Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, "Comtesse de la Motte" (22 July 1756 – 23 August 1791) was a notorious French adventuress and thief; she was married to Nicholas de la Motte whose family's claim to nobility is dubious. She herself was an impoverished descendant of the Valois royal family through an illegitimate son of King Henry II. She is known for her prominent role in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, one of many scandals that led to the French Revolution and destroyed the monarchy of France.
Portrayals in media
The story was turned into a movie in 2001. The Affair of the Necklace stars Hilary Swank as the Comtesse de La Motte with Jonathan Pryce, Adrien Brody, Simon Baker and Joely Richardson as Marie Antoinette. It deviated from the historical record in a number of regards.
Jeanne was also featured in the manga series Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda and its anime adaptation, portrayed as an ambitious young woman raised by a poor seamstress along with her half sister, the main character's protegée Rosalie Lamorliere, daughter of Saint-Remy and a Madame de Polignac. In the anime version, she kills herself along with her husband Nicholas de La Motte. The manga is slightly more accurate to the historical version, as she falls from a balcony.
Bibliography
- The Queen's Necklace, a novel written by Alexandre Dumas, père about the affair.
- Marie Antoinette by Joan Haslip, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, New York, 1987
- Queen of France André Castelot, Harper and Row Publishers, Inc. New York, 1957
- Louis and Antoinette Vincent Cronin, William Morrow and Company,Inc., New York, 1974
