Did Marie Antoinette really say "Let them eat cake."?

Question

I was talking about this with my mom today and she says that Marie Antoinette never said that. Is there a secondary source that has supporting evidence stating that she did say that?

Answer 1

No. It was propaganda started by the French peasants to incite the people to revolt, which ultimately began their revolutionary war.

Answer 2

First off, when they refer to cake; cake was from the inside of the bakery oven that came from baking, and residue from the baked goods would become "Cake". Was it edible, I suppose since is was material from the baking process.



Second;

There is no evidence that she actually did so, and in any case she did not originate it.

The peasants-have-no-bread story was in common currency at least since the 1760s as an illustration of the decadence of the aristocracy. The political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau mentions it in his Confessions in connection with an incident that occurred in 1740. (He stole wine while working as a tutor in Lyons and then had problems trying to scrounge up something to eat along with it.) He concludes thusly: "Finally I remembered the way out suggested by a great princess when told that the peasants had no bread: 'Well, let them eat cake.'"



Now, J.-J. may have been embroidering this yarn with a line he had really heard many years later. But even so, at the time he was writing--early 1766--Marie Antoinette was only ten years old and still four years away from her marriage to the future Louis XVI. Writer Alphonse Karr in 1843 claimed that the line originated with a certain Duchess of Tuscany in 1760 or earlier, and that it was attributed to Marie Antoinette in 1789 by radical agitators who were trying to turn the populace against her.

Answer 3

I'm gonna keep this short....



But there is evidence that she could have.



In french, she would have said "Brioche", not "Bread". Brioche is a specific kind of sweet bread that actually uses 2/3 less flour than normal bread. Since the people of France were starving from a grain shortage, giving them Brioche would have actually been an easy way to conserve flour, thus saving thousands of lives from famine.



So, if she did, its not like she automatically meant it in a cynical or sarcastic way.



So, yes. She did say it. But whetehr she meant it as a joke or a serious solution to France's crisis is up for discussion. Too bad we'll never really know =(

Answer 4

Your mom is correct. She never said that. She did in fact say "let them eat brioche". This is a French type of bread that was served to the upper class. When told that the peasants did not have any bread to eat she responded with this saying. The reason we say cake is because brioche is a sweet bread. It was a very sarcastic thing to say on her part but I also think she was quite naive as most people could not afford this bread.

Answer 5

they weren't here exact words (i don't know what they were), it was something to do with a bread shortage (the main food of a french peasant). Marie Antoinette was naive and said something like can't they eat cake, she didn't understand that bread was their staple diet and that they could not afford cake, she wasn't saying she didn't care like "let them eat cake suggests"



sources = my history lecturer

Answer 6

It's more complicated than that, but probably not, and it probably wasn't what we would call cake.

For some expert opinions, see the URLs below.

A friend of mine who is a great history researcher holds with the "caking" (the stuff-used-in-ovens mentioned on one of the sites) theory.

Answer 7

No she did not. You will find secondary sources saying she said it but you will not find good ones and you certainly won't find any primary sources.

Answer 8

I read that she did not say that and I was under the impression that she wasn't nearly as dumb as she has been made out to be. On the other hand, her husband supposedly was a fool.

Answer 9

Some say she did, but it's believed that those weren't her exact words they were just brought up as that.

Answer 10

Try this:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/550/did-marie-antoinette-really-say-let-them-eat-cake



and this:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/227600.html

Answer 11

she denies having said it but people deny saying alot of things. I have to agree with hollyweird, I mean after all if it is the song by Queen "Killer Queen" it must be true.

Answer 12

the only source is from one of the revolutionaries. someone who had no way of hearing her say anything.

Answer 13

Yes she did

Answer 14

i think so... it's in the song "Killer Queen" bye Queen

Answer 15

yes she really said that.