Tea at Trianon: La Vie en Bretagne

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, October 5, 2012

La Vie en Bretagne

The enduring legacy of Anne of Brittany, twice Queen of France.

Anne was born the only surviving child of François II of Brittany (1433-1488) and Marguerite de Foix (c. 1453-1486) in 1477. Beloved by her parents and cherished by Breton people as a living-symbol of their independence from France, Anne was given an excellent education, in preparation for her role as reigning duchess. From a young age she demonstrated a marked interested in law and politics in addition to art and music. It was however Anne’s personal wealth and her reputation as a shrewd and cultured young woman, which attracted a multitude of suitors and ensuing problems from abroad. François II had aggressively defended his duchy on behalf of his daughter, as there was no Salic law (medieval Frankish law) barring her, as a woman, from her inheritance. (Read entire article.)