Tea at Trianon: Transcript of Marie-Antoinette's Trial in English

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, October 23, 2015

Transcript of Marie-Antoinette's Trial in English

Trial of Marie-Antoinette

People often ask me if there is an English transcript of the legal proceedings against the Queen. Well, Anna found one, HERE. Share

3 comments:

LC Douglass said...: Very interesting! I mentioned your link in my post on Marie Antoinette's Millennial Rococo.
http://historiesofthingstocome.blogspot.com/2014/11/marie-antoinettes-millennial-rococo.html; October 23, 2015 at 11:01:00 AM EDT
Unknown said...: Interesting to note that the queen was NOT taken to her execution in a cart but in a private carriage according to this text. I wonder what source there is for this.; August 18, 2018 at 8:54:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Every other source confirms the fact that the Queen went to her death in a cart. The claim that MA rode in a carriage is probably based on hearsay, not on an eyewitness account.; August 19, 2018 at 12:28:00 PM EDT