Tea at Trianon: 'Mariage de Louis XVI et Marie-Antoinette'

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, May 22, 2026

'Mariage de Louis XVI et Marie-Antoinette'

An April 1770 Austrian medal minted by Roettiers, on the marriage of Marie-Antoinette the "sister of Emperor Joseph II" by proxy with the future Louis XVI in the Augustinerkirche of Vienna. The actual, "second" wedding ceremony took place on May 16, 1770 at Versailles.

Here the young couple (who had not yet met) are shown at the altar of Vesta with goddesses representing their countries.

Sarah Patten said...: I remember the flirty pic you included in your book of Marie Antoinette as Vesta with different flowers representing specific things regarding Austria and France….is Vesta associated with France or Austria? Or was it just a common symbol back then?; May 25, 2026 at 9:45:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Vesta was associated with the hearth and domesticity and so was favored during the Enlightenment which looked to classical times for models of civic virtue.; May 25, 2026 at 10:31:00 AM EDT
Sarah Patten said...: That makes sense-thanks!; May 25, 2026 at 11:41:00 AM EDT