Tea at Trianon: A Bishop's Alb

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, February 28, 2012

A Bishop's Alb

From Vive la Reine:

Lace worn by Madame Elisabeth, the sister of Louis XVI. It was given to the Bishop Dupanloup in the 19th century by the only surviving child of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the duchesse d’Angouleme.

Aron said...: That is amazing--almost holy even. I gather that there is a movement afoot to formally canonize Madame Elizabeth, as well as the King and Queen--although it seems as if the trio is accorded that status already by the age-old practice of acclamation. So...would this lace then be considered a third class relic? Is the alb still used? Where and how is it stored? In any event, it would be a very precious and special item.; March 2, 2012 at 7:42:00 PM EST