Tea at Trianon: Louis XVIII and Napoleon

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, June 29, 2010

Louis XVIII and Napoleon

A correspondence.

In 1800 Louis XVIII was 45. He had been friendly to reform in the beginnings of the French Revolution. But as it took a more radical turn, he had fled at the same time as the royal couple. Only he had succeeded in reaching Brussels when Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were arrested near the border.

Since then, Louis XVIII had lived the unhappy life of an exile, at the mercy of the varying generosity of foreign sovereigns and the vagaries of international politics. In 1800 he was living under the protection of the Tsar of Russia.

Louis XVIII was by all accounts, like his elder brother, a man of superior intelligence, but he was a far more astute politician than Louis XVI. He was patient, ambitious, cunning, and determined to step some day unto the throne of his ancestors.
This is what he wrote Napoléon in September of 1800 (more)

Catherine Delors said...: Many thanks for the link, Elena!; June 29, 2010 at 4:41:00 PM EDT
May said...: I don't like Louis XVIII, but he certainly had a better claim to the throne than Napoleon.; June 29, 2010 at 7:07:00 PM EDT
lara77 said...: Louis XVIII was the descendant of the oldest and greatest monarchy in Europe; Napoleon, an ego in search of fame. One wished for peace for his country; the other did not care how many lives were to be sacrificed for glory and conquest. They will always remain for me such stark contasts in personality and breeding. One, aware of his heritage and the duty to bring peace and unity to his kingdom. The other, crude, violent and egotistical; a hot headed Corsican.; June 30, 2010 at 8:40:00 AM EDT