The Revolution Triumphant

A lavish and luxurious celebration in honor of the overthrow of the "decadent" monarchy. Once again the heirs of the Revolution and new rulers of the people are quite free with the public funds. And yet a faithful husband and father like Louis XVI, who lived and dressed as simply as possible and refused to fire upon his own people, is labelled as "profligate" in the same article. What an outrage. Share

Charles X

A brief biographical sketch. I must say that Artois (Charles X) is a fascinating character to have in a novel, since he was much more complicated than people think. Share

In Defense of Orthography

The linguistic Jacobins are at it again. Share

The Last Queen of Henry VIII

 A review of a recent biography of Katherine Parr.

Katherine Parr was among the brightest of Henry VIII's wives, her life was a cavalcade, and she left a modest wealth of documentary sources in her wake. Someone ought to write a decent biography of this neglected queen. Linda Porter's book sometimes sails close to achieving this elusive goal. It is elegant and tolerably well-researched but it falls short when it comes to exploring a host of vital issues.

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Bags for Books and Beads

How did people carry around their rosaries and prayer books? Here is a fascinating examination of some old paintings. Share

When Institutions Fail

The evolution of home schooling. When schools become venues of social experimentation and brainwashing rather than places to receive a solid education, then parents have to do something. To quote:

With the ’60s, a kind of sloth and indifference and arrogance and mendacity settled over public education like a blanket. General indictments never give general satisfaction. This one won’t either, I confess. We all pretty much know, in any case, what happened. The quest for “social justice”—busing for racial balance being one instance—drew attention away from Bunsen burners and Wordsworth.

Late 20th-century demography hardly helped. Public institutions reflect public expectations. Expectations for the schools declined markedly. As divorce split up families and the job market siphoned off the achievement overseers generally addressed as Mom, families tended to see classrooms as holding pens for underfoot kids. Schools ventured into new terrain, such as sex education and the representation of the American story as a narrative of racist imperialism. God was advised rudely to get Himself off the school ground, fast. Teacher unions rated pay and benefits as more important to them than standards and teaching methods.

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Rouge

No lady appeared at the French court without being painted, as prescribed by etiquette. According to a series of posts on Splatter:

To liven up the face, rouge was mostly used.  But there was rouge…  and then there was rouge.  The rouge of the woman of quality was not the rouge of the woman of the court.  The rouge of the middle class woman was not the rouge of the court woman or of the woman of quality, even less that of the prostitute.  It was only a soupcon of rouge.

At Versailles, the princesses wore it very bright and very highly-coloured, and when the women of quality were present at court, they had to have brighter rouge than usual on that day.  Court makeup can be assimilated to theatre makeup.  The ladies of Versailles were on stage.

A letter from Voltaire attests to all the trouble that Marie Leczinska had, to conform with this fashion of illumination, upon her arrival in France.  Women who would have preferred to have abstained from painting their faces, were unable to go without it, for fear of appearing cadaverous in the middle of all of those reddened faces.

As was to be expected, the use of rouge did not take long to spread from the French court into all of the European ones.  Even Russia rushed to adopt it. Catherine recounts in her Memoires, that the first present made to her by Empress Elizabeth, upon her arrival at court, was the petit pot (little pot).  That was how the china capsule containing the rouge was called.  “To be allowed to use the petit pot” was every young girl’s dream.

In Madrid, the Countess d’Aulnoy, assisting a court lady to dress, saw her dip a brush into a cup full of rouge, and paint, not only her face, including the interior of her nostrils, but also her ears, her hands, her fingers and her shoulders.  This custom, which seemed disgusting to her, had become obligatory. The most refined women cleaned their faces with a mixture of sugar and beaten egg-whites.  They had difficulty getting rid of the dreadful mastic, which finished by leaving a sort of shiny varnish on the forehead.

Rouge was more than ever in fashion under the reign of Louis XVI.  From the Dauphine down to the lower middle-class, all women used it.  It is not surprising that, at this epoch, the Queen, who had her Fashion Minister, also had her Rouge Merchant.

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Freedom Chose Me

Some reflections on life and politics by R.J. Stove.

The reason I could never cut it as a youthful Marxist was so plain, it had never occurred to me before. It amounted to this. Most revolutionaries, and in particular most Marxists -- Trotsky is a rare exception -- are atrocious writers. And even at my dopiest I always valued the ability to write above every other skill, except the ability to read.

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Margaret Beaufort

The mother of Henry VII was a holy and learned woman.

Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, grandmother and regent of Henry VIII and patron of St. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was born on this day in 1443. She founded two colleges at the University of Cambridge, Christ's and St. John's and chairs of divinity at both the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. She also served briefly as regent for Henry VIII after his father died and before his 18th birthday, dying on June 29, 1509, just after the coronations of Henry and Catherine of Aragon.

Margaret was married four times and lived apart from her fourth husband after taking a vow of chastity. She is usually pictured at prayer or holding a prayer book, as in the portrait above. Nevertheless, when Bishop Fisher preached her funeral sermon, he emphasized her role as a Martha rather than as a Mary, because of her good works and efforts. He served as one of the executors of her will.

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