What Is Cake In The Statement, "Let Them Eat Cake!"

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07/30/21

Permit Them Consume Cake, Marie-Antoinette'due south unforgettable words are amongst the well-nigh famous quotes in history. Did Marie-Antoinette say Let Them Eat Cake?. Why was Let Them Eat Cake offensive?

Marie-Antoinette was Male monarch Louis Sixteen's married woman and the Queen of France during theFrench Revolution. At some point around 1789, when beingness told that her starving subjects had no bread, Marie-Antoinette supposedly sniffed, 'Qu'ils mangent de la brioche'— 'Let Them Eat Block' in French.

LET THEM Swallow CAKE MEANING: considering brioche is more than expensive than bread, the anecdote has been cited as an case of Marie-Antoinette's obliviousness to ordinary people's conditions and daily lives in France. With that insensitive remark, the Queen became a hated symbol of the corrupt monarchy and fueled the revolution that would cause her to (literally) lose her head in 1793.

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Who Was Marie-Antoinette?

Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna (1755 -1793) was an Austrian princess built-in and raised in Vienna's court. At the age of 13, Marie-Antoinette was betrothed to the Dauphin of France (the heir of the French throne), Louis Auguste. This arranged matrimony was an endeavour at reconciliations between Republic of austria and France.

Marie-Antoinette arrived in French republic in 1770, and she lived in the opulent Palace of Versailles with her husband, the Dauphin.

By 1774, King Louis Fifteen died, and the Dauphin ascended to the throne with the proper noun of Louis XVI. Before the age of 20, Marie-Antoinette was already Queen of France.

Marie-Antoinette had a lavish lifestyle, and she liked to organize great balls in the Palace or extravagant parties in the Gardens of Versailles. When she needed to escape the French courtroom'southward rigors, she traveled incognito to Paris or spent her time 'playing the peasant' in the village built for her inside Versailles.

Read more about Marie-Antoinette

Despite her position every bit Queen of France, Marie Antoinette had no power. She still was an Austrian who never broke ties with her family in Vienna, so Male monarch Louis XVI never discussed politics or asked her advice on state affairs. Apart from her lavish parties, charitable works, and producing heirs to the French throne, the Queen of France could not do much more than.

At the get-go of her life in the French courtroom, Marie-Antoinette was more often than not liked by everyone, known for her beauty and generosity. Over the years, there was a growing dissent against the Queen's lavish life and crazy parties, especially when all Paris was starving.

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Did Marie-Antoinette Say Let Them Consume Cake?

According to historians, Marie-Antoinette Permit Them Eat Cake quote was, in reality, a false rumor. The evidence suggests that Marie-Antoinette did non say Let Them Eat Block and that it was somebody else who uttered the famous quote long earlier Marie-Antoinette became Queen of France. Here's what we know:

i. We Find Versions of Marie-Antoinette's Quote Let Them Eat Cake Years Earlier

Scholars of folklore accept found versions of the same quote, with some variations, across Europe. In Germany's 16th century, there was a story of a noblewoman wondering why the hungry peasants didn't eat Krosem, a kind of sweet bread.

In France, nosotros find the quote 'Qu'ils Mangent de la Brioche' uttered by a 'great princess' in Rousseau'southward autobiography Confessions. Rousseau'south book was written in 1767, when Marie-Antoinette was but 10 years old and withal lived in Austria, far from the French court.

Who said Permit Them Eat Cake? Information technology is believed that Rousseau either coined this Let Them Swallow Cake quote himself, or he was referring to Queen Maria-Thérèse, who was the married woman of Male monarch Louis XIV and lived well-nigh 100 years before Marie-Antoinette became Queen of France.

2. Queen Marie Antoinette Actually Cared Near Her People

Despite Marie-Antoinette's undeniably lavish lifestyle, historians agree that she was an intelligent woman who displayed sensitivity towards France'due south poor, starving population.

During her life in the French court, Queen Marie-Antoinette donated generously to charitable causes. In some letters to her family in Republic of austria, nosotros can besides run into that she cares almost her people, perchance in her own way.

In any case, this Marie-Antoinette Permit Them Swallow Block statement was used to illustrate the gap between the aristocracy in France and its plight.

Trying to Kill the Rumors

So it seems that the Marie-Antoinette quote Allow Them Eat Cake was likely later attributed to account for her decreased popularity.

Poor Marie-Antoinette! Simply similar with the Matter of the Diamond Necklace, her reputation was tarnished forever considering of somebody else's quote.

The first time the quote was connected to the doomed Queen in print was in 1843. A French writer named Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr reported finding the quote 'Let Them Eat Cake' in a book from 1760 when Marie-Antoinette was just five years sometime.

Karr hoped this would cease the rumor that she was responsible for the famous quote once and for all, but it did not work.

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