Did Marie Antoinette Say "Let Them Eat Cake"?

https://www.livescience.com/let-the-eat-cake.html.

https://worldinparis.com/let-them-eat-cake-marie-antoinette

https://www.biography. com/royalty/marie-antoinette

Krieger, Larry, and Research And. AP European History Crash Course. Research & Education Association, 2020.

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Tzeela: Hi I'm Tzeela and I'm 16

Rina: Hi I'm Rina and I'm 14

Dalia: Hey, I'm Dalia and I'm 10

All: And this is Things You Thought You Knew About History!

Tzeela: Where we tell you the real story behind historical misconceptions.

Dalia: So you might have heard that Marie Antoinette said let them eat cake when she heard about the people who were starving in France,

Advisor: "Your Majesty! The people are starving, they have nothing to feed their children with and no bread to eat"

Marie Antoinette: "They don’t have bread, why, just let them eat cake!"

Dalia: Well actually there's no evidence that she said that.

Rina: What's the deal with that?

Tzeela: Well let's find out!

Dalia: To understand this phrase, where it came from, and why this myth is so wide-spread, we first need to understand the background because it’s sort of important.

Tzeela: Marie Antoinette was born on Nov 02, 1755. Her mother, Maria Theresa, was the empress of Austria and her brother, Joseph II, would also go on to be the ruler of Austria.

Rina: Before Marie Antoinette was born, Austria fought the War of Austrian Succession. This war started in 1740, soon after Marie Theresa became queen. Frederick II of neighboring Prussia seized Silesia, which was a part of Austria.

Tzeela: The reason this war is called the War of Austrian Succession may have to do with why it started.

Dalia: Maria Theresa was a woman so her father had to make the Pragmatic Sanction which guaranteed her the right to inherit the throne and territories.

Rina: But by seizing Silesias, Prussia ignored the pragmatic sanction. This means that part of the reason and excuse for the war was a dispute over Maria Theresa’s right to rule Austria or her succession from her father.

Dalia: During the war of Austrian succession, Austria was allied with Great Britain and Prussia with France. At this time, France and Great Britain were often rivals, and Prussia and Austria were rivals too.

Tzeela: Austria wanted strong allies, so they switched allies to be allied with France in something called the Diplomatic Revolution. Since France and Austria were now allied, Great Britain allied with Prussia to try to keep the balance of who had power in Europe. Prussia and Great Britain fought against France, Austria, and for a time Russia in the Seven Year War which began in 1765.

Dalia: But what does that have to do with Marie Antoinette?

Rina: To strengthen Austria’s alliance with France, Marie Antoinette was married to the prince of France who would become Louis XVI.

Dalia: In May 1774 Marrie Antoinette became queen of France when her husband Louis XVI became king of France.

Rina: Okay so we know Marie Antoinette was married to the king of France, but why would she say let them eat cake?

Tzeela: Well, it has to do with the French Revolution.

Dalia: During her husband's rule in France people were unhappy. The economy in France wasn’t doing well and there was a lot of unrest.

Rina: Food shortages in Paris sparked a crowd of several thousand women to march from Paris to Versailles, where the royal family lived. They demanded cheap bread and that the royal family move to Paris. This was in October 1789 and is known as the Women's March to Versailles.

Dalia: Around this time is when people think Marrie Antoinette said let them eat cake.

Tzeela: But there is no evidence that she ever said anything of the sort. It actually seems she may have been a rather charitable person.

Rina: Ohh that's right I heard she didn’t actually say let them eat cate but instead a similar phrase, "Let them eat brioche."

Dalia: Brioche is a french bread that is more expensive and has a different taste and texure than traditional bread. However, it isn’t dessert like you think of when you hear the phrase, "Let them eat cake."

Tzeela: Well she didn’t actually say that either.

Dalia: So why do so many people think she did?

Tzeela: Well, Marrie Antoinette wasn't very popular in France from the beginning, many French people had negative opinions about her. She also was known for living a lavish lifestyle.

Rina: And this phrase makes her look very arrogant, oblivious, and out of touch by telling starving people to just eat cake!

Dalia: The phrase was attributed to her in the 1870s during the Third Republic of France as part of an attempt to reconstruct the past. They wanted to ruin the reputation of the monarchy in France as a whole. The phrase was used to hurt Marie Antoinette's reputation and legacy.

Tzeela: This phrase had been floating around for a while and was used against other noble women.

Rina: The first person to write this phrase may have been Jean-Jacques Rousseau, (I hope I'm saying that right). He was a philosopher who influenced the revolution, He wrote the phrase "let them eat brioche" in one of his novels, where it is said by a fictitious or fake character who belonged to the 18th-century French aristocracy.

Tzeela: When he wrote this novel in 1767, Marrie Antoinette was only ten and not yet married to Louis XVI of France.

Dalia: Rousseau may have either made up the term himself or he could have been referring to Maria-Thérèse, the wife of Louis XIV of France, about 100 years before Marie Antoinette became queen.

Rina: It seems the phrase may have been floating around in different variations before this. Another time this phrase came up was in Germany where there is a story of a 16th-century noblewoman who wonders why the hungry peasants aren’t eating Krosem, a kind of sweet bread.

Tzeela: Okay so they used a phrase that had been floating around for a while to make Marie Antoinette look bad. But what actually ended up happening to Marie Antoinette?

Rina: Well in 1793 Louis XVI and Marrie Antoinette were both executed on the guillotine, which was a device used in many executions during the French Revolution.

Rina: The French Revolution started in 1789 and its beginning is often marked by the Tennis Court Oath. In the French government at the time the king would call the estate general when making a law.

Tzeela: There were three estates in the French government. Each one got one vote on laws the king tried to pass.

First Estate: "Hi, I’m the first estate I am made up of the clergy, or people who worked for the church, we are about 2% of the population and we own about 20% of the land"

Second Estate: "Hello, Hello, I am the second estate. The nobility! Only 2-4% of the population yet we own 25% of land. We are certainly rich and we even get out of a bunch of taxes."

First Estate:"We usually vote the same way on most issues."

Second Estate: "We are both nobility after all"

Third Estate: And that isn’t fair! By the way, I am the third estate made up of 95% of the population and I only get one vote!

-everyone yelling over each other-

Second Estate: "This is ridiculous!"

Third Estate: "But what about equlity!"

First Estate: "It's the law!"

Second Estate: "JUST STOP ALREADY!"

Third Estate: "Well, that's it if you won’t let us have more of a say we will give it to ourselves. We are now the National Assembly of France.

"Hey, why are the doors to our meeting palace locked? This is the room we usually use as the third estate. We won’t let that stop us. We will just meet in an indoor tennis court.

We all will agree to 'meet whenever circumstances might require until a constitution should be firmly established.' "

Dalia: And that marked the beginning of the French Revolution.

Rina: Marie Antoinette and the royal family tried to escape France in June of 1791, but they were caught and brought back to Paris.

Tzeela: In September Louis XVI agreed to a new constitution but in the summer of 1792 a leader name Maxillium de Robespier, who was gaining more power, called for the king to be removed.

Rina: In September 1792 the National Convention, the new governing body that ruled France at that time, abolished the monarchy.

Dalia: There were two big groups in the French Revolution, the Girondists and Jacobins, who had different views on how France should be run. One of these groups, the Girondists wanted to imprison the king while the Jacobins wanted him executed.

Tzeela: Nation Convention passed a resolution, or a decision or a decision, that Louis XVI would be executed. It was only passed by one vote!!!

Rina: So in January 1793 Louis XVI was executed by the guillotine. The guillotine was used for executions in France during the radical phase of the French Revolution, when many, many, many people were killed.

Tzeela: In October, Marie Antoinette was also executed.

Dalia: Thats a sad ending but on a happier note We have some trivia for you!!!! (Round of applause)

Tzeela: Here how it will work we will ask a question and give you a few seconds to answer then we’ll count down and tell you the correct answer, but if you need more time feel free to pause.

Rina: Okay, first question- What are the colors on the French flag?

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1

Rina: Red, white, and blue

Tzeela: Who was the shortest reining king of France?

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1

Tzeela: It was Louis XIX who ruled for just 20 minutes!

Dalia: What is the motto of France?

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1

Dalia: ‘Liberty, equality, fraternity,’ but in French (‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité’)

Rina: What is the name of the most visited museum in France, and the world?

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1

Rina: The Louvre

Tzeela: Who ruled after the French Revolution?

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1

Tzeela: Napoleon Bonaparte the emperor
Dalia: I thought they wanted to be ruled by the people . Well I guess that didn’t really work out!

Rina: Hope you enjoyed learning about Marie Antoinette!

Dalia: Follow the podcast because we upload a new episode at the beginning of every month

BYE!