Tea at Trianon: Habsburg Royal Jewels on Display in Canada

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

Monday, September 14, 2026

Habsburg Royal Jewels on Display in Canada

From The Royal Watcher:

Last year, Archduke Karl von Habsburg revealed that the legendary Florentine Diamond and fifteen other historic Jewels of the House of Habsburg long thought sold, stolen or lost had been hidden for decades in a Bank Vault in Canada since the Second World War. Now, the legendary Jewels of the House of Habsburg have gone on display at the Musée National des Beaux-Arts in Quebec City.

Starting September 4, 2026, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) will be displaying prestigious jewels associated with the Habsburg family for the first time in Hidden Treasure: A Century of Mystery, revealing a story with a strong Québec connection.

After a century, the last Austrian Emperor´s family has announced plans to publicly display its personal jewelry, a collection that has been considered lost for decades. During their escape from persecution by the Nazi regime at the outbreak of the Second World War, members of the Habsburg family, one of the most influential and enduring dynasties of European history, managed to save important pieces of the family’s private jewelry and bring them to safety in Québec, Canada, in 1940. The items have been kept safe in the country ever since.

(Read more.)