Tea at Trianon: Who was Ealhswith?

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

Monday, December 7, 2020

Who was Ealhswith?

From Royal Central:

In 871, King Ethelred died. Despite having two young sons, it was decided his brother, Alfred, would become King. Ealhswith was not given the title of Queen due to the misdeeds of an earlier queen who had accidentally poisoned her husband. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were in great danger from continuous invasions by the Danish Vikings. By 878, Wessex was the only kingdom not under their rule. The Danes attacked Alfred at Chippenham where he had been staying for Christmas; however, he escaped to the marshes of Somerset where he regrouped and raised an army. He defeated the Danes at the Battle of Edington, and after the Danish leader, Guthrum converted to Christianity, peace was established.

Alfred realised the kingdoms would be stronger if they came together as one nation, and out of this the nation of England would be born. There is little record of Ealhswith’s life in official sources; however, on Alfred’s death in 899, he left her three estates in his will. It is thought that after Alfred’s death she founded the convent of St Mary’s Abbey Winchester. She died on the 5th December 902 and was buried in her son Edward’s new Benedictine Abbey, the New Minster, Winchester. She is commemorated in two tenth-century manuscripts as “the true and dear Lady of the English”. She is venerated as a Saint in the Christian East and West. (Read more.)