Tea at Trianon: The French Alliance of 1778

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, May 14, 2016

The French Alliance of 1778

From the York Daily Record:

The Treaty of Alliance with France, during the Revolutionary War, was both signed in France and ratified by the Continental Congress while York was the seat of government for the new nation. Without France’s significant military aid, provided by this treaty, it is doubtful that the Revolutionary War would have been won against Great Britain.

This 13-cent United States Postage Stamp commemorates French King Louis XVI handing the signed copy of the treaty to Benjamin Franklin. If you are reading this on the Ydr.com site, click on this LINK for a Full View of the illustrations in this post on the original YorkBlog site; since the ydr.com site will occasionally cut off important details in the cropping of illustrations.

The Treaty of Alliance was signed in France on February 6, 1778, following many months of negotiations by American diplomats Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee. One of the keys to getting France to finally agree to a treaty was the colonists’ first major military victory in the defeat of British General Burgoyne’s army of 6,000 men at Saratoga, New York, on October 17, 1777. (Read more.)

MadMonarchist said...: So much of this is misconstrued today. The Franco-American Alliance is either treated dismissively or the emphasis is placed on "France" rather than "The *Kingdom* of France". True enough, American independence would not have been won without King Louis XIV, even before recognition French loans and French Charleville muskets were vital. So, the Kingdom of France was America's first ally and, it is even more often forgotten, the First French Republic was America's first foreign enemy. The undeclared war between the U.S. and revolutionary France is seldom mentioned at all. The whole relationship just messes up everyone's narrative, on the left and the right.; May 14, 2016 at 8:58:00 PM EDT