Tea at Trianon: Between Heaven and Earth

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

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Between Heaven and Earth

From The Connexion:

Known for being one of the ‘Plus Beaux Villages de France’ because of its impeccably preserved medieval buildings perched atop a steep hill in the Pyrenees, Saint-Bertrandde-Comminges is actually something of a new kid on the block.
Some 2,000 years ago the great Roman general Pompey founded a settlement here on his victorious return from war in Spain. Built both on the rocky outcrop of the current town and on the plain at its foot, the town was populated with prisoners of war Pompey had brought from Spain. Although this deportation was likely a cynical Roman colonising tool, the new inhabitants not only put down roots here, they thrived.
The settlement enjoyed a golden age during the 2nd Century, with a forum, baths, a 5000-seat theatre, and a Roman temple.
By the early 5th Century the future Avignon pope Clement V ensured the city’s ongoing success by translating (the ecclesiastical term for solemnly moving) Saint Bertrand’s relics in a bejewelled chest to the cathedral. From then on the steep paths leading to the cathedral thronged with pilgrims, and the minuscule city became an essential stop on the route to Santiago. (Read more.)