Tea at Trianon: Bonnie Prince Charlie

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

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Bonnie Prince Charlie

The Mad Monarchist describes his tragic life. Sometimes I think it would have been better for Prince Charles Edward Stuart if he had died heroically in battle at Culloden rather than becoming an international drunk. I am going to write a book about him someday. Share

3 comments:

Julygirl said...: I believe God had more in store for him to do, but he did not follow through. Could have changed the history of Great Britain.; August 14, 2010 at 3:11:00 PM EDT
MadMonarchist said...: I hope that future book is no idle threat. I would greatly look forward to it. Given your body of work such a book on Prince Charles would be greatly appreciated and I think much needed. So many have tried to romanticize him and later to positively vilify him that the truth scarcely ever gets told.; August 14, 2010 at 8:21:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: It's a book I have been planning and researching for many years but it always ends up getting put on the back shelf. I really need to travel to Scotland and to Rome.; August 14, 2010 at 9:15:00 PM EDT