Editing Marie Antoinette (section)

====Diamond necklace scandal====
[[File:Collier_reine_Breteuil.jpg|thumb|274x274px|A reconstruction of the diamond necklace in the [[Château de Breteuil]], in France]]
Marie Antoinette began to abandon her more carefree activities to become increasingly involved in politics in her role as queen of France.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=248–52}}</ref> By publicly showing her attention to the education and care of her children, the queen sought to improve the dissolute image she had acquired in 1785 from the "[[Affair of the Diamond Necklace|Diamond Necklace Affair]]", in which public opinion had falsely accused her of criminal participation in defrauding jewelers of the price of an expensive diamond necklace they had originally created for Madame du Barry.

The main actors in the scandal were [[Louis-René de Rohan|Cardinal de Rohan]], [[Henri Louis, Prince of Guéméné|Prince de Rohan-Guéméné]], and [[Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy]], Countess de La Motte. Marie Antoinette had profoundly disliked Rohan since the time he had been the French ambassador to Vienna when she was a child. Despite his high clerical position at the Court, she never addressed a word to him. Others involved were [[Nicole Le Guay d'Oliva|Nicole Lequay]], alias ''Baronne d'Oliva'', a prostitute who happened to look like Marie Antoinette; [[Rétaux de Villette]], a forger; [[Alessandro Cagliostro]], an Italian adventurer; and the Count de La Motte, Jeanne de Valois' husband. Madame de La Motte tricked Rohan into buying the necklace as a gift to Marie Antoinette, for him to gain the queen's favour.

When the affair was discovered, those involved were arrested, tried, convicted, and either imprisoned or exiled—except Count de La Motte and Rétaux de Villette, who both managed to flee. Madame de La Motte was sentenced for life to confinement in the [[Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital]], which also served as a prison for women. Judged by the [[Parlement of Paris]], Rohan was found not guilty and allowed to leave the [[Bastille]]. Marie Antoinette, who had insisted on the arrest of the cardinal, was dealt a heavy personal blow, as was the monarchy, and despite the fact that the guilty parties were tried and convicted, the affair proved to be extremely damaging to her reputation, which never recovered from it.{{citation needed|date=December 2016}}