Tea at Trianon: Mary I and the Wyatt Rebellion

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, February 9, 2016

Mary I and the Wyatt Rebellion

From author Janet Wertman:

After assuming the throne in 1553, Mary I did what would have been expected from any queen: she searched for a husband so that she could produce an heir. Unfortunately for Mary, she chose Philip of Spain – which infuriated many in her country and led to an uprising. Led by Sir Thomas Wyatt (the son of the poet who wrote verse to Anne Boleyn) and several others, the rebels wanted to prevent the marriage to a foreign power…and place the Protestant Elizabeth on the throne. When news came that Wyatt’s troops were preparing to storm the city, Mary spoke to her people at Guildhall, exhorting them to bravely support her. It was a brilliant speech, one that led twenty thousand men to swarm to her side. Many believe that Elizabeth used it as the basis for her Armada speech…but that’s a story for another day. (Read more.)