Tea at Trianon: Louis XVI Prepares for Death

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

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Louis XVI Prepares for Death

Louis XVI meets his last confessor, Abbé Edgeworth.

...The King led him into a small alcove built into one of the turrets of the tower. It contained a broken-down stove, a table, and three chairs. They sat down. “Now, Monsieur,” said the King, “the great business of my salvation is the only one which ought to occupy my thoughts. It is the only business of real importance! What are all other subjects compared to this?...”

~from Trianon by Elena Maria Vidal

lara77 said...: How cruel the twists of fate that THIS King; who only wanted to make his peoples lives better dies at the hands of thugs. The two predecessors of King Louis XVI certainly knew mistresses, wasteful spending and unnecessary wars. Yet, the KIng who loved his wife and children, practiced his faith and started reforms for his nation is the King who is murdered by the mob. I wonder in France today if there are many people who know of this great injustice against a good king and a good man.; April 22, 2011 at 9:29:00 AM EDT