The Real Reason Everyone Hated Marie Antoinette
Nothing to do with cake
Marie Antoinette was a controversial figure in her time and has remained controversial to this day. To some, she is the embodiment of wasteful wealth and malicious power. To others, she is a victim who was unfairly treated and killed for her troubles. Wherever you land on this spectrum, there is no doubt that in her day, she was reviled and despised by large swaths of the French public. Some believe this was because of her spending habits or her infamous quote about letting the people eat cake. But neither of these things tells the whole story.
The truth about Marie Antoinette was that she was playing with the cards stacked against her from day one. The French people didn’t hate her because of who she was. They hated her because of where she came from.
The French-Habsburg Rivalry
By the time Marie Antoinette entered stage left in the play of French history, the French had been in a two-hundred-year-long struggle with their bitter rivals, the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs were a political force de jure in Medieval and Renaissance Europe and controlled multiple thrones…
