Greed, gluttony, excess, and cake? If I asked who in history that described, you’d say, Marie Antoinette, right? If I also asked you to quote her, you would say “Let them eat cake.” But that’s the thing. Marie Antoinette never said that. It wasn’t even about her in the first place.
The phrase was created around 1767, when Marie was nine or ten years old. French Philosopher Jean-Jacques wrote in Book VI of Rousseau’s Confessions, where the mentions of a “grand princess” were credited to saying this phrase. However, Marie was nine when this phrase came to fruition, before she set foot in the royal palace. However, that’s not where all the slander ends. The phrase only gained popularity decades after her death, and it stuck because of Rousseau’s influence. She was made the target of a smear campaign of inappropriate cartoons and accusations of horrible crimes.
But wait, there’s more. People even made horrible ballads about her death. Usually, people would be nice to the person getting their head chopped off back then. She was an outlier. In the markets, these ballads were being sold, which meant these ballads could be easily made, copied, and spread around. These ballads would contain myths about “how horrible she was,” “even when she was doing her royal duties. The people claimed that she had ulterior motives.
Despite her horrible reputation, accounts say that she was more nuanced than people believed. She showed an interest in the general public, alleviating their burdens, and did this by abolishing certain taxes. The people nearest to her had seen that she was aware of her kingdom’s suffering and wished to help, but she had no real power in her position or politics. These had unfortunately been overshadowed by the tales of her alleged affairs.
Her life in France was marked by misunderstanding. She only arrived in France from Austria at 14 years old. When she arrived, she struggled with the expectations of the French court. Her interests in art and fashion were made to show that she was out of touch with the average person at the time. But really, she was a victim who was thrust into a role she was never ready for.
Her legacy isn’t perceived the same as many. It’s still very hard to interpret correctly. Her power was mainly symbolic and was only associated as such because of the royalty around her, all of were usually tone-deaf. Who she was is much less influential than the title itself, of course. She never really stood a chance, like all other foreign royalty in France.
