<P> While the phrase is commonly attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette , there is no record of her having said it . It appears in book six of Jean - Jacques Rousseau 's Confessions , his autobiography ( whose first six books were written in 1765 , when Marie Antoinette was nine years of age , and published in 1782 ) . The context of Rousseau 's account was his desire to have some bread to accompany some wine he had stolen ; however , feeling he was too elegantly dressed to go into an ordinary bakery , he recollected the words of a `` great princess '' : </P>
who coined the phrase let them eat cake
Jean - Jacques Rousseau