Tea at Trianon: Necklace for Sale

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

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Necklace for Sale

It belonged to Queen Marie-Antoinette. She gave it to her friend Lady Sutherland, the British ambassador's wife, for safe-keeping during the Revolution. The queen was fond of jewelry, but her tastes were simple, especially compared to those who came after. Josephine, the wife of Napoleon, who set out to bring the "Rights of Man" to the other European nations, was famous for her opulent style.

Above is a picture of Marie-Antoinette's daughter Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, dripping with jewels. The Duchesse d'Angouleme was notorious for her thrift; no one made a fuss when she dressed like a princess. But Marie-Antoinette's love of beautiful jewelry is blamed for the Revolution... and practically everything. Share