Tea at Trianon: The Reconstruction of Berwick Castle

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

Saturday, March 16, 2013

The Reconstruction of Berwick Castle

And the Battle of Melrose.

The alleged stone of Destiny used to crown Scottish Kings was also stolen from Scone by the English and taken to London. Douglas under duress swore allegiance to King Edward to escape imprisonment, but later in 1297 he joined William Wallace in rebellion against the English invaders. In retaliation his own castle of Douglas in Lanarkshire was stormed by Edward's lackie Robert Bruce (later King Robert I 1306-1329) with Douglas's wife and children, including a young man called James (later Bruce's "Good Sir James" Douglas) taken hostage and handed over to Edward's wrath. Douglas for the sake of his family surrendered and was taken to York castle in chains where he died of ill-treatment in 1302. (Read entire post.)