Tea at Trianon: How the Minoans Built the Foundation for Modern Europe

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

Friday, September 2, 2022

How the Minoans Built the Foundation for Modern Europe

From History of Yesterday:

Evans thought the city, which showed evidence of a complex structure of interconnected rooms linked by a series of hallways and stairs, looked a bit like the labyrinth set up by King Minos. Drawing inspiration from the famous Greek mythological figure, Evans dubbed the site “Knossos” after Minos’ palace. Evans also went on to propose that the name “Minoan” be adopted as a title for the entirety of the newly discovered civilization. Thus, the term is widely used as the nomenclature for the people and settlements across Crete and neighboring islands from 3500 BCE to 1100 BCE.

Evans developed a dating system for the Minoans based on ceramic artifacts he found as well as the discovery of imported Egyptian goods to divide the civilization into three periods — Early Minoan, Middle Minoan, and Late Minoan. Greek archaeologist Nikolas Platon later devised a dating system based on architectural evidence and palace complexes, labeling them as pre-, pro-, neo-, and post-palatial sub-periods. In both systems, marked points divide each Minoan era based on urban development, art, and trade systems. (Read more.)