Tea at Trianon: Two Murdered Kings in January

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, January 17, 2026

Two Murdered Kings in January

Louis and Antoinette

Great article but I wish to clarify a couple things. Marie-Antoinette was not a descendant of Charles I but of his sister, Elizabeth Stuart. Also, Charles I made many promises to the Pope to help Catholics before his marriage to Henrietta Maria and then later during the War, when he implored the Vatican for aid. Because Charles ruled through Parliament there was no way he could ever return the Church lands confiscated by Henry VIII because Parliament would not have allowed it. Even Mary I did not try. For those interested in Charles I's internal struggle, my novels on Henrietta Maria explore the matter. From Charles Coulombe at One Peter 5:

Nevertheless, Requiem Masses for both Louis and his Queen on their anniversaries became a regular part of the French calendar and remain so until to-day. There are two claimants to the French Throne: the Legitimist Louis, Duke of Anjou, and the Orleanist Jean, Count of Paris. Without delving into which has the better claim to the throne of St. Louis, between them, their followers across France sponsor a great many Requiems for their common collateral ancestor, on and about January 21. Of course, despite the disparity between the sponsors of said Masses, there is a good bit of overlap in the attendees. This year the Orleanist Action Francaise will sponsor a torchlight procession tomorrow in Louis’ memory from the Places des Pyramides near the site of his burial to the Place de la Concorde, where he was guillotined. This Sunday will see a Legitimist-sponsored Mass at the Chapelle Expiatoire, starting at 10 AM. The Royal Parish Church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois in Paris shall see a Mass under Orleanist auspices. So it shall be throughout most of the country, and in a few places elsewhere (New York used to see one annually at the church of St. Anne; but that ceased when the Archdiocese closed the church and sold the property in accordance with what has become local custom).

Three documents are usually read at these Masses – be they Tridentine or Novus Ordo. The first is the King’s Will. It is a remarkable document, which is redolent of the murdered sovereign’s deep Catholicism:

I pardon with all my heart those who made themselves my enemies, without my have given them any cause, and I pray God to pardon them, as well as those who, through false or misunderstood zeal, did me much harm.

This is a typical expression in the touching document. (Read more.)