Tea at Trianon: Henry VIII's Summer Progress of 1535

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

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Henry VIII's Summer Progress of 1535

From author Janet Wertman:

The Summer Progress of 1535 was the longest and most politically charged that Henry had yet undertaken. He and Anne would spend fourteen weeks travelling through the West Country, greeting the English people and hopefully winning their support for their religious reforms. This was Anne’s first (and as it turned out, only) official progress as Queen – in 1533, she was in the final stages of pregnancy (Elizabeth was born on September 7^th), and in 1534 should have been so again (she miscarried in late June/early July, in what was thought to be her seventh or eighth month of pregnancy). The trip brought them to Wolf Hall – the ancestral home of the Seymour family. Given that Henry VIII married Jane Seymour only eight months after this visit, many people believe this was the start of their relationship. I certainly do. (Read more.)