Tea at Trianon: Queen Elizabeth II and "Downton Abbey"

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, September 6, 2015

Queen Elizabeth II and "Downton Abbey"

From The Telegraph:

When Downton Abbey returns to our screens for the last time later this month, one hawk-eyed fan in particular will be ready to pounce on any historical inaccuracies the producers allow to slip through the net.

The Queen, it has emerged, is a huge fan of the series, and loves nothing better than to point out the mistakes that have become a whole sub-plot in themselves for devotees of the show.

Brian Hoey, the author of At Home With The Queen, revealed that Downton came up in a recent conversation with a worker at Buckingham Palace.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “We were talking about Trooping the Colour and how the Queen always notices if anything is not quite right, such as one young officer she spotted wearing his medals in the wrong order not long ago." (Read more.)

julygirl said...: I was surprised and delighted when I learned she enjoyed watching the series. She also likes Broadway tunes circa 1950's!; September 8, 2015 at 1:10:00 PM EDT