Tea at Trianon: A Memorandum by Queen Victoria

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 4, 2019

A Memorandum by Queen Victoria

Victoria of the United Kingdom, the Princess Royal

Queen Victoria rejoices in the betrothal of her oldest daughter Vicky to the Frederick, the Crown Prince of Prussia. From History of Royal Women:

29 September 1855
I must write down at once what has happened – what I feel and how grateful I am to God for one of the happiest days of my life! When we got off our ponies this afternoon Fritz¹ gave me a look which implied that his little proposal to Vicky², which he had begged us to let him make – had succeeded… He said in answer to my question whether anything had occurred, yes – that while riding with her – just at the very beginning, he began of Germany, his hope that he would come there and stay there. They were interrupted in fact 3 times, upon one occasion by the picking up of some white heather, which he said was good luck – which he wished – and she him. At last towards the end of the ride he repeated again his observation about Prussia; she answered she would be happy to stay there for a year. He added he hoped always always – on which she became very red. He continued he hoped he had said nothing which annoyed her – to which she replied ‘Oh! No.’ He added might he tell her parents? Which then she expressed a wish to do herself. He then shook hands with her – said this was one of the happiest days of his life. I tell this all in a hurry. We approved all this…(Read more.)