Jeanne de Saint-Rémy de Valois, the last of the Valois family. Who was she ?
Saw yesterday a film on the Affair of the Necklace.
The film was based on real facts and figures, according to the producer.
I knew of the participation of Cardinal de Rohan in the affair of Marie-Antoinette's necklace but I found out that Jeanne de Valois masterminded the entire coup and duped the Cardinal.
The film starts with the murder of her father by the king's guard. He was a member of Parliament and a firm opponent of the Ancient Régime.
His name ... de Valois didn't help.
His wife's Jeanne's mother died a short time later with a broken heart, leaving the poor orphan alone.
When she grew up she did all to recover the right to use her name and to regain the family chateau which had been confiscated by the crown.
As her efforts were not successful near the RF nor the PM, together with her lover, count Retaux de Villette and her husband, count Nicolas de la Motte, she approached Cardinal Louis de Rohan, Grand Cardinal of France, to win his favour.
Instead he tried to seduced her.
Knowing that M.Antoinette was Louis de Rohan's declared ennemy, she started a plot to get revenged from the Queen and the Cardinal.
But who was she ?
She must have been a descendant from any illegitimate branch of the Valois, since the last person of the royal Valois-Orléans-Angoulême was Marguerite (La Reine Margot), wife of Henri IV de Bourbon.
Marguerite (b.1553-d.1615) was the sister of François II (husb. of Mary Queen of Scots), Charles IX and Henri III.
Jeanne survived the French Revolution as she escaped to London, where she wrote her Mémoires and told the affair.
