This heartless and cynical expression is usually-and mistakenly-attributed to Marie Antoinette when she was told that the starving masses had no bread. Actually, it was Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Confessions (1767) who wrote about a "great princess",who, on being informed that the country people had no bread, replied, "Let them eat cake".
The saying illustrates the total ignorance of the rich with respect to the conditions of the poor.
~Facts on File Encyclopedia of Historical and Cultural Allusions
This bit of royal arrogance has been ascribed to King Louis XIV (1638-1715), the most powerful of France's absolute monarchs. When the president of the parliament objected to Louis' exhorbitant demands for money because they were against the interest of the state, he replied "L'Etat c'est moi".
Louis XIV remains the archetype of the regal absolutism that the French Revolution finally uprooted and destroyed.
~Facts on File Encyclopedia of Historical and Cultural Allusions.
