Tea at Trianon: The History of Childhood

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

Thursday, June 11, 2020

The History of Childhood

From Ancient Origins:

By the early tenth century AD, a more formal education provided by towns began to take hold in England. However, it was in learning to read and write in English rather than Latin, and only open to boys. Once again, similar to the Greco-Roman times, women were given informal education at home.

It would not be until the 1200s that formal education would return for both boys and girls. Additionally, it would consist of learning the Latin alphabet for literacy in their own language. By the twelfth century, laws appeared in both society and the catholic church stating that certain labors and responsibilities were not fit for children to perform until the age of 12 or 14. Within the medieval times, it appeared that further efforts were made in creating a separation between childhood and adulthood. According to Orme, he states

"It came to regard children under the age of puberty as too immature to commit sins or to understand adult concepts and duties. On these grounds, they were forbidden to marry, excused from confessing to a priest, and excluded from sharing in the sacrament of the eucharist. Secular justice developed a similar concept of an age of legal responsibility beginning at about puberty, although there are occasional references to children receiving adult punishments." (Orme, 2005)

Though education and child-rearing did continue through the way of the home and the church, a question remains why an appreciation for childhood reappeared by the end of the 1200s. What could have been the reasons for this? (Read more.)