Gabrielle d'Estrées and Marie-Antoinette

Vive Henri IV
Vive ce roi vaillant !
Vive Henri IV
Vive ce roi vaillant !
Ce diable à quatre
A le triple talent
De boire de battre
Et d'être un vers galant.

The royalist anthem Vive Henri IV was from Collé's 1770 opera La partie de chasse d'Henri IV. In 1774 it was often sung to honor Louis XVI, became popular again during the Restoration in 1814, as is told in the novel Madame Royale. The lyrics which celebrate the monarch who was seen by the French people as the epitome of justice, kindness, and virility. It was an attempt to identify the Bourbon dynasty with the popular first Bourbon monarch, Henri IV. Louis XVI had also been seen as sharing with the King from Navarre an easy manner with the common folk, as well as a strong sense of justice and love of the hunt. Early in their reign, the King and Queen held a costume ball where everyone came in dress from the era of le bon roi Henri, with Marie-Antoinette herself garbed as Henri's beloved mistress, Gabrielle d'Estrées. It was part of the Queen's attempt to show that she was loved by her husband, and that she was his mistress as well as his wife. During the Restoration, members of the Bourbon family, especially the daughter of Louis XVI, the Duchess of Angoulême, were frequently welcomed with the anthem. After the fall of the Bourbons in 1830, the anthem was no longer played, and soon became a relic of the past. Share

AFI Theater Declines Journalist Mark Judge’s Anti-Communist Film Festival Without Explanation

 From Breitbart:

The AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, has declined journalist Mark Judge’s upcoming Anti-Communist Film Festival without explanation.

As Breitbart News reported last year, Mark Judge, whose book The Devil’s Triangle chronicled his life’s derailment during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing, launched the anti-communist film festival in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the 20th anniversary of The Lives of Others – winner of the 2006 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. After generating significant grassroots support with his GoFundMe and even some interested sponsors, Judge set his sights on the AFI Silver as a potential venue due to its reputation for being a curator of high quality cinematic arts as well as for its mission statement to educate and enrich the community as a 501C3 non-profit.

Starting in October of last year, emails shared with Breitbart News showed that Judge’s correspondence with the AFI had been amicable and professional, with little to no pushback from the event manager about his desired event. In one email, dated in November 2025, the AFI proposed hosting the festival in August due to September being a relatively busy month.

“September is definitely busier for us than August, so the change to August is a good idea, especially if you are considering expanding the scope of the event,” the event manager said. “Are you interested in Silver I, the 400-seat theater, for both days, or would you like to explore renting multiple theaters? This can be challenging for us at any time of the year, but I am happy to find out what’s possible.”

“For every rental, regardless of the scope, we offer technical support and a dedicated stage manager who will be on site throughout your event, so staffing should not be an issue,” the event manager later added.

As the months unfolded, Judge worked on securing sponsorships while correspondence with the AFI remained amicable. However, in January, when Judge informed the AFI that he stood on the verge of securing the Victims of Communism Memorial (VOC) Foundation as a potential sponsor, the event manager suddenly informed him that prices had increased – the first since it opened in 2003.

“I look forward to learning more about what you and VOC are planning for the Silver. I want to ensure we’re all aligned and confirm what’s feasible on our end before your internal planning progresses too much further. I haven’t yet asked our Programming Director for availability, as I’m waiting for more details from you,” the event manager said.

“Additionally, I’ve just learned that our rental rates will increase for events booked after May, marking our first increase since we opened in 2003,” the manager added. “In September, I quoted you $3,900 for a 2.5-hour event in Silver I, and this will now be $4,400. I apologize for the bad news, but I wanted to give you a heads-up so you can notify VOC if needed.”

That correspondence occurred in early January of this year; nearly three weeks later, after Judge secured the VOC as an official sponsor, the AFI informed Judge it would not be able to host his event. (Read more.)

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Tocqueville: A Thinker for Uncertain Times

 From Villa Albertine:

First published in 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America became an instant classic in the U.S.—but in his native France, the author was met with suspicion. Branded “Tocqueville the American,” he wrote a bestselling book that was praised and doubted in equal measure. Historian Françoise Mélonio, whose new biography Tocqueville was published in France in September 2025, argues that his vision of democracy, rooted in civic participation and shared responsibility, remains vital today for both the U.S. and France.

STATES Who was Tocqueville when he left for America in 1831, and what were his motivations for going there? 

FRANÇOISE MÉLONIO In my biography, I want the reader to be able to understand this multifaceted politician and thinker and emphasize that a person’s ideas are inseparable from the events of their life. Tocqueville’s trip to America can be explained first and foremost by his family background. Tocqueville was the great-grandson of Malesherbes, a major Enlightenment figure and a magistrate of the noblesse de robe (nobles of the robe), French aristocrats whose rank came from holding judicial or administrative posts. Malesherbes was a defender of the people against the tax-hungry monarchy, and he was director of the Librairie (the royal administration responsible for regulating and censoring printed works). He championed Diderot’s Encyclopédie even though he was tasked with policing its publication. When his own subordinates threatened to seize the proofs for it, he went so far as to move them to his own home. Malesherbes defended Louis XVI before the National Convention and was guillotined in 1794 as a result. He was a constant role model in Tocqueville’s life as a liberal, independent thinker. 

On his mother’s side, Tocqueville’s family had a history of intellectual brilliance, but they were deeply scarred by revolution. After both Malesherbes and an uncle were guillotined, Tocqueville’s parents narrowly escaped execution thanks to the fall of Robespierre. All this fueled his persistent dread of revolutions, which would be rekindled in France in 1830 and 1848. It was this trauma that drove him to pursue a nonrevolutionary model of democratic (and republican) society—one that could strike a balance between freedom and order. 

Tocqueville was a judicial magistrate, like his ancestor Malesherbes, when he set off in 1831 at age twenty-six. Entry-level magistrates were unpaid at the time, meaning they invariably came from wealthy backgrounds. After the July Revolution of 1830, Tocqueville no longer saw a future in the judiciary, so he turned to politics and found a solution in the form of a trip to America. He planned to examine the country and its relatively stable democracy and return with an understanding that would benefit France. This trip was an urgent quest to find answers that would be of use to his home country. (Read more.)

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"Dramatic and Compelling"

 

From the Historical Novel Society:

Generalissima is the second volume in Vidal’s trilogy on Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I of England and sister to Louis XIII of France. This installment traces her life from the unrest that sparked the civil wars of the Three Kingdoms to her dramatic flight to France in 1644.

The novel is divided into two parts. The first centres on the queen’s twin obsessions: converting Charles and their family to Roman Catholicism and preventing the marriage of their eldest daughter to the Prince of Orange. But as the Puritans gain strength, Charles refuses decisive action and Henrietta departs with their older children, carrying her jewels and valuables to sell for arms and munitions in Europe. The second part follows Henrietta in her role as Generalissima, revealing a resolve and strategic boldness that Charles lacks. She is willing to take the risks that might have preserved the monarchy, yet as a French, Catholic woman, she is not heeded. By 1644, after a series of dramatic events, the stage is set for the trilogy’s final volume. (Read more.)

 

Generalissima available, HERE.

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How the Senate Can Pass the SAVE Act Today, Despite the Filibuster

 From Amuse on X:

The modern US Senate operates under a belief that is nearly universal and almost entirely false. Major legislation, we are told, requires 60 votes to pass. Without those votes, the chamber is paralyzed. Bills stall. Leaders shrug. The minority is said to have spoken. This belief is repeated so often that it has taken on the status of constitutional fact. I assumed it was true. It is nothing of the kind.

There is no rule of the Senate, no clause of the Constitution, and no settled historical practice that requires 60 votes for the passage of ordinary legislation. The 60 vote threshold is not law. It is not structure. It is not even tradition in any deep sense. It is a managerial norm that arose from convenience, risk aversion, and a post Reid Senate that prefers predictability to deliberation. It persists only because leaders choose to treat it as binding.

 This matters now because Senate Republican leadership has an opportunity to prove otherwise. Majority Leader John Thune has promised to give the SAVE Act an up or down vote. Under the actual rules of the Senate, that vote requires only a simple majority. If leadership is willing to govern under the rules as written, the SAVE Act can pass. No rule changes are required. No nuclear option is necessary. No reconciliation gimmicks are involved. What is required is stamina and the willingness to abandon a fiction. (Read more.)

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‘When the Queen Should Have Taken her Chamber’

 From Down the Cobbled Path:

On the first occasion, Mary and her physicians were so sure of her condition that in late April 1555 she did indeed ‘take to her chamber’. The royal nursery was prepared, but heartbreakingly for Mary there was no baby. In August of that year, she reluctantly re-entered public life. Similarly, in 1557, Mary’s pregnancy was once again announced, but by the spring of the following year it was clear that the queen was not expecting new life but that rather her own was ebbing away. Mary died on 17 November 1558 aged 42 and was succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth. The word ‘shoulde’ then, I think, is a poignant embodiment of Mary’s greatest hopes and her shattered dreams.

More broadly and less sentimentally, this account provides a revelatory window into Mary’s household and royal protocol around a Tudor queen ‘taking to her chamber’. Presumably the roles listed came into direct contact with the queen or at the very least required access to her private apartments, which is why women were assigned to them for this period. The fact that this information was considered a useful precedent is also revealing. Of course, Elizabeth’s court expected her to marry and provide the realm with heirs, but did Elizabeth herself in the opening days of her reign envisage that this would be her path? I think we best leave that question for another day! (Read more.)

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Petrushka

Stravinky's 0riginal costume design for Petrushka


Original 1911 set design for Petrushka

When I was a child my grandmother gave us a record with stories from famous ballets, including musical excerpts from Petrushka. We were entranced by it; my sister and I tried dancing to Petrushka when we were very small; from what I have read since, we were not alone in being swept up into the drama. Composed by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Petrushka debuted in 1911 at the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris. The mysterious, magical tale of love and revenge unfolds at a Russian Shrovetide fair, centering around a puppet called "Petrushka," who in Pinocchio-style comes to life. To summarize:

Petrushka ("Petey") is the story of three puppets - the forlorn and homely Petrushka, a beautiful ballerina, and a mysterious and gaudily dressed Moor - brought to life by their showman master at a Russian Shrovetide fair. Petrushka tries to express his love for the ballerina, but she has eyes only for the Moor. The frustrated Petrushka is subdued by the scimitar-wielding Moor, but the puppet's ghost has the last laugh by thumbing his nose at everyone. All this takes place within the context of the fair, full of dances by nannies, coachmen, masqueraders, crowds and even a dancing bear.

In Russian culture, the puppet character of "Petrushka" was rather like "Punch," a rude, comic Everyman, the butt of every joke. Stravinsky endows him with human feelings; as Petrushka attempts to rise from his baseness, his strivings lead to his destruction, only to gain immortality in the end.
Stravinsky's music captures the carnival atmosphere of Maslenitsa, the Russian version of Mardi Gras, with all its color and passion. As one commentator describes:

Subject and music appear to reflect the Russian nature. Gogol and Mussorgsky are there. Everything is reflected in the score with a sure and reckless mastery —the movement and tumult of the crowd; the gait and aspect of each leading figure; and the grotesque agonies of the helpless one. A shriek of...trumpets in different keys is the motto of Petrouchka's protest. The composition is permeated with Russian folk-melodies and also street songs marvelously treated.

"Fair"

In his day, Stravinsky was considered avant-garde since his music was a bit different from what had gone before. His work was part of the explosion of creativity that brightened the last days of imperial Russia, called the "Silver Age." On one level, Petrushka is an echo of a time that is gone; on another, it conveys the spirit of the Russian people which Communism was not able to destroy. I enjoy listening to Petrushka more than ever, especially during Shrovetide. 

Listen HERE.

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Minneapolis: America's Destruction Lab

 From Candeloro's Substack:

To understand the fire, meet the arsonist.

Saul Alinsky wasn’t merely a “community organizer” — that label functioned as cover for an architect of modern political guerrilla warfare. In Rules for Radicals, he laid out a worldview that now plays out on American streets: morality is disposable; the only real objective is POWER.

Minneapolis isn’t an accident. It’s the manual in operation.

Forget “spontaneous outrage.” What you’re watching is calibrated social engineering: a provocation, a verdict delivered before the investigation, emotional hysteria replacing evidence. The goal is to force institutions to violate their own rules under the banner of “compassion.” Once they yield, the violation becomes precedent. When they resist, the pressure escalates. Compromise doesn’t resolve it — it accelerates it.

Look at the post-2020 policing climate: in many major cities, proactive enforcement pulled back — not because crime vanished, but because the political cost of doing the job exploded. Officers don’t act from duty; they operate under the threat of professional annihilation. Exactly as Alinsky prescribed: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it.”

And who runs this laboratory?

Tim Walz, Minnesota’s governor — the same figure Kamala Harris tapped as her running mate in 2024. During the George Floyd unrest, Walz signed an order activating the National Guard on May 28, 2020 — yet the core criticism was never “did he sign a paper,” but whether the response matched the speed and scale of the collapse on the ground.

Jacob Frey, Minneapolis’ mayor, provided the city’s most revealing image: publicly kneeling and weeping at George Floyd’s casket while precincts burned and civic authority disintegrated.

This wasn’t mere incompetence.

It looked like managed permissiveness — a posture where the state hesitates just long enough for chaos to rewrite the rules. (Read more.)

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Should Queen Isabella I of Castile be Canonized?

 From The Catholic Herald:

Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, Archbishop of Mexico City and Primate of Mexico, has publicly defended the cause for the beatification of Queen Isabella I of Castile during a formal visit to Spain.

Speaking in Valladolid during a meeting with the diocesan commission overseeing the cause, Cardinal Aguiar said that sustained historical and spiritual study had led him to a firm conviction about the personal sanctity of the Spanish queen and the importance of making her legacy better understood. “We want the essential facts of her life and spirituality to be known,” he said, stressing that the process required time, seriousness and balance rather than polemic or nostalgia.

The Mexican cardinal highlighted in particular Isabella’s Royal Decree of 1503, which stated that the indigenous peoples of the newly encountered territories in the Americas were to enjoy the same rights as subjects of the Spanish Crown. He described the decree as “an extraordinary position for its time”, arguing that it reflected a deeper moral vision rooted in Christian anthropology rather than political expediency.

The meeting in Valladolid brought together senior figures from the Spanish and Mexican Churches. Cardinal Aguiar was received by Archbishop Luis Argüello García, who is also president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, alongside members of the commission for Isabella’s cause. The gathering was held at the Archdiocese of Valladolid’s spirituality centre and was described by participants as both cordial and substantive.

Archbishop Argüello said that Isabella’s life was marked by fidelity to Christ and the Church’s missionary mandate, which in turn shaped her political vision and her concern for unity rooted in shared faith. The Valladolid visit also formed part of the Intercontinental Guadalupan Novena, an initiative launched in 2022 to promote devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe while encouraging renewed reflection on evangelisation and social renewal across the Ibero-American world. (Read more.)

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