Tea at Trianon: The Hundred Years War

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

Thursday, September 9, 2021

The Hundred Years War – The Edwardian Phase

From Historic UK:

By the early 1330’s the dynamic at play was not to Edward’s liking. Still in possession of Gascony, an important commercial partner for England, Edward held the title of Duke of Gascony and found himself subject to the French Crown as a vassal of King Philip VI. This did not sit well with the English king and by 1337, the situation escalated when Philip VI decided to confiscate Gascony and launched a raid on the southern coast of England in a simple act of provocation which left Edward with the perfect justification for war. Edward in response declared that the French Crown was in fact his and even went to the trouble of adding the fleur-de-lys to his coat of arms, an indication of his intentions towards the French.

This was the moment that marked the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War. With Edward III’s renewed interest in the French Crown, both sides sought alliances, with England turning to the Low Countries and France looking for support from Scotland and Spain. Whilst the stage was set, international conflict did not break out until 24th June 1340 at the Battle of Sluys, sometimes referred to as the Battle of l’Écluse. This encounter would be the first of many between the English and French, marking decades of further skirmishes. The battle itself took place at Sluys, in the Scheldt estuary of the Low Countries and would prove a first major naval victory for the English who were able to capture and sink the French fleet. (Read more.)