Tea at Trianon: Battle of Langport

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

Friday, July 18, 2025

Battle of Langport

From BBC:

It has been 380 years since the Parliamentarians defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Langport, paving the way for one of the biggest changes in England's history. The Somerset battle effectively ended Royalist control in the West Country, a key strategic region. This boosted Parliamentarian morale and crippled their opponents forces in one morning of fighting. Experts believe that the battle of July 1645, fought during the English Civil War, marked a turning point that ultimately led to the execution of King Charles I and the abolition of the monarchy. Historian Julian Humphrys, of the Battlefields Trust, said: "This battle really was the beginning of the end for the Royalists." (Read more.)