Tea at Trianon: Catholic Emancipation

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, April 4, 2011

Catholic Emancipation

The triumph of Daniel O'Connell. To quote:

If you read through just a few of the speeches given by the Duke of Wellington in the House of Lords (which included the Anglican Bishops) to encourage the reading and the passage of this bill, you can certainly see how contentious this issue was in Parliament--the crux of the issue being that since Catholic attorney Daniel O'Connell had won a seat in Parliament, the King's Government in England feared an uprising in Ireland if he was not allowed to take his seat, since he was Catholic--for fear that Emancipation, removing all the penal laws, would in fact encourage the growth and spread of Popery and weaken the Church of England. Robert Peel worked on passing the Emancipation Bill in the House of Commons. Since both Wellington and Peel were Tories and were previously opposed to Catholic Emancipation, they were regarded as traitors--Welllington threatened to resign to force King George IV to give his Royal Assent to the Act.

tubbs said...: Was Georgey-Poergey averse to Catholic Emancipation? Not very nice of him, considering his fondness for his first (and real) wife.; April 4, 2011 at 12:35:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: I doubt that he was thrilled by it, Catholic wife or not. And yes, as far as the Church was concerned, Maria was his ONLY wife.; April 4, 2011 at 1:18:00 PM EDT
lara77 said...: The many crimes committed over the centuries by Great Britain during the height of her empire always seem to pale in comparison to the horrendous crimes against the Irish People. The continued persecution against Catholicism in Great Britain was shocking in that "these people" were fellow Englishmen and Christians. How ironic to see Great Britain today dealing with overtly hostile Moslem immigrants who demand that Britain conform to their traditions. I bet Englishmen could not do that in Saudia Arabia!; April 5, 2011 at 8:22:00 AM EDT