Tea at Trianon: How Marie Antoinette's Legacy Was Sullied

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

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

How Marie Antoinette's Legacy Was Sullied

From History:

Few women in history have inspired as many myths as Marie-Antoinette, the last queen of France, typically portrayed as the embodiment of excess and debauchery. Many of those myths are based on the vicious and often pornographic Revolutionary propaganda that poured from French printing presses in the last days of the 18th century. The effect of this propaganda has meant that for centuries she was falsely blamed for the downfall of the monarchy.

Antoinette’s supposed crimes against both France and nature itself often took the form of songs, and her beheading on October 16, 1793 inspired a slew of execution ballads, known in French as complaintes. Execution ballads were a popular genre of news song throughout early modern Europe, cheaply printed songs set to a familiar tune. They all recounted the crimes of the condemned, with some in the first-person voice of the criminal, singing of their remorse at their evil actions, and their fear of execution.

Often execution ballads showed compassion for the criminal who was presented as repentant, but for the despised queen these ballads reveled in delight at her beheading for high treason. Ballads were sold on busy streets, marketplaces and bridges by ballad sellers, and then re-performed in taverns, cafés, theaters and at home by all classes of society. Thus, all could participate in the communal tarnishing of her reputation. (Read more.)

Susan, TOF said...: Interesting - just as the reputation and holy legacy of Pope Pius XII was ruined. I recently participated in a pilgrimage to Israel. Our guide was a Melkite Israeli. Another pilgrim asked why we did not have the Yad Vashem memorial as part of our pilgrimage. Our guide, a fellow Catholic, said it was because the museum includes a photo of Pope Pius XII on its "wall of criminals", in spite of his noble protection and life-saving efforts for thousands of Jews and others who lived in fear of execution and torture by the Nazis. It is absolutely dreadful, but people prefer to believe the worst they hear, even if it is a lie. God bless all here - Susan, OFS; November 2, 2018 at 7:25:00 AM EDT
julygirl said...: Unfortunately, "History" that is taught as truth is merely 'His Story' based on whatever agenda the writer at the time was promoting. Current historians, in order to dig up the truth of the past, need to look into all aspects of the life and times of which they are writing, and even then there is room for debate.; November 3, 2018 at 11:45:00 AM EDT