Tea at Trianon: Where Was Danelaw?

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

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Where Was Danelaw?

From Rural Historia:

Danelaw was no small and meek kingdom, it was instead comprised of a large swathe of land across historic England. While the borders of Danelaw did shift and change with unstable allegiances and unreliable relationships, the area was primarily in the eastern part of England. Overall, Danelaw was made up of an area equal to roughly the fifteen modern day shires of Suffolk, Essex, Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, Huntingdon, Bedford, Hertford, Buckingham, Middlesex, Leicester, Northampton, and York. Important cities and strongholds, including York and Leicester, were a part of Danelaw, as was, at times, even London. Remnants of settlements in Danelaw form important archeological discoveries today. There are still some places known today that once held particular significance to the Norse population within the boundaries of Danelaw. Thynghowe at Hanger Hill located in Sherwood Forest is a good example of this. Thynghowe is believed to have been an important meeting place for Viking populations within the Danelaw area. (Read more.)