Tea at Trianon: Brothers at Arms

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

Friday, September 1, 2017

Brothers at Arms

From The Post and Courier:

If Benjamin Franklin once called France the father of “this newborn babe,” our beloved country, then Larrie D. Ferreiro couldn't agree more heartily. He gives Spain full credit for helping to pull the British away from prosecuting her war on the Colonies, and the Prussian Baron von Steuben for whipping Washington's troops into an effective fighting force. And he offers polite nods to the contributions of Poles Casimir Pulaski, Tadeusz Kosciusko and others. But it is France that receives his steadiest and sometimes rapturous praise.

Having said that, and keeping in mind what appears to be Ferreiro's personal fondness for the French nation, he maintains throughout this book a laser focus on the political realities that determined the actions of Spain and France. Both had been badly stung by their losses in the Seven Years War (1758-1763) and were itching for revenge against a triumphant England. Spain was obsessed by reacquiring Minorca and Gibraltar, while France feared an upset in the balance of power that the Treaty of Paris had created. (Read more.)