Tea at Trianon: Zouaves

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Zouaves

Hallowed Ground is linked to an excellent article by Dr. John C. Rao about the Zouaves of "Pio Nono" in the days of the Italian "Risorgimento." It is a sad story but worth reading. People often use the fact that there were once papal states to ridicule the papacy, accusing the Pope of being just another prince. However, the papal states assured the liberty of the Church in the days when the popes were forced to have lands and troops in order to survive. The Holy See would have been taken over by some king in the Middle Ages (as it almost was at times) had the popes not had the temporal powers and means of resistance. Share

2 comments:

Terry Nelson said...: I don't know how I had forgotten the reasons and necessities for the pope's armies and the Papal States. Good point.; July 4, 2007 at 11:17:00 AM EDT
Flambeaux said...: Warren Carroll's History of Christendom makes this point quite dramatically, in laying out in exquisite detail the exact circumstances that led to the creation of the original Papal States.

I had been aware of the reasons in a general way. I was stunned to discover many of the particulars.; July 4, 2007 at 12:13:00 PM EDT