Tea at Trianon: Count Hans Axel von Fersen: A Short Bio

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

Friday, September 18, 2015

Count Hans Axel von Fersen: A Short Bio

Although I do not believe that Fersen had an affair with Marie-Antoinette, which I have written and spoken about at length, he was devoted to the Queen and to her husband Louis XVI, and was one of the faithful friends who worked hard to rescue the Royal Family. Madame Gilflurt has a post about the Count's remarkable life. To quote:

Fersen remained fiercely loyal to Marie Antoinette and her family, remaining at court as the clouds of revolution gathered. With the worsening situation he began assisting with plans to get the family to safety, playing an important role in the ill-fated flight to Varennes. It was Fersen who commissioned the carriage that would carry the Marie Antoinette, Louis and their children and he even travelled with them on part of their unsuccessful journey to the border. One can only imagine the horror with which he must have greeted news of their capture and from that moment, there would be no more hope of escape for the doomed family.

With the situation in France growing ever more dire, Fersen was dispatched to Austria to entreat Emperor Leopold to join a coalition in support of the French monarchy. When Leopold proved himself disinterested in the idea, Fersen requested that he be released from the pointless mission and returned to France. At great danger to himself, he presented himself in Paris under an assumed identity and stole into the Tuileries, where he was able to spend an evening with the king and queen discussing counterrevolutionary plans. He made further secret visits but his audacity was to prove unrewarded, the royal family utterly trapped. (Read more.)

Hans Georg Lundahl said...: Thank you for linking.

The information of how he died seems like the liberal revenge on this not so much reactionary as primary Ancien Régime man, and as a way to avoid him swaying things (the 1809 revolution was illegal and could have landed people to quartering, as was the case with Anckarström, if it hadn't stayed successful and in control) in favour of the legitimate line.

I think 4 Sept Gregorian 1755, precisely like 6 Sept Gregorian 1968, would without the Gregorian reform have been styled same Julian date.

24th of August, St Bartholomew.

So, in a way, we were "born the same day".; September 18, 2015 at 8:47:00 AM EDT