Tea at Trianon: Mary of Modena: James II's Dazzling Queen

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, August 30, 2026

Mary of Modena: James II's Dazzling Queen

The Writing Desk: Book review: Mary of Modena: James II's Dazzling Queen, by Justine Brown

There are several cases throughout history of arranged royal marriages in which it was as if God had chosen to favor a particular country by sending a bride who possessed not only virtue but great physical beauty to be the wife of the ruler and the mother of the heir. A few of those alliances ended catastrophically when, for certain reasons, the bride in question was rejected by her adopted people, even when loved by her husband. I am thinking in particular of Henrietta Maria of France, despised for her attachment to her Catholic faith. There is also Marie-Antoinette, hated for her Austrian heritage, made worse by a campaign of vicious slander. The tragic Empress Alexandra, whom Tsar Nicholas married for love, was falsely accused of betraying Russia to her German relatives. Among such consorts, noble and fair to behold, shines Mary Beatrice of Modena, the second wife of James II. Justine Brown, author of The Private Life of James II, has surpassed herself in this comprehensive biography of the last Catholic Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland. I found it engrossing for the detailed descriptions of the pageantry of the final years of the Stuart dynasty before the so-called "Glorious Revolution" in which the true monarch was overthrown by his own daughters. The evidence is compiled to show that James II was driven from his throne not for any tyranny, as is claimed by Whiggish historians, but because his wife had give birth to a Catholic heir. It was hatred of the Faith that disrupted the royal line and led to the weakening of the royal authority, so that in time British sovereigns reigned but no longer ruled.

From the Amazon page:

Mary Beatrice learns governance, defies scandal, and becomes a steadfast beacon for Jacobite resilience amid a turbulent Restoration era.

The 1688 “Glorious Revolution” that toppled James II and VII also veiled his consort in propaganda. Mary of Modena: James II’s Dazzling Queen reveals the extraordinary woman beneath. Lovely and spirited, Mary Beatrice Isabella d’Este is also England’s sole Italian queen. Her father came from an ancient line, while her mother was one of Cardinal Mazarin’s seven famed nieces (the “Mazarinettes”).

Mary Beatrice learned the rudiments of governance at her widowed mother’s knee, and would one day act as regent of the Stuart court-in-exile—first for King James, then for their son, James Francis Edward. “The Queen over the Water” would shine as a beacon for the Jacobite cause.

Once, Mary Beatrice longed to be a nun. Instead, the young woman had to accept a different mission—marriage to James Duke of York, heir to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Although James’s conversion to Catholicism made their marriage possible, it set off a firestorm of controversy in the mysterious northern realm.

The story of the British Isles was romantic, but the reality was jarring. Thrown into the frenzy of Restoration politics, Mary Beatrice met each fresh episode courageously. Charles II adored his sister-in-law, but MPs strove to annul the “Italian match” before it could be consummated. She and James fell in love, but his philandering nearly broke her.

Building on Este tradition, Mary Beatrice won over the common folk, inspired poets and painters, introduced Italian opera, and drew talented ladies to court. She also attracted her flamboyant Mazarinette cousin Hortense Mancini to England, where she joined King Charles’s harem.

Ultimately, James and Mary Beatrice were coronated with great ceremony, but their troubles were only just beginning. For the first time in English history, it looked like the birth of a healthy prince might actually destroy the monarchy instead of strengthening it…(Read more.)

In Justine's account, I found Mary of Modena to be inspiring not only as a brave and steadfast Queen but as a Catholic wife and mother dealing with adversity. As a teenage bride she was shattered to discover that the handsome husband she had fallen in love with was a chronic adulterer with a growing number of illegitimate offspring. And while the children of James' mistresses grew and thrived, Mary's children miscarried, or were stillborn or died young. But Mary, who had originally wanted to be a Visitandine nun, followed the teaching of the founder of the Visitation order, St. Francis de Sales. St. Francis de Sales emphasized a loving acceptance of trials as well as complete trust and confidence in God. Queen Mary's spiritual director was the Jesuit St. Claude La Colombière who brought to England the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for he had been the confessor of the Visitation nun who claimed to have visions of the Savior, known to history as St. Margaret Mary. Mary of Modena would help spread the devotion to the Heart of God throughout Europe in her later years of exile. Meanwhile, James II, whose childhood had been disrupted by war, imprisonment and exile, came to learn to live a devout life from his much younger wife, so that he gave up his transgressive lifestyle. I was particularly struck by the happiness of James and Mary when they had lost everything, but had each other and their children. I recommend this biography of a Queen of England who experienced a white martyrdom, yet the more she was diminished, the greater she became.