Tea at Trianon: Royal Women and the Black Death

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, September 24, 2021

Royal Women and the Black Death

From History of Royal Women:

Joan II, Queen of Navarre (1312-6 October 1349) Daughter of King Louis X of France and Margaret of Burgundy. She was a niece of Blanche, Countess of Savoy and Joan the Lame, Queen of France, who also both died from the plague. Joan was Queen of Navarre in her own right. In 1314, her mother was involved in the Tour de Nesle affair, imprisoned, and died the next year, possibly murdered. Because of Margaret’s adultery, there was some doubt if Louis was really her father. Louis remarried, but died in 1316, leaving his second wife, Clemence of Hungary pregnant. Five months later, she gave birth to a son, John, who was proclaimed King of France and Navarre from birth, but he only lived five days. Soon afterwards, the Salic Law was put in place, which barred female inheritance to the French throne. This law was put in place mainly because of Joan’s alleged illegitimacy. In turn, her two uncles succeeded as Kings of France and Navarre, but they also did not leave any sons. In 1318, Joan was married to her cousin, Philip of Evreux. Her last uncle died in 1328, and Joan became Queen of Navarre in her own right since that Kingdom did not use the Salic Law. Joan and her husband ruled Navarre together until Philip’s death in 1343. Together they had nine children. Joan died from the plague in France in October 1349. (Read more.)