Jeanne de la Motte betrayed Queen Marie Antoinette to get her hands on a diamond necklace worth millions—and changed the course of history forever.
Upper Class Facts. Elite, upper-class families often had dubious morals, plenty of power, and way too much time on their hands.
Upper Class Facts. Elite, upper-class families often had dubious morals, plenty of power, and way too much time on their hands.
Everyone’s heard it: “Let them eat cake”. It’s quoted in movies, textbooks, and dinner-table debates. But there’s a twist—Marie Antoinette probably never said those words. Historians have traced the phrase back decades before her reign, to a philosopher’s book that mentioned a nameless “great princess”. So how did she end up taking the fall? Rousseau’s Confessions, written in the 1760s, contains the first known version of the quote—“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”. At the time, Antoinette was still a child in Austria. The “great princess” could’ve been any royal. Yet, once the French Revolution took hold, she became the perfect scapegoat for royal arrogance.
History is a tricky subject, and sometimes, despite our best efforts, we get the facts wrong. Think of teaching history like playing the childhood game broken telephone. In the game, the phrase is repeated person...
Marie Antoinette is as famous for her chilling and tragic end as her brief yet twisted life—but few know her even darker history.
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