Tea at Trianon: History of Notre Dame de Paris

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

Thursday, April 18, 2019

History of Notre Dame de Paris

From National Geographic:

One witness of the construction of the Basilica of Saint-Denis was the 12th-century Bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully. He admired the work of the pioneering architects, who were building in the new Gothic style of soaring ceilings and abundant light. Sully decided to create a rival structure in the heart of Paris itself: a cathedral that would be the wonder of Christendom and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

The times smiled on Sully’s project. This stage of the high Middle Ages was marked by an economic boom in Europe, especially in France. With the generous financial backing provided by the crown, Sully contracted an architect (whose identity is unknown) to design the new church in 1160. Its construction required demolishing various houses in the cramped medieval neighborhood and two existing churches on the Île de la Cité that had, in their own day, been built over an ancient pagan temple. The first stone was laid in June 1163, in a lavish ceremony attended by Pope Alexander III. (Read more.)

Reflections from Tom Piatak and Andrew Klavan, HERE and HERE. Share