Tea at Trianon: The Glory of St. Joan of Arc

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, May 30, 2020

The Glory of St. Joan of Arc

From The Catholic World Report:

Despite this travesty we should be like Joan and never lose faith in the Divine Mandate held by the Church. “About Jesus Christ and the Church,” she said, “I simply know they’re just one thing.” Appeals were made for a formal re-examination of the case made against her. Pope Callistus III was quick to favor these petitions and appointed a commission to study the matter. Their verdict was accepted by the pope in 1456 who declared the sham trial against Joan to be null and void. This long proceeding collected the evidence of witnesses and the opinions of theologians, which laid the foundation for her cause of canonization. Devotion to Joan continued to grow, especially among soldiers, and over the years plays reenacting her life and victories on the battlefield became a staple of certain French festivals. Finally, on this day in 1920, Pope Benedict XV raised her to the heights of the altar as a saint.

This anniversary is a good occasion to renew our interest in Joan of Arc and the important lessons we can learn from her short but impactful life. When Joan was born in 1412, the Hundred Years’ War between England and France had been raging for 75 years. The conflict began in 1337, when King Edward III of England, whose mother was a French princess, declared himself the rightful ruler of France. However, there was already a French king on the throne. Battles over rival claims to the throne of France would continue on and off until 1453. In Joan’s early childhood England took a decisive advantage in the conflict.

In the midst of its war with England, France was immersed in its own civil war as well. Remembered by history with the moniker “Charles the Mad,” King Charles VI was weak and suffered from bouts of insanity throughout his tumultuous reign. He was unable to maintain peace between two rival branches of the royal family, the Houses of Orléans (known as the Armagnac faction) and Burgundy; thus, war between them broke out. Eager to capitalize on the divisions within France, King Henry V of England launched a massive invasion of the country. England’s new period of dominance in the long war came with their victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Joan was three years old at this point and rival England controlled all of Normandy. Five years later, traitorous to their nation’s cause, the House of Burgundy entered into an alliance with England. An exhausted and demoralized King Charles then signed the Treaty of Troyes. His son, the Dauphin Charles VII, was disinherited from the French crown and according to the treaty upon his death, King Henry V of England and his heirs would become the kings of France.

Charles VII, known as “the Dauphin,” and the House of Orléans rejected this treaty. They would continue to take up the fight and not sell out their country to the English. The odds, however, were against them. England and their ally the House of Burgundy controlled all of northern France including the most populous city of Paris. Even when Charles VII claimed the throne of France upon his father’s death in 1422, he was unable to be properly crowned as the city of Rheims, where the coronations of the new kings took place by tradition, was under English control. His makeshift court was assembled south of the Loire River in the city of Bourges. As this was one of the few areas left in French control, Charles VII was disparagingly referred to as the “King of Bourges.” (Read more.)

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