Tea at Trianon: The Charities of a Duchess

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

Friday, January 13, 2012

The Charities of a Duchess

The young Duchess of Cambridge has chosen some charities to patronize.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge has officially unveiled which four charities she will become patron of, in her new life as a member of the British Royal Family, all of whom have a traditionally heavy schedule of involvements with national charities.

The Duchess is to become patron of Action on Addiction, the National Portrait Gallery, the East Anglia's Children's Hospices, and The Art Room, reflecting her interest in social issues, art and children's health. The least-known of the four, The Art Room, is an Oxford-based charity which seeks to engage with 5-16 year-olds with behavioural issues. Julie Beattie, the founder and director of The Art Room, said she and the entire organisation were "overwhelmed and thrilled" by the Duchess's decision to become their royal patron. She went on to say that "it will raise the profile of the charity and get people to see the work we are doing." The Duchess is understood to have spent the time since her marriage deciding carefully which charities to begin her royal career with. (Read entire post.)