Tea at Trianon: Marriage of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany

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, January 15, 2015

Marriage of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany

From Tiny-Librarian:

On January 8th, 1499, Louis XII married his second wife, Anne of Brittany. He had obtained an annulment from his previous wife, Joan of France, in December of the previous year. Anne had been married to his predecessor, Charles VIII, but they had no surviving children which is why Louis, as his cousin, succeeded him on the throne. Anne would become pregnant by Louis at least seven times, but only two daughters would survive. The eldest, Claude, would marry the next king of France, Francis I, which began the rule of the House of Valois-Angoulême. The youngest, Renée, was married to Ercole II d’Este, and one of their direct descendants is the current King of Spain. (Read more.)

Marie-Antoinette was a direct descendants of the union of Louis and Anne as well. Share