Tea at Trianon: Anne's Age

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

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Anne's Age

How old was Anne Boleyn? Gareth Russell explores the controversy. Share

4 comments:

Gareth Russell said...: Thank you very much for the link. I had such fun researching it!; April 13, 2010 at 7:50:00 AM EDT
Anonymous said...: Very thorough research, and it was so well done I even read it all the way through!; April 13, 2010 at 5:05:00 PM EDT
R J said...: I wish there had been this sort of fascinating research available to me during my 1980s undergraduate years, instead of the usual Marxist bloviating about peasant wars etc. Articles like this are among the reasons that I read Tea at Trianon so often - it really is a belated education for me.; April 16, 2010 at 7:33:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Thank you, Rob, that is truly a compliment coming from you. I am blessed to have found people like yourself and Gareth and many others whose research adds so much to this blog!; April 16, 2010 at 7:41:00 PM EDT