Almsgiving of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette

Louis XVI visits a poor family

During Lent we recall the duties of every Christian to apply themselves more fervently to almsgiving. In pre-revolutionary France it was for the King and the Queen to give an example to everyone else in this regard. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette took this duty seriously and throughout their reign did what they could to help the needy.

At the fireworks celebrating the marriage of the young prince and princess in May 1774, there was a stampede in which many people were killed. Louis and Antoinette gave all of their private spending money for a year to relieve the suffering of the victims and their families. They became very popular with the common people as a result, which was reflected in the adulation with which they were received when the Dauphin took his wife to Paris on her first "official" visit in June 1773. Marie-Antoinette's reputation for sweetness and mercy became even more entrenched in 1774, when as the new Queen she asked that the people be relieved of a tax called "The Queen's belt," customary at the beginning of each reign. "Belts are no longer worn," she said. It was only the onslaught of revolutionary propaganda that would eventually destroy her reputation.

Louis XVI often visited the poor in their homes and villages, distributing alms from his own purse. During the difficult winter of 1776, the King oversaw the distribution of firewood among the peasants. Louis was responsible for many humanitarian reforms. He went incognito to hospitals, prisons, and factories so as to gain first-hand knowledge of the conditions in which the people lived and worked.

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. According to Maxime de la Rocheterie:

Sometimes they went to the Gobelins; and the president of the district coming on one occasion to compliment her, she said, "Monsieur you have many destitute but the moments which we spend in relieving them are very precious to us." Sometimes she went to the free Maternity Society which she had founded, where she had authorized the Sisters to distribute sixteen hundred livres for food and fuel every month and twelve hundred for blankets and clothing, without counting the baby outfits which were given to three hundred mothers. At other times she went to the School of Design also founded by her to which she sent one day twelve hundred livres saved with great effort that the rewards might not be diminished nor the dear scholars suffer through her own distress. Again she placed in the house of Mademoiselle O'Kennedy four daughters of disabled soldiers, orphans, for whom she said, "I made the endowment."

The Queen adopted three poor children to be raised with her own, as well overseeing the upbringing of several needy children, whose education she paid for, while caring for their families. She established a home for unwed mothers, the "Maternity Society," mentioned above. She brought several peasant families to live on her farm at Trianon, building cottages for them. There was food for the hungry distributed every day at Versailles, at the King's command. 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.

Madame de la Tour du Pin, a lady-in-waiting of Marie-Antoinette, recorded in her spirited Memoirs the daily activities at Versailles, including the rumors and the gossip. Her pen does not spare Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, which is why I find the following account to be of interest. 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. The queen supported several impoverished families from her own purse. As Madame de la Tour du Pin describes:

We had to be there before seven, for the Queen entered before the chiming of the clock. Beside her door would be one of the two Curés of Versailles. He would hand her a purse and she would go around to everyone, taking up a collection and saying: "For the poor, if you please." Each lady had her 'écu' of six francs ready in her hand and the men had their 'louis.' The Curé would follow the Queen as she collected this small tax for her poor people, a levy which often totaled as much as much as one hundred 'louis' and never less than fifty. I often heard some of the younger people, including the most spendthrift, complaining inordinately of this almsgiving being forced upon them, yet they would not have thought twice of hazarding a sum one hundred times as large in a game of chance, a sum much larger than that levied by the Queen. (Memoirs of Madame de la Tour du Pin: Laughing and Dancing Our Way to the Precipice, p. 74)

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. Above is a picture of an occasion in February, 1790, after their removal to Paris, when the king, the queen and their children toured such a facility, where the nuns cared for abandoned babies and little children. As is reported by Maxime de la Rocheterie, the young Dauphin, soon to be an orphan himself, was particularly drawn to the foundlings and gave all of his small savings to aid them.

The king and queen did not see helping the poor as anything extraordinary, but as a basic Christian duty. The royal couple's almsgiving 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)

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What Lies Beneath the Epstein Scandals

 From TFP:

The Epstein scandal is only possible because a corrupt liberal culture already contains so much of the depravity found in the files. It is mainstream and permeates many sectors. Films and media portray and celebrate immoral relationships everywhere. Fashion and pop culture depict and even glorify the most depraved behaviors. Memes and social media stretch the limits of decency with shock content that breaks all the rules. The general public shows an appetite for the lurid details of these scandals that suggest an implicit complicity with such lewdness.

When the Epstein iceberg appeared on the horizon, the ground was prepared. People are drawn to these revelations that promote all that is irrational, corrupt and impure. The tip of an iceberg presupposes a vast ice mass beneath the freezing surface. Thus, the high-profile debauchery that fills the headlines presupposes a sinister underworld drawing from all levels of society, corrupting society as a whole. Local networks of iniquity must also exist parallel to those of Epstein. These networks must have their Epstein-like figures that facilitate the spread of vice and lewdness. They have their dark secrets. The only difference is that their characters remain hidden.

Indeed, many have tried to frame the Epstein debate as a class struggle between corrupt elites versus the uncorrupt common people. However, the truth is that the whole of society is rotten and involved in the general decadence. Any return to order must involve a general moral regeneration. (Read more.)

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Courtship Rituals

 From Ross Arlen Tieken:

One of the great generators of loneliness in my immediate circle of students is the lack of careful, public, and social courtship rituals. Even the most well-meaning of junior high boys, even if charged with virtue and self-discipline, is mostly unable to control himself alone with a girl, or prevent themselves from grotesque and inept pawing in an environment that simply accepts public displays of erotically-charged affection from pubescent young people.

Besides being revolting, the young lovers tend to go too far too quickly, and having achieved the cheap imitation of intimacy, they find themselves rightly disappointed and hurt, and yet longing desperately for more. Bitterness colors their experience, and love, eros, longing, and the opposite sex are cast in their eyes as a tragedy, an insupportable burden. The option then is overindulgence or cynicism.

This is not their fault obviously. When our children suddenly bloom into adulthood, they are meant to be given proper forms which establish the appropriate behavior for courtship. At 13, you talk with them (not on the phone, not over text, not over Snapchat… ever). At 14, you may talk and walk with them. At 15, you may spend time together in the company of family and friends. At 16, you may go on a chaperoned date and a dance. Etc.

Instead of this careful circling of each other, which allows genuine regard and understanding to grow, increases respect for boundaries and personhood, preserves the mystery of the body, socially establishes a couple, and beautifies the story of love, we simply toss teens in the back of the bus with a bluetooth speaker, give them an anonymous line of visual communication, and hope that our teaching will preserve their innocence. (Read more.)

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The Many Homes of Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte

Via Tiny-Librarian. The daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette lived in many places in the course of her turbulent life, and the print shows some of them, including Versailles and Frohsdorf. Share

Andrew Mountbatten Arrested

 From The Truth Barrier:

I continue to find Alex Jones’ commentary often the most summative. (Is that a word or may I invent it?) I also find that his often unintentional humor helps “tell the story.” Link here. I just found myself laughing uproariously at his recent take on Les Wexner. If you want to “understand” Les Wexner, in all this, Kirby Sommers has documented him most extensively, by far, yet Alex Jones is the one who animates the absurdity the best. (Read more.)

 

From Fox News:

Thames Valley Police arrested Andrew earlier Thursday morning on suspicion of misconduct in public office, and he is in custody. He turned 66 Thursday. 

Police are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk. He has yet to be charged with any wrongdoing. He can be held for a maximum of 96 hours before being charged or released.

Misconduct in public office is an offense in abuse or neglect of power or responsibilities by someone holding public office. It applies to people in roles across the U.K. government and public services, including elected officials, civil servants, the police and judiciary, but also some others working in public services.

Thames Valley Police, which covers areas west of London, said Andrew was arrested after a "thorough assessment," with an investigation now opened. (Read more.)

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The Pornification of Cinema

 From Elisabeth Stone:

Desire needs to be surrounded by structure, things such as family, honor, reputation. Without it, desire becomes unbridled lust, a fire that consumes anything it touches. Structure is the only thing that can create tension, and tension creates longing, and longing is what gives us depth.

It turns out that giving in to your every desire does not lead to fulfillment, but to a road of emptiness, to the inability to experience romance or love with true depth and actual meaning.

It is no wonder, then, that in our culture people chase the only high they can find, which is the thrill of new beginnings, the rush of meeting someone new. When you build romance on something as shallow as lust and impulse, the fire will burn bright, yes, but it will die out just as fast.

Look at Bridgerton. It presents itself like an old-world romance. The gowns. The courtship. The family names. The dramatic rules. It wants the aesthetic of tradition. It wants the tension. It wants the feeling of something structured and meaningful.

But it doesn’t actually believe in any of it. (Read more.)

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Lent at Versailles

Versailles is not usually associated with Lenten penance, but fasting and abstinence, as well as some mortifications, were observed there by many during the old regime. For one thing, there would be no plays or operas performed; all the public theaters were closed in France during Lent. The daughters of Louis XV were known for their scrupulous observance of fasting and abstinence, although Madame Victoire found such penance especially trying. According to Madame Campan:

Without quitting Versailles, without sacrificing her easy chair, she [Madame Victoire] fulfilled the duties of religion with punctuality, gave to the poor all she possessed, and strictly observed Lent and the fasts. The table of Mesdames acquired a reputation for dishes of abstinence....Madame Victoire was not indifferent to good living, but she had the most religious scruples respecting dishes of which it was allowable to partake at penitential times....The abstinence which so much occupied the attention of Madame Victoire was so disagreeable to her, that she listened with impatience for the midnight hour of Holy Saturday; and then she was immediately supplied with a good dish of fowl and rice, and sundry other succulent viands.

Their nephew Louis XVI was also known for his fastidious observance of Lent, as recorded once again by the faithful Madame Campan:

Austere and rigid with regard to himself alone, the King observed the laws of the Church with scrupulous exactness. He fasted and abstained throughout the whole of Lent. He thought it right that the queen should not observe these customs with the same strictness. Though sincerely pious, the spirit of the age had disposed his mind to toleration.

Some of the King's tolerant behavior included the permitting of certain games at court during Lent. During the Lent of 1780, the Austrian ambassador Count Mercy-Argenteau was shocked to discover Louis XVI playing blind man's bluff with Marie-Antoinette and some members of the Court. Count Mercy described the scandalous scene to the Empress Maria Theresa:

Amusements have been introduced of such noisy and puerile character that they are little suited to Lenten meditations, and still less to the dignity of the august personages who take part in them. They are games resembling blind man's bluff, that first lead to the giving of forfeits, and then to their redemption by some bizarre penance ; the commotion is kept up sometimes until late into the night. The number of persons who take part in these games, both of the Court and the town, makes them still more unsuitable ; every one is surprised to see that the King plays them with great zest, and that he can give himself up wholly to such frivolities in such a serious condition of State affairs as obtains at present.

Given the long hours that Louis XVI devoted to affairs of state and the fact that people often complained that he was too serious and reserved, it seems that Mercy should have been pleased to see the King come out of his shell a little and take some recreation. But then, Mercy often tried to cast Louis in an unfavorable light. As far as the Empress was concerned, however, Lent was not the time for any games. Louis' devotion was sincere all the same; he was constant in prayer and good works, observing the fasts of the Church for Lent and the Ember days even throughout his imprisonment.

The King's sister, Madame Elisabeth, also steadfastly kept the discipline of Lent in both good times and bad. In the Temple prison, the jailers mocked the princess' attempts to keep Lent as best she could. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette's daughter, Madame Royale, who shared her aunt's imprisonment, recorded it thus:

Having no fish, she asked for eggs or other dishes on fast-days. They refused them, saying that in equality there was no difference of days; there were no weeks, only decades. They brought us a new almanac, but we did not look at it. Another time, when my aunt again asked for fast-day food they answered: "Why, citoyenne, don't you know what has taken place? none but fools believe all that." She made no further requests.

As for Marie-Antoinette herself, she did not fast and abstain through every day of Lent as Louis did; her health did not permit it. However, after baby Madame Sophie died in 1787, it was noted that the Queen became more fervent in her devotions, especially during Lent. Jean Chalon in Chère Marie-Antoinette (p.235) notes that in 1788 she gave orders that her table strictly comply with all the regulations of the Church. Even the Swedish ambassador remarked: "The queen seems to have turned devout."

(Photo: http://www.cyrilalmeras.com/)
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Tranny Shooters

 From Tierney's Real News:

These are the people who liberal women defend and want to make a “protected class.” Why? If nothing else, I hope this latest nightmare will encourage us all to stop using the fake word “transgender” or “trans” to excuse away this madness. Men aren’t women. This man was NOT a “trans woman.” IMHO, women didn’t go through feminism to end up being surrounded by medicated men in dresses in our locker rooms, in our boardrooms, in Congress, playing in our sports and murdering their families in our name. Language is the way that liberals twist, deceive, and gaslight. I, for one, am going to try hard to remove the words “trans” and “transgender” from my vocabulary.

On February 16, 2026, at the Dennis M. Lynch Arena near Providence, Rhode Island, during a high school boys' hockey game, a 56-year-old male, identified as Robert Dorgan (also known as Roberta Dorgano or Esposito), opened fire around 2:30pm ET killing his ex-wife and son - and critically injuring three others in what Rhode Island authorities bizarrely described as a “familicide stemming from a domestic dispute.” JOKE. Aidan Dorgan, 23, was murdered by his “sick” father - alongside his mother Rhonda, 52, at his younger brother’s hockey game.

Aidan’s grandparents were also among those shot. They are currently in critical condition, fighting for their lives. They were there because it was literally Senior Night at their grandson’s high school hockey game. Rhonda’s youngest son Colin Dorgan, 17, who is captain of the Blackstone Valley Schools’ hockey team, watched his father murder his brother and mother from the ice and shoot his grandparents. Colin and his sister Ava, a 20-year-old nursing student, are heartbroken by the loss of their mother and older brother. (Read more.)

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Fully Human Lives: The Jazz Greatness of Kurt Elling

 Jazz is to some people what opera is to me. From Mark Judge at Chronicles:

Elling is the premier male jazz vocalist in America. He’s been nominated for eight Grammys and won two. Elling also very plainly adores American jazz music. That seems like an obvious thing to say about a jazz singer, but in Elling’s case, it is clear that his love for it is all-consuming because it is infectious. His heart seemed to expand whenever he lovingly spoke of “this music” or of artists like Duke Ellington, Wayne Shorter, and John Scofield.

Even as so much of our culture stares into a digital AI void , the best music, Elling said, still comes from acoustic instruments, which hit you in the “right here.”  When he said “here” Elling put a fist to his chest—as well as to the backside and the brain. No matter how much AI takes over, Elling was saying, we are souls. We want to live fully human lives and feel things with all of our being.

I’ve been following Elling since 2008, when I first saw him perform—and at the same location. Elling, a former divinity student at the University of Chicago, had then commingled the lyrics of the jazz standard “My Foolish Heart” with the poetry of St. John of the Cross. Seeing him do this in concert for the first time, I was seized with a kind of spiritual rapture. As the Biblical translator Stephen Mitchell once said about encountering God, it was a feeling so big that it wasn’t inside of me but I was inside of it.

In 2010 I was able to interview the singer at Blues Alley in Georgetown. This time around, in 2026, I got to meet Elling backstage before the show. He was joined by Daniel Jamieson, the conductor of the new Strathmore Jazz Orchestra.

“When I agreed to take on the role of conductor of the Strathmore Jazz Orchestra,” Jamieson said,

one of my core stipulations was that this orchestra would never function as a backup band. The musicians themselves are the heart of the project. I want this ensemble to be presented with the same artistic importance and visibility as any guest soloist we bring in. The players are the identity of this orchestra, and I am committed to building a culture that places them at the center of every performance. 

There was no mistake about that at this concert as the orchestra was the beating heart of the performance. (Read more.)

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