Hidden Musicians of History. Marie Antoinette: The "Let Them Eat Cake" Musician

𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆’𝘀 𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗻: Marie Antoinette

Yes.

"Let them eat cake" Marie Antoinette.

 The woman history paints as a powdered, pampered disaster.

Turns out she was… a musician.

A harpist, a singer, and — according to her tutors — genuinely talented.

 She even hosted small musical salons at Versailles, performing chamber works with her ladies-in-waiting (imagine Bridgerton, but with more political denial and better wigs).

Her real teacher?

 Christoph Willibald Gluck, one of the great opera composers.

 That’s like taking singing lessons from Beyoncé and then pretending it’s no big deal.

And while France was buckling under poverty, taxation, and the kind of economic mismanagement that makes modern chancellors look competent…(Ok, maybe not Rt Hon Rachel Reeves then!)...Marie was happily practising her harp and sponsoring musicians.

Was she the world’s greatest monarch? Absolutely not.

Was she the poster child for political awareness? Good lord, no.

But a musician?

Absolutely.

A surprisingly dedicated one.

So today we tip our hat — not to the doomed queen on the guillotine poster — but to the young woman who genuinely loved music, played beautifully, and found joy in the one thing her critics never bothered to mention.

Marie Antoinette:

 Queen.

 Harpist.

 Unexpected musical influencer of 18th-century France.

🎶 𝗜’𝗺 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗻 𝗢’𝗡𝗲𝗶𝗹𝗹 — 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗞𝗶𝗱𝘀 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝘆

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