There Was Never Any Cake
I don't know why I've become so taken with this woman. I don't relate to her, she's not likeable, and she's not revealed to be very smart. But for some reason, this mis-represented monarch is someone I'm connecting with.
Antonia Fraser's book, Marie Antoinette: The Journey is a biography that reads like a text book in parts but as a whole is ultimately fascinating. French politics of the era were nothing if not scandalous, and the mood of the people was ominous. On the eve of revolution because they were starving and to their mind the monarchs were doing nothing (which is mostly true), Marie Antoinette is married to the Dauphin Louis Auguste, the grandson of the King of France. Death had skipped his father's title and brought it straight to the undeserving, and unwanting, head of Louis. Marie Antoinette was married at 14, brought to France, and then asked to give up her culture (literally everything from Austria was destroyed or pilfered) while still doing what was in the best interest of her mother the Empress and her brother the Emperor. So she had to adopt everything French and be a good Queen, and yet, be an ally and consort for Austria.
She was 14.
And she never said "Let them eat cake," according to Fraser, who's book was a national best seller and is the basis for the movie that Sophia Coppola just wrote. According to Fraser, the let them eat cake line had been attributed to many royalties in the past, and I could list them here if I went back to my book but I don't want to at the moment. Either way, Fraser's book is heavily documented and largely touted as being the most thorough of the Antoinette biographies. A new one just came out (in time for the movie no doubt) by Sena Jeter Naslund, Abundance, a title while amply fits the spoiled teenage queen. By the time Marie Antoinette grows up and realizes that her dalliances and reputation has consequences, The Affair of the Necklace has already taken place and the people of Paris already hate her without question.
She lost two children, her husband wouldn't be her "husband" for something like 7 years, and her mother constantly badgered her about her inappropriate dress (inappropriate for Austria not for France) and her capricious nature when it came to European politics. She was blamed for spending all the royal treasury on parties, when in reality the French aid to the American Colonies was what was draining the people's wallets.
The citizens were overtaxed and underfed, the monarch's trusted old advisors that had been present when Louis XV was in office who had old ideals and no new ways to tackle current problems. They had no allies, and no friends, and were in constant fear of war with England.
I'm not an expert on the French Revolution and I don't want to be. But I do really feel for Marie Antoinette. In France a woman couldn't govern or take control of the country from the King. At least in England the Queen's stood a chance. Marie Antoinette was fodder for a country ripe for turmoil, and they ate her up.
But they never, not once, were told to eat cake. Marie Antoinette was very giving when she could be, and was the one who told her husband to lower the taxes on the grains that were forcing the people into starvation. She was capricious, vain, and clueless about politics, but she was not cruel, and she certainly understood that some of her people were hungry.
What spawned this article were all the movie reviews here:
"Cake is the perfect metaphor..." Jurgen Fauth, About.com
"Notorious Queen 'Let them Eat Cake'..." Emannuel Levy, EmannuelLevy.com
"The feast however sumptuous, should have had more than just cake..." Richard Mowe, BoxOffice Magazine
On and on. Not only was the propaganda used against Marie Antoinette extremely ingrained in society for decades after her demies, but it appears that even today, with the gift of hindsight, the world still sees only a selfish, evil monarch, and not a spoiled child of Versailles who was thrust into a situation that she was in no way trained to handle, and in no way allowed to prevent.
Antonia Fraser's book, Marie Antoinette: The Journey is a biography that reads like a text book in parts but as a whole is ultimately fascinating. French politics of the era were nothing if not scandalous, and the mood of the people was ominous. On the eve of revolution because they were starving and to their mind the monarchs were doing nothing (which is mostly true), Marie Antoinette is married to the Dauphin Louis Auguste, the grandson of the King of France. Death had skipped his father's title and brought it straight to the undeserving, and unwanting, head of Louis. Marie Antoinette was married at 14, brought to France, and then asked to give up her culture (literally everything from Austria was destroyed or pilfered) while still doing what was in the best interest of her mother the Empress and her brother the Emperor. So she had to adopt everything French and be a good Queen, and yet, be an ally and consort for Austria.
She was 14.
And she never said "Let them eat cake," according to Fraser, who's book was a national best seller and is the basis for the movie that Sophia Coppola just wrote. According to Fraser, the let them eat cake line had been attributed to many royalties in the past, and I could list them here if I went back to my book but I don't want to at the moment. Either way, Fraser's book is heavily documented and largely touted as being the most thorough of the Antoinette biographies. A new one just came out (in time for the movie no doubt) by Sena Jeter Naslund, Abundance, a title while amply fits the spoiled teenage queen. By the time Marie Antoinette grows up and realizes that her dalliances and reputation has consequences, The Affair of the Necklace has already taken place and the people of Paris already hate her without question.
She lost two children, her husband wouldn't be her "husband" for something like 7 years, and her mother constantly badgered her about her inappropriate dress (inappropriate for Austria not for France) and her capricious nature when it came to European politics. She was blamed for spending all the royal treasury on parties, when in reality the French aid to the American Colonies was what was draining the people's wallets.
The citizens were overtaxed and underfed, the monarch's trusted old advisors that had been present when Louis XV was in office who had old ideals and no new ways to tackle current problems. They had no allies, and no friends, and were in constant fear of war with England.
I'm not an expert on the French Revolution and I don't want to be. But I do really feel for Marie Antoinette. In France a woman couldn't govern or take control of the country from the King. At least in England the Queen's stood a chance. Marie Antoinette was fodder for a country ripe for turmoil, and they ate her up.
But they never, not once, were told to eat cake. Marie Antoinette was very giving when she could be, and was the one who told her husband to lower the taxes on the grains that were forcing the people into starvation. She was capricious, vain, and clueless about politics, but she was not cruel, and she certainly understood that some of her people were hungry.
What spawned this article were all the movie reviews here:
"Cake is the perfect metaphor..." Jurgen Fauth, About.com
"Notorious Queen 'Let them Eat Cake'..." Emannuel Levy, EmannuelLevy.com
"The feast however sumptuous, should have had more than just cake..." Richard Mowe, BoxOffice Magazine
On and on. Not only was the propaganda used against Marie Antoinette extremely ingrained in society for decades after her demies, but it appears that even today, with the gift of hindsight, the world still sees only a selfish, evil monarch, and not a spoiled child of Versailles who was thrust into a situation that she was in no way trained to handle, and in no way allowed to prevent.
Comments