Tea at Trianon: Lady Margarita Armstrong-Jones, Princess Margaret’s Granddaughter

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, April 21, 2023

Lady Margarita Armstrong-Jones, Princess Margaret’s Granddaughter

From Tatler:

The second child of David, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, and Serena, Countess of Snowdon (the Earl of Harrington’s daughter), Margarita occupies that bridge between royalty and (an admittedly gilt-edged version of) normality. For now, the paparazzi wouldn’t recognise her out of context, but she has been there at all the key moments, including Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and the memorial service for the Duke of Edinburgh. At the age of eight, she was an adorable, smiling bridesmaid to William and Kate, sitting next to Pippa Middleton in an open carriage and inside Westminster Abbey. Her father was the late Queen’s godson as well as nephew; and her older brother, Charles, now Viscount Linley, was a page of honour to Her Majesty. There have been Christmases at Sandringham – one year, Prince William was photographed swinging her, a small blonde four-year-old in a traditional coat, into the air – and summers at Balmoral for longer than she can remember. (Read more.)