Tea at Trianon: Who Built Buckingham Palace?

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, June 5, 2018

Who Built Buckingham Palace?

From the Royal Collection Trust:

Buckingham House remained the property of the Dukes of Buckingham until 1761, when George III acquired the whole site as a private family residence for his wife, Queen Charlotte, and their children. It was known as ‘The Queen’s House’. St James' Palace remained the official seat of the court.

Sir William Chambers was put in charge of remodelling and modernising the house between 1762 and 1776, at a cost of £73,000. With ceilings designed by Robert Adam and painted by Giovanni Battista Cipriani, The Queen’s rooms on the principal floor were among the most sophisticated of their time.

When George III’s son, George IV acceded to the throne in 1820, he wanted Buckingham House to be transformed into a palace. The King put John Nash, Official Architect to the Office of Woods and Forests, in charge of the work. During the last five years of George IV’s life, Nash enlarged Buckingham House into the imposing U-shaped building which was to become Buckingham Palace. He extended the central block of the building and the two wings to the east were entirely rebuilt. The wings enclosed a grand forecourt and Nash created a triumphal arch in its centre. The arch formed part of a ceremonial processional approach to the Palace and celebrated Britain’s recent naval and military victories. (Read more.)