Tea at Trianon: Louis XVI at Cherbourg

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, February 20, 2012

Louis XVI at Cherbourg

From Vive la Reine. A painting of Louis XVI inspecting the royal navy, the one which helped America win her independence and which Napoleon later used to terrorize Europe. Share

2 comments:

lara77 said...: Is this not the trip to Normandy when the people saw their king and exclaimed" God bless our good King" and Louis exclaimed back," God bless a good people!" Too bad His Majesty did not take more trips through France; the people would have loved to see their king.; February 21, 2012 at 8:52:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Yes, it is the same incident when he was cheered by the people. The King and Queen did not travel much because of the expense. They tried so hard to save money.; February 21, 2012 at 6:51:00 PM EST