Tea at Trianon: For the Glory of England

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, September 2, 2013

For the Glory of England

The changing nature of kingship in fourteenth century England. To quote:

In September of 1399, Henry of Bolingbroke stood before Parliament in Westminster and was proclaimed king, becoming Henry IV of England (r. 1399-1413). Henry had recently staged a rebellion and forced his cousin, King Richard II (r. 1377-99), to abdicate the throne. As Richard had no children, Henry needed only to wait for his cousin’s death to become king. But Richard had not been living up to the traditional image of a powerful king; he preferred peace to war and had formed unpopular ideas about the absolute authority of the monarchy. When Henry took the crown for himself, he derived his new authority not solely through might of arms but with the legal backing of Parliament. Over the course of the fourteenth century, a new image of kingship emerged; a strong king was one who led his subjects on and off the battlefield, and balanced royal authority with guidance from Parliament. (Read more.)