Tea at Trianon: The Tragic Death of Mary of Burgundy

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

Monday, July 17, 2017

The Tragic Death of Mary of Burgundy

From History of Royal Women:

Mary was born in Brussels as the only child of Charles the Bold and Isabella of Bourbon, and she was thus the heiress of the Burgundian territories, and she became suo jure Duchess of Burgundy in 1477 at the death of her father. Her father died in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477. When her father succeeded in the duchy of Burgundy, Mary became an attractive marriage prospect. She received several offers of marriage, starting at the age of five with the future Ferdinand II of Aragon.

She eventually married Archduke Maximillian of Austria on 16 August 1477. They had two children together. The first was Philip the Handsome (22 July 1477 – 25 September 1506) who became Philip I of Castile due to his marriage to Joanna of Castile. Her second child was a daughter named Margaret (10 January 1480 – 1 December 1530), who married first to Juan, Prince of Asturias and second to Philibert II, Duke of Savoy. Her husband went on to become Holy Roman Emperor in 1508. (Read more.)