Tea at Trianon: The Monmouth Rebellion Explained

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, June 21, 2025

The Monmouth Rebellion Explained

From Andrea Zuvich at Art UK:

The year 2025 marks the 340th anniversary of the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, and is the subject of a moving exhibition at the Museum of Somerset, 'After Sedgemoor: Remembering the Monmouth Rebellion'. You can find out more about this exhibition on Bloomberg Connects. The rebellion, named after its enduringly romantic, yet flawed, leader, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, is a tragic episode in the history of Stuart Britain.
The road to the Battle of Sedgemoor was the culmination of decades of anti-Catholic rhetoric and fear of a Catholic succession. Few figures in history have had the appeal of James Scott, Duke of Monmouth. His life, with its intoxicating mixture of privilege, intrigue, rebellion, betrayal – and grisly bloodshed – makes for an unforgettable episode in British history. (Read more.)