Tea at Trianon: Archbishop William Laud, 1573-1645

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

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Archbishop William Laud, 1573-1645

From BCW Project:

Laud's career flourished on the accession of King Charles I in 1625. He officiated at Charles' coronation in place of Bishop Williams, the dean of Westminster, who had fallen from favour, and preached sermons at the opening of the parliaments of 1625 and 1626. When Archbishop Andrewes died in September 1626, Laud succeeded him as dean of the Chapel Royal. Laud was appointed to the privy council in April 1627, made bishop of Bath and Wells, then bishop of London in 1628. In 1630, he was elected chancellor of Oxford University, and became archbishop of Canterbury in 1633.
King Charles admired Laud's learning and valued his advice. As well as his church preferments, Laud became increasingly powerful in affairs of state. He was appointed to several important offices close to the King, but he was not a successful politician because of his inflexibility and over-sensitivity to criticism. Queen Henrietta Maria disliked him, and his tendencies to fussiness and pomposity made him an easy target for mockery by more sophisticated courtiers. However, he used his influence with the King to secure preferments for his friends, including Sir Francis Windebank, who was appointed secretary of state in 1632, and William Juxon, bishop of London, was was appointed lord treasurer in 1636. (Read more.)