Tea at Trianon: The Death of Queen Katherine

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, January 12, 2024

The Death of Queen Katherine

It is interesting that Katherine of Aragon died at Epiphany since she suffered for maintaining her Queenship. From The Anne Boleyn Files:

The Catherine that María saw on that day must have been a far cry from the Catherine she had once known. Tremlett describes how Catherine “could barely sit up, yet alone stand”, that she had been unable to keep food down and that she was unable to sleep due to severe pains in her stomach. Chapuys arrived the next day and although the former queen was weak she was still lucid enough to know that she needed witnesses in the room when she first spoke to him so that she could not be accused of plotting against the King, later conversations, however, were in private. Chapuys visited Catherine every afternoon for two hours over four days and he reported that she was worried about her daughter, Mary, and her concern that the Pope and Emperor were not acting on her behalf. Catherine was also worried that she might be to blame for the “heresies” and “scandals” that England was now suffering from because of the battle over the divorce. She was haunted by the deaths that had resulted from Henry’s Great Matter and the fact that it had led to England breaking with Rome – were they down to her stubbornness, her refusal to go quietly? These were the questions preying on her mind during her last days.

Catherine’s health seemed to rally in the first few days of January, she ate some meals without being sick, she was sleeping well and was chatting and laughing with visitors, so Chapuys was dispatched back to London. However, on the night of the 6th January, Catherine became fidgety and in the early hours of the 7th she asked to take communion. It was unlawful for communion to be taken before daylight but Jorge de Athequa, Catherine’s confessor and the Bishop of Llandaff, could see that his mistress did not have long to live and so administered communion and listened to her confession. Tremlett points out that although he had promised Chapuys to get a deathbed vow from Catherine that she had not consummated her marriage to Prince Arthur, Llandaff forgot. Catherine settled her affairs, giving instructions on what she wanted done with her worldy goods and her burial – she wanted to be buried in a chapel of Observant Friars (Franciscans). (Read more.)