Tea at Trianon: A Biography of Madame de Lamballe

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

Thursday, January 10, 2013

A Biography of Madame de Lamballe

A biography by Georges Bertin. To quote:

To tell her story, her relationship with her family and the Queen, Bertin uses mostly unpublished documents and articles taken from the newspapers of the day. The biography is thus full of interesting but little-known anecdotes about the Princess. However, the portrayal of the Princess that comes out of the book is not unbiased. Bertin justly stresses that Madame De Lamballe wasn't the frivolous beauty many think she was, but was intelligent, well-educated, "enlightened", devoted to those she loved and did many charitable deeds.

But the author is a bit too enamoured with the Princess to fairly portray her faults. He seems to blame the Princess' loss of favour with the Queen mostly, but not solely, on the Duchess the Polignac, who apparently schemed to destroy her rival. He also often complains about the Duchess using her influence to obtain privileges, titles and money for her family and friends. While it is true that the Polignacs benefited greatly from Gabrielle's friendship with the Queen, Madame De Lamballe often asked favours of Marie Antoinette as well, which however weren't always granted.

Bertin says that all these requests were another of the reasons why Marie Antoinette grew tired of the Princess but if so, shouldn't the Queen have grown tired of the Duchess De Polignac as well? In my opinion, the author is trying too hard to justify Marie Antoinette's preference for the Duchess over the Princess. The reason is probably much more simple. We all get along with and like some people better than others and I think Marie Antoinette simply found herself more at ease with the frivolous Gabrielle than the intellectual Lamballe. (Read entire review.)