Tea at Trianon: Whitehall: The Archaeology of a Lost Palace

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, December 3, 2024

Whitehall: The Archaeology of a Lost Palace

From Historic Royal Palaces:

On January 4 1698 a catastrophic fire broke out in Whitehall Palace. The Banqueting House, arguably the most architecturally and artistically important part of the palace was saved and can still be seen today, but the rest of Whitehall Palace was razed to the ground. More than 300 years after its destruction, archaeological excavation and scientific analysis continue to uncover the lost stories and secrets of this once elaborate palace.

Whitehall Palace was once Henry VIII's London residence. Today, the area has become the location of the departmental centre of government in the United Kingdom. Beneath these governmental buildings though, much of the palace survives – in some cases only centimetres beneath your feet - making the area surrounding the Banqueting House one of the most archaeologically important, and delicate, in the country. (Read more.)