Tea at Trianon

How Marie Antoinette Shaped Centuries of Fashion and Design

2026-08-07T02:00:00.000-04:00

A young Marie-Antoinette in formal court dress, which she disliked.

Marie-Antoinette at 19 in a formal court gown for a state occasion, corseted with panniers (side hoops), jewels, rouge, and very elaborate hair. Some people think this gown was what she wore to her husband's coronation.

The Queen with her two oldest children in the less formal attire she preferred.

There are not many of Marie-Antoinette's gowns left because the really fine ones were made into Mass vestments and donated to the Church. The other gowns were given to her ladies, particularly the lady in charge of the Queen's clothes, who could then sell the gowns for extra income. From History:

“Court fashion was highly prescribed. Marie Antoinette wanted to break free of that and express herself,” says Jeffrey Mayer, professor of fashion history at Syracuse University. Her style signaled a departure from the Baroque era (17th–18th century), which was defined by lavish ornamentation. Instead, she embraced "an elegant, fresh, feminine style, made provocatively modern,” says Cox.
Inspired by Enlightenment thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the queen embraced all things pastoral. She regularly used printed cottons such as toile de Jouy, a fabric depicting monochromatic pastoral scenes. Her playful style drew from the Rococo movement, an 18th-century decorative trend that featured curved lines, pastels, wooden marquetry, ribbons and florals. Marie Antoinette's embrace of these motifs helped popularize the style and laid the groundwork for the “French country” aesthetic. At the Petit Trianon, the queen’s personal retreat in Versailles, she harmonized interior design with fashion. Motifs like her beloved cornflowers adorned everything from her custom tea set to her gowns. Although earlier royals used monograms, she emblazoned “M.A.” on everything from banisters to cosmetics, creating a lasting association between monograms and luxury, says Cox.
[...]
The palace of Versailles was open to the public (as long as you met the dress code), and visitors could tour the queen’s closet. They could also visit the Parisian shop of Rose Bertin, Antoinette’s stylist and unofficial “Minister of Fashion.” They could even commission a copy of her latest look…as long as they waited the mandated two weeks after the queen debuted it.
Bertin’s Paris shop, Le Grand Mogol (The Grand Mogul) “functioned as an early couture salon, showing new collections each season and maintaining a fully staffed workroom. This was the blueprint for the modern 'fashion house' or maison de couture,” says Mayer. (Read more.)

The young Queen with flowers replacing jewels.

At a costume ball, escorted by her brother-in-law, the Comte d'Artois (Charles X)

In simple attire, no jewels, hair unpowdered.

Marie-Antoinette in simple attire, hair unpowdered, no jewels. But the portrait was seen as being disrespectful to her queenly status.

Our Sea Ports

2026-08-07T01:00:00.000-04:00

From ColonelRETJohn:

Not since World War II did we seriously show concern over the security of our ports from enemy threats.
Now with drones being used regularly to attack ships in the Black Sea, Mediterranean ports of Egypt, and the U.S. conducting its first drone attack against the Iranian Bandar Abbas Naval Base, the realization is that our own ports may be vulnerable to attack.
What’s to keep a drone from coming into Puget Sound in Washington State, New York Harbor, or the Chesapeake in Virginia and striking one of our many naval installations or container terminals?
Right now, not much.
The U.S. Coast Guard is in overdrive to figure out ways to ensure our ports are protected.
“Faced with a growing threat from uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs), the USCG is seeking technology not just to detect these weapons, but to defeat them. Ports and other maritime facilities are vulnerable to this kind of attack vector, and our adversaries surely know it. The effort is being led by the Coast Guard Futures Development and Integration (FD&I) Directorate, which oversees research, modeling and simulation, technology forecasting, and field experimentation. It is part of the service’s role to protect U.S. maritime assets and comes as adversary militaries and non-state actors alike, are developing a wide array of UUVs for surveillance, strike and sabotage.”
Threat actors like Iran and China watch everything we do and try to play it back at us, so it is important that the Coast Guard comes up with solutions fast to protect our ports. (Read more.)

The Culture of the Medieval Merchant

2026-08-07T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Medievalists:

Medieval merchants were far more than buyers and sellers: their need to calculate risks, communicate across borders and navigate distant markets made them some of the most knowledgeable people of their age. Commerce helped drive the spread of literacy and important developments in mathematics, accounting, law, languages and mapmaking, while the vast records merchants left behind offer unusually vivid glimpses into medieval society. Their influence also reached beyond the marketplace, as they commissioned art, collected books, wrote chronicles, governed cities and financed civic buildings. Long before the Renaissance merchant became associated with cultural patronage, medieval traders were already helping to shape Europe’s intellectual, artistic and urban worlds. (Read more.)

Portrait of Princess Mary Henrietta Stuart

2026-08-06T02:00:00.000-04:00

From Codart:

Charles I of England wanted his eldest daughter, Mary Henrietta Stuart, to marry William II, Prince of Orange. The dynastic marriage was aimed at strengthening the alliance between England and the Netherlands. The ceremony was held on 2 May 1641 but the marriage could not be consummated since Mary Henrietta was nine and William was fourteen years old. (Their child, who would be the English king as William III, was only born nine years later.) In the wedding portrait, the princess has a wedding ring on her left hand, and wears on her dress the large diamond brooch she received as a wedding gift from her husband. In the exhibition, we can see the parents and the husband of the princess in engraved portraits.

Children of rulers were regularly portrayed in European courts. Among the portraits of children displayed in the exhibition, there are several who were somehow connected to Princess Mary Henrietta. Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias, two years senior to Mary Henrietta, was one of the princess’ possible husbands-to-be. He was also her cousin, just like the children of “The Winter King”, Frederick V of the Palatinate. (Read more.)

Princess Mary is a main character in my novels about her mother, Queen Henrietta Maria.

How Ireland Became a Woke Theme Park

2026-08-06T01:00:00.000-04:00

From Jack Cashill:

Arriving in Shannon Airport in western Ireland last week, we were greeted by a gaggle of protestors unhappy with American foreign policy. Not the most robust of allies, Ireland has nonetheless been allowing American military aircraft to refuel at Shannon. So upset was one 91-year-old activist with the war in Iran that she walked all the way across Ireland to have her protest heard. The media declared her a hero.
The “we,” in question was my extended family and close friends, all 40 of us. Before our bus driver, a good fellow and superior tour guide, could venture an opinion on the protest, I cautioned him that two-thirds of us had voted for Donald Trump. That acknowledgment surprised him. The Irish know few self-declared Republicans. Twenty years ago, for instance, a colleague of my wife’s at the university in Galway took me to lunch. because he had never met a “Bush man,” even a tepid one like me.
Even more so abroad than at home, liberal Americans are eager to stake out their positions publicly. Today, in a newly woke country like Ireland, they hope to assure their foreign hosts they were neither racist nor reactionary enough to have elected Donald Trump president. (Read more.)

The Future of the Anti-Communist Film Festival

2026-08-06T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Mark Judge at Hot Air:

Movies change lives. Film gets into the soul and the subconscious, altering perceptions of the world and creating understanding. It’s why Roger Ebert called movies “an empathy machine.” the Left has owned Hollywood for a century. It’s time to change that. We also intend for the festival to be an annual event. As Al Pacino once put it, I’m just getting warmed up!
I had the idea for the Anti-Communist Film Festival over a year ago, and the response has been great enthusiasm and some solid media hits. Before taking a short break for the August recess and then letting the Victims of Communism Foundation host news about the festival, including the schedule, I wanted to briefly lay out what I envision as the future of the festival.
I see the Anti-Communist Film Festival as an annual event, a success from the first year but also expanding in size and stature into the future. I’d like it to become a place where young and upcoming filmmakers can creatively express their love of freedom and expose the lies told by Marxists. I want dramas and comedies and cartoons and shorts. I want this to expand into a national or even international event, with digital simulcasts going to anywhere people want to participate. (Read more.)

The Private Life of James II

2026-08-05T02:00:00.000-04:00

I have posted about Justine Brown's biography of James II, HERE and HERE; I am happy to say that I have at last been able to read it for myself. It really is the best book I have ever read about James. For one thing it does not trash everyone else in his family as some biographies do. And it explores the walking contradiction that was James II, second son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, whose very real virtues were overshadowed by his principal vice, that of lust, leading to several torrid extramarital love affairs and a handful of illegitimate offspring. I have often wondered if the obvious sex addictions which ruled Charles II and James II were a result of the traumas suffered when they were young and witnessed the bloodshed of war, resulting in the judicial murder of one beloved parent with long separations from the other beloved parent. Or maybe it was just that they took after their grandfather Henri IV, le vert galant. Their first cousin Louis XIV resembled le bon roi Henri as well, when it came to women, without the excuse of having witnessed the horrors of war as a child, although he came close enough. While James was handsomer than his brother Charles, he possessed neither his earthy charm nor his uncanny ability for double-dealing. James, a military man, was forthright and blunt, seeing the world in black and white, which some have characterized as bigotry, although his ideas of freedom of conscience as applied to the law were revolutionary for his time. Ironically, James is seen as a tyrant and absolutist, when all he wanted was for Catholics and non-conformist Protestants to enjoy the same religious liberties as Anglicans. He had the makings of a great king but was betrayed by his own flesh and blood, changing the course of history and plunging Ireland and Scotland into another century of persecution.

People have mocked James for throwing the Great Seal of England into the Thames before fleeing his kingdom. However, after reading Justine's book it becomes clear why he did so. He was emotionally devastated by the betrayal of his beloved daughters, as well as by his sons-in-law, one of whom was also his nephew, only child of his beloved sister Mary, the Princess Royal. In all the upheavals of the English Civil Wars, James' immediate family had always remained loyal to his father Charles I and to each other. While they had been sundered by miles, illness, imprisonment and death, they never betrayed each other. For James to have his throne stolen by his own children, with the help of the Churchills, to whom he had given everything, was like a knife in the heart. I think he also knew that the ancient monarchy was over and that kings and queens would no longer rule but merely reign.

Perhaps James' main mistake was, other than underestimating the ruthlessness of his daughters Mary and Anne, was underestimating the hatred of Catholicism that the Whig party was intent upon keeping alive in England. During his exile and army career, James had visited Catholic countries; he was married to an Italian and his sister-in-law was Portuguese. He thought that seeing the open practice of Catholicism would wean the populace from their worn-out prejudices. But the fear of popery that erupted into violence, forcing his Queen and his newborn son to escape to France, showed him that he had miscalculated.

James II emerges from the book as a tragic but fascinating personality. He was one of the last Kings of England to have had personal experience of warfare. As Duke of York he built up the British navy, preparing it to be the mega-force which was to rule the seas in the next century. He was a patron of the lively Restoration theater and of all the arts. He was a patron of Catholic shrines, reopening defunct Catholic places of pilgrimage during his short reign. He possessed basic familiarity with his Celtic realms, having lived for several years in Scotland as Duke of Albany. He is patriarch of a European dynasty, the Fitz-James Stuarts, and also has many descendants in the United Kingdom to this day, including the current Prince of Wales. In his last years, exiled in France, the founder of the Trappists, Abbot Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé was his father-confessor. For anyone interested in English history The Private Life of James II by Justine Brown is a must-read.

The biography may be purchased, HERE. An interview with the author is HERE. My novel about James' mother, Queen Henrietta Maria, is HERE.

Diversity, Equity, and Confabulation

2026-08-05T01:00:00.000-04:00

From Chronicles:

A miraculous fellow like Arday might never have been admitted as a student at Cambridge, let alone made “professor of the sociology of education,” if not for the spirit of DEI. Yet now he faces accusations of plagiarism because more than 100 passages in his dissertation appear to be lifted from another academic’s work.

He insists he’s a victim of racism and insufficient accommodation: “Arday did not dispute the allegations of plagiarism,” the BBC reports, “but defended himself by arguing that he had not received adequate supervision during his Ph.D. given his autism and learning disabilities …”

Even the left-wing Guardian newspaper found Arday less than reliable when he claimed a campaign to get him fired from Cambridge included a man threatening him with a knife—video showed no man and no knife—and someone sending a severed pig’s head to his parents. (London butchers and police said their recollections and records conflicted with Arday’s story.)

When the paper asked about the discrepancies, Arday replied, “To be honest with you, I thought you’d just believe me.”

The trouble is, too many in the media and academy have believed Arday all along. He’s a poster child for the suspension of common-sense DEI demands of its believers on both sides of the Atlantic. When he’s just a professor of the sociology of education, even at a university as prestigious as Cambridge, an Arday is comical. But it’s no joke when DEI spreads from sociology and education departments to every other corner of the academy, including medical and law schools—and from there into hospitals and courtrooms. (Read more.)

Shattered Realm, Scattered People

2026-08-05T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Peter D. Richards:

The year 1066 is often remembered for a single, pivotal day on a Sussex hillside—the clash of shield walls at Hastings, the fall of King Harold Godwinson, and the triumph of William the Conqueror. Yet, the Battle of Hastings was merely the prologue to a far broader socio-political cataclysm. In the decades that followed, native Anglo-Saxon society was systematically dismantled.
While stone Norman castles rose like iron beacons across the landscape, the people who had called England home for six centuries faced two distinct, painful fates: exile across the known world for the elite, or subjugation on the lands their ancestors had plowed for the masses left behind.
For the surviving Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, life under Norman rule quickly proved untenable. Following a series of crushed rebellions across the Midlands, the North, and the Fens, the native elite recognised that submission meant disinheritance, imprisonment, or death. Thousands chose flight over servitude.
This sparked one of the most remarkable, yet underreported, diasporas of the Middle Ages:
The Celtic & Scandinavian Fringes: Many nobles sought immediate refuge in Scotland and Ireland. Margaret, sister of the un-crowned Anglo-Saxon claimant Edgar Ætheling, married King Malcolm III of Scotland, weaving English royal lineage directly into the Scottish monarchy. Others fled to Denmark and Norway, appealing to Scandinavian kin for military aid.
The Exodus to Byzantium: The most extraordinary chapter of the diaspora unfolded far to the east. By the late 1070s, a massive fleet of dispossessed Anglo-Saxon warriors and their families sailed into the Mediterranean, bound for Constantinople.
The Varangian Guard: The Byzantine Emperor, Alexios I Comnenus, eagerly inducted these seasoned housecarls into his elite Varangian Guard. The English became the primary core of the Emperor’s personal bodyguard. In a dramatic twist of history, these exiles faced their Norman foes once more at the Battle of Dyrrhachium in 1081.

(Read more.)

Taddeo di Bartolo: Sienese Gothic in the Early Renaissance

2026-08-04T02:00:00.000-04:00

From Hilary White at The Sacred Images Project:

If I hadn’t told you the date, would you have guessed the early fifteenth century?
Most people wouldn’t, and would probably peg it as “early Renaissance”. In fact, even readers who’ve been following the Sacred Images Project for a while might hesitate. At first glance, this looks like a classic mid-14th century, “Trecento” Sienese Gothic Madonna. It has all the notes: a glowing gold background functioning as non-natural space, meticulously and elaborately tooled and stamped to show the haloes, the richly patterned cloth created by picking out the paint with the sgraffito technique to expose the gold underlay.
Here are the typical Sienese gentle almond eyes, elongated figures, softly rounded and luminous features, and the solemn little Christ Child, royally dressed, blessing the viewer. It all belongs to a visual language that seems to have come straight from the age of Duccio and Simone Martini.
But this isn’t 1340. It was painted around 1405, sixty-five years later. What makes it so intriguing is that the great flowering of the Sienese “golden age,” so characterised by this very distinctive painting style, was supposed to have ended quite abruptly in 1348, with the Black Death that wiped out 50% of Siena’s population in a single year. But we will see below that this is an oversimplification. Since there’s no documentation it’s only speculation, but wouldn’t it be fun to think of him as saying, “We’re Sienese, dammit, whatever those heathen Florentines are doing”? What if Siena wasn’t behind Florence but simply disagreed with Florence? (Read more.)

What the Midterms Are Actually About

2026-08-04T01:00:00.000-04:00

From Batya Ungar-Sargon:

It’s less than a hundred days until the midterm elections decide who controls the House and the Senate—and whether President Trump and his Cabinet spend the next two years enacting his agenda or fighting impeachment, which will certainly be the Democrats’ first order of business.
But this week gave us a number of stark visuals representing what your choices actually are when you go into the voting booth in November.
One of them came by way of Spain, which was invaded this week by tens of thousands of men from Morocco, who streamed across the border after the border “totally collapsed” as one official told the AP.
The border collapse comes after Spain gave amnesty to more than a million illegal migrants, the largest migrant amnesty in European history. Naturally, when news about the amnesty program spread, thousands more decided to take their chances at achieving European residency.
Because that’s what amnesty for people who cross your border illegally does: It incentivizes people to cross your border illegally, because it is a reward for crossing your border illegally.
But if you think this can only happen in Europe, I urge you to think back to 2022. Remember these scenes? This isn’t Spain. This is Texas. (Read more.)

The Eclipse That Saved Columbus

2026-08-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Science News:

By the time Christopher Columbus sailed westward in 1492, navigators were already using hefty volumes containing astronomical tables to guide them across unknown seas. These books often included detailed instructions for manipulating navigational instruments and for computing geographical positions from celestial observations. Columbus himself probably carried copies of two invaluable books. The “perpetual almanac” prepared by Abraham Zacuto contained more than 300 pages of astronomical tables that had already contributed to such navigational feats as Vasco da Gama’s famous expedition from Portugal around the tip of Africa to India. The second volume, called the Ephemerides, had been produced by the prominent German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Müller, who went by the Latin name Regiomontanus.
The astronomical tables that Columbus consulted during his voyage proved useful for determining latitude and, to some degree, longitude. A prediction contained in the tables probably saved his life at a crucial moment during his fourth voyage to the lands he had discovered.

Nearly 2 years after sailing from Cadiz in 1502, Columbus and his restless, disgruntled crew were stranded on the north coast of Jamaica, confined to worm-eaten, leaking ships. The native inhabitants were no longer awed by the newcomers. Annoyed by their voracious appetites and angry at the depredations of crew members, who had plundered several villages, the population was hostile and would no longer supply food.
Weary and ill, Columbus had withdrawn to his ship. There, he pondered his precarious situation. Returning to the stained pages of the Ephemerides, he noted Regiomontanus’s prediction of a total eclipse of the moon on Feb. 29, 1504.

Such an eclipse occurs only when the moon passes into Earth’s shadow. A lunar eclipse looks the same anywhere on Earth, but it occurs at different times, as measured by local clocks. Regiomontanus’s book contained not only the expected dates of eclipses but also diagrams illustrating how completely the moon would be covered and precise information about each eclipse’s duration and timing down to the hour. (Read more.)

There are still copies of Ephemerides around. From Swann Auction Galleries:

This rare early Ephemerides covers the years 1484 through 1506. Ratdolt first printed Regiomontanus's work in 1481. That particular imprint has only appeared at auction once, also from the Gingerich collection, and consisted of only 42 leaves of 364. The only other copy of this 1484 edition in the auction record was also incomplete, lacking 100 leaves. Copies from the 1490s show up with a little more regularity, but also generally suffer from incompleteness. As the printers learned the format, they eased into a better formula that wasted less paper. The 1480s editions were printed with one blank per signature of 14 leaves. By the 1490s, they had figured out how to eliminate the blank, and used all 14 leaves per signature. (Read more.)

A Romantic Manor House in Normandy

2026-08-03T02:00:00.000-04:00

From House and Garden:

'It’s one of the most beautiful places in France,’ says Cordelia de Castellane of the Normandy village of Beaumont-en-Auge, situated a few miles south of the coastal town of Deauville. And just beyond the boundaries of this picture-postcard commune, set against the bucolic backdrop of the region’s farms, orchards and medieval fortresses, the Greek-French designer has recently completed the decoration of a charming country retreat, with parts of the distinctive building dating back to the 17th century.
The striking three-storey manoir has a traditional half-timber colombage façade and belongs to a literary couple who are longtime friends of Cordelia. ‘We share a love of dance and literature, particularly the works of Marcel Proust,’ explains Cordelia, who serves as artistic director of Dior Maison and Baby Dior. The 150-square-foot property unfolds across a trio of structures: alongside the main manor house – the interiors of which Cordelia describes as ‘super French’ – is a four-bedroom guest house with a more contemporary look, and a former rotisserie that now contains a palatial, beamed dining room.
Before making a decision to change a single thing, Cordelia spent some time staying alone in the house. This luxurious period of solitude proved fruitful. Immersing herself in the original spirit of the interiors and observing the movement of light across its rooms guided her approach to the layout and to the decoration, which is by turns calm and characterful. It is typical of Cordelia’s method. ‘I see the people, I feel the house – and it just comes to me,’ she says of how she brought this scheme to life. (Read more.)

BREAKING: JD Vance Announces Task Force Has Uncovered Billions in Fraud

2026-08-03T01:00:00.000-04:00

From America First:

Vice President JD Vance delivered a striking update on the Trump administration’s fight against government fraud during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David, announcing that a task force he leads has identified $230 billion in fraudulent or improper payments perpetrated against the American people, with $56 billion of that amount already halted before it went out the door.
The announcement came during the first-ever live-streamed Cabinet meeting held at Camp David, a format that allowed Americans to watch the administration’s internal deliberations in real time. Vance, who has served as the chair of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud since President Trump established it by executive order in March 2026, framed the findings as one of the clearest early wins of the administration’s broader push to root out waste and corruption in the federal government.
“Just since the beginning of the Fraud Task Force that I started under the president’s leadership and direction, we have identified $230 billion of fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American people, and we have halted already $56 billion of that,” Vance told the gathered Cabinet, according to multiple accounts of the meeting. (Read more.)

An Ancient Civilization of Millions Once Flourished in the Amazon

2026-08-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Phys.org:

New research conducted using airborne laser scanning reveals that a multicultural civilization that flourished in southwestern Amazonia between 600 BCE and 850 CE was home to millions of people. Spanning roughly 183,000 square kilometers (71,000 square miles), the Aquiry civilization built large centers for political and ritual purposes. By surveying a representative section of the area, researchers identified the remains of more than 400 well-preserved sites of monumental ceremonial architecture, along with some later settlement sites.

Extrapolating their findings to the civilization's full territory, the researchers arrived at a cautious estimate of more than 20,000 ancient earthwork ceremonial centers. The largest known site covers 50 hectares (124 acres).

Comprehensive surveys and radiocarbon dating showed that the Aquiry territory—which makes up less than 3% of Greater Amazonia—was already home to 1.25–3 million people at the start of the first millennium. This finding challenges earlier, more conservative estimates of the population across the wider Amazon region, which have ranged between 1 million and 10 million. The Amazon's total population may have numbered in the tens of millions.

"Our findings overturn our understanding of the Amazon region's past," says the emeritus professor at the University of Helsinki who led the study published in Nature. (Read more.)

Fra Angelico’s First Major Altarpiece Gets a Groundbreaking Repair

2026-08-02T02:00:00.000-04:00

From Artnet:

Antonella Ranaldi, director of Florence and Prato’s cultural heritage office, called the restoration “a case study of the greatest interest that will serve as a model for restorers in the years to come.”

The work is considered Fra Angelico’s first major large-scale work. In the early 1420s, the budding painter-friar, née Guido di Pietro, entered the convent of San Domenico in Fiesole, a complex just north of Florence, where he was tasked with creating an altarpiece for the newly built monastery. In keeping with the fashions of the age, Fra Angelico created a late Gothic style triptych with a liberal use of gold, centering a serene depiction of the Virgin and Child alongside adoring angels and four haloed saints.

Time has not been kind to the San Domenico altarpiece. By 1501, 50 years after the artist’s death, the painter Lorenzo di Credi was commissioned with updating the work to contemporary tastes. He removed the partitions, downsized the Virgin’s throne, and replaced the gold grounding with a naturalistic landscape. Over the coming centuries, the altarpiece was broken up, its parts looted or sold on the antiques market—the original predella, for instance, now belongs to London’s National Gallery. Fra Angelico’s central panel remained at the convent, albeit damaged by haphazard restorations and eaten by wood-boring insects. (Read more.)

Counterrevolution: Thirty Years of the Conservative Press

2026-08-02T01:00:00.000-04:00

From Mark Judge at Hot Air:

Conservative media has been engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the left for so long that sometimes we forget to pull the lens back and fully appreciate how much we have leveled the playing field. Thirty years ago, if a conservative got destroyed in the media, the only recourse was to submit a letter to the editor of the local Stasi press outlet, where it would be ignored or edited and buried in the paper a week later. Now conservative journalists can actually dismantle lies and even collapse things like a book launch by a major publisher for leftist journalists.
Part of what got me thinking about this was reading an advanced copy of the great new book by Victor Davis Hanson, The Counterrevolution: The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the MAGA Movement. The book doesn’t come out for a month, and I will have a fuller review then, but in terms of its overall message and how it diagnoses the media, it is a bull’s-eye. Hanson argues that Trump has been the most effective counterforce to the slow crawl of “progressive” politics over the last century - and that kneecapping the media was a crucial part of that. (Read more.)

The American Revolution in Louisiana and West Florida

2026-08-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Fellowship and Fairydust:

A few years ago, I was having lunch with my uncle when he said he had joined the Sons of the American Revolution. “But in the 1770s, our ancestors were already in Louisiana,” I said. “It belonged to Spain. How did we have an ancestor who fought for America?”

It turns out, we didn’t. We had an ancestor—a French immigrant to Louisiana—who fought for Spain. From 1779-1781, Spain aided the American cause by ousting the British from their holdings in West Florida, which included Pensacola and Mobile as well as the eastern bank of the Mississippi River from Manchac to Natchez. The name of the colony still resonates today in the “Florida Parishes,” the eight parishes of the State of Louisiana that were once part of West Florida.

After the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, the fledgling United States campaigned to secure the support of European allies, especially Britain’s longtime enemies, France and Spain. Though the King of Spain was unwilling to form an alliance, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Galvez, privately supported the American cause. He granted loans to American traders shipping military provisions northward from New Orleans and provided covert support to their convoys, which had to pass the British-held settlements on the eastern bank in order to reach American territory.

In 1777, the U.S. Congress rejected a plan to launch a full-scale assault against West Florida. But the Committee of Commerce (formerly the Secret Committee, the first American organization devoted to espionage) knew they had the tacit support of Governor Galvez in New Orleans. So they decided to send a small party of men down the Mississippi under the command of Captain James Willing, ostensibly to convey “public dispatches” to officials in Louisiana.

His real mission was to secure the river. (Read more.)

Chemise à la Reine vs. Grande Robe Française

2026-08-01T02:00:00.000-04:00

This simple style was introduced by Marie-Antoinette and, although she did not wear such a low neckline as shown in the fashion plate above, it still upset many people. The Queen intended the dress for quiet times at Trianon. Via Tiny Librarian:

Chemise à la Reine with bound sleeves, the neckline trimmed with a frill, Marlborough Hat wrapped with a wide ribbon striped in black and colour. (1784)

“Chemises” belonged to the category of simple and comfortable dress which was in vogue from about 1781 overall due to Marie Antoinette.

At the time, one said that an upper-body garment was made en chemise when “the beginning of the sleeves ended in two pieces which were added” (Dictionary of the abbé Jaubert, 1778). One frequently finds in the notes of Mlle Bertin mentions such as “a piece en chemise of Italian gauze”, “a fichu-chemise* of Italian gauze”, etc. On the date of the appearance of the “chemises à la reine”, Bachaumont fixes it for us in writing about the portraits of the Queen and Madame, by Vigée-Lebrun, shown in 1783: “The two princesses are en chemise, a costume invented recently for women.”

And he added, “Many people have found it inappropriate that these august personages are offered to the public in a garment reserved for the interior of their palace.”
(Read entire post.)

This gown is an example of the most formal attire possible, which the Queen was trying to get away from. However, people were more displeased by her simple attire than by her grand formal costume. More HERE.

Dictators for Life

2026-08-01T01:00:00.000-04:00

From Tierney's Real News:

For the past decade, the fake news and liberals in America have been proclaiming that President Trump is trying to be a dictator for life, a King that can never be removed. That is a lie. That is BS propaganda from our enemies. The truth is that the REAL dictators are on the left and part of the Islamo-Communist Red-Green axis and this newsletter will PROVE that.
On Sunday night, in Nicaragua, Communist President Daniel Ortega stood in front of thousands of Sandinista loyalists at the 47th anniversary of the 1979 revolution and said what everyone already knew was true: there will be no more elections in Nicaragua. He finally admitted out loud that Nicaragua is a Communist dictatorship!
“There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power. The days when parties backed by the Yankees and the Somocistas would return to power are over — never again.” (Read more.)

Sacred Geometry and Gothic Rose Windows

2026-08-01T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Laboratorio Fiore Scriptorium via Hilary White at The Sacred Images Project:

Geometry in the Middle Ages was not just calculation and measurement, but a sacred language capable of uniting heaven and earth, the visible and the invisible. Every line and proportion thus brought to life a prayer in stone, a tangible testimony of faith carved in numbers.
"Sacred Geometry and Gothic Rose Windows, from Architecture to Miniature": a course designed for those more comfortable with technical drawing than with hand-drawn. Originally offered a few years ago, it is now available again—upon request—for small groups of at least three people. (Read more.)

"Beautiful Love Story"

2026-07-31T02:00:00.000-04:00

Henrietta Maria with two of her Children

Charles I and Henrietta Maria with Charles Prince of Wales and Mary the Princess Royal

The Queen doing Penance at Tyburn

A glowing review from Pursuing Stacie:

I have a huge love for classics. Little Women, Jane Eyre, Anne of Green of Gables…I will reach for these novels again and again, and then sigh happily about 3, 428 times throughout the story. This was exactly my experience while reading My Queen, My Love: A Novel of Henrietta Maria. It just has that rare classic, cozy, wholesome feel. Mind you, there’s plenty of suspense and intrigue. But the story is just so good!

The author skillfully fleshes out the characters and story of Charles and Henrietta, allowing her readers to sink into the novel. When I was about three chapters in, I realized with a start that I had not only completely missed my bedtime, but had forgotten altogether that I was reading a book, so engrossed was I in the story. (Have you ever read a book that feels like a movie?) (You’re about to.)

While the author set a scene masterfully, she also brought these historical characters to life in rich detail. (Might I suggest Googling their names as you meet them, by the way? So fun to put a face to the new friend that you’ve just made.) I adored Henrietta and will carry her with me always. But truly, each character was dynamic and real. From the beautiful love story to the suspense that only villainy can bring, this novel is perfect from beginning to end. (Read more.)

Another review from History From A Woman's Perspective:

Because the two of them worked hard to make their marriage work, they ended up deeply in love with each other which made it satisfying. There is plenty of drama, politics, and courtly intrigue that will engage the reader to keep turning the page! I can’t wait to read the next book in the series to learn what comes next for Queen Henrietta Maria of England! I recommend this for fans of Jean Plaidy, Alison Weir, and Philippa Gregory! My Queen, My Love is a promising start to an enthralling series on one of England’s most tragic queens! (Read more.)

My Queen, My Love and Generalissima are available from Amazon.

Trump Announces Plan to Replace Illegal Alien Truckers with American Veterans

2026-07-31T01:00:00.000-04:00

From The Western Journal:

President Donald Trump kicked off a new initiative on Thursday designed to fast-track veterans into truck driving jobs.

Trump called the program “Freedom Haulers.”

“We’re taking action to replace these unqualified, migrant drivers with highly qualified American veterans,” Trump said at the White House event, flanked by a military transport truck on one side and a civilian big rig on the other.
“Under our brand new Freedom Haulers initiative, any American who has driven a heavy truck for our military will automatically be eligible for a commercial driver’s license. And it’s good-paying jobs, too,” the president added.
“We’re going to make it as easy as possible for the veterans,” Trump said.
He also noted that those who did not drive trucks in the military will still be eligible to participate in the Freedom Haulers program.

They will receive the necessary training to drive trucks in a matter of weeks. (Read more.)

The Lamp that Burns Forever

2026-07-31T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Public Discourse:

In one of his most underrated but magisterial works, Perictione in Colophon: Reflections on the Aesthetic Way of Life (2000), Roger Scruton provides a blueprint of what constitutes true and timeless architecture. This is not a book of conventional philosophy, but a literary masterpiece that, in fictional form, describes the world in which we now live. Elsewhere, he describes that world as one of “normal nihilism.” Who, gazing around our city streets, would not agree with him? We have, as it were, normalized nihilism to the point where alienation from the world has become the rule for most people.
There are many reasons for this, but one of the primary causes, according to Scruton, is that we have forgotten how to build in accordance with time-honored values. He goes further, arguing that we must understand the human urge to build in religious rather than in secular terms. That is because, as he writes:

The stone of the temple is the earthly translation of God’s immortality, which is in turn the symbol of a community and its will to live. The temple, like the liturgy, is forever, and the community contains not the living only, but also the dead and the unborn. And the dead are protected by the temple, which immortalises them in stone. This is what you understand instinctively when you see religious architecture. And it is the sentiment from which cities grow—the tribe’s will to permanence.

In glaring contrast, architectural functionalism “hurts both the eye and the soul, for it speaks not of us and our right of dwelling.” Hence, functional buildings “are perceived as a desecration: nothing of the sacred remains in them.” Scruton’s point is that the way we build has consequences far beyond those of conflicting tastes. Whereas innovation in music, painting, and poetry does not directly affect how we live, architecture most certainly does. It is very much a public art centrally bound up with our self-understanding. Put simply, change the way you build, and you change the self-image and values of a people. (Read more.)

The Sword in the Stone: A Medieval Latin Account

2026-07-30T02:00:00.000-04:00

From Medievalists:

At the Abbey of Saint Denis-en-France, the Benedictine monk and chronicler Guillaume de Nangis (d. 1300) wrote a Latin World Chronicle from Creation to AD 1300. The text contains an account of the reign of King Arthur of Britain that includes the celebrated Sword in the Stone Episode. This iconic scene was not traditionally part of the ‘historical’ account of King Arthur’s biography.

The pseudo-historical Brut chronicle story of King Arthur, which originates with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae [History of the Kings of Britain] (c. 1136), has Arthur, aged fifteen, succeed to the throne of Britain without contest. Geoffrey’s Historia implies that Arthur was widely known to have been King Uther Pendragon’s son and heir apparent. The prose redaction of the Estoire de Merlin [Story of Merlin] (c. 1210), an Old French romance attributed to Robert de Boron (fl. 1191–1212), contains the earliest known attestation of the Sword in the Stone Episode, and it is built around an alternative history of Arthur’s childhood. According to it, Merlin compels King Uther Pendragon and Queen Ygraine to give up their son (Arthur) as a newborn. The enchanter sees to it that the child is baptized ‘Arthur’ and adopted by the worthy knight Sir Antor and his wife. The couple raise Arthur as their own alongside their biological son Kay. (Read more.)