Tea at Trianon: France’s Catholic Genocide

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, February 9, 2023

France’s Catholic Genocide

From Church Militant:

Vaincre ou Mourir, which debuted in France last week, depicts an oft-forgotten chapter of French history: the War in the Vendée. The film follows real-life heroes from the Catholic and Royal Army as they fight against the atheistic soldiers of the French Revolution. The film has sparked outrage from French leftists and media elites for its disparaging portrayal of the murderous anti-Catholic French Republic. Critic Paul Quinio wrote that the film "is one more indication that accredits the existence of a conservative offensive currently in France." Quinio reminded his readers that although they might "rejoice" in the defeat of conservative politicians like Éric Zemmour — who he says "embod[ies] this reactionary counter-revolution" — "this cultural and ideological attle is far from behind us."

Other critics have taken similar stances, decrying the film's pro-Catholic narrative and insisting the genocidal Republican soldiers aren't really the villains. Vaincre ou Mourir portrays the historically marginalized struggle of French peasants in the coastal Vendée region against the atheistic Republican forces of the French Revolution.

The War in the Vendée began in 1793. The people were already incensed at the execution of King Louis XVI and angered at the new Republic's Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which placed priests and bishops under the authority of the State and forbade allegiance or obedience to the Pope. But a mass conscription order was the final straw. The Vendeans first rebelled against the revolutionaries after their churches were closed and their priests were exiled, imprisoned or killed. In March 1793, rioters organized under the leadership of the Catholic nobility and formed the Catholic and Royal Army. (Read more.)