Tea at Trianon: The Queen's Speech

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

Saturday, October 26, 2019

The Queen's Speech

Two weeks ago, Queen Elizabeth II opened Parliament amid ancient pageantry. From The Express:

Prince Charles accompanied the Queen through the House of Lords holding her hand. They were preceded by The Marquess of Cholmondeley carrying the Imperial Crown. For the occasion, the Queen wore a silver dress with her signatory ermine's royal robe. And for the second time since 1952, she chose not to wear the Imperial Crown but have it placed on a table next to her.

The first time the Queen broke this key tradition concerning the Queen's Speech was in 2017, days after the snap elections called by former Prime Minister Theresa May. The Imperial State Crown was originally made for King George VI's coronation in 1937 - the Queen's father. The crown, based on the design of Queen Victoria's crown, is particularly heavy and it is no surprise the monarch, aged 93, chose not to wear it. (Read more.)