Tea at Trianon: A New Charter

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

Thursday, July 25, 2024

A New Charter

From Charles Coulombe at The European Conservative:

Knights came in many different varieties. Originally, knighthood could be bestowed by any other knight, a bishop, or a sovereign; but in time, the latter claimed to be the sole owner of that power. Nevertheless, the great independent orders of knighthood—the Templars, Hospitallers (later Malta), Teutonic Knights, etc.—retained their independence after the fall of Jerusalem, although the first of those suffered a terrible suppression. Then followed the knights of the royal orders, such as Britain’s Garter, France’s St. Esprit, and Burgundy/Austria/Spain’s Order of the Golden Fleece. There were also hereditary knighthoods granted, along with the British equivalent, the Baronets.

The nobility and knights were considered one class or estate in mediaeval society, with the churchmen being another, and commoners (depending on the country, often including the gentry and the patricians) being the third. In some places, the commons were divided, and there were four rather than three estates. But many were the pictures in the Middle Ages that depicted priest, knight, and peasant, each with a phrase indicating their respective position in the collective order: “I defend all” by the knight; “I bless all,” by the priest, and “I feed all,” by the peasant.

As the Middle Ages wore on, representatives of these estates took on ever more responsibility; if their Emperor or King needed extra money, they would be convoked and asked to fund whatever difficulty had arisen. In England, the abbots and bishops (‘Lords Spiritual’) and titled nobility (‘Lords Temporal’) were brought together in one House of Lords. The House of Commons arose from the joint gatherings of the representatives of the boroughs with landowners returned by their neighbours from the various counties—the ‘Knights of the Shire.’ These developments were paralleled across Europe, with nobility and knights sitting in what became Upper Houses throughout the Continent. Alongside the monarchs and the Church, the nobility became the great patrons of art, music, and dance, even as they pioneered hunting and dotted the countryside from Portugal and Ireland to Russia with their great houses and castles. But these arrangements would totter and fall. (Read more.)