Tea at Trianon: Swords of El Cid

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, March 1, 2025

Swords of El Cid

From Murrey and Blue:

Like the legendary King Arthur, El Cid also had a special sword – in fact more than one. These swords were named ‘Colada’ and ‘Tizona’ and one (possibly actually ‘Colada’ but labelled ‘Tizona’) still survives and is displayed in the Museum of Burgos. In 1999 it was tested and confirmed to be made in the eleventh century in Moorish Cordoba and contained Damascus steel (which is made by a special process that is no longer known today). It is 36.8 inches long and weighs 2.5 lb and the hilt is a later edition as is also the inscription which reads:

‘Yo soy la Tizona [que] fue hecha en la era de mil e quarenta’ (I am the Tizona, who was made in the year 1040). And on the reverse side:

‘Ave Maria gratia plena; dominus mecum [sic]’ (Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord be with me). (Read more.)