Bastille Day and the French Revolution Were Not Caused by Marie-Antoinette

From The New American:

July 14 marks another anniversary of Bastille Day, the day the Paris mob rioted and stormed the Bastille, a prison fortress in the city. The popular image of the incident is that of the French Revolution itself, which is that the liberty-loving French folk in Paris spontaneously rose up against a tyrannical king and his arrogant wife, and heroically stormed the symbol of the Old Regime — liberating hundreds of political prisoners. This led to an abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a government dedicated to liberty for all the people of France.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Almost everyone has heard that Queen Marie Antoinette said, “Let them eat cake,” in haughty response to the plea of the poor starving masses of France: “We have no bread.”

That is also untrue.

And it is widely believed that Antoinette caused or at least was the principal cause — of the entire French Revolution.

That is ridiculous.

Whereas Louis XVI and his wife, Marie, are usually pictured in the history books and in the popular culture as tyrants of the worst sort, the truth is quite different. The real Marie Antoinette was a charitable woman, who lodged and fed 12 poor families, at her own expense, at Trianon. She founded the Society of Ladies of Maternal Charity. She even once stopped her carriage for over an hour to aid an injured person, waiting until a surgeon was located.

Historian Antonia Fraser disputed the cruel libel in her book Marie Antoinette, the Journey. “As a handy journalistic cliché, [“Let them eat cake”] it may never die,” Fraser wrote, adding “such ignorant behavior would have been quite out of character. The unfashionably philanthropic Marie Antoinette would have been far more likely to bestow her own cake impulsively upon the starving people before her.”

If the Revolution was not caused by Marie Antoinette, then just who did cause it? (Read more.)

Share

When “Nazi” Becomes a Normalized Slur

 From Direct Line News:

There’s a straight line—undeniable, uncomfortable, and increasingly dangerous—between the rhetoric we hear from the left and the violence we see in the streets. We’ve watched the temperature rise for years, and now, tragically, the pot is boiling over. On social media, in classrooms, and on cable news, Democrats and their radical allies have normalized one of the most reckless lies of our time: that Republicans, ICE agents, and Donald Trump himself are somehow equivalent to Nazis.

Let that sink in. Not people you simply disagree with. Not opponents in a two-party system. But Nazis. That kind of language doesn’t stay rhetorical for long. It invites violence. It licenses it. And increasingly, it inspires it.

Over the weekend, another violent attack was carried out on an ICE field office in El Paso. Molotov cocktails. Gunfire. The building was targeted after an “Abolish ICE” rally marched through the city chanting anti-American slogans and holding signs that depicted ICE agents as stormtroopers and death camp guards. The so-called protesters were egged on by the same talking points we’ve heard for years from members of “The Squad,” the ACLU, and leftist professors: that America’s immigration enforcement officers are part of a fascist system. (Read more.)

Share

Catherine Howard's Proclamation as Queen at Hampton Court, 1541

 From Gareth Russell at Historic Royal Palaces:

Hampton Court was where the business of Catherine’s queenship truly began. As Queen, Catherine was head of the largest female-run establishment in England, with a substantial income and a large number of staff. 

On 8 August 1540 – the same day as Catherine reached Hampton Court – the government announced that Catherine was the lawful Queen of England. According to the contemporary chronicler Edward Hall, Catherine was also ‘showed openly as Queen at Hampton Court.’ This meant that she was presented to the entire court with the honours and titles of a queen. Hall does not specify but, very likely, there would also have been a quasi-public component to this, whereby Catherine walked in procession from the Queen’s Apartments to hear Mass in the Chapel Royal.

With protocol satisfied, Queen Catherine and King Henry left Hampton Court for an extended hunting trip that would last until October. Moving through the sweltering countryside, they stayed at smaller royal homes at Reading, Grafton (where Henry’s grandparents Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville had married), Ampthill, Dunstable, and St Albans. (Read more.)

Share

Sèvres Porcelain

It survived the Revolution, and had a gaudy resurgence (as seen above) during the reign of Napoleon, who patronized the opulent porcelain, just like the kings and queens whom he had replaced. Before their untimely deaths, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette patronized the national porcelain, as was their duty. They had simple taste compared to the revolutionaries who took over the government, the palaces, and the porcelain factories. The laiterie at Rambouillet, with the "breast cup" and other vessels, was supposed to celebrate all that was wholesome and natural, from breast-feeding (which most noblewomen shunned) to the manual labor that went into running a dairy. The aristocracy had traditionally looked down upon manual labor and peasant life. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette wanted to show that it was good and beautiful and life-giving. The royal dairy was a sort of monument to the way that staples such as cheese and milk were produced.

Share

Geophysical Warfare

 From Tierney's Real News:

I’ve written several articles about geo-engineering and weather manipulation - including the latest cloud seeding that happened right before the Texas floods - as well as arson and weather manipulation in California, Hawaii, North Carolina and Florida before major storms and wildfires.

I reported a few weeks ago that I thought a pot farm or drug mill run by the cartels and illegal aliens was what was behind the false flag "mass shooting" and wildfire in Idaho. Criminals will burn down illegal marijuana grows or blow up drug mills if they are afraid to get caught - and then local officials cover that up, point fingers at a patsy and blame “climate change” for the fires.

Well, TODAY, the Feds just took down an illegal migrant pot farm in California in a major way. It was headline news on Fox. That’s rare. These illegal drug operations are all over the country. This is one of the biggest unreported nightmares we have in America right now - and one of the reasons we have so many wildfires. The cartels are invading the woods all around our small towns. They are funded by the CCP. Time to wake up. They test these schemes in California and then roll them out all over the country, just like election fraud. What’s going on in the woods near your house? (Read more.)

Share

The Importance of the Battle of Cannae

 From War on the Rocks:

The Battle of Cannae, fought on Aug. 2, 216 BCE, the crowning success of Hannibal Barca over the Romans, sits comfortably in the pantheon of great military victories. It is one of the most spectacular examples of adroit tactics enabling a smaller, less heavily equipped army to defeat a larger, heavier opposing force in an open, pitched battle. However, though Cannae is frequently described as a “decisive victory,” it was, of course, nothing of the sort: The battle took place two years into the 17-year-long Second Punic War, which Hannibal lost. The failure of even the greatest of tactical victories to alter the overall strategic situation is every bit as much of the legacy of Cannae as Hannibal’s dazzling double-envelopment tactics.

Three accounts of the Battle of Cannae survive, none of them contemporary. The oldest is Polybius, writing in the mid-second century BCE. Polybius came to Rome in 167 and both interviewed surviving witnesses of the war and relied on the (now lost) history of Fabius Pictor, who had been a member of the Roman Senate at the time of the battle. The other essential source is the Roman historian Livy, writing at the end of the first century BCE. Livy relied on Fabius Pictor and Polybius, but also a number of other lost historical works, including that of Lucius Coelius Antipater, though his account is hampered by his own lack of military experience and a few embellishments born of literary pretensions. Finally, the second century CE historian Appian also provides an account of the battle, though it is confused and generally regarded to be of little value. Consequently, scholarly debates on Cannae remain focused on reconciling relatively small differences between Livy and Polybius’ accounts, which remain the bedrock of our understanding of the battle. (Read more.)

Share

Summer Wedding at Belvoir Castle

 

 

The former Lady Violet Manners, now Viscountess of Garnock, is of the ancient Manners family, who were Earls and then Dukes of Rutland, and whose seat has been Belvoir (pronounced Beaver) Castle from Renaissance times. Lady Violet is the great-granddaughter of the notorious Margaret Whigham Sweeny Campbell, Dowager Duchess of Argyll, by her first husband American Charles Sweeny. From British Vogue:

Lady Violet Manners and Viscount William Garnock met on 30 December 2023, at William’s family home of Kirkcaldy in Scotland. Violet didn’t know him, but she did know William’s sister Charlotte and his brother-in-law, Jamie. The married couple, known as the Duke and Duchess of Noto, extended her an invitation to a New Year’s party at Garnock’s Fife estate. Unbeknownst to Violet, they had a secret agenda: to set her up with William, an eligible yet perennial bachelor. (William, well, was in on it: “I have to admit I knew exactly who she was,” he tells Vogue.)

Their masterplan worked. Violet and William sat next to each other at dinner, where they discovered a litany of things in common: they’d both lived in Los Angeles and India, for example, and had each founded their own companies. (Violet is the founder of HeritageXplore, an online platform that allows users to book tours of some of Britain’s most historic homes, whereas William founded Feragaia, a non-alcoholic spirits company.) “It did – as cheesy as it sounds – feel like we’d met, spoken and known each other for a long time. Lots of teasing and jibbing, which I secretly always enjoy. William made me laugh pretty instantly,” Violet says. Throughout the night, she tried to repress the same thought: “I’m going to marry this man.” Little did she know William was having the exact feeling. “I fell in love with her that first night,” he says.

What followed next can only be described as a whirlwind romance. After six months of long-distance dating – William, at the time, lived in Texas – he asked Violet’s father for her hand in marriage. “I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I would meet the man I was going to marry and be engaged to him within six months. I thought that was just for the movies – and to some degree, I still do. But from the moment I met William, I knew,” Violet says of their fast-moving timeline. He proposed over the Fourth of July holiday in the Rocky Mountains, while the couple was offroading near Jefferson, Colorado. (Read more.)

 

  

From Tatler:

The cannon smoke has settled over Belvoir Castle after what was surely a candidate for the high society wedding of the year. Lady Violet Manners and Viscount Garnock tied the knot in the church of St Mary the Virgin, Bottesford, over the weekend, before throwing a bash at her family seat. On the guest list? Lady Violet’s parents, the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, the mother and father of the groom, the Earl and Countess of Lindsay, and a host of the great and the gilded from every corner of the British aristocracy. Quite the party – so no wonder the new Viscountess Garnock took the time to send a personal message to her loved ones on Tuesday, taking to her Instagram to reflect on the joys of her big day.

‘A weekend we will cherish forever, surrounded by everyone we love as we said “I do”, Lady Violet wrote in the caption for a photoset with a series of behind-the-scenes snaps from the wedding. ‘Thank you to every single person at Belvoir who worked tirelessly to make it the most perfect celebration, and to my amazing mum and dad for making all my dreams come true.’ (Read more.)

Margaret, Dowager Duchess of Argyll and her daughter Frances Sweeny Manners, Duchess of Rutland

The bride resembles her beautiful grandmother and great-grandmother a great deal. For some reason they are compared to Jackie Kennedy. Jackie was lovely but I do not know how she became the universal standard of beauty for the entire world. Also from Tatler:

Frances Sweeny married Charles Manners, Duke of Rutland, at just 20-years-old. Strikingly stylish with Jackie Kennedy-esque beauty, she caused quite a stir as the youngest Duchess in the country. She hoped, perhaps, that the entrance into this new family and home - the resplendent 365-room Belvoir Castle - would represent a new start. But just five years after her joyous wedding, scandal threatened to engulf her. This time, because of her mother Margaret, Duchess of Argyll’s fractious relationship and separation from her second husband, the 11th Duke of Argyll. We take a look back at the sordid secrets that swirled around her adult life on the one year anniversary of her passing.

Frances and her brother Brian, both products of Margaret’s first marriage to American stockbroker Charles Sweeny, encouraged their mother to walk away from her second relationship without contest. But it seems Margaret was unable to let go, deciding to challenge the Duke in court, to disastrous and very public effect. The story unfurled with Hollywood-style suspense and scandal. Indeed, the events were immortalised by the BBC drama A Very British Scandal in 2021, with star turns from Claire Foy and Paul Bettany. (Read more.)

 

Share

New Farm Security Plan

 From Gregg Jarrett:

The Trump Administration has introduced a significant new initiative aimed at strengthening the role of American agriculture in national security. The National Farm Security Action Plan is the latest measure in the “Make Agriculture Great Again” campaign. Announced by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the plan positions agriculture as a vital component in protecting the nation from foreign threats and ensuring the resilience of the U.S. food system.

Secretary Rollins emphasized that the United States not only feeds the world but also leads it, and she affirmed the administration’s resolve never to allow foreign adversaries to control American land, research, or livelihoods. The plan is designed to prioritize American farmers, families, and the nation’s future, reinforcing a strong and secure agricultural sector.

The urgency of this initiative was highlighted by recent incidents, such as the Department of Justice’s prosecution of foreign nationals—including a member of the Chinese Communist Party—who were accused of smuggling a dangerous fungus into the country. This case, which involved a domestic research lab, brought attention to ongoing threats like agroterrorism, foreign acquisition of farmland, theft of agricultural technology, and cyberattacks against food systems. These challenges reveal vulnerabilities in America’s agricultural supply chain and underscore the need for robust protective measures. (Read more.)

Share

Half Human?

 From Ars Technica:

Back in 1929, archaeologists unearthed several human skeletons (seven adults and three children) while excavating Skuhl Cave just south of Haifa, Israel. Dating back 140,000 years to the end of the Middle Pleistocene, most were classified as early Homo sapiens. But one skeleton was that of a child, between the age of 3 and 5 years old whose features seemed to show a mix of early human and Neanderthal characteristics. A new analysis involving CT scanning may resolve the long-standing debate, according to a new paper published in the journal L’Anthropologie.

Neanderthals and Homo sapiens traded genes frequently during the period when their populations overlapped. "The two came in contact as modern humans began their major expansion out of Africa, which occurred roughly 60,000 years ago," Ars Science Editor John Timmer previously reported. "Humans picked up some Neanderthal DNA through interbreeding, while the Neanderthal population, always fairly small, was swept away by the waves of new arrivals."

 Nor is this the first case of a possible hybrid hominid species. In 2018, scientists analyzed a sliver of bone excavated from a cave site in Russia. The findings made global headlines when the team concluded that the individual to whom it belonged—a young girl of about 13, dubbed "Denny"—was the offspring of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father. This suggested that rather than dying out, Neanderthals may have been absorbed by other species; such inbreeding may have been more common than previously thought. (Read more.)

Share