Tea at Trianon: Ruins of a Medieval Palace

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, April 12, 2021

Ruins of a Medieval Palace

From Smithsonian:

Then, an unexpected find thwarted these plans: Builders stumbled onto wall foundations and the remains of floors suspected to be part of Bishops Palace, a 13th-century building long thought to be lost.

“The … remains are clearly of medieval date and represent two phases of development on the site,” a spokesperson for the South West Heritage Trust tells the Gazette.

Historical records show that a palace was located in the area, and a 14th-century gateway to the complex remains standing today. But until now, researchers had been unsure where the rest of the palace’s remains were hidden.

“[W]hat we didn't know is where the buildings would have been in relation to that gateway,” Bob Croft, Somerset County archaeologist for the South West Heritage Trust, tells BBC News. “They’ve often been thought of as being much further to the east where we knew there was a big barn and a big open space, but this is the first time we've actually got stone foundations discovered.”
Per the Somerset Record Society, the original stone-and-thatch palace buildings were probably constructed soon after 1256, when a royal charter granted the bishop of Bath and Wells the right to hunt in the area.
“It seems unlikely that the bishop would have gone to the length of obtaining a license to hunt game without at the same time providing both himself and his retinue with a lodging that befitted that office and catered for such a pastime,” the society explains.

The palace was one of several residences used by local bishops through at least the 16th century. According to the Gazette, Bishops John de Drokensford (1309–29) and Ralph of Shrewsbury (1329–63) both oversaw building projects at the site. Archaeologists have also discovered fragments of pottery dated to the 12th century.

As Jordan King writes for Metro, high-ranking officials in the medieval church often had palaces consisting of several structures, with the whole estate sometimes enclosed by a moat. (Read more.)