Other sources credit Marie-Therese, Marie Antoinette's eldest child (and the wife of Louis XIV). But she could have meant the wealthy should stop monopolizing food and share with the lower classes - if she said it. The misinterpreted quote portrays Marie Antoinette as a callous patrician, unconcerned with the plight of the poor. She also didn't marry Louis XVI until 1770.Įven if Marie Antoinette did utter the phrase, the original version in French, 'Qu'ils mangent de la brioche,' means 'Let them eat brioche' - a type of crumbly French pastry (not unlike cake but not totally the same) eaten by the upperclass.

But Rousseau wrote those words in 1767 - when Marie Antoinette was 12 years old. Most people assume 'great princess' refers to Marie Antoinette. In Jean-Jacques Rousseau's 'Book 6' of his 12-volume autobiographical work, 'Confessions,' he writes, 'At length I recollected the thoughtless saying of a great princess, who, on being informed that the countrypeople had no bread, replied, 'Then let them eat pastry!' according to Phrase Finder.

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