Tea at Trianon: Enemy of the State

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, May 2, 2010

Enemy of the State

In sixteenth century England. Share

2 comments:

Julygirl said...: One could also call this, The Abuse of Power, as those seeking control tortured helpless victims in order to gain information so they could capture and torture even more.; May 2, 2010 at 7:49:00 AM EDT
Stephanie A. Mann said...: Interesting source for your link to Father Gerard's description of his torture.
I have read that one of the advantages of this form of torture was that, unlike the rack, it left no marks. It had nearly the same effect as crucifixion, as it was hard for the victim to breath.
St. Robert Southwell endured months of this torture by Richard Topcliffe and then Topcliffe denied it at Southwell's trial, saying "I did but stand up against a wall." Southwell replied, "Thou art a bad man," a tremendous example of litotes!; May 2, 2010 at 7:52:00 AM EDT