A diamond necklace destroyed Marie Antoinette's reputation

Despite coming from a nation that was formerly a despised enemy, Marie Antoinette was enthusiastically welcomed by the populace when she initially arrived in France, an interesting fact about Marie Antoinette. However, she became known as "Madame Déficit" as word spread about her alleged personal spending. The queen's allocation of 120,000 liters per year to spend on clothing (many, many times the salary of a normal peasant) did not go over well because France had lavishly funded the American Revolutionary War.

However, Marie Antoinette's already disreputable reputation was further tainted in 1785 when a penniless young lady named the Comtesse de La Motte deceitfully bought a diamond necklace in her name. She tricked a cardinal into guaranteeing his credit to buy the necklace on Marie Antoinette's behalf using falsified letters and a prostitute posing as the queen. The necklace was sent to London and disassembled, but the jewelers never collected the entire amount owed to them.

Following the scandal's exposure, Louis XVI publicly censured both La Motte and the cardinal, locking the former up and removing him from his positions. The French people, however, heavily attacked the king because they saw his eagerness to act as proof that Marie Antoinette might still have been involved in some way. The prestige of the queen never fully recovered, and the revolution gained momentum.