Tea at Trianon: A True Arthurian Legend

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, October 19, 2026

A True Arthurian Legend

From The Habsburg Way:

You notice that so far I haven’t even spoken of the plot of GALAHAD AND THE HOLY GRAIL. It’s because it is barely necessary as the title tells it all - you get to know Galahad and his background, then Camelot calls, and the the quest for the Grail begins. You follow him and several of the knights of the Round Table as they face challenges and move closer to the longed-for goal.
So far, so Arthurian.
But what Guite does unashamedly is to imbue his book with deep, earnest, traditional Christian Faith. Before I found out that he is an Anglican pastor I was convinced he was a Traditional Catholic - you’ll get there, Malcolm ;) He explores the whole depths of Christian connotations of the Grail legend, Christian Chivalry, prayer and the Sacrifice of the Mass. It actually (gasp) encourages you to pray in temptations and set your hope in Christ! Figure that! (Read more.)