Tea at Trianon: Victoria's Children

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

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Victoria's Children

A brief description of each from Amphorae. To quote:

Victoria married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in February of 1840, and the first of their children, Victoria, was born in November of the same year. Below is a list of the couple's 9 children and some information that you may find interesting about each.

Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa "Vicky"- born 21st November 1840, died 5th August 1901. Married German Emperor Frederick III, becoming Empress of Germany and Queen of Prussia. After her marriage she remained close to both her younger brother, Edward, and her mother to whom she sent more than 4,000 letters. Her education had been closely supervised and included reading, writing, French, German, literature, science, Latin, history, politics, and philosophy. Despite knowing German she continued to speak English within her household once in Germany, and was sometimes known as "The Englishwoman". She had 8 children; William, Charlotte, Henry, Sigismund (died aged 21 months), Victoria, Waldemar (died aged 11), Sophie, and Margaret. Victoria died of throat cancer in 1901, only 7 months after her mother. (Read more.)