Marie Antoinette - “Let them eat cake”
After reading about the translation error of that infamous statement: ” … Let them eat cake.”, it was Brioche (not cake), curiosity got the better of me and I delved into the subject. Here’s what I came up with.
An interview which paints a picture of Marie Antoinette as: A devoted wife and loving mother and humane towards her subjects. The author is, Mary Eileen Russell (pen name: Elena Maria Vidal), the books are “Trianon and Madame Royale”. Must see.
Link…
Something about Marie Antoinette’s mother, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria:
The rule of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria was marked by the implementation of major reforms which effected considerable modernization in all the Habsburg territories: Empress Maria Theresa of Austria modernized:
- the administration
- reorganized the army (and established a military academy,
- eased the life of the peasants (e.g. by limiting the amount offorced labor),
- introduced compulsory school attendance,
- abolished torture and,
- reduced the influence of the Church (abolition of the Jesuits 1773).
And not to forget Marie Antoinette’s older brother, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (also a very interesting history), who would travel incognito and be very much a part of the people he ruled over.
Joseph’s social reform was the area which he was most influenced by Enlightenment thinkers. Before 1780, Austria had no government funded welfare agencies. Hospitals and schools were run by the Church and there was no specific provision for the old, the disabled and lunatics.Joseph II established the most comprehensive welfare system in Europe. The system was expensive and wide ranging. Reforms went further than the radical suggestions of a writer. He financed the extensive program mostly from the dissolution of the monasteries.
- Orphanages,
- hospitals,
- maternity units,
- medical colleges,
- lunatic asylums and
- institutions for unmarried women,
- the blind,
- the deaf and
- cripples were all established in the 1780s.
- In 1785 Vienna General Hospital had 2000 beds.
Joseph’s provisions were the most effective of any state in Europe and would not be improved in any other country until a century later. In these reforms, Joseph showed his very Enlightened and strong humanitarian principles of caring and support.
So, I say: “With a family like that, the probability that Marie Antoinette would utter such a calloused and, brain dead statement seems low or, unlikely to me.