Sunday, January 15, 2012

"Villainous" Marie-Antoinette?

Mr. Harvey of Royal World aptly expresses the disgust many admirers of Marie-Antoinette feel as the late queen is once more publicly degraded. The cartoons in question, which I will not have on this blog, are insulting to Mr. and Mrs. Obama and to Louis and Antoinette. Neither couple resembles each other in any way. When politicians and pundits have to sink to insults and ridicule in order to make their point it merely shows how bankrupt their agenda is. I wish they would focus on some of the vital issues at stake instead of throwing mud. To quote from Royal World:
The cartoons also attempt to link President Obama with Louis XIV, or possibly Louis XVI, though it's not clear that their creators have any idea who either king was or what they looked like. As if the ignorance inherent in maligning Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) were not enough, the painting spoofed by "Gateway Pundit" and identified in the Mail article as one of her husband Louis XVI (1754-1793) actually depicts his great-great-great-grandfather Louis XIV (1638-1715), with whom I'm pretty sure Mr. Obama has nothing in common other than also being a head of state. But of course if the contemptible ignoramuses producing these defamatory images cared about such pesky details as historical facts, they wouldn't be producing them! It is supremely ironic for these disgusting liars to be labeled "right-wing," since that the whole ideological concept of the "Right" dates from the time of the French Revolution, when the Right were the defenders of the great French Monarchy. (Read entire post.)
Political debate is a healthy part of the process; it can become heated but when it sinks to naked mockery then it shows the emptiness of the cause. As for Bill O'Reilly referring to Marie-Antoinette as "villainous" I can only say that I am appalled that someone so clueless is given so much air time. (I always thought Bill would do better sounding off in a bar than on prime time television.) The "villainous" Queen's charitable works are a matter of public record. She oversaw the upbringing of several needy children, whose education she paid for, while caring for their families. She established a home for unwed mothers, called the Maternity Society. During the famine of 1787-88, the royal family sold much of their flatware to buy grain for the people, and themselves ate the cheap barley bread in order to be able to give more to the hungry.

The King and Queen were patrons of the Maison Philanthropique, a society founded by Louis XVI which helped the aged, blind and widows. The Queen taught her daughter Madame Royale to wait upon peasant children, to sacrifice her Christmas gifts so as to buy fuel and blankets for the destitute, and to bring baskets of food to the sick. Marie-Antoinette took her children with her on her charitable visits. Every Sunday, Marie-Antoinette would personally take up a collection for the poor, which the courtiers resented since they preferred to have the money on hand for gambling. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette contributed a great deal throughout their reign to the care of orphans and foundlings. They patronized foundling hospitals, which the Queen often visited with her children. The king and queen did not see helping the poor as anything extraordinary, but as a basic Christian duty. The royal couple's alms-giving stopped only with their incarceration in the Temple in August 1792, for then they had nothing left to give but their lives.

(Sources: Memoirs of Madame de la Tour du Pin, Marguerite Jallut's and Philippe Huisman's Marie-Antoinette, Vincent Cronin's Louis and Antoinette, Antonia Fraser's The Journey, Madame Campan's Memoirs, Mémoires de madame la Duchesse de Tourzel, Maxime de la Rocheterie's The Life of Marie-Antoinette)

Another story of Marie-Antoinette's kindness and compassion is HERE. Share

12 comments:

Orchard Ville said...

Now that really made my blood boil.

Kaitlyn said...

I was appalled to hear Mr. O'Reilly make such a comment. He obviously does not understand the true history and believes what lies are still taught about Marie Antoinette today.

elena maria vidal said...

I wish people would leave Marie-Antoinette alone.

Christine said...

What a horrible cartoon. What an insult to the royal couple.

The North Coast said...

Do people know how moronic they sound to anyone who really reads books when they invoke poor Marie Antoinette to describe someone who is heartlessly elitist, frivolous, and entitled?

I challenge anyone born to middling circumstances or better in modern times in a Western country to study her life and say that they would trade their own lives with the incredible comfort, freedom, independence, and almost unlimited choices that we enjoy, for Marie's difficult existence. I daresay she managed it all very well, and it's a credit to her that she could withstand the abuse and calumny heaped on her in her own time and remain kind, charitable, and forgiving to the moment she died.

Theodore Harvey said...

Thanks for the link! Keep up the good fight; we cannot let this kind of ignorance go unchallenged.

May said...

I am surprised at the persistence of this nonsense. If only this President and his wife *were* more like Louis and Antoinette! If only!

Elena, you should really call in on O'Reilly's show and set the record straight. I would love to see that interview;-)

Stephanie A. Mann said...

I agree with you Matterhorn! I suggested the same thing on Elena Maria's facebook post. Mr. O'Reilly should know the truth and retract his statement about Marie Antoinette being villainous!

elena maria vidal said...

Thanks, everyone! I sent this post directly to him twice so we'll see what happens.

Gio said...

Those cartoons are outrageous!

Nicholas Trandem said...

"It is supremely ironic for these disgusting liars to be labeled 'right-wing' ..." "Right" and "left" are truly meaningless terms in the U.S. They are all Jacobites, every pundit and politician in this country.

Nicholas Trandem said...

I meant Jacobins, of course. If only they were Jacobites!