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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. You're and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm editor Candice Gibson, joined day as always by the

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Speaker 1: ever Mary Josh Clark Mayad, my writer. How is it going, Candace?

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Speaker 1: It's going very well because you've just taken a big

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Speaker 1: bite of something. It's cake. Um. You know they're throwing

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Speaker 1: a party in the conference room for Sarah Dowty's birthday.

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Speaker 1: You know that, right, We've got to get some of

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Speaker 1: those cake getters really good. It looks good anyway. So

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Speaker 1: I was just in there and somebody, I think it

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Speaker 1: was Katie Lambert says, let them meet cake, you know,

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Speaker 1: just kind of jokingly. So I say, as to Clambert,

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Speaker 1: I says, be careful because the last person who said

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Speaker 1: that had her head cut off. What do you think, Oh,

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Speaker 1: it's not true. Yea, it is. I mean it's kind

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Speaker 1: of a cute thing to say, and I'm sure people

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Speaker 1: laugh politely, but it's not true. I don't did get

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Speaker 1: a politely that was about it. Well, Katy knows better,

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Speaker 1: so she was humoring you. Well, no, I mean Marie

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Speaker 1: Antoinette said up and for saying it. They stormed the

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Speaker 1: best deal and cut her head off. Wrong and wrong

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Speaker 1: and wrong. Well, okay, filmy and miss I know everything

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Speaker 1: about the French Revolution, the frev as I like to

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Speaker 1: abbreviate it um. Marie Antoinette was actually about ten years

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Speaker 1: old when that phrase appeared in Jean jacqu Rousseau's confessions,

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Speaker 1: and supposedly he either turned the phrase himself or he

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Speaker 1: got it from Maria Raisa, who was married to King

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Speaker 1: Louis the fourteenth. And if she actually did say it,

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Speaker 1: which was just a rumor, she would have been saying,

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Speaker 1: not literally, let the meat cake like the vanilla clime

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Speaker 1: at the sugar flowers that you have, but brioche, which

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Speaker 1: is actually an egg based bread that sounds much worse

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Speaker 1: than the cake I have. You mean tasting, or I

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Speaker 1: would prefer, you know, the sugary kind. I like a

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Speaker 1: nice brioche at brunch, you know, at a birthday party.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps not anyway, the point being from an economical standpoint,

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Speaker 1: it was it was a pretty wise thing to say

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Speaker 1: what she was. Well, she was referring to this law

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Speaker 1: in France that dictated what prices bakers could saw their bread. Yes,

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Speaker 1: the French baker law anyway, you laugh, but it's true.

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Speaker 1: If I did laugh, you're right, I laugh at everything though. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: So the law was you had to sell your fans

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Speaker 1: your bread's like, you know, your brioche at the same

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Speaker 1: price as your cheaper flower and water loaves if that

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Speaker 1: supply ran out, if the cheaper ones ran out. Yes,

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Speaker 1: so the peasants got the good stuff at the same price, right,

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Speaker 1: that seems pretty fair. Yeah, so the peasants didn't go hungry.

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Speaker 1: So you know, the story behind the falls left them

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Speaker 1: cake thing was that the people in parish were starving

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Speaker 1: and hungry. Marie Antoinette posedly said, left the meat cake.

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Speaker 1: What really would have happened if Maria Theresa did say

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Speaker 1: it was she heard that the peasants were hungry and starving.

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Speaker 1: She said, well, if there is no bread, then let

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Speaker 1: them have briosh at the same cost. And there you

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Speaker 1: have it. A sweet little story, isn't it very sweet?

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Speaker 1: That's heartwarming? Okay, so that's fiction. Yeah. Wow, that's like

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Speaker 1: the one of the few things I know about Marie Antoinette.

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Speaker 1: But I do know that that's not the only scandal.

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Speaker 1: This woman was a very scandalous figure, right, I mean,

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Speaker 1: she was there when the French revolted overthrew the monarchy

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Speaker 1: and established their own system of government. Right, Yes, it

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Speaker 1: was in part because of her, wasn't it precisely? I

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Speaker 1: mean she like she had an affair with like a Swede, Right,

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Speaker 1: that's what I heard. Tell me, that's not fiction, that's

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Speaker 1: not fiction. Yes, that's true. That when you can you

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Speaker 1: can cling on too. It was. It wasn't exactly a

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Speaker 1: torrid rolling in the boudoir love affair. It was very

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Speaker 1: tender and genuine from what I understand. You're referring to

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Speaker 1: Count Axel von Person. He was a Swede and they

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Speaker 1: met at a ball in Paris and they kept up

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Speaker 1: communication over several years. He actually went away to help

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Speaker 1: fight in the American Revolution and was back and forth

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Speaker 1: between Sweden and France, and eventually he came back. And

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Speaker 1: by this time Louis had given Marie Antoinette her own

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Speaker 1: little place on the grounds of her side. It was

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Speaker 1: called Petit trian On. Yeah, I've heard the descriptions of

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Speaker 1: this place. That sounds beautiful. Yeah. Basically, go kim basing

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Speaker 1: grim buy an entire town um kind of sort of.

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Speaker 1: It was house originally built for I believe Madame du Pompadour.

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Speaker 1: And of course the idea was just a pleasure house.

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Speaker 1: It was a complete getaway. And Marie Antoinette was a

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Speaker 1: tomboy when she was growing up. She really liked hunting

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Speaker 1: and animals and the rough and tumble life, and so

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Speaker 1: she wanted to bring a little bit of that flavor

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Speaker 1: to your side. So she actually created her own provincial

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Speaker 1: village outside Petit trian On, complete with cows and sheep

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Speaker 1: one of my personal faith animals. Um. So she had

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Speaker 1: all these rustic looking buildings, but while some of them

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Speaker 1: actually operated, mo to them had other things inside, you know,

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Speaker 1: like other little getaways or extensions of the house. It

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Speaker 1: was almost like, I don't know, going to MGM and

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Speaker 1: seeing all these backdrops, but behind, you know, you realize

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Speaker 1: they're just a prop. Really, didn't she put on plays there?

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Speaker 1: I mean that kind of that would coincide with that. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: It was her own little fantasy world, and she had

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Speaker 1: a jewel box theater and when she gave these performances,

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Speaker 1: it was one of the only times that Louis would

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Speaker 1: come to train on It was her getaway, but he

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Speaker 1: would come by to see her perform and she would

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Speaker 1: play the part of dairymaids. And for someone who had

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Speaker 1: as much money and extravagant things as she did, she

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Speaker 1: certainly liked, you know, taking off the dog as her

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Speaker 1: personally expression. Guests, I guess what I'm putting on the dog?

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Speaker 1: Isn't that the expression for getting all fancy? I have

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Speaker 1: not heard that. Actually, well she took off the dog, okay, alright, Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I got the impression that she got homesick kind of

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Speaker 1: kind of frequently for Vienna, and like you said, her

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Speaker 1: tomboy upbringing her you know, childhood, that kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: So she did have the affair with the Swede then, yes, okay, fact.

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Speaker 1: So the reason I heard I've got I've got another one.

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Speaker 1: The reason I've heard that she had an affair with

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Speaker 1: the Swede was because her husband, Louis was impotent. Is

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Speaker 1: that is that fact? Your fiction? Um? Also a fact? Yes?

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Speaker 1: Actually it was Louis sixt Yes, I know this room,

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Speaker 1: the numerals, they're crazy. So two out of three ain't bad? No,

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Speaker 1: not bad at all. Um, Well, it's you know, kind

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Speaker 1: of bad from my aunt went out because we're laughing

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Speaker 1: in her bedroom life and it was pretty pitiful and Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it really was. And I'm not the only one to

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Speaker 1: think so. During her lifetime, there were pamphlets that sort

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Speaker 1: of amounted to what are you know tabloids today being

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Speaker 1: circulated around Paris, and the headlines just screamed, King can't

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Speaker 1: do it with queen. Well, royal couple fails to consummate marriage. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, they they're big into producing airs, so I

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Speaker 1: can imagine that was pretty scan was how long did

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Speaker 1: this go on for? Because I mean they eventually did

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Speaker 1: have kids, right, yeah, seven years? Seven years that there

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Speaker 1: are plenty of pamphlets. Yeah, and the first kid was

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Speaker 1: a girl. Okay, Yeah, that didn't solve a whole lot,

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Speaker 1: but they did have a boy. Eventually they did go

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Speaker 1: on to have children. But you know, it's just so

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Speaker 1: funny because there were so many factors about their lives

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Speaker 1: that were really working against them in this. For one,

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Speaker 1: Louis was really interested in locks. That yeah, and the

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Speaker 1: big joke was that the king couldn't find where to

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Speaker 1: put his key and little jokes like this, and a

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Speaker 1: lot of pressure was on Marie Antoinette. You know, this

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Speaker 1: marriage was obviously a political marriage. It was designed to

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Speaker 1: night the Austrian Hapsburgs with the French Bourbons, and her

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Speaker 1: mother would write her letter saying, you need to be

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Speaker 1: kissing on him more and touching on him more, and

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Speaker 1: be warmer in the bedroom, and you need to be

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Speaker 1: taking better care of yourself to make yourself attractive to him,

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Speaker 1: and she just felt really awful. You know, she was

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Speaker 1: still really young at this time. They I think she

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Speaker 1: was fifteen when they got married. Well it's pretty young,

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Speaker 1: too young, almost too young, there you have it. But

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Speaker 1: um by the time they became monarch, because I think

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Speaker 1: she was in her twenties, very very early twenties. So

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Speaker 1: you have a lot of pressure. Well that is a

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Speaker 1: lot of pressure. So okay, so I'm two for three today,

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Speaker 1: which isn't bad. That's better than my usual over one.

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Speaker 1: So I appreciate you clearing that up. I'm going to

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Speaker 1: go talk to Clamber and tell her I was wrong. Okay, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So thanks for this, And you want me to get

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Speaker 1: you some cake, just some champagne, just champagne, you got it.

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Speaker 1: I'm on glass number three, so I'll bring a couple

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Speaker 1: for us. And you know what, if you want to

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Speaker 1: dash back when you've got that other piece of cake,

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you one more interesting tidbit about her. So

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Speaker 1: we're back, and I promised you one more interesting to

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Speaker 1: tail about Marie Antoinette's and here goes. What is it?

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Speaker 1: Supposedly she was allowed a three point six million dollar

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Speaker 1: and today's dollars allowance for her wardrobe, and she always

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Speaker 1: surpassed that because she liked ordering gowns trend and silver

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Speaker 1: and gold and dripping with diamonds and emeralds and stuff.

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Speaker 1: I have a tuxedo that has um, you know, emeralds

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Speaker 1: all over it. But that's just one well, and that's

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Speaker 1: you know, that's practical. That's for the work party. We

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Speaker 1: need those here. Sure, I forgot it today. Luckily, I'm

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Speaker 1: wearing my ballgown. So if you want even more royal fodder,

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Speaker 1: you can read the top five Mariantoinette scandals on how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. You've got to get some of

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Speaker 1: this cake. For more on this and thousands of other topics,

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Speaker 1: is it how stuff works dot com. Let us know

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Speaker 1: what you think. Send an email to podcast at how

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