Tea at Trianon: Breastfeeding

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

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Breastfeeding

From Anna Gibson:

Marie Antoinette was a notable supporter of the movement towards motherhood breastfeeding. According to Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette attempted to breastfeed her first child, Marie Thérèse, for nearly 18 days before ceasing, perhaps on the directive of her physicians or her husband.

After the birth of her daughter, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI decided to pay for the weddings of one-hundred men and women to be blessed at the cathedral of Notre Dame. In addition to giving 500 francs to each of the newly married women, Marie Antoinette arranged to help pay for the care of the first child from each union--if the new mother decided to employ a wet nurse, 10 livres would be sent per month until the child was done breastfeeding; if the new mother breastfed her own child, 15 livres would be sent per month until breastfeeding was no longer necessary. Although she was unable to breastfeed her own children, Marie Antoinette could still encourage other women to practice what Rousseau considered necessary for the foundation of an attractive domestic life. (Read more.)