Tea at Trianon: Marie-Antoinette Gives Alms to the Blind

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

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Marie-Antoinette Gives Alms to the Blind

The Queen and Madame Royale assisting a blind man. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were founders of a charitable society called the Maison Philanthropique that cared for the blind, the aged and widows. Share

6 comments:

Hans Georg Lundahl said...: Wasn't Abbé de l'Épée involved in his or her charities too?

The guy who invented the modern sign language for the deaf-dumb.; May 4, 2015 at 4:34:00 AM EDT
Unknown said...: This is a lovely piece of information. At the end of Marie Antoinette's life, she was cared for by an old woman.; August 22, 2020 at 4:00:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: I don't think so. In the Conciergerie, Marie-Antoinette was served by Rosalie, a young girl.; August 22, 2020 at 8:30:00 PM EDT
Hans Georg Lundahl said...: Can the old woman have been mother of Rosalie?

Whether yes or no, could she have been served by two women?; August 23, 2020 at 4:46:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: There was no old woman. There were the jailers' wives but they were not that old. I have written two books about this.; August 23, 2020 at 4:34:00 PM EDT
Hans Georg Lundahl said...: OK, if you so, then!; August 24, 2020 at 3:28:00 AM EDT