Tea at Trianon: The Anarchy: A True Cousins’ War

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

Monday, January 15, 2024

The Anarchy: A True Cousins’ War

From Historia:

Henry gave Stephen land in England and arranged his marriage to Matilda of Boulogne, the niece of his late wife, Matilda of Scotland. Through her grandmother, the sainted Margaret of Wessex, Queen of Scotland, Matilda of Boulogne could trace her lineage back to Alfred the Great, King of Wessex. Matilda was the only child and sole heiress of her father, Eustace III, Count of Boulogne. Stephen became one of the most powerful men at Henry’s court.

However, events in Germany in 1125 meant that Henry could again think of seeing his own blood succeed him. The emperor died, and Henry recalled his daughter, Empress Matilda, to England. He recognised her as his heir, had all the barons swear to uphold her succession – twice, just to be sure. At the first such oath-swearing, in 1126, Stephen jostled with Henry I’s illegitimate son, Robert, Earl of Gloucester, to be the second secular lord, after King David of Scotland, to take the oath – though whether they were vying for prominence or politely ceding precedence is open to question. (Read more.)