Tea at Trianon: The Shirt of Charles I

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, January 30, 2023

The Shirt of Charles I

The knitted pale green silk vest worn by Charles I at his execution.

It was on display a few years ago. From Smithsonian:

On January 30, 1649, England’s Charles I arose early and dressed for the chilly weather. He asked for a thick shirt, one that would stop him from shivering—and appearing frightened—as he faced the public in his final moments.

The king, convicted of treason for purportedly placing his personal interests above the good of the country, was taken to a scaffold erected in front of the Banqueting House in London. His last words—“I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown; where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the world”—were swallowed by the frigid air. The executioner’s axe swung. The huge crowd, though it had assembled precisely for this occasion, reeled. (Read more.)

From Tatler:

The execution of King Charles I is one of the most significant moments in our history, when our former ruler was found guilty of treason and beheaded outside of Banqueting House in London, leading to a decade without any monarch at all under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell.
Now, the history books are set to come alive, with some of the garments that he wore on the day that he died set to go on display at the Museum of London as part of its Executions exhibition later this year.

One of the two vests that he wore to prevent him shivering with cold (that could have been mistaken for fear) as well as his gloves, sash and fragments of his cloak and handkerchief, will make up the display, which will be the first time that they have been seen in 371 years. (Read more.)

More HERE.