Tea at Trianon: Marie-Antoinette's Wedding Gown

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 17, 2015

Marie-Antoinette's Wedding Gown

It no longer exists, having been made into vestments for the Church, but we can guess what it was like. According to Anna Gibson:

This particular contemporary engraving of Marie Antoinette and her new husband Louis Auguste in their wedding ensembles matches the descriptions of their wedding day dress quite well. No expense would have been spared for either outfit--the wedding of the heirs to the throne of France was no "simple" wedding! Marie Antoinette's dress was made from beautiful silver cloth, bedecked in diamonds and other jewels that sparkled as she passed the throngs of spectators gathered to witness the important ceremony; while Louis' ensemble, though it was described as not fitting the groom--who blushed and trembled--exceptionally well, would have been made from brilliant gold cloth. (Read more.)