Tea at Trianon: Damaged King Louis Statue

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, July 4, 2020

Damaged King Louis Statue

Statue of Louis XVI in Louisville

Louis XVI helped America win independence. From WHAS11:

During the first night of protests in downtown Louisville, a protester broke the hand off of Louisville’s King Louis XVI statue, and now many are asking questions about it. Here are a few facts about King Louis XVI (16th):

The Carrara marbled sculpture was sculpted in 1829 for the king’s daughter Marie Therese, the queen dowager of France.

The Second French Revolution endangered the statue. It was placed at a military base for protection, then made its way to Montpellier University and finally ending up in the municipal archives’ storage basement.

Officials discovered the statue with a damaged arm in 1899 and was in disrepair.

It remained in storage until officials decided to give it to Louisville in 1966.

The statue took a 7-month journey from Montpellier to Louisville.

It was presented as a gift to the City of Louisville on July 17, 1967 to then Republican Mayor Kenneth Schmeid.

The statue is located at 6th and Jefferson in front of Louisville Metro Hall.

The statue weighs 9-tons and it’s 12-feet high.

(Read more.)

From Royal Central:

His Royal Highness Prince Louis Alphonse of Bourbon, Duke of Anjou, was the first to comment on the case. He is the Legitimist pretender to the French throne. The Prince made the following statement: “As the heir of Louis XVI, and attached to the defence of his memory, I do hope that the damage will be repaired and that the statue will be restored. I already thank the Authorities for the measures they will take for doing so”.

His Royal Highness Prince Jean, the Count of Paris, also reacted to the vandalism of the statue. He is, according to the Orléanists, the legitimate claimant to the throne of France. Prince Jean wrote in a statement: “The hand of Louis XVI is the one that helped the US people to gain its freedom. I strongly regret this act of disrespect towards our common history. The loss of George Floyd’s life is far more serious than any material degradation. Few people know that Louis XVI abolished torture in 1780. I am convinced Louis would have been on George’s side”.