Tea at Trianon: Eleanor of Aquitaine in Command

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, March 30, 2022

Eleanor of Aquitaine in Command

From History Hit:

But to England, Eleanor was simply ‘the Queen’ – and she resumed that role seamlessly. Her first task was to prepare the country to welcome the stranger who was their new king. Eleanor focused on undoing some of Henry’s most unpopular actions, all in Richard’s name, and ruthlessly playing on her emotional capital. When she released a bunch of prisoners, a statement was made that personally understood the troubles of those imprisoned – a touch worthy of a modern PR adviser. A glorious coronation was planned, music composed at Eleanor’s command to proclaim Richard as the King who would welcome an era of peace and prosperity. Her popularity is well evidenced by the fact that the planned exclusion of women from the coronation was relaxed in her favour ‘at the request of the nobles of England’.

Yet this initial flurry was a gentle start to the industrious and challenging period of Eleanor’s golden years. When Richard was due to depart on the Third Crusade, Eleanor was left in charge of the country – again not as Regent, but as ‘the Queen’. Yet she was too important to leave in one place – Eleanor was also needed to reconcile Richard to her youngest son John. It was at her insistence that John (the only other member of the family with a real link to England) was not barred from the country. (Read more.)