Tea at Trianon: 73rd Wedding Anniversary

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

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

73rd Wedding Anniversary

From Hello!:

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary on 20 November, so we're taking a look at some of the most defining moments in their relationship. To mark the occasion this year, Buckingham Palace released a sweet portrait of the monarch and her husband, taken by royal photographer Chris Jackson, in the Oak Room at Windsor Castle. The Queen and Prince Philip were pictured smiling at a homemade anniversary card from their great-grandchildren, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, which featured a colourful 73 on the front of the card.

When the Queen met her dashing war hero Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, she was a young Princess Elizabeth, heiress to the British throne. The couple were the William and Kate or Harry and Meghan of their day, with every stage of their courtship eagerly followed by an adoring public. After tying the knot on 20 November 1947, the Princess described her husband in letters to her parents and her cousin as "an angel" and "the best and nicest man in the world". Meanwhile, Philip said ahead of the wedding: "I am sure that I do not deserve all the good things that have happened to me… to have fallen in love, completely and unreservedly." (Read more.)