Tea at Trianon: Rare Royal Crowns

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, July 17, 2026

Rare Royal Crowns

From Archaeology News:

The exhibition, titled “Hidden Within,” is now open at the Vilnius Church Heritage Museum. Visitors see burial regalia placed with King Alexander Jagiellon, Queen Elizabeth of Austria, and Queen Barbara Radziwill during the 16th century. The collection includes three funeral crowns, a scepter, an orb, jewelry, and personal items once buried with the rulers. Many experts believed these objects had disappeared forever.
The story began in 1931, when spring floods exposed royal crypts beneath Vilnius Cathedral. Archaeologists uncovered the remains of the three rulers along with their burial insignia. As World War II approached, church officials hid the collection to protect it from looting and damage. Part of the cathedral treasury returned to light in 1985, though the royal burial objects stayed missing for decades. (Read more.)