Tea at Trianon: Famous Horses from the Ancient 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, January 19, 2023

Famous Horses from the Ancient World

From The Collector:

Unlike Bucephalus, the name of Julius Caesar’s favorite horse has been lost to history. We know, however, that Caesar’s horse had a remarkable deformity. According to Suetonius, instead of hoofs, the general’s beloved horse had “almost human toes.” At its birth, augurs had predicted that whoever rode on the horse’s back would rule the world. Unsurprisingly, the polydactyl horse was fierce, not allowing anyone to mount it — no one except Julius Caesar. Riding his favorite horse, Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon to put out the fires of civil war and leave his mark on Roman history. Like most Roman aristocrats, Caesar was a skilled horseman. However, the great general was more than a rider. Julius Caesar understood the visual power of a horse. Whenever the odds of victory in battle looked precarious, like at Munda, Caesar would personally enter the fray, riding on his famous horse, leading by example, and directly addressing his troops, to raise their morale. (Read more.)