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Did Marie Antoinette really say "Let them eat cake"?

No, but the story is not far from fact: Marie Antoinette (1755–1793) was queen of France during the French Revolution (1789–99), a bloody rebellion against the monarchy. She became infamous for her insensitivity to poor people, who were suffering in great numbers. According to the tale, she asked an official why Parisians were rebelling. When he explained that people were angry because they had no bread and were starving, she is said to have replied, "Let them eat cake." Historians, however, have found no evidence that Marie Antoinette spoke these words. Instead, the statement has been traced to Swiss-French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), who wrote in his Confessions that an unnamed "young princess" said "Let them eat cake." The princess could not have been Marie Antoinette because Rousseau completed Confessions in...

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