Tea at Trianon: The Dukedom of Edinburgh

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, November 5, 2020

The Dukedom of Edinburgh

From Royal Central:

Named after the capital city of Scotland, the Dukedom of Edinburgh was first created on 15 July 1726 during the reign of King George I, who bestowed it upon his grandson, Prince Frederick (1707-1751), who became Prince of Wales three years later. The son of King George II and Queen Caroline, Prince Frederick was also Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay. In 1736, he married Princess Augusta of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, with whom he had nine children. The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Baron of Snowdon, Viscount of Launceston, Earl of Eltham, and Marquess of the Isle of Ely. Prince Frederick predeceased his father in 1751 and his titles passed to his eldest son. The future King George III was thus briefly known as the Duke of Edinburgh until he was created Prince of Wales. (Read more.)