Tea at Trianon: Who Was Robin Hood?

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

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Who Was Robin Hood?

From History Extra:

William earned his fame as a young man fighting against the French invasion of England in 1216–17. This frequently forgotten event (the subject of my second book) was almost a second Norman Conquest; the writers from the time all reveal the extent of the national crisis it caused, with half of England at one point under French rule. During the 16 or so months of French occupation, William led his archers in attacks on the French, and was thus both an outlaw, due to his resistance, but also a national hero, for the same reason. Numerous chroniclers and government records all attest to his fame and laud the actions of this yeomanry resistance fighter. His service was even noted and rewarded by two kings. That the Robin Hood legend takes hold so soon afterwards would suggest that this is not a coincidence. (Read more.)