Tea at Trianon: Le Palais-Royal

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, August 26, 2017

Le Palais-Royal

From Geri Walton:

The Palais-Royal was originally known as the Palais-Cardinal. It was the personal residence of Armand Jean du Plessis, known as Cardinal Richelieu. Designs were made by his architect — Jacques Lemercier — in 1629 and construction began in 1633. It took six years of hammering and pounding to complete and was not finished until 1639. By that point, it had assumed the form of a square with a large garden in the center.

When the Cardinal died in 1642, the palace became the property of Louis XIII. It was at that time that it became known as the Palais-Royal. When Louis XIII died it became the residence to several people, primarily within the House of Orléans. In 1692, however, when Louis XIV’s younger brother, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, married a legitimized daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan, Louis XIV deeded the Palais-Royal to his brother.

Eventually, the Palais-Royal came into the possession of Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans. He was married to Louise Henriette de Bourbon. They were the parents of Louis Philippe II, who would later became known as Philippe Égalité. After Louis Philippe II married Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon in 1769, they moved to the Palais-Royal and made it their main residence. (Read more.)