Tea at Trianon: Handsome Louis

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

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Handsome Louis

Louis XVI with earring

The informal portraits and sketches of Louis XVI seem to capture him better than the official paintings. It has been said by contemporaries that he was handsome with a good sense of humor. He was tall, muscular and well-built with long, thick, blondish hair.

Young Louis XVI

Idlina said...: Blondish hair ????? I always thought that his hair was black or dark brown ...; February 23, 2019 at 11:48:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Oh no, he had dark blonde hair. His mother was a blonde, a Saxon Princess.; February 23, 2019 at 11:53:00 AM EST
Anonymous said...: I'll forever thankful to you for writing this blog and the pictures too are so rare 💙; May 5, 2020 at 12:19:00 PM EDT