All posts tagged French Revolution

Let them eat cake


The French Revolution averted, Marie Antoinette saved from the guillotine…
The very real way that French history could have been changed with a simple market tool

« Then let them eat cake ». Widely mistakenly attributed to Marie Antoinette, it is one of the most famous quotations in history, supposedly uttered by the Queen of France during one of the famines that occurred during the reign of her husband, Louis XVI. As the people of France suffered due to widespread bread shortages, the Queen is supposed to have suggested brioche as an alternative, being completely oblivious to the fact that it is enriched with butter and eggs, making it more expensive and unavailable than bread. The words have risen to fame as symbolically important to revolutionary historians explaining the violent overthrow of the monarchy that was to follow.

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