Tea at Trianon: Interview with Justine Brown, Author of ‘The Private Life of James II’

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

Sunday, June 9, 2024

Interview with Justine Brown, Author of ‘The Private Life of James II’

From The Seventeenth Century Lady:

Indeed Charles I was a wonderful husband and father. His marriage started out a bit turbulent, but it flowered into something truly loving. He was remarkable among princes for his marriage, which was of course arranged but became a real love-match. Ironically, that was turned against him during the English Civil War. The Parliamentarians seized his private letters and published some of them. His enemies argued that Henrietta Maria was calling the shots.
Oliver Cromwell of all people remarked that the sight of Charles playing with three of his children–James, Elizabeth and Henry were imprisoned, as was he– was the most affecting thing imaginable. James absolutely adored his father and he never recovered from his execution. In fact, I believe his life was dedicated to restoring the world that vanished in 1649– though he brought a fresh new formula as well. Also, James learned to be a tender father from his own dad. Samuel Pepys, who worked with James at the Admiralty, remarked on it. (Read more.)