Tea at Trianon: The Rise of Witchcraft

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

Friday, May 28, 2010

The Rise of Witchcraft

Author Julianne Douglas reviews a novel which shows how the rise of witchcraft in sixteenth and seventeenth century England coincided with the dearth of the Catholic religion and doctrine, with the ritual and mysticism which it provided. Share

3 comments:

MadMonarchist said...: This was a subject I was largely ignorant of despite reading up on the French kings of the period. I came upon it via reading on the Princes of Monaco and was shocked to see how widespread witchcraft etc was among the mistresses, courtiers and upper echelons of French society.; May 28, 2010 at 12:39:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Yes, in that case I think it was a back lash against the rigidity of Jansenism which had taken over French piety.; May 28, 2010 at 1:03:00 PM EDT
Julygirl said...: It was certainly always there waiting to come out from under a rock, and when people were at odds with the Church, the time was ripe.; May 28, 2010 at 5:05:00 PM EDT