Tea at Trianon: Catherine of Braganza: the Lost Stuart Queen

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

Saturday, December 14, 2024

Catherine of Braganza: the Lost Stuart Queen

Catherine of Braganza as St. Catherine of Alexandra

I just listened to a marvelous biography of Catherine of Braganza, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, wife of Charles II. It is Sophie Shorland's The Lost Queen: The Surprising Life of Catherine of Braganza―the Forgotten Queen Who Bridged Two Worlds.The exploration of the portraits of Queen Catherine I found quite interesting and so had to go in search of them. From ArtUK:

While Huysmans painted traditional portraits of the queen, he also made two outstanding two portraits of her, both in the Royal Collection. The first was painted shortly after Catherine's marriage to Charles II, and in stark contrast to her unfashionable dress on her arrival to England, this portrait transformed her into a stylish and sensual woman. The portrait depicts the queen as a shepherdess with orange blossom in her long, flowing hair, a shepherd's crook behind her. It was designed to show off Catherine's innocence and fertility with the optimism that she would bear many children for the king in the early years of her marriage. This version is a copy in the collection of Queen's College, Oxford.
Huysmans' other remarkable portrait depicts her as the Catholic saint Catherine of Alexandria, the patron saint of learning. Saint Catherine was not only the queen's namesake, but her birthday fell on the saint's holy day (25th November), so Catherine undoubtedly felt some affinity with her. It is a virtuous depiction, but also one which demonstrates that Catherine wanted to emulate the independence and the strength of the saint.

What is more, Catherine was not a reclusive queen. Although she primarily lived with her household in Somerset House on the Strand in London, she still participated in royal functions alongside her husband. (Read more.)

From The Wrong Side of the Blanket:

While Charles’ reputation for debauchery and a licentious court only grew throughout his reign, Catherine, renowned for her piety, good nature and morality, became a respected and admired figure. In the face of Charles’ countless affairs and ever-growing number of illegitimate children, Catherine remained loyal to her husband and to her role as the English queen consort.
But, sadly for Catherine, she simply could never match the sexual, fertile and political prowess of some of her rivals. The mistresses were the bane of her life, and her inability to produce heirs caused great sorrow and strain in her marriage and beyond. If Charles and Catherine had been able to have children together, the dramatic events of the late-seventeenth century, and the lineage of the British royal family would have been very different indeed. (Read more.)