Tea at Trianon: The Letters of Charles II and Minette

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, May 4, 2013

The Letters of Charles II and Minette

Author Melanie Clegg discusses the moving correspondence between the "Merry Monarch" and his youngest sister. To quote:

The details of court life are fascinating but I had to wince a bit at Charles’ descriptions of poor Frances Stuart’s suffering when she was stricken with small pox (and his clear worry that she might lose her good looks as a result) and the talk of his unfortunate daughter-in-law, the Duchess of Monmouth’s suffering after she managed to break a thigh bone while participating in a vigorous court dance and had to have the bone re-broken again after it failed to set properly.

I can already see that this will be the valuable resource that I hoped it would be as I piece together the details of Minette’s life and, most importantly, get a feel for how she herself would have spoken.

The other thing is that having read Charles’ letters to his sister that reveal so much of his love for her, I can’t even begin to imagine how he must have felt when the news of her death arrived at Whitehall. I knew, of course, that he was devastated but now I think he must have been utterly flattened by her loss and you know what, it makes my heart ache to think of it. (Read entire post.)