The phrase 'let them eat cake' (*qu'ils mangent de la brioche*) — supposedly Marie Antoinette's reaction on hearing the French peasants had no bread — is one of the most-repeated quotes of the French Revolution era. Did she actually say it?
Rousseau attributes the line to 'a great princess' in Book VI of *Les Confessions*, written between 1765 and 1770. The book was first published in 1782. Marie Antoinette was born in 1755, arrived in France in 1770 as the 14-year-old bride of the future Louis XVI, and could not have said the line that was in print before she was old enough to have said it. The misattribution to her dates from the early 19th century — long after her 1793 execution — and stuck because it suited the political narrative.
Read the full facts →The French Revolution was a period of radical political and social transformation in France that lasted from 1789 to 1799. It abolished the absolute monarchy, established the principle of popular sovereignty, and reshaped political thought across Europe for the following two centuries.
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