Rohan

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

LOUIS RÉNE ÉDOUARD, PRINCE DE, Cardinal-Archbishop of Strasburg; born in 1734. He became coadjutor to his uncle in the see of Strasburg, and afterward his successor; was sent in 1772 as ambassador to Vienna, where he displayed the most ridiculous luxury, but vainly sought to obtain the favor of the Empress Maria Theresa. As coadjutor he had ceremonially received the Princess Marie Antoinette on her entrance into France. On the death of Louis XV. he returned to Paris, and for 10 years bent all his energies and efforts to winning the favor of the queen, but all in vain. Nevertheless he had meanwhile become, in spite of his known profligacy, Archbishop, Grand-Almoner, Cardinal and Commendator of St. Vaast of Acres, one of the richest benefices in France. Associate of the quack Cagliostro, and of the infamous Madame Lamotte, he was duped by a forged letter with the signature of the queen, and induced to buy of Boehmer, the court jeweler, the now too celebrated diamond necklace, in the name of the queen. The necklace was placed in the hands of Madame Lamotte, forged autograph messages from the queen followed, and an interview in the park of Versailles be- Vol 8 tween the cardinal and a fair adventuress personating the queen. On the discovery of the fraud, Rohan was summoned before the king, answered vaguely and unsatisfactorily, and was arrested and imprisoned in the Bastile, Aug. 15, 1785. After a year's proceedings he was acquitted and released, but at the same time exiled from the court, and deprived of his grand-almonership. He was deputy to the States-General in 1789; was afterward accused of various disloyal intrigues and maladministration; gave up his see in 1801, and died in 1803.