Tea at Trianon: The Coronation of Elizabeth of York

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, November 28, 2025

The Coronation of Elizabeth of York

From Nathan Amin:

1487 had been a tough year for the fledgling Tudor Dynasty, a year of revolt in which the king, Henry VII, had been forced to defend the crown, one he himself had usurped two years earlier, in battle. His forces had been victorious at the Battle of Stoke Field, defeating an army nominally led by a child it was later revealed was Lambert Simnel, supposedly impersonating Edward, Earl of Warwick, the senior Yorkist claimant. You can read all about that campaign in my bestselling book ‘Henry VII and the Tudor Pretenders: Simnel, Warbeck and Warwick’, available worldwide here
This, however, had proven an anxious episode for the Tudor regime, and on a different day, perhaps inclement weather or a timely defection could have swung the day the other way, as had happened throughout the Wars of the Roses.
But Henry had emerged victorious. The first significant challenge to his reign had been overcome, his enemies scattered if not killed, and the crown remaining atop his head. He did, however, hear the message loud and clear. It was time to have his popular wife, the mother of his heir and through whom many considered his claim to kingship rested, crowned.
When Henry had become king, he very quickly made sure he himself was crowned, taking his seat upon the throne in Westminster Abbey on 30 October 1485. This was before he had married Elizabeth, and before even, his first parliament assembled. Henry ensured there was no doubt whatsoever that he owed his crown to anyone other than God him (or her?) self. (Read more.)