Born to the Austrian empress Maria Theresa, Marie Antoinette was obliged to marry Luis XVI of France to symbolize an alliance between Austria and France. Ironically, in the beginning of her marriage to the prince, Marie Antoinette was loved by the French people for her kindness to peasants and her willingness to interact with her subjects. However, these very qualities would soon damage her reputation - giving her the nicknames "Austrian whore" and "Madame Deficit" - uni

In addition to being called the "Austrian whore," Marie Antoinette became known as "Madame Deficit". This nickname originated from her wild spending habits. The Queen used her authority to shower gifts, offices and money on her chosen favorites. Along with each of her favorites came a large clan of relatives and cronies who clung to the sides of the royal finances. There were impecunious aunts, profligate brothers, scapegrace grandpas, broken-down baronies and mortgaged plantations in the Antilles, all to be satisfied and made good. So that what to the Queen seemed innocent enough - putting favors in the way of her friends - to less partial judgement looked like a gigantic network of sinecure and graft; the empire of "Madame Deficit," as many called it. (Loomis 114) Nothing could have been more detrimental to the Queen's reputation that the Diamond Necklace affair that unraveled in the summer of 1785.

The entire affair was a scheme on the part of Madame Jeanne de la Motte, who had her mind set on a diamond necklace of 647 brilliants and 2,800 carats recently made for Louis XV. Frightened by the price, he refused to buy the necklace. Knowing of Antoinette's weakness for diamonds, the jewelers went to her next. Surprisingly she refused to make the purchase, at which point the jewelers were in a rut and Mme. Jeanne de la Motte devised a scheme. She would trick Cardinal Louis de Rohan, a respectable prince of France, into believing that the queen wants him to buy her the necklace. Mme de la Motte wrote many detailed letters to the Cardinal and captured him completely when she dressed up a young prostitute as the queen and had her meet with the Cardinal. Soon afterwards the necklace was in her hands, and she had it taken apart to pay off her debts. Her success lasted only several months, when all involved were arrested and taken to the Bastille. (Loomis 290) The real casualty of the whole affair was its principal victim: Marie Antoinette. Mysteriously, it was the Queen who emerged from the business portrayed as a spendthrift and a vindictive slut who would stop at nothing to satisfy her appetites. Many say that Marie Antoinette designed her own downfall: it was precisely her reputation for unaffected girlish sentimentality that made Louis, the Cardinal de Rohan, believe that he could win her favor by buying her a necklace. (Schuma 22)

"Catherine de Medici, Cleopatra, Agrippina, Messalina,

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Approximate Word count = 1631
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)