Tea at Trianon: Mary Queen of Scots' Strands of Hair

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

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Mary Queen of Scots' Strands of Hair

Mary was never the flaming red-head that Elizabeth I was. Rather she had chestnut hair, with auburn highlights. As she grew older and grayer she wore a variety of wigs. From The Daily Record:

Collectors of royal memorabilia are getting the chance to buy 400-year-old strands of Mary Queen of Scots’ hair – for £399 per half-inch. The 16th-century pieces come from a larger lock acquired from one of the UK’s leading historical hair collectors. It is believed the hair shows Mary may not have been the radiant redhead portrayed in the movies and history books. Daniel Wade, from Bristol-based Paul Fraser Collectibles, which is selling the hair, said: “It’s a step beyond Mary’s signature or an item of her clothing." (Read more.)