Tea at Trianon: Marie de Guise

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, August 12, 2009

Marie de Guise

Marie was a princess of the House of Lorraine, who became Queen of Scots and mother of Mary Stuart. As a young girl, she refused to marry Henry VIII, marrying his nephew in Scotland instead. She held the throne of Scotland for her daughter for many years in the midst of every adversity. To quote:

The Queen Mother faced a difficult situation. Coming from the Guise family, she was a devout Roman Catholic, which made her unpopular with many of the Scottish nobles who were adherents to the new radical Protestantism of John Knox. However, Marie de Guise was tolerant toward the Protestants and ruled in such an open manner that she made friends of many who would have been her enemies. The Protestants even backed her decision to marry their young Queen to the Dauphin of France, Francois II.

However, problems soon arose with England. Although Queen Elizabeth I had signed a peace treaty with Marie de Guise, she soon attacked Scotland anyway and even when not at war, England supported and encouraged Protestant subversion against the regency. Marie de Guise was forced to call in French troops and England forged an alliance with the Scottish elites and invaded north. Fortunately, Marie de Guise defeated the English in a stunning victory at Leith. The crackdown against the Protestant rebels became a civil war. The Queen Mother was driven from power, but later was able to return. France and England continued to support the opposite sides but the Queen managed to hold the government together by sheer determination.