Tea at Trianon: The Red Barn Murder

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, May 25, 2014

The Red Barn Murder

A totally bizarre story, stranger than fiction. To quote:

The daughter of a molecatcher (Thomas Marten), Maria had had a checkered past, having had two illegitimate children, one the child of William Corder’s older brother Thomas. That child died in infancy, but another child, Thomas Henry, was alive at the time of Maria’s death. She was four and twenty when she and William began their affair.

William held a reputation as a fraudster and a bit of a cad. He sported the nickname of “Foxey,” which indicated his disposition for duplicity. William was known to have sold his father’s pigs without his father’s permission. Later on, he forged a £93 cheque, as well as assisting a local thief, Samuel “Beauty” Smith, to steal a neighbor’s pig.

In shame, William had been sent to London, but he was recalled to Polstead when his brother Thomas accidentally drowned when crossing what he thought was a frozen pond. Over the next eighteen months, William’s father and three brothers died. This turn of events left William the family farm, not a bad thing for a minor son.

Corder reportedly attempted to keep his relationship with Marten a secret, but it became public knowledge when she bore him a child in 1827. Some say the child died soon afterwards, but other rumors suggest the child had been murdered. Corder, according to Ann Marten, supposedly suggested the elopement, claiming he had heard rumors that the parish officers planed to prosecute Maria for the girl’s loose ways.

Originally, the couple was to elope on 16 May, a Wednesday. Corder postponed until Thursday, saying his brother had taken ill. This was questionable for many said his brothers had all passed. On Friday 18 May, Corder called upon the Marten household with the news the local constable had a warrant for Maria’s arrest. In reality, no such warrant existed. He suggested that Maria dress as a man to aid her escape. They would meet at the barn so she might change clothes before they left for Ipswich.

Corder left shortly after the incident, and to cover his trail, he sent letters to Marten’s family, claiming that she was too ill to respond to their letters, that they were now living on the Isle of Wight, that she had injured her hand, etc., but she would return soon for a visit. Unfortunately for Corder, after Maria’s stepmother, Ann Marten, claimed to have had a dream where Maria’s ghost showed the woman her gravesite, Maria’s father dug up his daughter’s remains in the Red Barn on 19 April 1828. (Read more.)