Tea at Trianon: Madame de Lamballe Condemned

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, November 16, 2014

Madame de Lamballe Condemned

It is terrible how that guard is holding her in such a familiar manner. (Via Vive la Reine.) Share

3 comments:

The North Coast said...: What is really, really terrible is what happens to her next, thankfully not depicted here. Her murder was an unspeakably vile crime.; November 17, 2014 at 6:49:00 AM EST
lara77 said...: The vile crimes that happened during the so called "great" French Revolution. France should hang its head in shame for all the murders and violence committed in the republic's name.; November 17, 2014 at 8:49:00 AM EST
Jack B. said...: It's rather sad that most people think of her as Marie-Antoinette's simple-minded sycophant when she was a kind, charitable lady who chose loyalty above her own life and was rewarded with one of the most gruesome and horrific murders in recorded history - and none of those responsible were ever called to account for it. I'm sure several were still alive at the Bourbon Restoration. It's just that nobody cared anymore.; November 17, 2014 at 2:20:00 PM EST