Tea at Trianon: Nicknames of French Royals

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

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Nicknames of French Royals

From Geri Walton:

When Louis XVI came to power he received a number of nicknames. One positive one was “the Restorer of French Liberty” received in 1789 after feudalism and the taxes and privileges associated with feudalism were abolished. However, most of the rest reflected the unfortunate opinion Frenchmen held of him. After the Constituent Assembly allowed him the power of veto, he used it. This caused practically every Frenchman to be unhappy, resulting in him being called “Monsieur Veto.” Later, when he was imprisoned at the Temple, he went by several names including “Citizen Capet,” “Citoyen Louis Capet,” or just plain “Louis Capet.” There were also at least two rather sad nicknames: “the Martyr King” and “the Last.” (Read more.)