In France, and at the most important period of our history, Catherine de' Medici has suffered more from popular error than any oth...er woman, unless it be Brunehaut or Frédégonde; while Marie de' Medici, whose every action was prejudicial to France, has escaped the disgrace that should cover her name.... Catherine de' Medici ... saved the throne of France, she maintained [the] Royal authority under circumstances to which more than one great prince would have succumbed. Face to face with such leaders of the factions and ambitions of the houses of Guise and of Bourbon as the two Cardinals de Lorraine and the two "Balafrès," the two Princes de Condé, Queen Jeanne d'Albret, Henri IV, the Connétable de Montmorency, Calvin, the Colignys and Théodore de Bèze, she was forced to put forth the rarest fine qualities, the most essential gifts of statesmanship, under the fire of the Calvinist press.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is one of the most discouraging experiences I have ever had, not forgetting the time when I winked at the Queen Mother in Londo...n once.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The anarchy, assassination, and sacrilege by which the Kingdom of France has been disgraced, desolated, and polluted for some year...s past cannot but have excited the strongest emotions of horror in every virtuous Briton. But within these days our hearts have been pierced by the recital of proceedings in that country more brutal than any recorded in the annals of the world.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Every thing in his composition was little; and he had all the weaknesses of a little mind, without any of the virtues, or even the... vices, of a great one.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
She loved money, but could occasionally part with it, especially to men of learning, whose patronage she affected. She often conve...rsed with them, and bewildered herself in their metaphysical disputes, which neither she nor they themselves understood.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
George the first was an honest, dull, German gentleman, as unfit as unwilling to act the part of a king, which is to shine and to ...oppress. Lazy and inactive even in his pleasures, which were therefore lowly sensual. He was coolly intrepid, and indolently benevolent. He was diffident of his own parts, which made him speak little in public, and prefer in his social, which were his favourite, hours the company of wags and buffoons. Even his mistress, the duchess of Kendal, with whom he passed most of his time, and who had all influence over him, was very little above an idiot.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »