Tea at Trianon: Remembrance and Resistance

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

Saturday, December 2, 2023

Remembrance and Resistance

From Charles Coulombe:

Father Christmas, the gift bringer in England, has in recent decades been fused with the very different American Santa Claus (himself a distorted version of Central Europe’s St. Nicholas). But his origins are utterly unlike those of the genial New Yorker. He was originally conceived of by the 17th century Cavaliers as a personification of the good old customs of Christmas which had been banned by the Puritans. He was seen as a sort of ally. An overtly political figure, he might well be seen as one again to-day by those of us who trace our ideas to those Cavaliers.

In any case, celebration of Advent and Christmas customs across the Continent needs to be done with the reconversion of the Continent in mind. The fact is that all that was best in the Old World revisits the place for the Christmas season. Processions, bonfires, public prayers, and songs in praise of the Christ child re-enchant the European countryside. Moreover, they do so in a way that the vast majority of people—often enough uncaring the rest of the year—are happy to join in.

Above all, this should be a time to remind ourselves that all of our efforts on behalf of our countries, our culture, and our Faith should themselves be gifts to the Newborn King; in this, way we can avoid the idolatry of the things themselves that is always such a huge temptation for human beings. In the figures of Bl. Karl, Charlemagne, St. Louis, St. Ferdinand, or any of the other great heroes and saints of our peoples, we must see individuals who themselves saw their position as being one of pointing believers to Christ. (Read more.)