Tea at Trianon: Isabella of Castile: A Brief Guide

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

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Isabella of Castile: A Brief Guide

From History Extra:

Twenty-three-year-old Isabella first discovered that she was queen of the kingdom of Castile while residing in the turreted heights of the Alcázar of Segovia. Allegedly taken to the town square under a beautiful brocade canopy, she took her seat on the throne and the people cheered triumphantly. This occasion marked the start of a 30-year reign, which would see Granada recaptured from its Arabic rulers, Columbus’s voyage to the New World and the launch of the Spanish Inquisition.

Born in a small village in central Spain in 1451, one could hardly tell that the young Isabella would be destined for greatness. Though she was originally second in line to the throne after her older half-brother Henry, she was soon relegated to third with the birth of another brother. When Henry ascended the Castilian throne in 1454, she and her mother were moved to a humble country castle with only the most basic provisions, probably because the new king saw them as a threat. The princess wiled away her hours with her mother, who firmly instilled the Catholic fear of God into her daughter. (Read more.)