Tea at Trianon: 'So Many Lies'

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

Monday, January 30, 2023

'So Many Lies'

From Fox News:

Weeks after Prince Harry's highly-anticipated memoir "Spare" hit bookshelves globally, his wife's half-sister, Samantha Markle, is speaking out about what she claims are lies perpetuated by the royal couple.
"It's been a weird journey for me, seeing the media try to create a disconnect between-- you know, this rift between a normal family, that was never really a rift until fake news came along," Samantha Markle said on Fox Nation's "Tucker Carlson Today."
"[Meghan] is, contrary to rumors, she's not my-- I'm not her stepsister. I'm not some disconnected sibling raised somewhere else, and then brought together later in life. We pretty much grew up as a normal family. My brother and I were older siblings. When she was born, she was brought home from the hospital to our house."
Much of the drama surrounding the Markle family dates back to 2018. In April, Samantha and her brother, Thomas Markle Jr. revealed they were "baffled" when the royal couple snubbed them from the wedding guest list.
"At issue is not a matter of closeness as more than 1000 complete strangers are invited. Family is family," [Samantha Markle] tweeted after learning her sister was leaving her family out of the event. "I have an uncle I have only seen once but I would never say he is not family because we are not close. Humanitarians move forward with love and kindness especially to Family."
She added, "Smoke and mirrors cannot hide the elephant in the room. Out of respect, tradition, and humanitarianism, the #Markles should be invited if 2000 complete strangers are invited. Our uncle who got her the internship, brother, me, best friend of 30 years Nikki Priddy, nephews. Fact."

The Twitter account she'd used at the time has since been taken down. (Read more.)

An interview of Samantha Markle by Trevor Coult.