Tea at Trianon: A Symbol of Stability in a Gelatinous World

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, March 3, 2022

A Symbol of Stability in a Gelatinous World

From Return to Order:

This grandeur is reflected in a 2011 photograph of Her Majesty in the Blue Room of Buckingham Palace. She is wearing her grandmother’s (Queen Mary) Fringe Tiara and a diamond fern broach given to her by the women of Auckland in 1953.

Her expression is serious and resolute, but there is also a note of sadness . . .without the slightest trace of self-pity. On the contrary, she has an iron-clad determination to be a monarch. When becoming Queen, she understood she would hold the office until her death. This is no small matter since it means living under the microscope of public opinion. The world scrutinizes her every gesture. On top of her royal duties are the weighty problems of motherhood with a family that has had its share of heartaches and tragedies. Yet through it all, the Queen always maintains a spotless comportment.

We can appreciate her dignity by comparing it with that of the current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. In this photo, we do not see the gravitas of the Queen but a cynical smirk of one who does not seem to take his office seriously. Whereas Queen Elizabeth is always impeccable, he has the disheveled look of a teenager without responsibilities. (Read more.)