Tea at Trianon: Versailles, 1919

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

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Versailles, 1919

The Wilson Revolution Unplugged reminds us of the disastrous Versailles Peace Conference which led to another and more terrible war. Share

2 comments:

May said...: What a disaster this peace conference was. Although Germany, in my opinion, is to be blamed for its aggressiveness in World War I, the other side was not totally innocent either, as appeared in the overly harsh treatment of Germany by the victorious powers in 1919.

Another tragedy of the Versailles settlement was the destruction of the Habsburg realm.

Of course, you know all this much better than I do, but I just wanted to say it again.; January 24, 2009 at 5:19:00 PM EST
elena maria vidal said...: I appreciate your clarifications. Not everyone is aware of what really happened.; January 24, 2009 at 5:27:00 PM EST