Tea at Trianon: A Day at Marie Antoinette's Versailles

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, September 25, 2024

A Day at Marie Antoinette's Versailles

Here is an article with information that I did not know. Apparently, the bed hangings and curtains at Versailles were seasonal, and changed every six months or so. The state rooms were open to the public so it was demanded that they be magnificent. From Home and Garden:

The bed hanging in the Queen’s Bedchamber within the palace of Versailles. Although its position has remained unchanged, the bedchamber was completely redecorated for Queen Maria Leszczynska—as may be seen in the magnificent paneling executed between 1730 and 1735 by Degoullons, Le Goupil, and Verberckt—and all the furniture was replaced for Marie Antoinette. On the morning of October 6, 1789, it was through one of the doors concealed behind the hangings flanking the bed, that Marie Antoinette fled, pursued by the mob, to seek refuge with the king. The alcove hanging, in white gros de Tours brocade embroidered with sprays of lilac, ribbons, and peacock feathers, was part of the summer furnishings, installed from spring to fall. The hangings in the apartments at Versailles were changed twice a year, in summer and winter. This is an exact facsimile, woven by Desfarges of Lyon, of the original hanging, also made by Desfarges in 1787. (Read more.)