Today is a dark day for monarchists, royalists, traditionalists, anyone who is religious, anyone with an ounce of decency, dignity and a respect for the sacred. It is the national holiday of the French Republic; Bastille Day. It was on this day in 1789 that Parisian mobs stormed the prison-fortress, the Bastille, freed the prisoners, killed guards, beat the governor half to death, cut his head off and put it on a pike. It came to be seen as the first violent strike of the horrific French Revolution. First, however, there are, as with many things involving the French Revolution, some myths that need to be constantly opposed. Despite what is widely believed the Bastille was not some horrible chamber of tortures. It looked rough and imposing from the outside, but it was not that bad. Furthermore, it was hardly being used. All the revolutionary mob did in storming the Bastille was to kill some innocent men such as the guards and governor and liberate a mere handful of petty criminals and some lunatics. Such was the "glorious" start of the Revolution.Ever since Bastille Day has been used to celebrate the French Revolution and the first step on the road to the destruction of the Ancien Regime. It is no overstatement to say that this was a calamity for all of Europe and even for the entire world. The French were the first to suffer but they were certainly not the last. First of course there was the revolution itself, the regicide of the King and Queen, the horrible, slow death of the poor, little Dauphin and the Reign of Terror in which tens of thousands of people had their heads cut off. Also remember that this was not directed only at the aristocrats, it was the common people who suffered the most. It began with the persecution of the nobility but many of them fled or even joined the Revolution and the majority who were killed were ordinary people swept up in the bloodlust. In the wars that followed the Old Order of Europe was shaken to its very foundations, the Holy Roman Empire fell and Christendom would never be the same again.
The roots of the French Revolution ran deep but the effects have been greater than probably any other revolution anywhere in the world. It can be seen even in the 20th Century with the Bolshevik Revolution and the formation of the Soviet Union. They used many of the same names as the French Revolutionaries used and even adopted the Marseilles as an official song alongside the Internationale. The French Revolution model of massacring royals, killing off all resistance, declaring war on religion and trying to remake all of society along some artificial, ideological pattern was one that would be followed across Europe, Africa, the Americas and even East Asia. It is very safe to say that had the French Revolution never happened, or had it failed, the world we live in today would be very different and, without a doubt in my mind, very much for the better. As just one example of how far-reaching the French Revolution was, in 1945 when the Communist-led August Revolution was sweeping across French Indochina, the last Emperor of Vietnam was urged to escape to the Imperial Tombs and try to maintain himself there, but the
Emperor pointed out the fate of the tragic King Louis XVI and asserted that it would be the death of them all if he stood opposed to the revolution.
On the 14 of July every monarchist should be French, and if you have a flag pole, let the lillies of France fly and let everyone know why. The French Revolution is bigger than France alone and all monarchists of every background should not rest until it is known and rejected for the utter horror that it was. Vive l'Roi!
It is a grand, sublime spectacle to see the French nobility... deprived of its ancient and legitimate property by the Nation Assembly, and then insulted in this Assembly... And here are these all too patient men, these men who have been plundered, offended, and outlawed... here surrounded by heaps of gold. They have gold, you said, but we have steel... Oh, yes, you have steel, the steel with which the King's most loyal servants were slaughtered under his eyes, and which threatened his wife's life. Oh, yes, you have steel. You have forged your laws out of it.
ReplyDelete- Dominique de Montlosier, Army Officer and Defender for the Monarchy
I also mourn every year on Bastille Day!
ReplyDeleteIt's for sure that had that upheaval inspired by none other than the devil not occurred, so much would be different in subsequent history.
Both that and the Russian Revolution were the two worst events in the past 500 years, if not 1000 years!
By the way July 17 is the day devoted to the Royal Martyrs. These were canonized by the anti-Communist emigre Russian Church Abroad. While the Moscow Patriarchate (MP)copied that, it is a synthetic organization controlled by the KGB, and not of real value to deal with.
There's one fairly good MP Bishop, Hilarion [Alfeyev] of Volokalamsk, but the rest are Soviet-era holdovers from whom little can be expected on any level.
July 17 is also the day of the 16 Martyrs of Compiegne, Carmelite nuns who made a pledge to sacrifice themselves for the intention that God would stabilize the bloodletting of the French revolution and bring peace. Thus they were killed by the revolutionaries on the day following the Feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, and later beatified.
Had the French Bourbon King agreed to have his country consecrated to the Sacred Heart, as instructed by Jesus through St Margaret Mary, just think: the revolution would never have been permitted by Heaven to happen. That's why we can see it was simply devils unleashed from Hell who perpetrated that evil.
And exactly 100 years about to the day later!
I think a French Bourbon ruler pleasing to Heaven was Charles X. I bet he would have obeyed the order to consecrate the country! But people, whether imperial, royal or commoner, aren't told WHY they are given an order. They are supposed to trust and obey. But this tragic story is a lesson that without faith in God, when one person baulks or resists or questions or doubts, he or she can cause untold misery to countless numbers through the ages.
Apparently Jesus liked Charles X, as he showed the French nun who received the Miraculous Medal devotions, Catherine Laboure, a vision of Himself as the King of France having his crown fall, apparently losing his office. Charles X was overthrown within weeks of her vision.
I don't think it could be said that Louis XIV's refusal to emblazon the Sacred Heart on his royal arms was *the* reason for the disasters that followed but it was certainly indicitive of the slide toward skeptisim and the so-called "enlightenemnt" and general disregard for the sacred that certainly played a major part in the coming revolution.
ReplyDeleteI too am a big fan of King Charles X. He seemed to be the last King of France of the traditional mold of the glorious Ancien Regime.
Didn't you think Louis Philippe was awful?!
ReplyDeleteI don't care for the whole Orleanist wing, myself. However, his Queen, Marie-Amelie, was outstanding for her piety and devotion to her family.
But Charles X had all the right ideas. It's too bad that the anti-clerical secular spirit had so permeated France that he was little appreciated: then or now!
Eh, I'd rather not say to much about Louis Philippe. I'm not a fan but, as you say, with some kings the best thing about them was their queen. Napoleon III and Eugenie spring to mind. Charles X I like; he was honest and uncompromising -if he was going to be king he was going to do it right. As you have eluded to, it was a spiritual disease that led to these disasters. The loss of the monarchy was simply the most obvious symptom of the secular disease that had been gripping Europe since the "Enlightenment".
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