After allegedly making a comment about the utility of hay, an official in this century was unsuccessfully hanged three times before being beheaded and having hay shoved in his mouth. At the end of this century, an author discovered fondue during his time in self-exile in Switzerland, which he popularized in a later book that contains the aphorism “Animals feed, man eats.” A book by Mark Kurlansky records that this was the [emphasize] final century in which women wore false buttocks to smuggle food. Peasants were granted the right to hunt in this century’s (*) August Decrees. A minister in this century claimed that his king ate the mixed rye and wheat bread maslin. Food insecurity in this century gave rise to numerous “famine plots” that accused the aristocracy of hoarding grain, including finance minister Jacques Necker. For 10 points, in what century were the peasants of France allegedly told to “eat cake” by Marie Antoinette? ■END■
ANSWER: 18th century [or 1700s] (The official in the leadin is Joseph Foullon de Doué, who allegedly said “If those rascals have no bread, then let them eat hay.”)
<Alex Fregeau, European History>
= Average correct buzz position