Tea at Trianon: The Imperial Family of Austria

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

Sunday, December 9, 2012

The Imperial Family of Austria

The most complete portrait of the family of Emperor Francis Stephen and Empress Maria Theresa, showing all of the children except for the three who died in infancy. (Via Vive la Reine.) Share

3 comments:

Divine Theatre said...: I do not always comment on your posts but I look forward to each and every one!

Andie; December 9, 2012 at 9:06:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Thanks, Andie!!; December 9, 2012 at 10:07:00 AM EST
tubbs said...: Is this their Christmas Card this year? Yeah I got one too. Tante Teresia always has to included those brag letters every year ; you know, what all she's annexed, who all she's matched her brood with. On and on and on ! Uncle Fritz was right about her; "always weeping, always annexing...."; December 9, 2012 at 9:50:00 PM EST