CARDINAL DE ROHAN : (1734-1803) French Bishop of Strasbourg and Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was made Cardinal on the nomination of Stanislaus Poniatowski, King of Poland. D.S., Card. De Rohan, one page, oblong 4to, Paris, 5th December 1789, in Latin. The present document is signed in Paris, only four months after the Storming of the Bastille. Attractive nomination of deacon Joseph Riballier, a graduate in theology of the university of Paris. Bearing alongside the Cardinal´s signature a red wax seal. Countersigned at the base. With lengthy contemporary registry annotation to the verso with a paper seal affixed. With blank integral leaf. Small overall creasing, otherwise G to VG

 

Rohan was appointed special Ambassador to Vienna, where he made a great spectacle of himself with lavish entertainments and making little secret of his venal lifestyle, but Empress Maria Theresa was hostile to his intrigues. Rohan made himself an enemy of Queen Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, whose disapproval he had earned in Vienna. Trying to redeem himself in the eyes of the Queen, he fell into the hands of a gang of thieves including the Countess of Lamotte and perhaps the notorious Cagliostro, whose actions form part of the “Affair of the Diamond Necklace”. Rohan was led to believe that his attentions to the Queen were welcomed, and that she approved his arrangements for her to purchase the infamous necklace. When the swindle was discovered, the Cardinal was arrested and implicated in the theft, though he was later found to have been an innocent dupe