Who Said 'Let Them Eat Cake'?

For many years it was believed that Marie Antoinette said these words in response to being told that the peasants had no food. However there is absolutely no shred of evidence to support this claim. Marie Antoinette married King Louis XVI (who was still a prince at that time) in 1774, one year later he became king and so she became queen.

The only evidence of this phrase came from Rousseau who said that this was the answer  a great princess gave. The only problem is that Rousseau wrote this when Marie Antoinette was 10 years old and not even living in France let alone married to its King.

What we do know, is that she was an extravagant woman who spent lavishly on clothes, gambling and diamonds. This, along with the fact that she was a foreigner caused her to become increasingly unpopular. Soon rumors that she was having an affair with her brother-in-law began to spread. The rumors worsened and soon there were pamphlets about her allegedly indulging in bestiality and lesbianism. There was never any evidence but since she was unpopular, people chose to believe it.