MARIE ANTOINETTE – LET THEM EAT CAKE!!
The famous quote “let them eat cake” has been constantly misattributed to Marie Antoinette.
It was first told in a slightly different form, over one hundred years earlier!
Marie-Thérèse, the Spanish princess who married King Louis XIV in 1660, allegedly suggested that the French people eat “la croûte de pâté” – “the crust of the pâté”
Although Marie Antoinette never uttered those famous words, she did make some particularly strong statements during her lifetime.
The daughter of Austrian royalty and wife to King Louis XVI of France, Marie Antoinette was well educated, well spoken, and outgoing.
Her perceived extravagance earned her the nickname “Madame Deficit,” while the fact that she was born outside of France made her akin to a traitor.
As she navigated the chaos of the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette was eventually guillotined in 1793.
In her last moments, she demonstrated her famous strength and defiance.
When told by the priest who accompanied her to the guillotine to show courage, she reportedly replied:
“Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it, at the moment when my sufferings are to end?”
? Marie Antoinette with the Rose – Portrait by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1783.
