Tea at Trianon: Marie-Antoinette's Sisters

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

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Marie-Antoinette's Sisters

Author Melanie Clegg offers a lively description of each of them. Share

6 comments:

Anonymous said...: Wow, fascinating, what a lot of research. I am more impressed with The Empress than ever....even considering she had servents, dealing with all those personalities seems like a dauntless task.; February 25, 2010 at 9:33:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Really. And those are just the girls. She had all those boys to deal with, too.; February 25, 2010 at 9:36:00 AM EST
Anonymous said...: Tell us more about the Emperor, or perhaps you have in previous posts.; February 25, 2010 at 11:09:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: I mentioned the Emperor here:

http://teaattrianon.blogspot.com/2008/03/empress-maria-theresa.html

But I have not down a post just on Francis Stephen. Here is his Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_I%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor

His mother was an a daughter of the Duke of Orleans.; February 25, 2010 at 11:16:00 AM EST
Anonymous said...: Thank you very much to linking to my posts about Marie Antoinette's sisters and the weird tendency of the Tudors to behead their Queens in February! :); March 3, 2010 at 7:49:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: You're welcome! Thank YOU, for the marvelous posts. I will be linking to your posts on Madame Elisabeth as well.; March 3, 2010 at 8:19:00 AM EST