Tea at Trianon: The Warming Pan Scandal

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 23, 2020

The Warming Pan Scandal

James Prince of Wales and Queen Mary Beatrice

From Royal Central:

Nevertheless, James Francis Edward was born on 10 June 1688, in London at St James’s Palace. Although Mary did, in fact, give birth to James, notable Protestant nobles quickly spread the rumour that the baby was stillborn and another child was smuggled into her room in a warming pan. It’s not a particularly plausible theory, given the number of witnesses and the limited size of a warming pan. However, it took hold and people repeated and reinforced the rumours again and again. It got to the point that James had over seventy witnesses sign affidavits stating that they saw the birth, but the damage was done.

The arrival of a Roman Catholic heir quickly instigated the Glorious Revolution, and Mary took the baby and fled to France to avoid any violence and protect him. Prince William of Orange was invited to invade England and landed with troops in November 1688. James eventually fled to France, where he lived out the remainder of his life. (Read more.)