Tea at Trianon: St. Adelaide

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

Monday, December 19, 2011

St. Adelaide

I always thought her life would make a great movie.

The death of our saint’s husband, which happened about the year 949, left her a young widow, and the afflictions with which she was visited contributed perfectly to disengage her heart from the world, and make her devote herself to the practice of piety, which had been from her infancy the ruling inclination of her heart. Berengar (Berengarius) III, margrave of Ivrea, possessed himself of all Lombardy, and succeeded to the title of king of Italy. This prince, who had always been the declared enemy of his predecessor’s family, cast Adelaide into prison at Pavia, where she suffered the greatest hardships and indignities. She at length found means to make her escape, and fled towards Germany; but was met by the Emperor Otto I, who, at the solicitation of Pope Agapetus II, was marching at the head of an army of fifty thousand men to do her justice. He made himself master of Pavia and other places, and married Adelaide(2), but restored the kingdom to Berengar, upon condition he should hold it of the empire. Berengar soon forgot his engagements; whereupon Otto, at the earnest request of Pope John XII, sent his son Luitolph against him; and Luitolph, after gaining many victories, dying, the emperor went in person into Italy, made Berengar prisoner, and banished him into Germany, where he died at Bamberg. After this victory, Otto was crowned emperor at Rome by the pope in 963. (Read entire post.)

Victoria said...: I always thought that St. Adelaide's life would make a lovely movie as well, or perhaps a novel. I would definitely read a novel about her.

- Victoria
(http://raindropsandmoonlight.blogspot.com); December 19, 2011 at 12:19:00 PM EST
May said...: I've always liked the name Adelaide. As a teenager, I started writing a novel about a little girl with cystic fibrosis named Adelaide Zettel. At the time, I remember being pleased to hear of this saint with the same name as my heroine.; December 19, 2011 at 3:48:00 PM EST