“Let them eat cake!”

And some more recent lies you’ve been fed.

During the French Revolution, the peasants were restless, food was scarce, and revolutionaries were out for blood. A servant appealed to Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France, asking what her humble countrymen should eat in this perilous time of famine. She responded:

“S’ils n’ont plus de pain, qu’ils mangent de la brioche!”

Or “If they don’t have any more bread, let them eat brioche!” Did she say this cruelly and facetiously, or was she blissfully unaware of the common man’s existence? She was raised in one of the most esteemed royal families in Europe and married into another, so she wouldn’t have realized what a luxury rich ingredients like butter, eggs, and sugar were. Yet she was an unpopular queen who had the constant buzz of unsavory rumors around her, and *record screech* NONE OF THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED. 

Historians aren’t sure how she became associated with the phrase, but we know she didn’t originate it. In 1765, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote an autobiographical account wherein he related the story of a princess callously uttering those words. It’s unlikely that the princess in question was Marie Antoinette—or as she was known then, Maria Antonia—since she was only nine and living in Austria. Rousseau’s writing was popular among revolutionaries, so it’s not hard to believe anti-monarchists saw this passage, realized it was great ammo against the royal establishment, and began circulating rumors.3 We all know what happened after that…