Tea at Trianon: Grand Duchess Maria

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

Friday, June 28, 2013

Grand Duchess Maria

A moving portrait of the third daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra. From Madame Guillotine:

It would be impossible not to be charmed by the Grand Duchess Maria anyway – always chubby with huge blue eyes (known within the family as ‘Maria’s Saucers’, rosy cheeks and softly curling brown hair she was perhaps the prettiest if not the most classically beautiful (that would be Tatiana with her almost austere Russian high cheekboned beauty) of the sisters and was exceedingly sweet natured also – winsome, contentedly placid and well behaved right from the start. In fact so well behaved was she that when she was later apprehended stealing a handful of biscuits (she could also be rather greedy) from her mother’s tea tray, her father refused to have her punished for this transgression, saying laughingly that he was ‘always afraid of the wings growing. I am glad to see she is only a human child.’

Within the family, it was Maria’s rôle to be the peacemaker, pouring oil over troubled waters and soothing stormy situations whenever she could. While her elder sister, Tatiana was especially close to their mother, Maria was her father’s particular pet and would stay close to him whenever the family was together. Within her sibling group, it was Anastasia that she was closest to as together they formed the ‘Little Pair’, wearing identical clothes, sharing lessons and treats and sleeping in the same austerely furnished room. Although Anastasia was the younger of the two, she was also the noisier and more bossy which suited sweet natured Maria just fine. Her more strong minded elder sisters would never have been at someone else’s beck and call and certainly not that of a younger sister but Maria was content to let Anastasia boss her about and take the lead in their games. (Read entire post.)