Tea at Trianon: The Last Queen of Henry VIII

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, June 6, 2010

The Last Queen of Henry VIII

A review of a recent biography of Katherine Parr.

Katherine Parr was among the brightest of Henry VIII's wives, her life was a cavalcade, and she left a modest wealth of documentary sources in her wake. Someone ought to write a decent biography of this neglected queen. Linda Porter's book sometimes sails close to achieving this elusive goal. It is elegant and tolerably well-researched but it falls short when it comes to exploring a host of vital issues.

Stephanie A. Mann said...: I enjoy Jonathan Wright's reviews--and thought his disappointment in this biography interesting. That Porter failed to engage thoroughly in the details of Henry's Court and country in the 1540's is regrettable but I think Robert Hutchinson, in his book on the last days of Henry VIII, covers some of that factionalism pretty well.; June 6, 2010 at 10:11:00 AM EDT