Tea at Trianon: The Fall of Constantinople

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

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

The Fall of Constantinople

From Ancient Origins:

Constantinople stood against sieges and attacks for many centuries, until finally new technology—the big cannons of the Ottoman Empire —brought down the Byzantine Empire’s capital. The fall of Constantinople in May 1453 was the end of an age for much of Europe and the Near East.
After the big guns did their work, Ottoman troops plundered the ancient city and put its residents to the sword. Nearly 4,000 died, and another 50,000 were taken as slaves. Many of the residents committed suicide, fearing what it would mean to face the Ottoman soldiers or live as slaves.

Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, and it also became one of the primary cities of Christianity. The city was named after Emperor Constantine, who ruled in the 4th century, during the early days of the rise of Christianity. The city today is named Istanbul and most of its residents are Muslim.

The consequences of the fall of Constantinople were dreadful for the city’s residents, who faced rape, slaughter, and slavery. By the 15th century the Byzantine Empire had shrunk as the Ottomans began taking their territory. The attack by the Ottomans was far from the first. Constantinople had withstood attacks...(Read more.)