Tea at Trianon: Chesworth House

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

Friday, January 8, 2021

Chesworth House

From Sussex Live:

Later, Chesworth was given to the Howard family, and their daughter Catherine spent her childhood at the Sussex estate. Catherine would grow up to become Queen Catherine, fifth wife to Henry VIII and scandal of the English court. Catherine, while growing up in Chesworth House, allegedly had flings both with a secretary and her music teacher before she married the king. However, she soon after marriage she was accused of getting involved with a courtier, which, alongside reports of her flings at Chesworth, resulted in her trial and execution in 1541.
Chesworth House is a serene and quiet place, but the peace of its surroundings are completely at odds with the house’s colourful past. Lord Thomas Howard, a relative of Catherine, was arrested at Chesworth House for plotting to kill Queen Elizabeth I. The Ridolfi Plot was set up Italian banker Roberto Ridolfi and aimed to replace Elizabeth with Mary, Queen of Scots, and make England a Catholic nation. Thomas Howard, a suitor of Mary, was arrested in Sussex at Chesworth and subsequently beheaded for high treason. (Read more.)

More HERE.

Sansa said...: Lovely house and beautiful garden. I like looking at beautiful historical houses/mansions. I like watching documentaries about castles.; January 8, 2021 at 5:22:00 AM EST