Tea at Trianon: Declaration of Louis XVI (June 20, 1791)

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, January 21, 2013

Declaration of Louis XVI (June 20, 1791)

Above is the last page of the message Louis XVI left for the people of France, written before he departed with his family from the Tuileries in Paris for Montmédy. The excerpt of the declaration says:

Français, et vous surtout Parisiens, vous habitants d'une ville que les ancêtres de Sa Majesté se plaisaient à appeler la bonne ville de Paris, méfiez-vous des suggestions et des mensonges de vos faux amis, revenez à votre Roi, il sera toujours votre père, votre meilleur ami. Quel plaisir n'aura-t-il pas d'oublier toutes ses injures personnelles, et de se revoir au milieu de vous lorsqu'une Constitution qu'il aura acceptée librement fera que notre sainte religion sera respectée, que le gouvernement sera établi sur un pied stable et utile par son action, que les biens et l'état de chacun ne seront plus troublés, que les lois ne seront plus enfreintes impunément, et qu'enfin la liberté sera posée sur des bases fermes et inébranlables. A Paris, le 20 juin 1791, Louis.

Frenchmen, and above all Parisians, you inhabitants of a city which his majesty's ancestors were pleased to call the good city of Paris, disabuse yourselves of the suggestions and lies of your false friends; return to your king; he will always be your father, your best friend. What pleasure will he not have in forgetting all his personal injuries, and in being returned among you, while the Constitution, which he will have accepted freely, will cause our holy religion to be respected, the government to be established on a firm foundation and useful in its actions, the property and the status of each one no longer to be troubled, the laws no longer to be disobeyed with impunity, and finally liberty to be established on firm an immovable foundations. In Paris, 20 June 1791, Louis. (Read entire declaration of Louis XVI.)

Why did the Royal Family flee Paris? Because the increasing violence undermined the authority of the King, who was being treated as a prisoner. Furthermore, Louis, having privately made his Vow to the Sacred Heart, could no longer tolerate the recent legislation passed by the Revolutionary government against the Catholic Church which nationalized Church lands and made all priests swear an oath to the state. It was called the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and because of it Louis was prevented from making his Easter Communion, which he wished to receive from a non-juring priest. It was decided to escape to Montmédy where Louis had supporters and would be able to take a firm stand against the fanatics who had gained control of the government. The family was captured at Varennes.

More on the facts and myths surrounding the flight to Montmédy, HERE.

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