vivelareine

[vivelareine]

From the memoirs of Louis de Bouillé, on the comte de Provence being told about the royal family’s capture after their flight from Paris:

“He listened with an imperturbable calm, an impassive coldness, fro which he only emerged to ask me a few vague questions and from which I was no less revolted than surprised. I do not know if, as he says in his Relation, his tears "which had not been able to flow in the first instant had come to relieve him” before my arrival, but what I can assure you is that we saw no trace of it in his eyes, perfectly dry like his heart, and that only their usual expression of falsity could be noticed, through which escaped some spurts of treacherous satisfaction.

[vivelareine]

If anyone needs @vivelareine and I, we'll be taking a trip to Montmedy.

You know.... Montmedy....the French city in France.

That is very French.

That Montmedy.

[vivelareine]

“I am the queen.”  A depiction of assault on the Tuileries of June 20th, 1792; several people in the mob allegedly believed Madame Elisabeth to be Marie Antoinette and Elisabeth, to protect the queen, stepped forward and attempted to stop a man from revealing the truth.

[vivelareine]

June 20th, 1791

Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, their two children and Madame Elisabeth secretly fled from the Tuileries in Paris with the intention of going to the stronghold of Montmedy. Due to various factors they did not reach their destination and were eventually captured in the small town of Varennes.

June 20th, 1792

A crowd of hundreds of men and women forcibly entered the Tuileries Palace and filled the apartments of the royal family. The king, and queen with her two children in a separate apartment, were threatened and insulted by the crowds for hours before the mob was forced to disperse.

June 20th, 1810

Axel Fersen, who had been falsely accused of poisoning the Crown Prince of Sweden, was attacked by a mob during the prince’s funeral procession. The guards and police riding with the procession did nothing to halt the attack, which escalated from insults and rocks to a viscous assault. Fersen was ultimately beaten and stomped to death.

[vivelareine]

I absolutely want you, my dear Elisabeth, to visit [my little Trianon]. If you would like to come here on June 24th … we are mourning the death of my poor little angel. Farewell dear heart, you know how much I love you and I need your whole heart to comfort mine.

–Marie Antoinette to Madame Elisabeth, 22 June 1787; Marie Antoinette’s youngest daughter, Sophie, had just died several days prior.

[vivelareine]

In her book Marie Antoinette: The Journey, Antonia Fraser claims that Joseph Weber told Marie Antoinette that her grief for Sophie could not have been very great, due to her age and not yet being weaned.

From Fraser's Marie Antoinette: The Journey:

"The Queen's foster-brother Joseph Weber tried to cheer her by saying that the baby had not even been weaned when she died, implying that the grief for one so young could not have been very great. But he struck the wrong note. 'Don't forget that she would have been my friend,' replied the Queen, a reference to her daughters, who were "mine," unlike their brothers, who belonged to France, that sentiment first expressed at the birth of Marie-Therese. Her tears continued to fall.

But... in what appears to be typical Antonia Fraser fashion, this is not actually what Joseph Weber's memoir* says.

What Joseph Weber wrote, in context of discussing the queen's grief at the death of Louis Joseph, was:

Marie Antoinette's heart had already been put to a similar test two years earlier, when she lost her daughter, only eleven months old. In vain did those who were admitted to her intimate circle present the princess's tender age as a reason to alleviate the bitterness of her regrets; she replied to them: "Do you forget that she would have been a friend?" and her tears continued to flow in the name of daughter and friend.

He did not say that he said this and that Marie Antoinette told him this in reply to him 'striking the wrong note,' yet Fraser puts the words in his mouth specifically, along with bringing up not being weaned, which Weber did not mention.

Was Weber among those in her "intimate circle" who said this? Maybe... he was in France, and if we believe the memoir, she was touched by his considerations for her when she had a miscarriage and it's not impossible he might have been one of those who tried to console her. But Fraser mischaracterized what was written by putting it specifically in his mouth.

*We also know that these memoirs were at least partially written (if not primarily written) by Trophime-Gérard, Marquis de Lally-Tollendal, not Weber himself.

As always... check the sources of your sources!

[vivelareine]

Sophie Hélène Béatrice, the fourth child born to Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, died on 19 June, 1787. The infant girl, called ‘my little angel’ by her mother, had suffered from poor health since her birth nearly a year before and died after several days of convulsions. Elisabeth Vigee Lebrun, who was working on a portrait of Marie Antoinette and her children at the time of Sophie’s death, left her empty cradle as a testament to her short life.

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A miniature of Marie Antoinette by an unidentified artist, 18th century. Set to be auctioned by Libert & Associés.

[vivelareine]

I would rather hear his voice again than any sound in the world.

–Ever After (1998)

[vivelareine]

it's almost June 20 and this is just endlessly going through my head

@tiny-librarian I had to do it

[vivelareine]

Marie Antoinette: A Film by David Grubin

[vivelareine]

The hands of Divinity Louis, sends you the crown The scepter, the sword, the law gives to you But it is your virtues and your kindness Which assures you the throne in our hearts

–verse written in honor of the coronation of Louis XVI, 1775

[image: An allegory of the coronation of Louis XVI. Circa 1775. credit: Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie]

[vivelareine]

A contemporary print depicting the coronation of Louis XVI at Reims Cathedral, on June 11th, 1775.

Below are details showing Louis XVI (The letters are for a key on the bottom identifying the figures) and his wife, Marie Antoinette, who was sitting in a gallery with her ladies to watch (She’s the crowned figure in the middle).

Source

[vivelareine]

Costume Parisien Fashion Plate, 1807

From Paris Musees, les Musees de la Ville de Paris

[vivelareine]

A snuff box with a miniature portrait of Marie Antoinette, from the collection of the Duchess de Tourzel. Another version of this painting was kept in Louis XVI's office at the Tuileries in Paris. Set to be auctioned by Maître le FUR

[vivelareine]

In the privacy of her domain, Marie Antoinette creates a parallel court in her own orbit, with a relaxed etiquette and courtiers chosen by affinity rather than birth. But in keeping the court at a distance, Marie Antoinette is closing herself in. The Petit Trianon and its garden becomes a world in itself.

– Le Versailles secret de Marie-Antoinette (2018)

[vivelareine]

And the pale shadow saith to God in heaven: “I am an orphan and no king at all; I was a weary prisoner yestereven, My father’s murderers fed my soul with gall. Not me, O Lord, the regal name beseems. Last night I fell asleep in dungeon drear But then I saw my mother in my dreams, Say, shall I find her here?”

–excerpt from ‘King Louis XVII (an ode)’ by Victor Hugo