Thursday, July 19, 2007

High Moral Standards of Marie-Antoinette


It is known that Queen Marie-Antoinette recoiled from impurity of any kind, as biographer Vincent Cronin makes clear in Louis and Antoinette. She did not permit uncouth or off-color remarks in her presence, and would not allow the name of Empress Catherine of Russia to be mentioned since she thought the Empress to be morally depraved. She exercised a special vigilance over anyone in her care, especially the young ladies of her household. As Madame Campan relates in her Memoirs:
All who were acquainted with the Queen’s private qualities knew that she equally deserved attachment and esteem. Kind and patient to excess in her relations with her household, she indulgently considered all around her, and interested herself in their fortunes and in their pleasures. She had, among her women, young girls from the Maison de St. Cyr, all well born; the Queen forbade them the play when the performances were not suitable; sometimes, when old plays were to be represented, if she found she could not with certainty trust to her memory, she would take the trouble to read them in the morning, to enable her to decide whether the girls should or should not go to see them,–rightly considering herself bound to watch over their morals and conduct.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Queen, so maligned and covered with calumny that she is even today written about in the same manner by people who project their own misdeeds upon her. I pray that one day she be raised to the honours of the altar.
Vive La Reine!

de Brantigny

elena maria vidal said...

Yes, she continues to be grossly maligned, in spite of the fact that testimonies such as this are readily available, and have been for many years. Yes, people project their own misdeeds upon her.