Why was it so important for Antoinette that Rohan get charged in the court? Why did she say that, by absolving Rohan, the French people indicated that "Antoinette is not free of scandal" ?
shareShe wanted Rohan convicted by the people of france, by the courts of france, rather than Louis XVI just throwing him in prison....this way he would be proven guilty by a fair trial, unfortunately for MA, this backfired terribly on her reputation
shareIt was important that he was charged and convicted in court, because he claimed that he had had midnight rendezvous' with the Queen. When he was absolved it became accepted that she had either been leading him on, or had been having an affair with him.
shareOr merely just that it was thought possible that Marie Antoinette could have arranged such a meeting - it cast a slur on her character. It was actually said in court that the Queen's reputation for frivolity and associating with people of dubious character suggested to Rohan that such a rendezvous was not totally inconceivable.
Sarah
"Tony, if you talk that rubbish, I shall be forced to punch your head" - Lord Tony's Wife, Orczy
What I'd thought was that - due to the worth of the necklace - the court knew that Jeanne and Vilette could not have obtained the necklace by themselves. So there must have been a co-conspirator. That would be either Rohan or the Queen, who were both accused of being involved. Of course, the Queen could not have been accused formally. By absolving Rohan of the crime, that meant that it must have been the Queen who'd been involved by using taxpayers' money to obtain the necklace in a covert way.
If Rohan had been implicated, it would have let the Queen off the hook.
-The Divine Ms Slim
"I make him an offer he no refuse"
additionally, Rohan slagged Antoinette in court when she was just a dauphine. she never forgave him for treating her so badly, so that could also be a reason she was not willing to go easy on him.
shareRohan did not disrespect the dauphine--he disrespected her mother,Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, in various gossipy conversations and the news went back to Marie Antoinette. He alleged that the Empress liked him and had participated in his orgies when he visited Austria at some point--there was no evidence of this whatsoever. Marie Antoinette was angered by this and refused to acknowledge him once she became queen. Rohan was fascinated with the queen and even tried to crash her private parties at the Petit Trianon and was shown the door more than once.
His testimony in the trial seemed to indicate that he would have welcomed an affair with the queen and that he was very pleased with the fake midnight meeting that the Comtesse arranged with the imposter. The Cardinal then bought the necklace--in an attempt to curry favor with the Queen and maybe to even get sexual favors from her eventually.
When the scandal was revealed, Marie Antoinette was angered by the implication and demanded a public trial to try to remove this blot on her reputation( the idea that she had a latenight rendezvous with the debauched cardinal was sickening to her). She was advised not to demand a public trial but to privately send the culprits to the Bastille--the French kings had the power to detain people without a trial for decades(ie, the Man in the Iron mask was in prison 37 years with no trial and died there) and they could release a person without a trial as well. Marie Antoinette, however, wanted a public vindication. However, her reputation with the public was such that everyone readily agreed that the Cardinal's version of the story(he said he thought he was corresponding with the queen and they were moving toward an affair and that she wanted the necklace) was NOT farfetched because the queen was known to love diamonds and to also entertain men who were not her husband( ie, Count Fersen and her husband's younger brother were reputed lovers)so the Cardinal was publically cleared of charges--a confirmation that the queen had a poor reputation. Like depicted in the movie, Marie Antoinette was said to have gone into a rage after the verdict and had to be sedated and cut out of her clothes and put to bed by her ladies in waiting. The verdict confirmed her unpopularity with the public.
The swindlers were punished but the public wrongly felt that the lovely young Comtesse was the scapegoat for a scheme by the queen to obtain the world's most expensive necklace(while France starved!) and to cover an affair with the Cardinal. The Affair of the Necklace fanned the flames of unrest and helped the French Revolution start.
Because they truly believed he was guilty. A lot of the facts didn't add up, for instance, Jeanne Valois would sign the forged letters from the Queen as "Marie Antoinette, Queen Of France" or something to that effect. The real Queen signed everything as "Marie Antoinette" only. Rohan should have known this. What they didn't know was that his stupidity and desperate need for the Queen's favor outweighed his familiarity with court protocol and so on. They thought he was lying, so they arrested him and charged him. Unfortunately the trial quickly became The Trial of The Queen's Reputation, he was absolved and Marie Antoinette's standing with the people was further eroded, greatly and beyond any repair this time.
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