Tea at Trianon: Princesse de Lamballe in Films

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

Monday, February 3, 2025

Princesse de Lamballe in Films

From Frock Flicks:

French Queen Marie-Antoinette had two key ladies-in-waitings who were favorites, and skimming the Marie-Antoinette (1975) miniseries had me wondering how much they’ve been on screen (result: not enough!). The first was Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe (1749-92).

The Princesse de Lamballe grew up in Turin, now northern Italy but then part of Savoy. She married Louis Alexandre de Bourbon-Penthièvre, a grandson of Louis XIV‘s legitimised son (and thus great-grandson of Louis). She then moved to Versailles, where after only a year, her husband died. She was left a rich widow and became a fixture at the court.
When Marie-Antoinette married the dauphin, the Princesse de Lamballe was of the correct rank — and was very kind and welcoming — and the two became very good friends. Eventually Marie-Antoinette named Lamballe the Superintendent of the Queen’s Household, an official government post, making her the highest ranked lady-in-waiting. Lamballe was an introvert and eventually was displaced by the Duchesse de Polignac as the first in the queen’s favor; the two ladies never got along. (Read more.)