Tea at Trianon: Pope Francis and the Queen

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

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Pope Francis and the Queen

This must be one of the most charming diplomatic meetings ever. From the Daily Mail:

What does the woman who has everything give the man who, famously, wants nothing at all? Answer: A dozen eggs, a haunch of venison, six bottles of Coronation bitter and a box of Sandringham soap. On what was her first overseas trip in three years yesterday, the Queen paid a visit to Pope Francis at the Vatican. She brought with her a wicker hamper full of home-produced delicacies – from Balmoral whisky to a rib of Windsor beef. ‘I hope that will be unusual for you,’ she told him. It certainly was. Set against the dry-as-dust protocol which has traditionally governed royal visits to the Vatican, this meeting was almost riotous. (Read more.)

julygirl said...: Two icons meet, both have embraced simplicity, (as much as can be expected of a Queen who must stand on royal protocol.); April 7, 2014 at 11:45:00 AM EDT