times.
This diamond necklace, inlaid with countless sparkling white diamonds and two very rare oval yellow diamonds, was a birthday gift from Louis XVI to her on her birthday.
The main stone of the first layer of the necklace is a 1.84 carat pink diamond, while the pendant at the bottom of the necklace is a perfect combination of teardrop-shaped diamonds and pear-shaped pearls.
The design of the entire necklace is full of layers, and the light of the diamonds complements each other, as dazzling as the Milky Way.
Queen Mary De Beers Diamond Necklace
The necklace has 181 carats of diamonds and is one of the top ten most expensive diamond necklaces in the world.
The Bourbon dynasty's diamond jewelry set contains 95 diamonds, five of which came from Queen Marie.
Queen Mary's pair of three-layer diamond bracelets, set with 112 old-cut diamonds weighing 150 carats.
At the 2021 auction, this bracelet was sold for a sky-high price of US$8.2 million.
Not to mention marrying into France and becoming the queen, even when she was a princess, Mary never lacked priceless jewels.
For example, this antique fancy cut blue diamond ring weighs 5.45 carats. It was part of her dowry brought from Austria.
Among Mary's countless jewels, this ring appeared most frequently, but even so, Mary gave it to her aristocratic friend.
A beautiful ring with a 5.45 carat blue diamond in yellow gold
Elisabetha Farnese of Spain once owned a 6.16 carat blue diamond of similar quality.
In 2018, it was sold at a high price of US$6.7 million.
In addition to her generosity and friendliness, a diamond or jadeite that is worth a fortune to others is as valuable to her as the flowers in the garden of the Petit Trianon Palace.
The sale of the diamond necklace failed, and the craftsmen fell into despair again. At this time, a woman named Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Remy came into people's sight.
2 A Shocking Conspiracy
In 18th century France, the theory of bloodline was in vogue. Jeanne, who was impoverished but had the blood of the Valois dynasty, took advantage of this and obtained a generous royal allowance.
Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Remy
Not satisfied with this, Jeanne began to use her noble status to cheat people everywhere. It was also at this time that she noticed a powerful man who desperately needed her "help" - Cardinal Rohan.
Jeanne discovered that Rohan was a fool who was addicted to power and loved to daydream about the queen, so she began to unscrupulously fabricate "personal letters from Queen Marie" to defraud money.
Rohan once asked Jeanne to meet Queen Marie, so Jeanne found a prostitute who looked similar to the queen and arranged a meeting between them on a dark and windy night. The foolish Rohan believed it and became more dependent on Jeanne from then on.
But desire is like a bottomless pit that is difficult to fill. Jeanne finally set her sights on the priceless necklace that was rejected by the queen.
Jeanne used a perfect lie to persuade Rohan to buy the necklace for 1.6 million livres in four installments. Of course, the diamond necklace would not appear in Marie's hands, but would be kept by Jeanne.
Until one day, when the financially strapped Rohan could not pay the balance of the diamond necklace, the frustrated jeweler rushed into the palace to confront Queen Marie, and the truth was finally revealed to the world.
The wrongly accused Mary had a basket of evidence to prove her innocence, but the angry French people directed all their criticisms at the poor queen.
This scam not only damaged Queen Marie's reputation, but also indirectly led to the decline of the French royal family. The already shaky dynasty became even more precarious under the impact of the scandal.
Soon after, the French Revolution broke out. On the eve of the coup, the distraught Marie packed her gold, silver and jewelry into boxes and sent them to Austria.
When the Austrian royal family opened this ordinary wooden box and began to count the items one by one, people realized that Queen Marie, who was the target of people's anger, was indeed not innocent.
Among Queen Mary's jewels, the most famous is the diamond called the "Hope Blue Diamond".
After years of wear and tear and the hands of several generations, this huge blue diamond still weighs an astonishing 45.52 carats, and its rich deep blue fire is as deep as the ocean.
Louis XV's Order of the Golden Fleece / Hope Diamond
The Hope Diamond is currently housed at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
In this most famous portrait of Queen Mary, the "Hope Blue Diamond" appears as a brooch and shines brightly. Even after a hundred years and a canvas, one can still get a glimpse of its former charm.
Queen Mary wearing the Hope Diamond
The Hope Diamond is also the prototype of the Heart of the Ocean in Titanic.
Queen Mary's evaluation of a piece of jewelry is not solely based on the cost of the gemstone, but also on whether the design of the jewelry itself is ingenious and unique.
This bow ribbon diamond brooch, which was sold for RMB 14,786,388, can not only be worn as a brooch, but also as a hair accessory. Its design was inspired by Queen Mary's favorite bow element.
Bow Ribbon Diamond Brooch
The giant yellow diamond pendant below the brooch is ingeniously shaped, adding a touch of agility and liveliness to its classic and elegant style.
Another yellow diamond bow brooch that belonged to Queen Mary.
In addition to diamonds and colored gems, Queen Mary was even more enthusiastic about natural wild pearls. Her love for pearls can be seen in the jewels and portraits that have been preserved.
The jewels created by combining diamonds and pearls filled Queen Mary's jewelry box.
Marie Antoinette, Joseph Schickel, 1773, Swedish National Portrait Gallery
If a string of round wild pearls is hard to come by, then the iconic "pear-shaped beauty" is even more priceless.
In recent years, at a Bourbon auction, a large natural pearl pendant set a new world record for natural pearl auctions at US$36.2 million (approximately RMB 262 million), becoming the most expensive pearl in the world.
The pendant also features a diamond-encrusted bow and an oval-cut diamond of approximately 5 carats. The overall design is full of romance and elegance.
After nearly 200 years, this pear-shaped baroque pearl, the size of a quail egg, is still so smooth, plump and warm in color, which shows how precious it is.
However, through texts, paintings and folk rumors, what we can now glimpse is just the tip of the iceberg of Queen Mary's huge and dazzling jewelry collection.
For this legendary queen who squandered the French treasury, jewelry collection was just a small part of her extravagant life.
When she was dying, she changed into a plain white dress to prepare for her final judgment.
They tried to persuade her to surrender again, but the usually willful Mary raised her proud head - she really didn't know the sufferings of the world. As a queen, she only knew that "rebellion" was wrong, and she could not bow her head.
She was only 38 years old when she was executed.
She didn’t buy the necklace,
She didn’t say “Why don’t you eat the cake”.
But ignorance is sin,
This may be the best interpretation of Mary’s life.
A weak king who only knows how to study lock picking, and a naive queen whose inner loneliness can only be filled with material things.
The dynasty was not destroyed because of a necklace, nor because of Louis XVI and Marie. They were dealt a bad hand, and therefore lost miserably.
Just like the diamond necklace that appeared as the final push, it witnessed the greed and ambition of human nature, and also revealed the corruption and hypocrisy of power.
The wheel of history will not stop for one person, and Queen Mary's life, which was as brilliant and fleeting as fireworks, can only bloom again in the writings and books of future generations.