Tea at Trianon: The Restoration of the Monarchy in England and France

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

Sunday, March 1, 2026

The Restoration of the Monarchy in England and France

picture, King Charles II, London, street, crowd, soldiers

Charles II and his brother James Duke of York (James II) in 1660 upon their return to England after years of exile

I have written a novel about the Bourbon Restoration and am working on one about the Stuart Restoration. From Charles Coulombe:

Despite enormous amounts of internal plotting and occasional violent opposition – often centred in either country’s “Celtic Fringe” – neither revolutionary regime was ended by internal action on the part of the exiled Monarch’s supporters. Rather, in the case of the British Isles, Restoration was imposed by General Monck and the army; in France, it was the victorious Allies of 1814 and 1815. Nevertheless, in both countries, once the deed was done, the returning Kings were greeted rapturously by their once-estranged and now chastened subjects.

Both Restorations saw an explosion in literature and the other arts. The London stage, freed from Puritan suppression, turned out and performed endless numbers of plays, while the surviving Cavalier poets happily turned out masterpieces. Romanticism, in full swing upon the return of the King to Paris, was dizzying in effect upon all of the arts. Both Restorations were heavily equipped with dandies and wits of all sorts, enjoying the revival of intellectual freedom the respective restored Monarchies brought in their wake.

Another happy benefit of the Restorations in both countries was the revival of Catholicism. In the British Isles, it was partial, but still very much in the air. St. Claude de La Colombiere was the confessor for some time to Charles II’s Catholic Queen, Catherine of Braganza, and the King would enter the Church on his deathbed. In France, the Church began a rapid programme of revival that would outlast the Restoration and encompass most of the 19^th century; but its roots were definitely laid down during this era.

Both Restorations had a particular drawback, which was a rise in public immorality of all sorts. In part this was because the revolutionary regimes had been so very oppressive. Liberation did not just mean the freedom to do the right thing – it also meant that fallen nature would have its way. Nor did it help that neither restored King – Charles II nor Louis XVIII – had a tremendous reputation for morality – and both would die without any legitimate children. But they both did have enormous charm. (Read more.)