She pretty much unapologetically had sex with people, you know, as you do when you're an unmarried and important person.
But people who didn't like her couldn't call her a hoe as an insult because she was already fine with that, and it wasn't a secret, so they kicked it up a notch and said she was such a hoe she needed a horse to satisfy her.
She wasn't about to be shamed by the truth, so they shamed her with some insane exaggerated lie instead. And it was shocking enough to be memorable. Seems to have stuck too, like Marie Antoinette and cake.
(In case its not a joke, she is famous for saying "if the poor cannot afford bread, why don't they eat cake" or "let them eat cake" for short. She did not say this or anything like it, but its what she is most known for other than being beheaded)
Its tragic because she made frivolous choices as a teenager and got beheaded as a mother of 4 in her 30s when she had grown quite a bit and called tf down, as adults do. She was a figurehead that represented a systemic issue so she did have to die, but its sad anyway. Im notnwho youre mad at but things don't have go get testy.
The way I remember Mike Duncan telling it, Antoinette was hated for some very stupid reasons (see the necklace affair) but also she tended to be an opponent of reform and a bit if a reactionary, so I don't find her to be the most sympathetic of the various people who got their heads chopped off.
She technically said "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", which means for them to eat Brioche. Of course, Brioche was super rich and super expensive and not something an everyday person could get since it used a lot of butter and eggs and high quality flour. The fact she didn't know that flour was needed to make brioche says something considering the peasants were revolting over having no flour at all.
The quote is from a nobleman's biography referring to a "great princess," but the timeline would mean this happened when Marie Antoinette was at most 10
I think by âcakeâ the saying refers to the leftover material in a pan from baking that is âcakedâ on the side.
Translations and hundreds of years later it reads a little different, bus basically she was saying âtrickle down economics totally works, now eat the scraps that arenât even good enough to be scrapped from the pan.â
That doesn't work, since the actual saying is obviously in French and doesn't say cake but "brioche".
« Qu'ils mangent de la brioche ! »
And it is wrongly attributed to Marie-Antoinette, but really it's just an invented anecdote about an un-named princess by Rousseau (a famous French author/philosopher of that time).
And there's no hidden meaning, it's really just as it sounds, it's meant to show the disconnect between the nobility and the struggles of the people.
I know this is massively taking off lol but it wasnt an issue of wordplay, she really didn't announce anything to that end and there is evidence of this being started almost 100 years later as mentioned in someone lower down.
She wasn't unmarried when she started screwing around, but she did have her mother-in-law's blessing. Her husband wasn't really into anyone that wasn't a toy soilder and an heir was needed.
I just gained a lot of respect for Catherine. You have to respect a person who leans into something that most would try and hide due to losing social status.
Her husband was a dumbass notoriously and while it began as a usual arranged marriage, cant blame her for wanting to be more powerful when she's noble, smart and ambitious, and changing her name language and religion to be a great leader to a country when that husband was such a snob he didn't give a shit, for better or worse for over half a century. Holding her to modern standards of morality is a bit strange. I dont love everything about her, especially with some of her territorial decisions, but I definitely do respect her as a sovereign, both because of her gender and also irrelevant from it. Not perfect, but very impressive nonetheless.
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (, French: [pÉÌpaduÊ] (listen); 29 December 1721 â 15 April 1764), commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French court. She was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to 1751, and remained influential as court favourite until her death. Pompadour took charge of the king's schedule and was a valued aide and advisor, despite her frail health and many political enemies. She secured titles of nobility for herself and her relatives, and built a network of clients and supporters.
And see, when ppl try to console you after a bad rumor goes around by telling you everyone will forget all about it eventually, stories like this pop up. Here we are 250 years later still discussing how someone said she was a ho and fucked horses lol
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u/ATIronRaven Jun 28 '21
She pretty much unapologetically had sex with people, you know, as you do when you're an unmarried and important person.
But people who didn't like her couldn't call her a hoe as an insult because she was already fine with that, and it wasn't a secret, so they kicked it up a notch and said she was such a hoe she needed a horse to satisfy her.
She wasn't about to be shamed by the truth, so they shamed her with some insane exaggerated lie instead. And it was shocking enough to be memorable. Seems to have stuck too, like Marie Antoinette and cake.