Tea at Trianon: Simon the Cobbler and Louis XVII

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, June 12, 2012

Simon the Cobbler and Louis XVII

From Vive la Reine:

There is evidence that the leaders of the Commune gave their tacit approval for Simon to go much further [in his abuse of Louis-Charles.] On July 3, 1793, Simon questioned his superiors quite bluntly about their aims.

“Citizens, what have you decided about the wolf cub? He has been taught to be insolent bu I shall know how to tame him. Hard luck if he dies because of it. I will not answer for that. After all, what do you want done with him? To deport him? To kill him? To poison him?”

The unequivocal answer from the members of the commune was, “We want to get rid of him!”
Inspired by these men, in the secret, hidden environment of the Tower, a pattern of abuse began to develop which, unchecked, grew worse and more terrible over time.

—The Lost King of France by Deborah Cadbury

Jack B. said...: I cannot read any account of what was done to Louis Charles without shuddering. It was a crime...and worse than that not a crime (one Republican France still will not admit to) concocted out by one single man but many, many men, all so driven by hatred to destroy a small child.

With the Romanovs, the Bolsheviks had to keep changing the guards until the very last minute because the captors kept feeling sympathy and pity for the Romanov family, with the Dauphin and Marie Therese we don't even have that. What kind of person must you be to be WORSE than a hardened Bolshevik!; June 12, 2012 at 12:45:00 PM EDT
julygirl said...: Even today, ordinary children whose birth does not threaten any political faction, are subjected to cruelty and frightening experiences by their own parents....and we wont even go into the case of the unborn.; June 12, 2012 at 7:10:00 PM EDT
lara77 said...: Jack Bennett's remarks are so very true; how anyone could have treated an innocent child with such wanton depravity is truly evil. I think the men who ruled France during the Reign of Terror were pure unmitigated evil.Republican France will still not deal with its bloody past. Maybe that is why the French are on their Fifth Republic and Great Britain still has the same form of government since the 17th century.; June 13, 2012 at 9:25:00 AM EDT