Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake” phrase during the French Revolution may have been a misinterpretation. The phrase predates her reign and was possibly a rally against the exploitation of the poor.
According to historical legend, Marie Antoinette’s cry: “Let them eat cake!” it was the straw that broke the camel’s back during the French Revolution. The story goes that Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, was informed that her subjects were starving because they had no bread. She was so spoiled and out of touch with the realities of life for the poor that she suggested they eat cake instead, which is what she would have done if she ran out of bread. Marie Antoinette was convicted of treason and executed in 1793, months after her husband, King Louis XVI, suffered the same fate.
In fact, the phrase predates the reign of Marie Antoinette. Jean-Jaques Rousseau, a philosopher who pioneered democracy and socialism, wrote of a “princess” who said, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche,” when she heard that the peasants had no bread. While the brioche isn’t quite as fancy as the cake, the phrase basically has the same meaning. The story Rousseau told served to illustrate the vast gap between rich and poor in his time, but it was written when Marie Antoinette was only a child and not yet queen of France.
No one knows the true origin of the phrase “let them eat cake,” but it may have been a rally against the exploitation of the poor, rather than a flippant comment revealing the speaker’s ignorance. In 18th-century France, bakers were required by law to sell croissants and other fancy breads for the same price as regular bread if the latter ran out. Thus, the original statement may have meant “do not let the poor starve if ordinary bread is not available”.
One biographer claimed that Louis XIV’s wife Marie-Therese was the first to say “Let them eat cake,” but it is unclear whether the story is strictly factual or merely a metaphor for the decadence of the French aristocracy.
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