Tea at Trianon

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

Saturday, April 20, 2024

The Tragic Life Of Marie-Thérèse of France

From Salon Privé Magazine:

As Marie-Thérèse Charlotte of France grew older, the French Revolution threatened. Because the country supported the American Revolution, funds were very low and France was borderline bankrupt. Attacks on the royal family became more vicious and the monarchy’s popularity plummeted. Within the Court of Versailles, xenophobia and jealousy were the primary causes of resentment towards Marie Antoinette, and due to her unpopularity with high-ranking officials within the court, she became the target of a vicious smear campaign. Pamphlets and leaflets were printed accusing her of a wide range of sexual deviancies and of sending France into financial ruin. Now, experts agree that Marie Antoinette was unfairly victimised and did little to deserve such treatment. At the time, however, this smear campaign worked and the public turned on her. (Read more.)

Madame Royale is one of the only novels about the life of Marie-Thérèse Charlotte.

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Most Americans Stand by Trump

From MxM:

The first criminal trial facing a former president is also the one Trump case in which Americans are least convinced committed a crime, according to a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. Only about one-third of U.S. adults say Trump did something illegal in the hush money case for which jury selection began Monday, while close to half think he did something illegal in the other three criminal cases pending against him.

Trump enters a rematch with President Joe Biden as the first presumptive nominee of a major party — and the first former president — to be under indictment. A verdict is expected in roughly six weeks, well before the Republican National Convention, at which he will accept the GOP nomination. Trump has made the prosecutions against him a centerpiece of his campaign and argued without evidence that Biden, a Democrat, engineered the cases.

However, a cloud of doubt hangs over all the proceedings. Only about 3 in 10 Americans feel that any of the prosecutors who have brought charges against Trump are treating the former president fairly. And only about 2 in 10 Americans are extremely or very confident that the judges and jurors in the cases against him can be fair and impartial. (Read more.)

Teens 'Begging to Have Body Parts Put Back On'

From The Western Journal:

Gender clinics are committing the worst atrocities against children, and history will judge us harshly if it doesn’t stop. At these houses of horror, radical transgender theory becomes gruesome practices, leaving bodies mutilated and children “begging to have body parts put back on within months of having surgeries.”

This stomach-churning revelation came from Jamie Reed, a whistleblower from the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, whose exposé last February blew the lid off of this scandal, Fox News reported.
Speaking to Dr. Phil McGraw Thursday on his “Dr. Phil Primetime” program, Reed expounded on her experience in the “morally and medically appalling” industry. It’s not that Reed is a right-wing ideologue — she is, in fact, married to a transgender individual and identifies as “queer” — but rather that she witnessed a “number of things” that compelled her to speak out. (Read more.)

The Gift of the Château de Rambouillet

Neither the dairy at Rambouillet nor the one at Trianon were for "playing milkmaid." Both Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette embraced the practical view of generating food, income, and employment by having dairies, as well as giving an example to other nobles of investing in agriculture. From France Today:

Back to Louis XVI and his desperation to bring Marie-Antoinette to the castle he loved so much. Along with an experimental farm, which he populated with merino sheep imported from Spain, and a nursery garden, in which he had exotic species planted following botanic exploration trips abroad, he wooed Marie-Antoinette with a rather astonishing gift.

He ordered the construction of an ornamental creamery, which was designed for the sole purpose of tasting and enjoying dairy products, a fashionable hobby at the end of the 18th century. The king commissioned the best artists of the time: painter Hubert Robert and sculptor Pierre Julien, who crafted the building to resemble a Greek temple. A small zoo was also built just outside the creamery. The project was completed by 1787 and the king planned a spectacular unveiling for the queen who, despite the monumental grotto, finely sculpted detailing, mahogany furniture and finest porcelain set…still preferred Versailles’ Trianon palace! (Read more.)

Biden Admin Issues New Title IX Ruling

From The Easton Gazette:

On Friday, April 19, 2024 the Biden Administration issued its Title IX guidance and policy that will force school districts to investigate any and all sexual harassment complaints, even those that occur off school grounds. The ruling extends protections to LGBTQ students. The policy will go into effect in August 2024.

Key parts of the ruling are:

Training for all employees about the school's processes to address sex discrimination and how to report to the Title IX Coordinator.
Require schools to provide support to any complainant and respondent to any conduct that may constitute sex discrimination, including sexual violence and other forms of sex-based harassment.
Require schools to respond promptly and effectively to any and all complaints of sexual harassment in a fair, transparent, and unbiased way that include trained decisionmakers to evaluate all relevant and not otherwise impermissible evidence.

This policy will also require that Title IX Coordinators investigators, et al. may not have a conflict of interest or bias for or against complainant students.

According to the chair of House Education committee the ruling " undermines existing due process rights, placing students and institutions in legal jeopardy and again undermining the protections Title IX is intended to provide." She also stated that the inclusion of transgender students rolls back protections for women.

What is missing from this policy is the proposed rule concerning trans students' participation in sports. In 2023 the proposed rule would have addressed the controversial issue. However, the possibility elicited hundreds of thousands of comments from the public. Some claim that the unpopularity of this part of the law has caused the administration to push its implementation to after the 2024 election. The rules published today will take effect in August 2024. (Read more.)

Lincoln Center Cancels Mozart

From The New York Post:

When Black Lives Matter becomes a marketing strategy, facts offer little impediment to speaking “one’s truth.” Take the case of New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which banked its pandemic recovery on a narrative of its own abhorrence. In 2020, the center began promoting a story that a vibrant black community known as San Juan Hill had been deliberately snuffed out in the 1950s to make way for its creation.
“The displacement of Indigenous, Black, and Latinx families that took place prior to the construction of our campus is abhorrent,” declares the center’s “Message on Our Commitment to Change.”

“We may never know its full impact on those dispossessed of the land on which Lincoln Center sits. But only by acknowledging this history can we begin to confront the racism from which our institution has benefited.” (Read more.)

The Face of Tragedy

Marie-Antoinette with Her Children

Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, the Dauphin, Madame Royale, and Princess Elisabeth are insulted by the mob on their road back to Paris after their interception at Varennes by the postmaster Drouet. Via Le Boudoir de Marie-Antoinette.