Tea at Trianon: Cathedral Basilica of Saint-Denis

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, October 19, 2018

Cathedral Basilica of Saint-Denis

From Tourisme93:

A masterpiece of gothic art and final resting place of the kings of France. The former abbey of Saint Denis is witness to centuries of the spiritual, political and artistic history of France. Discover the cathedral basilica, a jewel of gothic art and royal necropolis. Visit the archaeological crypt and burial site of Saint Denis, eight recumbent effigies commissioned by Saint Louis, the tomb of king Dagobert and 60 other sculpted tombs.

From the high Middle Ages, this monastery has always managed to link its destiny to that of royalty thus affirming itself little by little as the priviledged burial ground of the royal dynasties committed to the faith of Saint Denis. Forty two kings, thirty two queens, sixty three princes and princesses, ten nobles of the kingdom are laid to rest here. The merovingians and Dagobert, through to the carolingians such as Pépin the Short, right up to the Bourbons, with the praying statues of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, The royal necropolis of Saint Denis was the priviledged witness to the history of France. (Read more.)