Marie Antoinette Said “Let Them Eat Cake”

The several causes of the French Revolution have been the subject of entire books, but one of them is still regarded as the catalyst for the uprising. According to legend, Marie Antoinette, the queen of France at the time of the revolution, famously reacted when one of her aides informed her that her peasants were starving owing to famine and severe poverty by saying, "Let them eat cake." The adage became so well-known that it is still used to illustrate how indifferent the French monarchy was to its subjects soon before the revolution.

But did Marie Antoinette really say that? There is no proof that she ever said anything like "let them eat cake," despite the fact that she did many things that fully justified the revolt. The expression, which is typically used to describe leaders who are unaware of their subjects' predicament, has really been in some form for a lot longer than that.