Tea at Trianon: Queen of Mary's Land

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

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Queen of Mary's Land

Unknown artist after Anthony van Dyck's 1637 portrait
Medium: Oil on canvas, late-18th century

A portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, for whom the state of Maryland was named, hangs in the Governor's Reception Room of the Maryland State House in Annapolis, the state capital. Annapolis was named for Charles' and Henrietta Maria's granddaughter, Queen Anne. From The Maryland State House:

The history of the room now known as the Governor's Reception Room dates back to the original construction of the State House between 1772 and 1779. A floor plan published in 1789 in the Columbian Magazine indicates that the large corner room (the modern-day Governor's Reception Room) was then the Council Chamber, home to the Governor and Council, the state's executive body. Adjacent to this room was a jury room for the Court of Appeals and a repository for stores and arms.
The Constitutional amendments of 1838 sparked a reorganization of the executive branch by replacing the Governor and Council with a popularly-elected governor and the establishment of the office of secretary of state. The large corner room served as the public office of the governor, as well as the offices of the secretary of state and staff of the governor and the secretary of state. This room was referred to as the Executive Chamber until the 1860s, when it became known as the Governor's Reception Room. Because of the reorganization of the executive space, the governor may have set up a private office in the former jury room.
When the State House was enlarged and completely refurnished in 1905, the offices of the adjutant general and secretary of state were relocated to the side now used by the lieutenant governor. The Governor's Reception Room was used solely as the ceremonial public room of the executive department. To improve the appearance and to demonstrate the ceremonial function of this important space, Governor Edwin Warfield ordered the room be restored to its colonial appearance and that portraits of former governors and secretaries of state be displayed in the room. (Read more.)