Tea at Trianon: Rumors Put to Rest

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 30, 2023

Rumors Put to Rest

From Breitbart:

Former first lady Melania Trump was with her ailing mother on Christmas, solving the mystery of her lack of appearance in a Christmas photo featuring members of the Trump family. The establishment media and anti-Trumpers were thirsty for a family scandal when they noticed that Melania was not included in the Trump family Christmas photos. Some of them claimed this was further proof that Melania is unhappy with Trump and leaving his side....The photo shows most of Trump’s family, although Eric Trump’s family is absent, and Melania’s father, Viktor Knavs, is included in the Mar-a-Lago photo shared by Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is engaged to Donald Trump Jr. But the rumors were finally put to rest. Never Trump speculation was wrong. Melania Trump spent Christmas with her ailing mother. (Read more.)