Tea at Trianon: Dear Woke Left: Hands Off Jeanne d’Arc!

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, April 14, 2025

Dear Woke Left: Hands Off Jeanne d’Arc!

From The European Conservative:

She suffered from a destiny that Heaven had asked of her. Her young and tender heart made her shed tears when she saw one of her enemies wounded near her, or when she felt the full weight of the injustice of her judges. She did not consider for a second carrying an iron and preferred to go into battle carrying a banner bearing the names of Jesus and Mary.

The Church that condemned her to the stake was not the brutally patriarchal force feminists like to depict. While Bishop Cauchon wanted her dead, other priests assisted her, confessed her, brought her communion, and bowed to the grace and strength that emanated from the courageous girl of Lorraine.

Even today, some feminists are up in arms and defending their Jeanne d’Arc because they don’t get their own back in the travesty—dare we say the word—of the young woman as a queer activist. Jeanne d’Arc also has a message for women, as a fully-fledged woman: “pursue your ideal, don’t let yourself be intimidated by those who want to stand in your way.” It’s a fact: Jeanne is an inspiring woman, even for a progressive feminist.

For seven hundred years, Jeanne’s case has been a source of questioning and turmoil. In her time, she knew how to win the hearts of the soldiers who began to march in her wake, without really understanding what was happening to them. With her candour and strength, she disarmed the judges who wanted her dead.

We therefore ask our English friends to leave Jeanne in peace and to follow the example of those soldiers who, during the First World War, when she was still just a blessed, prayed to her to give them the strength to defeat the enemy. (Read more.)