What was "let them eat cake"?

Question

marie antoinette

what was it...

Answer 1

A famous quote supposedly by Marie Antoinette.

"    * The queen responded, "Qu’ils mangent de la brioche" ("Let them eat cake)," when she was initially confronted by the poverty of the French people. There are a variety of versions concerning the circumstances under which Marie Antoinette supposedly first said these words (ranging from peasants coming to the gates of Versailles begging for food to her driving through Paris and seeing the condition of the peasants on her own). However, the quote actually comes from the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who commented over twenty years before Marie Antoinette's birth that a "certain princess" said it, the supposed princess being Louis XIV's queen, Maria Theresa of Spain. Maria Theresa's quote was, "S'il ait aucun pain, donnez-leur la croûte au loin du pâté", which roughly translates to, "If there be no bread, give them the crust off of the pâté". Though this claim concerning the Spanish princess is also backed up by the comte de Provence, it is unknown if she, or any other French queen, actually ever said it."

Answer 2

when told that the peasants could not get any bread to eat she responded with this famous line.  It shows how disconnected she was from the everyday people of France.  She did not understand that they were starving - thinking if they can't have bread they can eat cake because she had no trouble getting food/

Answer 3

It was a lie perpetrated by those who wanted a revolution to start. Marie antionette never actaully said it. But it's the lie that pushed people over the edge. It is not known where it truly came from, but it is atributed to another person, which is most likely.

Answer 4

the first answer is probably the best but can i elaborate??? while marie antoinette was in versailles getting fat, the peasants of france were starving, the cake that she was referring to was not cake or bread or anything, it was actually the buildup of burnt breadcrumbs at the bottom of the oven. there was a thick black gunk that, though tasted really bad, was edible.

Answer 5

“Let them eat cake” was a statement that was wrongly attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution.  Recent research has indicated that this statement was probably not made by the queen of France, but rather created out of political motivation, poor research, and personal agendas.  There seems to be at least some indication that the statement existed before the French Revolution even started.

In addition to this, the term cake is somewhat incorrect, as the original line is translated as “brioche” which is actually more of an enriched bread than an actual cake as we would think today.