Tea at Trianon: On the Trail of Queen Nefertiti

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, November 29, 2019

On the Trail of Queen Nefertiti

From Express.co.uk:

Dr Hawass is on the trail of Queen Nefertiti, the step-mother of famous pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings – the same location Howard Carter found KV62 in 1922. Nefertiti, who was married to the Boy King’s father – Akhenaten – died in 1331BC, but her tomb has never been discovered. However, Dr Hawass told Express.co.uk exclusively that things are starting to heat up, as he probes an area near Amenhotep III’s tomb, WV22 that he believes was used to bury ancient royals.

He said “I’m working in the Valley of the Kings, where I’m hoping to discover the tomb of Nefertiti and many more in the East Valley in the coming weeks.

“Also [I should find] all the Queens of the 18th Dynasty, sons and daughters of the Kings. They are all buried in this valley and I am still searching.” (Read more.)