Tea at Trianon: The Dukedom of Cambridge

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

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

The Dukedom of Cambridge

Charles II

From Royal Central:

It was created in 1660, replacing the earlier title of the Earl of Cambridge. It was first granted by King Charles II (following the Restoration of the monarchy) to his infant eldest nephew, Charles Stuart, who was the first son of the Duke of York (later King James II). Charles was never formally created the Duke of Cambridge as he died at the age of six months. The first officially recognised creation of the dukedom wouldn’t come until 1664, in the Peerage of England when King Charles II granted the title to his next eldest surviving nephew, James Stuart the infant second son of the Duke of York. James died at the age of three in 1667, leaving the title to be once again extinct.
King Charles II then passed it on to the next eldest surviving nephew, Edgar Stuart, the third son of the Duke of York who died in 1671 at the age of three. The Duke of York’s fourth son, Charles (eldest son to his second wife) was styled the Duke of Cambridge in 1677 but he died when he was about a month old. In this case, he had not lived long enough to be formally created a Duke.

In 1706, the title was recreated by Queen Anne who granted it to George Augustus (later King George II), the son of Elector of Hanover (later King George I), her distant cousin (as they were both descended from King James I). George Augustus ascended to the throne as king in 1727, merging his dukedom with the Crown. (Read more.)