ISSUE NO 3 : MARIE ANTOINETTE

MARIE ANTOINETTE

Marie Antoinette (1755 – 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. Her full name was Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne de Habsbourg-Lorraine

She was the youngest daughter of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and ruler of the Habsburg dominions. Marie was described "a small, but completely healthy Archduchess." She was known at the Austrian court as Madame Antoine. She was fond of music and learned to play the harpsichord and played for many people at the court. The laxity of court life was compounded by the "private" life which was developed by the Habsburgs. In their "private" life, the family dressed in bourgeois attire, played games with "normal" (non-royal) children, had their schooling, and were treated to gardens and menageries. Marie later attempted to recreate this atmosphere through her renovation of the Petit Trianon in France.

At the death of King Louis XV, in 1774, her husband ascended the French throne as Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette assumed the title of Queen of France and Navarre. After seven years of marriage she gave birth to a daughter, Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, the first of their four children.
During the Reign of Terror, at the height of the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette's husband was deposed and the royal family was imprisoned. Marie Antoinette was tried, convicted of treason and executed by guillotine nine months after her husband.

The Truth Behind “Let Them Eat Cake”

It is believed by many people that Upon being informed that the citizens of France had no bread to eat, Marie Antoinette, exclaimed "let them eat cake", or "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche". There has been some discussion about how "brioche" doesn't translate exactly to cake, but was a different foodstuff (a form of cake made of flour, butter and eggs), and how Marie has simply been misinterpreted, but the truth is most historians don’t believe Marie uttered the phrase at all.
One reason for this is because variations of the phrase had been in use for decades before she is said to have uttered it, supposed examples of precisely the callousness and detachment of the aristocracy to the needs of the peasants that people claimed Marie had shown by supposedly uttering it. Jean-Jacques Rousseau mentions a variation in his autobiographical 'Confessions', where he relates the story of how he, on trying to find food, remembered the words of a great princess who, upon hearing that the country peasants had no bread, coldly said "let them eat cake". He was writing in 1766, before Marie came to France. Furthermore, in a 1791 memoir Louis XVIII claims that Marie-Thérèse of Austria, wife of Louis XIV, used a variation of the phrase ("let them eat pastry") a hundred years before.


Both examples illustrate how the phrase was in use around the time and could have been easily attributed to Marie Antoinette. There was certainly a huge industry devoted to attacking and slandering the Queen, making all sorts of attacks on her to sully her reputation. The 'cake' claim was simply one assault among many, albeit the one which has survived most clearly throughout history. The true origin of the phrase is unknown.

Quotes from Marie Antoinette:

• It is quite certain that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness. The king seems to understand this truth; as for myself, I know that in my whole life (even if I live for a hundred years) I shall never forget the day of the coronation.
• Monsieur, I beg your pardon. (Spoken to the executioner at the guillotine, after she stepped on his foot).
• There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.
• No one understands my ills, nor the terror that fills my breast, who does not know the heart of a mother.

Prepared by:
Raghad H. Iskandar