Tea at Trianon: The St. Michaels War of 1812 Parade

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

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

The St. Michaels War of 1812 Parade

The Talbot Spy's Kathy Bosin took some great pictures of the parade in honor of the bicentennial of the Battle of St. Michaels. It was a battle in which the local militia repelled the British and kept them from capturing the town of St. Michaels, Maryland during the War of 1812. The town was fired upon from the water but remained intact, except for one house, today called the Cannonball House. Some say the town remained unscathed because the people of St. Michaels hung lanterns in the trees to make the British misfire. We also stayed to watch the opening ceremonies in Muskrat Park, where cannons were fired to commemorate the event. Share