Allow me to
ruin this.
Although the phrase is conventionally attributed to
Marie Antoinette, there is no evidence that she ever uttered it, and it is now generally regarded as a journalistic cliché. The phrase can actually be traced back to
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's
Confessions in 1765, 24 years prior to the
French Revolution, and when Antoinette was nine years old and had never been to France. The phrase was not attributed to Antoinette until decades after her death.
...
Fraser also points out in her biography that Marie Antoinette was a generous patron of charity and moved by the plight of the poor when it was brought to her attention, thus making the statement out of character for her. This makes it even more unlikely that Marie Antoinette ever said the phrase.
A second consideration is that there were no actual
famines during the reign of
Louis XVI and only two incidents of serious bread shortages, the first in April–May 1775, a few weeks before the king's
coronation on 11 June 1775, and the second in 1788, the year before the
French Revolution. The 1775 shortages led to a series of riots that took place in northern, eastern and western France, known at the time as the
Flour War (
guerre des farines). Letters from Marie Antoinette to her family in
Austria at this time reveal an attitude largely contrary to the spirit of
Let them eat brioche:
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.
My girl's been done wrong.