☕️ Alice’s Mad Tea Party Presents:
Marie Antoinette: The OG Victim of Fake News
Once upon a time - because, let’s be real, history is just a series of tragic fairy tales - there was a young queen living in the glittering palace of Versailles. She had everything: wealth, jewels, gowns so extravagant they required an engineering degree to wear, and a crown that made her the envy (or the enemy) of an entire nation. But what she didn’t have? A single clue that she was about to become the biggest scapegoat in French history.
See, 18th-century France was not giving “happily ever after” energy. It was a whole economic disaster. The country was drowning in debt from war, mismanagement, and rich people playing financial Jenga with the treasury. Meanwhile, common folks were out here starving - literally - while their taxes funded aristocratic parties so extravagant they would make Gatsby look like a minimalist.
Now, did Marie Antoinette personally cause this catastrophe? Absolutely not. She was a teenager when she arrived in France, married off in a political chess move, and plopped onto the throne with little more than a fancy dress and a nervous smile. She had no say in government affairs (because patriarchy) and wasn’t out here making tax policies. But when the people looked up at the palace, they saw her.
She was young. She was beautiful. She was foreign (Austrian, to be precise). And most importantly? She was an easy target.
The propaganda machine was already cranking at full speed, but then came the ultimate career-ending soundbite - a quote so damning, so infuriating, that it would follow her all the way to the guillotine.
But let’s rewind for a second, because here’s the juicy part: she never actually said it.
The now-infamous phrase - “Let them eat cake” - wasn’t just a misunderstanding. It was a total fabrication. A whole fictional remix designed to paint her as an out-of-touch, gold-plated villain. The line had actually appeared decades earlier in a book by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. And guess what? It wasn’t even about Marie. It was supposedly about some random, unnamed princess.
But facts? Oh, sweetie, facts didn’t stand a chance against a good, scandalous headline.
The revolutionaries took that phrase and ran with it like it was the hottest tea in Paris. It made for the perfect “rich villain vs. starving peasants” narrative, so they slapped it on Marie’s name like a bad tabloid cover. And from that moment on, she was doomed.
Fast forward to the revolution, and things got ugly. The people were done being nice. The monarchy had to go, and Marie? Well, she had exactly zero chances of escaping the wrath of a starving, angry nation.
So, did she actually deserve to be guillotined? That’s a debate for another tea party. But here’s what we do know:
- She didn’t say the line.
- She didn’t personally destroy the French economy.
- And she definitely didn’t RSVP to the French Revolution.
But history loves a scapegoat, and Marie Antoinette got served up on a silver platter.
