Tea at Trianon: 1790: Execution of the Marquis de Favras

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, October 29, 2012

1790: Execution of the Marquis de Favras

From History and Other Thoughts:

On 19th February 1790, Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras made history: he became the first nobleman to be executed without class distinction from commoners. His crime? Trying to save the royal family from the dangers of the French Revolution. Born in 1745 in a noble and ancient family, M. de Favras was a fervent royalist who served in the army with distinction. Although he at first approved the change from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one with a Parliament, he was soon disillusioned with the French Revolution, its violence and its degradation of the royal family. (Read entire post.)

lara77 said...: So a brave man who put his life on the line to save the Royal Family is executed while the butchers of the Vendee like Westermann have their names inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe.THAT says it all about the moral repugnancy of the French Revolution.; October 30, 2012 at 9:11:00 AM EDT
Gio said...: Thanks for the link!; October 30, 2012 at 3:57:00 PM EDT