Tea at Trianon: The Last Knight: Emperor Maximilian I

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, June 2, 2023

The Last Knight: Emperor Maximilian I

From Medievalists:

The son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor (1452-1493) and member of the flourishing House of Hapsburg, Maximilian seems to have had an awkward childhood, apparently not even able to talk until he was eight years old. His father even once remarked “I know very well that when he was twelve years old, I was afraid that he would be either stupid or mute.’’ But in his teenage years he began to excel at learning, including languages; eventually he spoke six. His education soon focused on all the subjects required of a king, and Maximilian was a quick learner, especially in military affairs.
However, his father now had new worries about his son. He could see that Maximilian was behaving extravagantly and recklessly, whether at parties, jousting, or in the bedroom with numerous women. The emperor tried to contain his son’s worst tendencies, but by eighteen years of age Maximilian was leading his first major military campaign. (Read more.)