Tea at Trianon: DNA Analysis of Christopher Columbus

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

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

DNA Analysis of Christopher Columbus

From Bored Panda:

Christopher Columbus may not have been who we thought, as researchers are closer to unraveling the mystery of his true identity. According to the widely accepted story about the famous explorer, he is a man of humble Italian origins. But a new genetic study has challenged this, saying he may be from a powerful and influential family elsewhere.
For centuries, history books have painted Columbus as a navigator of modest Italian origins.
Despite not being the first to make it to the Americas, he was the man credited with discovering the “New World” after convincing the Catholic Monarchs to finance a voyage that changed the course of history.
On August 3, 1492, he and his crew of nearly 100 people set sail from the port of Palos in southern Spain in three vessels: The Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria.
To find a route to China and India was Columbus’ mission.
But after 35 days at sea and growing frustration among his crew, he nearly turned back. But the cry of land being spotted was heard at around 2 a.m. on October 12. And thus, Columbus had arrived in the Americas. (Read more.)