Tradition assigns this apology to Marie Antoinette after she stepped on her executioner’s foot. The anecdote is repeated by modern sources, but a contemporary witness and the exact English wording remain unconfirmed.
“Pardon me, sir, I did not do it on purpose” Traditionally attributed to Marie Antoinette at her execution (16 October 1793); contemporary witness and exact English translation unconfirmed.
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Provenance
The source
Reported occasion
Execution, Paris, 16 October 1793
Evidence limit
Traditional report; no inspected contemporary witness
The alleged French occasion is old, but the exact English translator and edition are unknown. A short identifying excerpt is used; no public-domain claim is made for this English text.
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Context
Why it mattered
The story places a small act of politeness at the moment of a public execution. AFP’s conditional wording preserves an important distinction: a frequently retold incident is not the same as an authenticated transcript, and the familiar English sentence has an unidentified translator.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Marie Antoinette was the Austrian-born wife of Louis XVI and queen of France before the Revolution abolished the monarchy. Imprisoned with the royal family, she was tried and executed in Paris in October 1793. The story of her courtesy to the executioner belongs to the later accounts of that execution.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
The primary source (Chicago)
Traditional final-words attribution to Marie Antoinette, reported in Wikiquote and conditionally in AFP; contemporary witness and English translator unconfirmed.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Pardon me, sir, I did not do it on purpose’?” Last verified 9 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/pardon-me-sir-i-did-not-do-it-on-purpose/