Countess De La Motte: she was very involved in the scandal of the necklace affair, during the reign of Louis XVI.
On May 30, 1786, the Countess was found guilty and condemned to be flogged, branded with a red iron with a V which means "Voleuse" (Thief), however, during the branding, the Countess was so disheveled that her executioner applied the iron to her chest instead of the shoulder.Then, she was condemned to be locked up for life in the La Salpêtrière reformatory.
She fled in June 1787 and went to London, where she published her memoirs, telling of her false intimate relations with the queen. The affair of the queen's necklace was one of the many scandals which seriously weakened the French monarchy.
The Countess died in London in 1791 after throwing herself out of her hotel window. Some people believe she was murdered by royalists but she was probably trying to escape her creditors.