One hundred years ago
The Comte de Chambord died yester- day, at the age of sixty:three. He had been a Pretender all his life, and yet never a Pretender at all in the English ac- ceptation of the word — unless his ac- ceptance of the title of `King' in 1871 made him one. A more dignified spec- tator of political struggles never existed. He seemed to think himself necessary to France, and yet to feel quite sure that France was absolutely unconscious of her own need of him. 'My personality is nothing,' he said, 'my principle is everything;' and his principle was that he would not give up a flag to gain a crown. There is something fascinating in the spectacle of so much dis- interestedness at the heart of so much dignity. And we believe that in losing the Comte de Chambord, Europe has lost a kind of ideal — the ideal character of that sort which, with an inordinate respect for its own hereditary position, combines the most absolute freedom from fussiness, and perfect indifference to Power.
Spectator, 25 August 1883
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