Tea at Trianon: The Stuart Joint Monarchs in Art

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 19, 2025

The Stuart Joint Monarchs in Art

Mary (1631–1660), Princess Royal and Princess of Orange

Mary Stuart, daughter of Charles I, the Princess Royal

From Andrea Zuvich at ArtUK:

When King Charles II – the 'Merry Monarch' – died in 1685, he left behind not only his grieving widow, Catherine of Braganza, but also many children. None of these, however, were legitimate, all having been born to other women. Therefore none of them could become his heir.
As a result of this situation, Charles's younger brother, James, Duke of York, inherited the throne by default. At this point, James had two legitimate daughters from his first marriage to Anne Hyde: Mary (born 1662) and Anne (born 1665). As Duchess of York, Anne Hyde commissioned popular artist Peter Lely to create a series of portraits of the most beautiful women at court, which came to be known as the 'Windsor Beauties'.

In this portrait, we see James and Anne together (a later version, now in the Royal Collection, features their daughters, Mary and Anne). Anne, Duchess of York, died from breast cancer in 1671, aged only 34. Two years later, James married Mary of Modena, a much younger Roman Catholic, Italian princess. For some years, the couple suffered the tragic losses of their children. As a result, Mary of York, the eldest surviving child from his first marriage, was the presumed heiress, and here she is around age 12. The Anglo-Dutch Wars began in the 1650s, so Stuart Britain was often at odds with the Dutch Republic, despite a marital alliance between Mary, Princess Royal, the daughter of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, and Willem II of Orange. This union was unhappy and marred further by Willem's death from smallpox a little over a week before their only child, William, was born in 1650. The boy grew up to have health challenges of his own, including asthma. He was widely considered unattractive both in his physical form and with regard to his personality (he came across as cold and irritable).(Read more.)