Affair of the Diamond Necklace
Ikeda derived the historical elements of "The Rose of Versailles" from the 1932 biography "" by Stefan Zweig. The depiction of Marie Antoinette in "The Rose of Versailles" is largely rendered as it is narrated in the biography: her close relationship with her mother Maria Theresa, her loveless marriage with Louis XVI, her rivalry with Madame du Barry, her friendship with the Duchess of Polignac, the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, and her love for Axel von Fersen. Both Zweig and Ikeda portray Antoinette as a relatively unremarkable person who had an "accidental encounter with fate," contrasting both the villainous portrayals of Antoinette by the "sans-culottes" and the saintly depictions of Antoinette by pre-revolutionary Bourbons.