Tea at Trianon: Privilège du blanc

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, March 21, 2013

Privilège du blanc

The Privilège du blanc is the privilege granted to Catholic Queens and the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg to wear white in the presence of the Sovereign Pontiff. Women ordinarily wear black, including a black mantilla, when having an audience with the Pope, according to the long-standing Vatican dress code. Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, can be seen all in white in the photo above. Below is Belgium's Queen Paola.

More pictures of the Papal Inaugural Mass, HERE.
Share

4 comments:

May said...: I have a picture somewhere of Princess Lilian of Belgium visiting the Pope (Pius XII, I believe) with her husband King Leopold III. Lilian was wearing the long black dress and mantilla. It's interesting to think that she could easily have been there in white, if she had only been styled Queen, which would have been more normal, instead of Princess...; March 21, 2013 at 4:00:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: People do not realize what a humble woman she was.; March 21, 2013 at 4:06:00 PM EDT
Terry Nelson said...: Elena - one of my readers asked how the tradition of black dress and mantilla came about for women in audience with the Pope? Would you happen to know?; March 23, 2013 at 10:41:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: No, I don't know but I would love to find out.; March 23, 2013 at 10:43:00 PM EDT