King Louis Philipe I of The French

Louis Philippe I

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Louis Philippe I
Louis Philippe I; Painting by Franz Xaver Winterhalter
King of the French
Reign	9 August 1830 – 24 February 1848
Coronation	9 August 1830
Predecessor	Charles X as King of France and Navarre
Successor	Monarchy abolished Jacques Dupont de l'Eure as Head of the Provisional Government
Prime Ministers	See list[show]
Spouse	Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily
Issue	See list[show]
Full name Louis Philippe d'Orléans
House	House of Orléans
Father	Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Mother	Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon
Born	6 October 1773 Palais-Royal, Paris, France
Died	26 August 1850 (aged 76) Claremont, Surrey, England, UK
Burial	Chapelle royale de Dreux
Religion	Roman Catholic
Signature

Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 as the leader of the Orléanist party. His father Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans had supported the Revolution of 1789 but was nevertheless guillotined during the Reign of Terror. Louis Philippe fled France and spent 21 years in exile. He was proclaimed king in 1830 after Charles X, of the senior Bourbon line, was forced to abdicate. His reign, known as the July Monarchy, was dominated by wealthy elite and numerous former Napoleonic officials. He followed conservative policies especially under the influence of François Guizot in 1840–48. He promoted friendship with Britain and sponsored colonial expansion, notably the conquest of Algeria. His popularity faded and he was forced to abdicate in 1848; he lived out his life in exile in England.

Contents

• 1 Before the Revolution (1773–1789)
  • 1.1 Early life
  • 1.2 Education
• 2 Revolution (1789–1793)
  • 2.1 Military service
• 3 Exile (1793–1815)
  • 3.1 Travels
  • 3.2 Marriage
• 4 Bourbon Restoration (1815–1830)
• 5 King of the French (1830–1848)
• 6 Assassination attempts
• 7 Rule
• 8 Abdication and death (1848–50)
• 9 The clash of the pretenders
• 10 Titles and styles
• 11 Ancestry
• 12 See also
• 13 Namesakes
• 14 References
• 15 Bibliography
• 16 External links

Before the Revolution (1773–1789)

Early life

Louis Philippe d'Orléans was born in the Palais-Royal, the Orléans family residence in Paris, to Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of Chartres, who became Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (also known as "Philippe Égalité" during the French Revolution), and Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was a prince du sang.
Louis Philippe was the eldest of three sons and a daughter, a family that was to have erratic fortunes from the beginning of the French Revolution to the Bourbon Restoration.
The elder branch of the House of Bourbon, to which the kings belonged, deeply distrusted the intentions of the cadet branch, which would succeed to the throne of France should the senior branch die out. Louis Philippe's father was exiled from the royal court, and the Orléans confined themselves to studies of the literature and sciences emerging from the Enlightenment.

Education

Louis Philippe was tutored by the Countess of Genlis, beginning in 1782. She instilled in him a fondness for liberal thought; it is probably during this period that Louis Philippe picked up his slightly Voltairean^{[clarification needed]} brand of Catholicism. When Louis Philippe's grandfather died in 1785, his father succeeded him as Duke of Orléans and Louis Philippe succeeded his father as Duke of Chartres.
In 1788, with the Revolution looming, the young Louis Philippe showed his liberal sympathies when he helped break down the door of a prison cell in Mont Saint-Michel, during a visit there with the Countess of Genlis. From October 1788 to October 1789, the Palais-Royal was a meeting-place for the revolutionaries.

Revolution (1789–1793)

Louis Philippe grew up in a period that changed Europe as a whole and, following his father's strong support for the Revolution, he involved himself completely in those changes. In his diary, he reports that he himself took the initiative to join the Jacobin Club, a move that his father supported.

Military service

The duke of Chartres (dismounted) and his brother, the Duke of Montpensier (on horseback), in dragoon uniform at the battle of Valmy (1792).

In June 1791, Louis Philippe got his first opportunity to become involved in the affairs of France. In 1785, he had been given the hereditary appointment of Colonel of the 14th Regiment of Dragoons.
With war on the horizon in 1791, all proprietary colonels were ordered to join their regiments. Louis Philippe showed himself to be a model officer, and he demonstrated his personal bravery in two famous instances. First, three days after Louis XVI's flight to Varennes, a quarrel between two local priests and one of the new constitutional vicars became heated, and a crowd surrounded the inn where the priests were staying, demanding blood. The young colonel broke through the crowd and extricated the two priests, who then fled. At a river crossing on the same day, another crowd threatened to harm the priests. Louis Philippe put himself between a peasant armed with a carbine and the priests, saving their lives. The next day, Louis Philippe dived into a river to save a drowning local engineer. For this action, he received a civic crown from the local municipality. His regiment was moved north to Flanders at the end of 1791 after the Declaration of Pillnitz.
Louis Philippe served under his father's crony, the Duke of Biron, along with several officers who later gained distinction in Napoleon's empire and afterwards. These included Colonel Berthier and Lieutenant Colonel Alexandre de Beauharnais (husband of the future Empress Joséphine). Louis Philippe saw the first exchanges of fire of the Revolutionary Wars at Boussu and Quaragnon and a few days later fought at Quiévrain near Jemappes, where he was instrumental in rallying a unit of retreating soldiers. Biron wrote to War Minister de Grave, praising the young colonel, who was then promoted to brigadier, commanding a brigade of cavalry in Lückner's Army of the North.
In the Army of the North, Louis Philippe served with four future Marshals of France: Macdonald, Mortier (who would later be killed in an assassination attempt on Louis Philippe), Davout, and Oudinot. Dumouriez was appointed to command the Army of the North in August 1792. Louis Philippe commanded a division under him in the Valmy campaign.
At Valmy, Louis Philippe was ordered to place a battery of artillery on the crest of the hill of Valmy. The battle of Valmy was inconclusive, but the Austrian-Prussian army, short of supplies, was forced back across the Rhine. Once again, Louis Philippe was praised in a letter by Dumouriez after the battle. Louis Philippe was then recalled to Paris to give an account of the Battle at Valmy to the French government. There he had a rather trying interview with Danton, Minister of Justice, which he later fondly re-told to his children.
While in Paris, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. In October he returned to the Army of the North, where Dumouriez had begun a march into Belgium. Louis Philippe again commanded a division. Dumouriez chose to attack an Austrian force in a strong position on the heights of Cuesmes and Jemappes to the west of Mons. Louis Philippe's division sustained heavy casualties as it attacked through a wood, retreating in disorder. Louis Philippe rallied a group of units, dubbing them "the battalion of Mons" and pushed forward along with other French units, finally overwhelming the outnumbered Austrians.
Events in Paris undermined the budding military career of Louis Philippe. The incompetence of Jean-Nicolas Pache, the new Girondist appointee, left the Army of the North almost without supplies. Soon thousands of troops were deserting the army. Louis Philippe was alienated by the more radical policies of the Republic. After the National Convention decided to put the deposed King to death, Louis Philippe's father – by then known as Philippe Égalité – voted in favour of that act, Louis Philippe began to consider leaving France.
Louis Philippe was willing to stay in France to fulfill his duties in the army, but he was implicated in the plot Dumouriez had planned to ally with the Austrians, march his army on Paris, and restore the Constitution of 1791. Dumouriez had met with Louis Philippe on 22 March 1793 and urged his subordinate to join in the attempt.
With the French government falling into the Reign of Terror, he decided to leave France to save his life. On 4 April, Dumouriez and Louis Philippe left for the Austrian camp. They were intercepted by Lieutenant-Colonel Louis Nicolas Davout, who had served at Jemappes with Louis Philippe. As Dumouriez ordered the Colonel back to the camp, some of his soldiers cried out against the General, now declared a traitor by the National Convention. Shots rang out as they fled towards the Austrian camp. The next day, Dumouriez again tried to rally soldiers against the Convention; however, he found that the artillery had declared for the Republic, leaving him and Louis Philippe with no choice but to go into exile.
At the age of nineteen, Louis Philippe left France; it was some twenty-one years before he again set foot on French soil.

Exile (1793–1815)

The reaction in Paris to Louis Philippe's involvement in Dumouriez's treason inevitably resulted in misfortunes for the Orléans family. Philippe Égalité spoke in the National Convention, condemning his son for his actions, asserting that he would not spare his son, much akin to the Roman consul Brutus and his sons. However, letters from Louis Philippe to his father were discovered in transit and were read out to the Convention. Philippe Égalité was then put under continuous surveillance. Shortly thereafter, the Girondists moved to arrest him and the two younger brothers of Louis Philippe, Louis-Charles and Antoine Philippe; the latter had been serving in the Army of Italy. The three were interned in Fort Saint-Jean in Marseille.
Meanwhile, Louis Philippe was forced to live in the shadows, avoiding both pro-Republican revolutionaries and Legitimist French émigré centres in various parts of Europe and also in the Austrian army. He first moved to Switzerland under an assumed name, and met up with the Countess of Genlis and his sister Adélaïde at Schaffhausen. From there they went to Zürich, where the Swiss authorities decreed that to protect Swiss neutrality, Louis Philippe would have to leave the city. They went to Zug, where Louis Philippe was discovered by a group of émigrés.
It became quite apparent that for the ladies to settle peacefully anywhere, they would have to separate from Louis Philippe. He then left with his faithful valet Baudouin for the heights of the Alps, and then to Basel, where he sold all but one of his horses. Now moving from town to town throughout Switzerland, he and Baudouin found themselves very much exposed to all the distresses of extended travelling. They were refused entry to a monastery by monks who believed them to be young vagabonds. Another time, he woke up after spending a night in a barn to find himself at the far end of a musket, confronted by a man attempting to keep away thieves.
Throughout this period, he never stayed in one place more than 48 hours. Finally, in October 1793, Louis Philippe was appointed a teacher of geography, history, mathematics, and modern languages at a boys' boarding school. The school, owned by a Monsieur Jost, was in Reichenau, a village on the upper Rhine, across from Switzerland. His salary was 1,400 francs and he taught under the name Monsieur Chabos. He had been at the school for a month when he heard the news from Paris: his father had been guillotined on 6 November 1793 after a trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal.

Travels

After Louis Philippe left Reichenau, he separated the now sixteen-year-old Adélaïde from the Countess of Genlis, who had fallen out with Louis Philippe. Adélaïde went to live with her great-aunt the Princess of Conti at Fribourg, then to Bavaria and Hungary and, finally, to her mother who was exiled in Spain.
Louis Philippe travelled extensively. He visited Scandinavia in 1795 and then moved on to Finland. For about a year, he stayed in Muonio (in the valley of Tornio river), a remote village at the northern end of the Gulf of Bothnia, living in the rectory under the name Müller as a guest of the local Lutheran vicar.
Louis Philippe also visited the United States for four years, staying in Philadelphia (where his brothers Antoine and Louis Charles were in exile), New York City (where he most likely stayed at the Somerindyck family estate on Broadway and 75th Street with other exiled princes), and Boston. In Boston, he taught French for a time and lived in lodgings over what is now the Union Oyster House, Boston's oldest restaurant. During his time in the United States, Louis Philippe met with American politicians and people of high society, including George Clinton, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington.
His visit to Cape Cod in 1797 coincided with the division of the town of Eastham into two towns, one of which took the name of Orleans, possibly in his honour. During their sojourn, the Orléans princes travelled throughout the country, visiting as far south as Nashville and as far north as Maine. The brothers were even held in Philadelphia briefly during an outbreak of yellow fever. Louis Philippe is also thought to have met Isaac Snow of Orleans, Massachusetts, who had escaped to France from a British prison hulk during the American Revolution. In 1839, while reflecting on his visit to the United States, Louis Philippe explained in a letter to Guizot that his three years there had a large influence on his later political beliefs and judgments when he became king.
In Boston, Louis Philippe learned of the coup of 18 Fructidor (4 September 1797) and of the exile of his mother to Spain. He and his brothers then decided to return to Europe. They went to New Orleans, planning to sail to Havana and thence to Spain. This, however, was a troubled journey, as Spain and Great Britain were then at war. While in Louisiana in 1798, they were entertained by Julian Poydras in the town of Point Coupee.^[1]
They sailed for Havana in an American corvette, but the ship was stopped in the Gulf of Mexico by a British warship. The British seized the three brothers, but took them to Havana anyway. Unable to find passage to Europe, the three brothers spent a year in Cuba, until they were unexpectedly expelled by the Spanish authorities. They sailed via the Bahamas to Nova Scotia where they were received by the Duke of Kent, son of King George III and later father of Queen Victoria. Louis Philippe struck up a lasting friendship with the British royal. Eventually, the brothers sailed back to New York, and, in January 1800, they arrived in England, where they stayed for the next fifteen years.

Marriage

In 1808, Louis Philippe proposed to Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George III of the United Kingdom. His Catholicism and the opposition of her mother Queen Charlotte meant the Princess reluctantly declined the offer.^[2]
In 1809, Louis Philippe married Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, daughter of King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Maria Carolina of Austria. They had the following ten children:

Name	Picture	Birth	Death	Notes
Ferdinand, Duke of Orléans		3 September 1810	13 July 1842	Married Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, had issue.
Louise d'Orléans		3 April 1812	11 October 1850	Married Leopold I of Belgium, had issue.
Princess Marie d'Orléans		12 April 1813	6 January 1839	Married Duke Alexander of Württemberg, had issue.
Louis, Duke of Nemours		25 October 1814	26 June 1896	Married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, had issue.
Princess Françoise Louise Caroline d'Orléans		26 March 1816	20 May 1818	Died aged two. Baptised on 20 July 1816, with Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor as her godfather.
Princess Clémentine d'Orléans		6 March 1817	16 February 1907	Married Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, had issue.
François, Prince of Joinville		14 August 1818	16 June 1900	Married Princess Francisca of Brazil, had issue.
Prince Charles d'Orléans		1 January 1820	25 July 1828	Died aged eight.
Henri, Duke of Aumale		16 January 1822	7 May 1897	Married Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, had issue.
Antoine, Duke of Montpensier		31 July 1824	4 February 1890	Married Infanta Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier, had issue.

Bourbon Restoration (1815–1830)

See also: Bourbon Restoration

Louis-Philippe as Colonel-General of the Hussars during the Bourbon Restoration.

After the abdication of Napoleon, Louis Philippe, known as Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, returned to France during the reign of his cousin Louis XVIII, at the time of the Bourbon Restoration. Louis Philippe had reconciled the Orléans family with Louis XVIII in exile, and was once more to be found in the elaborate royal court. However, his resentment at the treatment of his family, the cadet branch of the House of Bourbon under the Ancien Régime, caused friction between him and Louis XVIII, and he openly sided with the liberal opposition.
Louis Philippe was on far friendlier terms with Louis XVIII's brother and successor, Charles X, who acceded to the throne in 1824, and with whom he socialized. However, his opposition to the policies of Villèle and later of Jules de Polignac caused him to be viewed as a constant threat to the stability of Charles' government. This soon proved to be to his advantage.

King of the French (1830–1848)

Main article: July Monarchy

Silver Coin of Louis Philippe I, Struck 1834
Obverse: (French) LOUIS PHILIPPE I ROI DES FRANÇAIS, in English: "Louis Philippe I, King of the French"	Reverse: 5 FRANCS, 1834

Standard of Louis Philippe I

Arms of Louis Philippe I

In 1830, the July Revolution overthrew Charles X, who abdicated in favour of his 10-year-old grandson, Henri, Duke of Bordeaux, and, naming Louis Philippe Lieutenant général du royaume, charged him to announce to the popularly elected Chamber of Deputies his desire to have his grandson succeed him. Louis Philippe did not do this, in order to increase his own chances of succession. As a consequence, because the chamber was aware of Louis Philippe's liberal policies and of his popularity with the masses, they proclaimed Louis Philippe, who for eleven days had been acting as the regent for his small cousin, as the new French king, displacing the senior branch of the House of Bourbon.
Charles X and his family, including his grandson, went into exile in Britain. The young ex-king, the Duke of Bordeaux, who, in exile, took the title of comte de Chambord, later became the pretender to the throne of France and was supported by the Legitimists.
Louis-Philippe was sworn in as King Louis-Philippe I on 9 August 1830.^[3] Upon his accession to the throne, Louis Philippe assumed the title of King of the French – a title already adopted by Louis XVI in the short-lived Constitution of 1791. Linking the monarchy to a people instead of a territory (as the previous designation King of France and of Navarre) was aimed at undercutting the legitimist claims of Charles X and his family.
By an ordinance he signed on 13 August 1830,^[4] the new king defined the manner in which his children, as well as his "beloved" sister, would continue to bear the surname "d'Orléans" and the arms of Orléans, declared that his eldest son, as Prince Royal (not Dauphin), would bear the title Duke of Orléans, that the younger sons would continue to have their previous titles, and that his sister and daughters would only be styled Princesses of Orléans, not of France.
In 1832, his daughter, Princess Louise-Marie, married the first ruler of Belgium, Leopold I, King of the Belgians. Their children included Leopold II of Belgium and Empress Carlota of Mexico.

Assassination attempts

Louis Phillippe survived seven assassination attempts.
On 28 July 1835, Louis Philippe survived an assassination attempt by Giuseppe Mario Fieschi and two other conspirators in Paris. During the king's annual review of the Paris National Guard commemorating the revolution, Louis-Philippe was passing along the Boulevard du Temple, which connected Place de la République to the Bastille, accompanied by three of his sons, Orleans, the Duke of Nemours and the Prince de Joinville, and numerous staff.
Fieschi, a native of Corsica, attacked the king's convoy with the "infernal machine", a self-built weapon consisting of twenty five gun barrels fastened together.^[5] The device was fired from the third level of n° 50 Boulevard du Temple (a commemorative plaque has since been engraved there) which had been rented by Fieschi. A ball only grazed the king's forehead. 18 people were killed including Lieutenant Colonel Rieussec of the 8th Legion together with eight other officers, Marshal Mortier, and Colonel Raffet, General Girard, Captain Villate, General La Chasse de Vérigny, a woman, a 14 year old girl, and two men. A further 22 people were injured.^[6][7] The king and the princes escaped essentially unharmed. Horace Vernet, the King's painter, was ordered to make a drawing of the event.^[8]
Fieschi was immediately captured, and executed by guillotine together with his two co-conspirators the following year.

Rule

The famous 1831 caricature of Louis Philippe turning into a pear would mirror the deterioration of his popularity. (Honoré Daumier, after Charles Philipon, who was jailed for the original.)

Louis Philippe ruled in an unpretentious fashion, avoiding the pomp and lavish spending of his predecessors. Despite this outward appearance of simplicity, his support came from the wealthy bourgeoisie. At first, he was much loved and called the "Citizen King" and the "bourgeois monarch", but his popularity suffered as his government was perceived as increasingly conservative and monarchical, despite his decision of having Napoleon's remains returned to France. Under his management, the conditions of the working classes deteriorated, and the income gap widened considerably.
An economic crisis in 1847 led to the 1848 Revolutions, and Louis Philippe's abdication. The dissonance between his positive early reputation and his late unpopularity was epitomized by Victor Hugo in Les Misérables as an oxymoron describing his reign as "Prince Equality", in which Hugo states:^[9]

[Louis Philippe had to] bear in his own person the contradiction of the Restoration and the Revolution, to have that disquieting side of the revolutionary which becomes reassuring in governing power ... He had been proscribed, a wanderer, poor. He had lived by his own labor. In Switzerland, this heir to the richest princely domains in France had sold an old horse in order to obtain bread. At Reichenau, he gave lessons in mathematics, while his sister Adelaide did wool work and sewed. These souvenirs connected with a king rendered the bourgeoisie enthusiastic. He had, with his own hands, demolished the iron cage of Mont-Saint-Michel, built by Louis XI, and used by Louis XV. He was the companion of Dumouriez, he was the friend of Lafayette; he had belonged to the Jacobins' club; Mirabeau had slapped him on the shoulder; Danton had said to him: "Young man!"

What is there against him? That throne. Take away Louis Philippe the king, there remains the man. And the man is good. He is good at times even to the point of being admirable. Often, in the midst of his gravest souvenirs, after a day of conflict with the whole diplomacy of the continent, he returned at night to his apartments, and there, exhausted with fatigue, overwhelmed with sleep, what did he do? He took a death sentence and passed the night in revising a criminal suit, considering it something to hold his own against Europe, but that it was a still greater matter to rescue a man from the executioner.

—Victor Hugo

Abdication and death (1848–50)

Abdication of Louis Philippe, in favor of his grandson, the comte de Paris, dated 24 February 1848

On 24 February 1848, during the February 1848 Revolution, King Louis Philippe abdicated in favour of his nine-year-old grandson, Philippe, comte de Paris. Fearful of what had happened to Louis XVI, Louis Philippe quickly left Paris under disguise. Riding in an ordinary cab under the name of "Mr. Smith", he fled to England.
The National Assembly of France initially planned to accept young Philippe as king, but the strong current of public opinion rejected that. On 26 February, the Second Republic was proclaimed. Louis Napoléon Bonaparte was elected President on 10 December of the same year; on 2 December 1851, he declared himself president for life and then Emperor Napoleon III in 1852.
Louis Philippe and his family remained in exile in England in Claremont, Surrey, where he died on 26 August 1850. In 1876, his remains and those of his wife were taken to France and buried at the Chapelle royale de Dreux, the Orléans family necropolis his mother had built in 1816, and which he had enlarged and embellished after her death.

The clash of the pretenders

Louis Philippe in 1842.

The clashes of 1830 and 1848 between the Legitimists and the Orleanists over who was the rightful monarch were resumed in the 1870s. After the fall of the Second Empire, a monarchist-dominated National Assembly offered a throne to the Legitimist pretender, Henri de France, comte de Chambord, as Henri V. As he was childless, his heir was (except to the most extreme Legitimists) Louis Philippe's grandson, Philippe d'Orléans, comte de Paris. Thus the comte de Chambord's death would have united the House of Bourbon and House of Orléans.
However, the comte de Chambord refused to take the throne unless the Tricolor flag of the Revolution was replaced with the fleur-de-lis flag of the Ancien Régime. This the National Assembly was unwilling to do. The Third Republic was established, though many intended for it to be temporary, and replaced by a constitutional monarchy after the death of the comte de Chambord. However, the comte de Chambord lived longer than expected. By the time of his death in 1883, support for the monarchy had declined, and public opinion sided with a continuation of the Third Republic, as the form of government that, according to Adolphe Thiers, "divides us least". Some suggested a monarchical restoration under a later comte de Paris after the fall of the Vichy regime but this did not occur.
Most remaining French monarchists regard the descendants of Louis Philippe's grandson, who hold the title Count of Paris, as the rightful pretenders to the French throne; others, the Legitimists, consider Don Luis-Alfonso de Borbón, Duke of Anjou (to his supporters, "Louis XX") to be the rightful heir. He is descended in the male line from Philippe, Duke of Anjou, the second grandson of the Sun-King, Louis XIV. Philippe (King Philip V of Spain), however, had renounced his rights to the throne of France to prevent the much-feared union of France and Spain.
The two sides challenged each other in the French Republic's law courts in 1897 and again nearly a century later. In the latter case, Henri, comte de Paris, duc de France, challenged the right of the Spanish-born "pretender" to use the title Duke of Anjou. The French courts threw out his claim, arguing that the legal system had no jurisdiction over the matter.

Titles and styles

Royal styles of Louis Philippe I of France
Reference style	His Majesty
Spoken style	Your Majesty
Alternative style	Sir

• 6 October 1773 – 18 November 1785 His Serene Highness The Duke of Valois
• 18 November 1785 – 6 November 1793 His Serene Highness The Duke of Chartres
• 6 November 1793 – 21 September 1824 His Serene Highness The Duke of Orléans
• 21 September 1824 – 9 August 1830 His Royal Highness The Duke of Orléans
• 9 August 1830 – 24 February 1848 His Majesty The King
• 24 February 1848 – 26 August 1850 His Majesty King Louis Philippe

King Louis XVIII of France

Louis XVIII of France

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Louis XVIII
Portrait by Robert Lefèvre, c.1822
King of France and Navarre
Reign	8 July 1815 – 16 September 1824
Predecessor	Napoleon I (Hundred Days)
Successor	Charles X
Prime Ministers	See list[show]
Reign	11 April 1814 – 20 March 1815
Predecessor	Napoleon I (First French Empire)
Successor	Napoleon I
Spouse	Marie Joséphine of Savoy
Full name Louis Stanislas Xavier de France
House	House of Bourbon
Father	Louis, Dauphin of France
Mother	Maria Josepha of Saxony
Born	17 November 1755 Palace of Versailles, France
Died	16 September 1824 (aged 68) Louvre Palace, Paris, France
Burial	Basilica of Saint Denis, France
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as "the Desired" (le Désiré),^[1] was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1814 to 1824 except for a period in 1815 known as the Hundred Days. Louis XVIII spent twenty-three years in exile, from 1791 to 1814, during the French Revolution and the First French Empire, and again in 1815, during the period of the Hundred Days, upon the return of Napoleon I from Elba.
Until his accession to the throne of France, Louis held the title of Count of Provence as brother of King Louis XVI. On 21 September 1792, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and deposed King Louis XVI, who was later executed by guillotine.^[2] When the young Louis XVII, Louis XVI's son, died in prison in June 1795, Louis XVIII succeeded his nephew as titular King.^[3]
During the French Revolution and Napoleonic era, Louis XVIII lived in exile in Prussia, the United Kingdom and Russia.^[4] When the Sixth Coalition finally defeated Napoleon in 1814, Louis was placed in what he, and the French royalists, considered his rightful position. Napoleon escaped from his exile in Elba, however, and restored his French Empire. Louis XVIII fled and a Seventh Coalition declared war on the French Empire, defeated Napoleon, and restored Louis XVIII to the French throne.
Louis XVIII ruled as king for slightly less than a decade. The Bourbon Restoration regime was a constitutional monarchy (unlike the ancien régime, which was absolutist). As a constitutional monarch, Louis XVIII's royal prerogative was reduced substantially by the Charter of 1814, France's new constitution. Louis had no children; therefore, upon his death, the crown passed to his brother, Charles, Count of Artois.^[5] Louis XVIII was the last French monarch to die while reigning.

Contents

• 1 Youth
• 2 Marriage
• 3 At his brother's court
  • 3.1 The outbreak of the French Revolution
• 4 Exile
  • 4.1 The early years
  • 4.2 1796 – 1807
  • 4.3 England
• 5 Bourbon Restoration
  • 5.1 Restoration I
  • 5.2 Hundred Days
  • 5.3 1815 – 1824
  • 5.4 Death
• 6 Ancestors
• 7 In fiction
• 8 See also
  • 8.1 Sources
• 9 References
  • 9.1 Notes
• 10 External links

Youth

Portrait of the young Count of Provence

Louis, Count of Provence

Louis Stanislas Xavier, styled Count of Provence from birth, was born on 17 November 1755 in the Palace of Versailles, the son of Louis, Dauphin of France, and his wife Maria Josepha of Saxony. He was the grandson of the reigning King Louis XV. As a son of the Dauphin he was a Fils de France. Louis Stanislas was christened Louis Stanislas Xavier six months after his birth in accordance with Bourbon family tradition, being nameless before his baptism. By this act, he became also a Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit. The name of Louis was bestowed because it was typical of a prince of France; Stanislas was chosen to honour his great-grandfather King Stanisław I of Poland; and Xavier was chosen for Saint Francis Xavier, whom his mother's family held as one of their patron saints.^[6]

The Count of Provence and his brother Louis Auguste, Duke of Berry (later Louis XVI), depicted in 1757 by François-Hubert Drouais.

At the time of his birth, Louis Stanislas was fourth in line to the throne of France, behind his father and his two elder brothers: Louis Joseph Xavier, Duke of Burgundy, and Louis Auguste, Duke of Berry. The former died in 1761, leaving Louis Auguste as heir apparent until the Dauphin's own premature death in 1765. The two deaths elevated Louis Stanislas to second in the line of succession, while Louis Auguste acquired the title Dauphin.^[7]
Louis Stanislas found comfort in his governess, Madame de Marsan, Governess of the Children of France, as he was her favourite among his siblings.^[8] Louis Stanislas was taken away from his governess when he turned seven, the age at which the education of boys of royal blood and of the nobility was turned over to men. Antoine de Quélen de Stuer de Caussade, Duke of La Vauguyon, a friend of his father, was named his governor.
Louis Stanislas was an intelligent boy, excelling in classics. His education was of the same quality and consistency as that of his older brother, Louis Auguste, despite the fact that Louis Auguste was heir and Louis Stanislas was not.^[8] Louis Stanislas' education was quite religious in nature; several of his teachers were ecclesiastics. La Vauguyon drilled into young Louis Stanislas and his brothers the way he thought princes should "know how to withdraw themselves, to like to work," and "to know how to reason correctly".
In April 1771, Louis Stanislas' education was formally concluded and his own independent household was established,^[9] which astounded contemporaries with its extravagance: in 1773, the number of servants reached 390.^[10] In the same month his household was founded, Louis was granted several titles by his grandfather, Louis XV: Duke of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Perche, and Count of Senoches.^[11] During this period of his life he was often known by the title Count of Provence.
On 17 December 1773, he was ordained as a Grand Master of the Order of St. Lazarus.

Marriage

On 14 May 1771, Louis Stanislas married Princess Maria Giuseppina of Savoy. Marie Joséphine (as she was known in France) was a daughter of Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy (later King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia), and his wife Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain.
A luxurious ball followed the wedding on 20 May.^[12] Louis Stanislas was repulsed by his wife, who was considered ugly, tedious, and ignorant of the customs of the court of Versailles. The marriage remained unconsummated for years. Biographers disagree about the reason. The most common theories propose Louis Stanislas' alleged impotence (according to biographer Antonia Fraser) or his unwillingness to sleep with his wife due to her poor personal hygiene. She never brushed her teeth, plucked her eyebrows, or used any perfumes.^[13] At the time of his marriage, Louis Stanislas was obese and waddled instead of walked. He never exercised and continued to eat enormous amounts of food.^[14]
Despite the fact that Louis Stanislas was not infatuated with his wife, he boasted that the two enjoyed vigorous conjugal relations – but such declarations were held in low esteem by courtiers at Versailles. He also proclaimed his wife to be pregnant merely to spite Louis Auguste and his wife Marie Antoinette, who had not yet consummated their marriage.^[15] The Dauphin and Louis Stanislas did not enjoy a harmonious relationship and often quarrelled,^[16] as did their wives.^[17] Louis Stanislas did impregnate his wife in 1774, having conquered his aversion. However, the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.^[18] A second pregnancy in 1781 also miscarried, and the marriage remained childless.^[6][19]

At his brother's court

Louis Stanislas, Count of Provence, during the reign of Louis XVI of France.

Marie Joséphine, Countess of Provence, Louis Stanislas' wife, by Jean-Baptiste-André Gautier d'Agoty, 1775.

On 27 April 1774, Louis XV fell ill after contracting smallpox and died the following 10 May.^[20] The Dauphin, Louis Auguste, succeeded his grandfather as King Louis XVI.^[21] As eldest brother of the king, Louis Stanislas received the title Monsieur. Louis Stanislas longed for political influence. He attempted to gain admittance to the king's council in 1774, but failed. Louis Stanislas was left in a political limbo that he called "a gap of 12 years in my political life".^[22] Louis XVI granted Louis Stanislas revenues from the Duchy of Alençon in December 1774. The duchy was given to enhance Louis Stanislas' prestige, however, the appanage generated only 300,000 livres per annum, an amount much lower than it had been at its peak in the fourteenth century.^[11]
Louis Stanislas travelled more through France than other members of the royal family, who rarely left the Île-de-France. In 1774, he accompanied his sister Clotilde to Chambéry on the journey to meet her bridegroom Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont, heir to the throne of Sardinia. In 1775, he visited Lyon and also his spinster aunts Adélaïde and Victoire while they were taking the waters at Vichy.^[10] The four provincial tours that Louis Stanislas took before the year 1791 amounted to a total of three months.^[23]
On 5 May 1778, Dr. Lassonne, Marie Antoinette's private physician, confirmed her pregnancy.^[24] On 19 December 1778, the Queen gave birth to a daughter, who was named Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France and given the honorific title Madame Royale. The birth of a girl came as a relief to the Count of Provence, who kept his position as heir to Louis XVI, since Salic Law excluded women from acceding to the throne of France.^[25][26] However, Louis Stanislas did not remain heir to the throne much longer. On 22 October 1781, Marie Antoinette gave birth to the Dauphin Louis Joseph. Louis Stanislas and his brother, the Count of Artois, served as godfathers by proxy for Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, the queen's brother.^[27] When Marie Antoinette gave birth to her second son, Louis Charles, in March 1785, Louis Stanislas slid further down the line of succession.^[28]
In 1780, Anne Nompar de Caumont, Countess of Balbi, entered the service of Marie Joséphine. Louis Stanislas soon fell in love with his wife's new lady-in-waiting and installed her as his mistress,^[29] which resulted in the couple's already small affection for each other cooling entirely.^[30] Louis Stanislas commissioned a pavilion for his mistress on a parcel that became known as the Parc Balbi at Versailles.^[31]
Louis Stanislas lived a quiet and sedentary lifestyle at this point, not having a great deal to do since his self-proclaimed political exclusion in 1774. He kept himself occupied with his vast library of over 11,000 books at Balbi's pavilion, reading for several hours each morning.^[32] In the early 1780s, he also incurred huge debts totalling 10 million livres, which his brother Louis XVI paid.^[33]
An Assembly of Notables (the members consisted of magistrates, mayors, nobles and clergy) was convened in February 1787 to ratify the financial reforms sought by the Controller-General of Finance Charles Alexandre de Calonne. This provided the Count of Provence, who abhorred the radical reforms proposed by Calonne, the opportunity he had long been waiting for to establish himself in politics.^[34] The reforms proposed a new property tax,^[35] and new elected provincial assemblies that would have a say in local taxation.^[36] Calonne's proposition was rejected outright by the notables, and, as a result, Louis XVI dismissed him. The Archbishop of Toulouse, Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne, acquired Calonne's ministry. Brienne attempted to salvage Calonne's reforms, but ultimately failed to convince the notables to approve them. A frustrated Louis XVI dissolved the assembly.^[37]

Louis had a venture in hard-paste porcelain, which was called "Porcelaine de Monsieur" (example from 1780).

Brienne's reforms were then submitted to the Parlement of Paris in the hopes that they would be approved. (A parlement was responsible for ratifying the king's edicts. Each province had its own parlement, but the Parlement of Paris was the most significant of all.) The Parlement of Paris refused to accept Brienne's proposals and pronounced that any new taxation would have to be approved by an Estates-General (the nominal parliament of France). Louis XVI and Brienne took a hostile stance against this rejection, and Louis XVI had to implement a "bed of justice" (Lit de justice), which automatically registered an edict in the Parlement of Paris, to ratify the desired reforms. On 8 May, two of the leading members of the Parlement of Paris were arrested. There was rioting in Brittany, Provence, Burgundy and Béarn in reaction to their arrest. This unrest was engineered by local magistrates and nobles, who enticed the people to revolt against the Lit de Justice, which was quite unfavourable to the nobles and magistrates. The clergy also joined the provincial cause, and condemned Brienne's tax reforms. Brienne conceded defeat in July and agreed to calling the Estates-General to meet in 1789. He resigned from his post in August and was replaced by the Swiss magnate Jacques Necker.^[38]
In November 1788, a second Assembly of Notables was convened by Jacques Necker, to consider the makeup of the next Estates-General.^[39] The Parlement de Paris recommended that the Estates should be the same as they were at the last assembly, in 1614 (this would mean that the clergy and nobility would have more representation than the Third Estate).^[40] The notables rejected the "dual representation" proposal. Louis Stanislas was the only notable to vote to increase the size of the Third Estate.^[41] Necker disregarded the notables' judgment, and convinced Louis XVI to grant the extra representation – Louis duly obliged on 27 December.^[42]

The outbreak of the French Revolution

Main article: French Revolution

The Estates-General were convened in May 1789 to ratify financial reforms.^[43] The Count of Provence favoured a stalwart position against the Third Estate and its demands for tax reform. On 17 June, the Third Estate declared itself a National Assembly, an Assembly not of the Estates, but of the people.
Provence urged the king to act strongly against the declaration, while the king's popular minister Jacques Necker intended to compromise with the new assembly. Louis XVI was characteristically indecisive. On 9 July, the assembly declared itself a National Constituent Assembly that would give France a Constitution. On 11 July, Louis XVI dismissed Necker, which led to widespread rioting across Paris. On 12 July, the sabre charge of the cavalry regiment of Charles-Eugène de Lorraine, prince de Lambesc, on a crowd gathered at the Tuileries gardens, sparked the Storming of the Bastille two days later.^[44][45]
On 16 July, the Count of Artois left France with his wife and children, along with many other courtiers.^[46] Artois and his family took up residence in Turin, the capital city of his father-in-law's Kingdom of Sardinia, with the family of the Princes of Condé.^[47]
The Count of Provence decided to remain at Versailles.^[48] When the royal family plotted to abscond from Versailles to Metz, Provence advised the king not to leave, a suggestion he accepted.^[49]
The royal family was forced to leave the palace at Versailles on the day after The Women's March on Versailles, 5 October 1789.^[50] They were re-located to Paris. There, the Count of Provence and his wife lodged in the Luxembourg Palace, while the rest of the royal family stayed in the Tuileries Palace.^[51] In March 1791, the National Assembly created a law outlining the regency of Louis Charles in case his father died while he was still too young to reign. This law awarded the regency to Louis Charles' nearest male relative in France (at that time the Count of Provence), and after him, the Duke of Orléans (bypassing the Count of Artois). If Orléans were unavailable, the regency would be submitted to election.^[52]
The Count of Provence and his wife fled to the Austrian Netherlands in conjunction with the royal family's failed Flight to Varennes in June 1791.^[53]

Exile

The early years

When the Count of Provence arrived in the Low Countries, he proclaimed himself de facto regent of France. He exploited a document that he and Louis XVI had written^[54] before the latter's failed escape to Varennes. The document gave him the regency in the event of his brother's death or inability to perform his role as king. He would join the other princes-in-exile at Coblenz soon after his escape. It was there that he, the Count of Artois, and the Condés proclaimed that their objective was to invade France. Louis XVI was greatly annoyed by his brothers' behaviour. Provence sent emissaries to various European courts asking for financial aid, soldiers, and munition. Artois secured a castle for the court in exile in the Electorate of Trier, where their maternal uncle, Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony, was the Archbishop-Elector. The activities of the emigrés bore fruit when the rulers of Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire gathered at Dresden. They released the Declaration of Pillnitz in August 1791, which urged Europe to intervene in France if Louis XVI or his family were threatened. Provence's endorsement of the declaration was not well received in France, either by the ordinary citizens or Louis XVI himself.^[55]
In January 1792, the Legislative Assembly declared that all of the émigrés were traitors to France. Their property and titles were confiscated.^[56] The monarchy of France was abolished by the National Convention on 21 September 1792.^[57]
Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. This left his young son, Louis Charles, as the titular King. The princes-in-exile proclaimed Louis Charles "Louis XVII of France". The Count of Provence now unilaterally declared himself regent for his nephew, who was too young to be head of the House of Bourbon.^[58]
Louis Charles died in June 1795. His only surviving sibling was his sister Marie-Thérèse, who was not considered a candidate for the throne because of France's traditional adherence to Salic Law. Thus on 16 June, the princes-in-exile declared the Count of Provence "King Louis XVIII". The new king accepted their declaration soon after.^[59] Louis XVIII busied himself drafting a manifesto in response to Louis XVII's death. The manifesto, known as "The Declaration of Verona," was Louis XVIII's attempt to introduce the French people to his politics. The Declaration of Verona beckoned France back into the arms of the monarchy, "which for fourteen centuries was the glory of France".^[17]
Louis XVIII negotiated Marie-Thérèse's release from her Paris prison in 1795. He desperately wanted her to marry her first cousin, Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, the son of the Count of Artois. Louis XVIII deceived his niece by telling her that her parents' last wishes were for her to marry Louis Antoine, and she duly agreed to her uncle-king's wishes.^[60]
Louis XVIII was forced to abandon Verona when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Republic of Venice in 1796.^[61]

1796 – 1807

Jelgava Palace, Louis XVIII's residence from 1798 to 1801, and from 1804 to 1807.

Louis XVIII had been vying for the custody of his niece Marie-Thérèse since her release from the Temple Tower in December 1795. He succeeded when Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, agreed to relinquish his custody of her in 1796. She had been staying in Vienna with her Habsburg relatives since January 1796.^[61] Louis XVIII moved to Blankenburg in the Duchy of Brunswick (Braunschweig) after his departure from Verona. He lived in a modest two-bedroom apartment over a shop.^[62] Louis XVIII was forced to leave Blankenberg when King Frederick William II of Prussia died. In light of this, Marie-Thérèse decided to wait a while longer before reuniting with her uncle.^[63]
In 1798, Tsar Paul I of Russia offered Louis the use of Jelgava Palace in Courland (now Latvia). Paul I also guaranteed Louis's safety and bestowed upon him a generous pension,^[62] however, the tsar later disregarded this allowance.^[64] Marie-Thérèse finally joined Louis XVIII at Jelgava in 1799.^[65] In the winter of 1798–1799, Louis XVIII wrote a biography of Marie Antoinette titled Réflexions Historiques sur Marie Antoinette. He attempted to recreate the court life of Versailles at Jelgava, where many old courtiers lived, re-establishing all the court ceremonies, including the lever and coucher (ceremonies that accompanied waking and bedding, respectively).^[66]
Marie-Thérèse married her cousin Louis Antoine on 9 June 1799 at Jelgava Palace. Louis XVIII ordered his wife to attend the marriage ceremony in Courland without her long-time friend (and rumoured lover) Marguerite de Gourbillon. Queen Marie Joséphine lived apart from her husband in Schleswig Holstein. Louis XVIII was trying desperately to display to the world a united family front. The queen refused to leave her friend behind with unpleasant consequences that rivalled the wedding in notoriety.^[67] Louis XVIII knew that his nephew Louis Antoine was not compatible with Marie-Thérèse. Despite this, he still pressed for the marriage, which proved to be quite unhappy and produced no children.^[68]
Louis XVIII attempted to strike up a correspondence with Napoleon Bonaparte (now First Consul of France) in 1800. Louis XVIII urged Bonaparte to restore the Bourbons to their throne, but the future emperor was immune to Louis's requests and continued to consolidate his position as ruler of France.^[69]
Louis XVIII encouraged his niece to write her memoirs, as he wished them to be used as Bourbon propaganda. In 1796 and 1803, Louis also used the diaries of Louis XVI's final attendants in the same way.^[66] In January 1801, Tsar Paul told Louis XVIII that he could no longer live in Russia. The court at Jelgava was so low on funds that it had to auction some of its possessions to afford the journey out of Russia. Marie-Thérèse even sold a diamond necklace that the Emperor Paul had given her as a wedding gift.^[64]
Marie-Thérèse persuaded Queen Louise of Prussia to give her family refuge in Prussian territory. Louise consented, but the Bourbons were forced to assume pseudonyms. With Louis XVIII using the title Comte d'Isle (named after his estate in Languedoc) and at times Comte de Lille,^[70] he and his family assumed residence in Warsaw, then part of the province of South Prussia, in the Łazienki Palace from 1801 to 1804, after an arduous voyage from Jelgava.^[71] According to Wirydianna Fiszerowa, a contemporary living there at the time, the Prussian local authorities, wishing to honour the arrivals, had music played, but, wishing to give them a national and patriotic character, chose the La Marseillaise, the hymn of the First French Republic with unflattering allusions to both Louis XVI and Louis XVIII. They later apologised for their mistake.,^[70]
It was very soon after their arrival that they learned of the death of Paul I. Louis hoped that Paul's successor, Alexander I, would repudiate his father's banishment of the Bourbons (which he later did). Louis XVIII then intended to set off to the Kingdom of Naples. The Count of Artois asked Louis to send his son, Louis Antoine, and daughter-in-law, Marie-Thérèse, to him in Edinburgh, but they did not at this time. Artois had an allowance from King George III of Great Britain and sent some money to Louis. Louis XVIII's court in exile was being spied on by French police.^[72] The court-in-exile was being financed mainly by interest owed from Francis II on valuables his aunt, Marie Antoinette, had removed from France and had to cut its expenses significantly.^[73]
In 1803, Napoleon tried to force Louis XVIII to renounce his right to the throne of France, but Louis refused.^[74] In May 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte declared himself Emperor of the French. Louis XVIII and his nephew departed for Sweden in July for a Bourbon family conference, where Louis XVIII, the comte d'Artois, and the duc d'Angoulême issued a statement condemning Napoleon's decision to declare himself emperor.^[75] The King of Prussia issued a proclamation saying that Louis XVIII would have to leave Prussian territory, which meant leaving Warsaw. Alexander I of Russia invited Louis XVIII to resume residence in Jelgava. Louis XVIII had to live under less generous conditions than those enjoyed under Paul I, and he intended to embark for England as soon as possible.^[76]
As time went on, Louis XVIII realised that France would never accept an attempt to return to the Ancien Régime. Accordingly, he created another policy in 1805 with a view toward reclaiming his throne: a declaration that was far more liberal than his former ones. It repudiated his Declaration of Verona, promised to abolish conscription, retain Napoleon I's administrative and judicial system, reduce taxes, eliminate political prisons, and guarantee amnesty to everyone who did not oppose a Bourbon Restoration. The opinions expressed in the declaration were largely those of the Count of Avaray, Louis's closest associate in exile.^[77]
Louis XVIII was forced once again to leave Jelgava when Alexander of Russia informed him that his safety could not be guaranteed on continental Europe. In July 1807, Louis boarded a Swedish frigate to Stockholm, bringing with him only the Duke of Angoulême. Louis did not stay in Sweden for long; he arrived in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, in November 1807. He took up residence in Gosfield Hall, leased to him by the Marquess of Buckingham.^[78]

England

Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire, Louis XVIII's court-in-exile from 1808 until the Restoration.

Louis brought his wife and queen, Marie Joséphine, from mainland Europe in 1808. Louis's stay at Gosfield Hall did not last long; he soon moved to Hartwell House in Buckinghamshire, where over one hundred courtiers were housed.^[79] The King paid £500 in rent each year to the proprietor, Sir George Lee. The Prince of Wales (the future George IV of Great Britain) was very charitable to the exiled Bourbons. As Prince Regent, he granted them permanent right of asylum and extremely generous allowances.^[80]
The Count of Artois did not join the court-in-exile in Hartwell, preferring to continue his frivolous life in London. Louis's friend the Count of Avaray left Hartwell for Madeira in 1809, and died there in 1811. Louis replaced Avaray with the Comte de Blacas as his principal political advisor. Queen Marie Joséphine died on 13 November 1810.^[81] That same winter, Louis suffered a particularly severe case of gout, which was a recurring problem for him at Hartwell, and he had to be put in a wheelchair.^[82]
Napoleon I embarked on an invasion of Russia in 1812. This war would prove to be the turning point in his fortunes, as the expedition failed miserably and Napoleon was forced to retreat with an army in tatters.
In 1813, Louis XVIII issued another declaration while at Hartwell. "The Declaration of Hartwell" was even more liberal than his "Declaration of 1805", asserting that all those who served Napoleon or the Republic would not suffer repercussions for their acts, and that the original owners of the Biens nationaux (lands confiscated from the nobles and clergy during the Revolution) were to be compensated for their losses.^[83]
Allied troops entered Paris on 31 March 1814.^[84] Louis, however, was unable to walk, and so sent the Count of Artois to France in January 1814. Louis XVIII issued letters patent appointing Artois Lieutenant General of the Kingdom in the event of the Bourbons being restored. Napoleon I abdicated on 11 April, five days after his Senate had invited the Bourbons to re-assume the throne of France.^[85]

Bourbon Restoration

Main article: Bourbon Restoration

Allegory of the Return of the Bourbons on 24 April 1814 : Louis XVIII Lifting France from Its Ruins by Louis-Philippe Crépin

Restoration I

The Count of Artois ruled as Lieutenant-General of the kingdom until his brother's arrival in Paris on 3 May. Upon his return, the king displayed himself to his subjects by creating a procession through the city. He took up residence in the Tuileries Palace the same day. His niece, the Duchess of Angoulême, fainted at the sight of the Tuileries, where she had lived during the time of the French Revolution.^[86]
Napoleon's senate called Louis XVIII to the throne on the condition that he would accept a constitution that entailed recognition of the Republic and the Empire, a bicameral parliament elected every year, and the tri-colour flag of the aforementioned regimes.^[87] Louis XVIII opposed the senate's constitution and stated that he was "disbanding the current senate in all the crimes of Bonaparte, and appealing to the French people". The senatorial constitution was burned in a theatre in royalist Bordeaux, and the Municipal Council of Lyon voted for a speech that defamed the senate.^[88]
The Great Powers occupying Paris demanded that Louis XVIII implement a constitution.^[89] Louis responded with the Charter of 1814, which included many progressive provisions: freedom of religion, a legislature composed of the Chamber of Deputies^[90] and the Chamber of Peers,^[91] a press that would enjoy a degree of freedom, and a provision that the Biens nationaux^[92] would remain in the hands of their current owners.^[93] The constitution had 76 articles. Taxation was to be voted on by the chambers. Catholicism was to be the official religion of France. To be eligible for membership in the Chamber of Deputies, one had to pay over 1,000 francs per year in tax, and be over the age of forty. The king would appoint peers to the Chamber of Peers on a hereditary basis, or for life at his discretion. Deputies would be elected every five years, with one fifth of them up for election each year.^[94] There were 90,000 citizens eligible to vote.^[95]
Louis XVIII signed the Treaty of Paris on 30 May 1814. The treaty gave France her 1792 borders, which extended east of the Rhine. She had to pay no war indemnity, and the occupying armies of the Sixth Coalition withdrew instantly from French soil. These generous terms would be reversed in the next Treaty of Paris after the Hundred Days (Napoleon's return to France in 1815).^[96]
It did not take Louis XVIII long to go back on one of his many promises. He and his Controller-General of Finance Baron Louis were determined not to let the exchequer fall into deficit (there was a 75 million franc debt inherited from Napoleon I), and took fiscal measures to ensure this. Louis XVIII assured the French that the unpopular taxes on tobacco, wine and salt would be abolished when he was restored, but he failed to do so, which led to rioting in Bordeaux. Expenditures on the army was slashed in the 1815 budget – in 1814, the military had accounted for 55% of government spending.^[97]

Gold coin of Louis XVIII, struck 1815
Obverse: (French) LOUIS XVIII, ROI DE FRANCE, in English: "Louis XVIII, King of France"	Reverse: (French) PIECE DE 20 FRANCS, 1815, in English: "20 Franc Piece, 1815."

Louis XVIII admitted the Count of Artois and his nephews the Dukes of Angoulême and Berry into the king's council in May 1814, upon its establishment. The council was informally headed by Prince Talleyrand.^[98] Louis XVIII took a large interest in the goings-on of the Congress of Vienna (set up to redraw the map of Europe after Napoleon's demise). Talleyrand represented France at the proceedings. Louis was horrified by Prussia's intention to annex the Kingdom of Saxony, to which he was attached because his mother was born a Saxon princess, and he was also concerned that Prussia would dominate Germany. He also wished the Duchy of Parma to be restored to the Parmese Bourbons, and not to Empress Marie Louise of France, as was being suggested by the Allies.^[99] Louis also protested the Allies' inaction in Naples, where he wanted the Napoleonic usurper Joachim Murat removed in favour of the Neapolitan Bourbons.
On behalf of the Allies, Austria agreed to send a force to the Kingdom of Naples to depose Murat in February 1815, when it became apparent that Murat corresponded with Napoleon I, which was explicitly forbidden by a recent treaty. Murat never actually wrote to Napoleon, but Louis, intent on restoring the Neapolitan Bourbons at any cost, forged the correspondence, and subsidised the Austrian expedition with 25 million francs.^[100]
Louis XVIII succeeded in getting the Neapolitan Bourbons restored immediately. Parma was bestowed upon Empress Marie Louise for life, and the Parmese Bourbons were given the Duchy of Lucca until the death of Marie Louise.

Hundred Days

Main article: Hundred Days

The Battle of Waterloo put a definite end to Napoleon Bonaparte's attempt to return to France and thus secured the Bourbon restoration

On 26 February 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped his island prison of Elba and embarked for France. He arrived with about 1,000 troops near Cannes on 1 March. Louis XVIII was not particularly worried by Bonaparte's excursion, as such small numbers of troops could be easily overcome. There was, however, a major underlying problem for the Bourbons: Louis XVIII had failed to purge the military of its Bonapartist troops. This led to mass desertions from the Bourbon armies to Bonaparte's. Furthermore, Louis XVIII could not join the campaign against Napoleon in the south of France because he was suffering from another case of gout.^[101] Minister of War Marshall Soult dispatched Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans (later King Louis Philippe I), the Count of Artois, and Marshall MacDonald to apprehend Napoleon.^[102]
Louis XVIII's underestimation of Bonaparte proved disastrous. On 19 March, the army stationed outside Paris defected to Bonaparte, leaving the city vulnerable to attack.^[103] That same day, Louis XVIII quit the capital with a small escort at midnight. Louis decided to go first to Lille, and then crossed the border into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, staying in Ghent.^[104] Other leaders, most prominently Alexander I of Russia, debated whether in the case of a second victory over the French Empire, the Duke of Orléans should be proclaimed king instead of Louis XVIII.^[105]
However, Napoleon did not rule France again for very long, suffering a decisive defeat at the hands of the armies of the Duke of Wellington and Field Marshal Blücher at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June. The Allies came to the consensus that Louis XVIII should be restored to the throne of France.^[106]

1815 – 1824

Old Bumblehead the 18th trying on the Napoleon Boots – or, Preparing for the Spanish Campaign, by George Cruikshank, mocked the French Intervention in Spain.

The Royal Family. From left to right: Charles, Count of Artois, Louis XVIII, Marie Caroline, Duchesse of Berry, Marie Thérèse, Duchesse of Angoulême, Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême and Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry.

Louis XVIII returned to France promptly after Napoleon's defeat to ensure his second restoration "in baggage train of the enemy", i.e. with Wellington's troops.^[107] The Duke of Wellington used King Louis's person to open up the route to Paris, as some fortresses refused to surrender to the Allies, but agreed to do so for their king. King Louis arrived at Cambrai on 26 June, where he released a proclamation stating that all those who served the Emperor in the Hundred Days would not be persecuted, except for the "instigators". It was also acknowledged that Louis XVIII's government might have made mistakes during the First Restoration.^[108] On 29 June, a deputation of five from the Chamber of Deputies and the Chamber of Peers approached Wellington about putting a foreign prince on the throne of France. Wellington rejected their pleas outright, declaring that "[Louis XVIII is] the best way to preserve the integrity of France".^[109] Wellington ordered the deputies to espouse King Louis's cause.^[110] Louis XVIII entered Paris on 8 July to a boisterous reception: the Tuileries Palace gardens were thronged with bystanders, and, according to the Duke of Wellington, the acclamation of the crowds there were so loud that evening that he could not converse with the king.^[111]
Louis XVIII's role in politics from the Hundred Days onward was voluntarily diminished; he resigned most of his duties to his council. He and his ministry embarked on a series of reforms through the summer of 1815. The king's council, an informal group of ministers that advised Louis XVIII, was dissolved and replaced by a tighter knit privy council, the "Ministère de Roi". Artois, Berry and Angoulême were purged from the new "ministère", and Talleyrand was appointed as the first Président du Conseil, i.e. Prime Minister of France.^[112] On 14 July, the ministry dissolved the units of the army deemed "rebellious". Hereditary peerage was re-established to Louis's behest by the ministry.^[113]
In August, elections for the Chamber of Deputies returned unfavourable results for Talleyrand. The ministry wished for moderate deputies, but the electorate voted almost exclusively for ultra-royalists, resulting in the so-called Chambre introuvable. The Duchess of Angoulême and the Count of Artois pressured King Louis for the dismissal of his obsolete ministry. Talleyrand tendered his resignation on 20 September. Louis XVIII chose the Duke of Richelieu to be his new Prime Minister. Richelieu was chosen because he was accepted by Louis's family and the reactionary Chamber of Deputies.^[114]
Anti-Napoleonic sentiment was high in Southern France, and this was prominently displayed in the White Terror, which saw the purge of all important Napoleonic officials from government and the execution of others. The people of France committed barbarous acts against some of these officials. Guillaume Marie Anne Brune (a Napoleonic marshal) was savagely assassinated, and his remains thrown into the Rhône River.^[115] Louis XVIII deplored such illegal acts, but vehemently supported the prosecution of those marshals that helped Napoleon in the Hundred Days.^[116][117] Louis XVIII's government executed Napoleon's Marshal Ney in December 1815 for treason. His confidants Charles François, Marquis de Bonnay, and the Duke de La Chatre advised him to inflict firm punishments on the “traitors”.
The king was reluctant to shed blood, and this greatly irritated the ultra-reactionary Chamber of Deputies, who felt that Louis XVIII was not executing enough.^[118] The government issued a proclamation of amnesty to the “traitors” in January 1816, but the trials that had already begun were finished in due course. That same declaration also banned any member of the House of Bonaparte from owning property in, or entering, France.^[119] It is estimated that between 50,000 – 80,000 officials were purged from the government during what was known as the Second White Terror.^[120]
In November 1815, Louis XVIII's government had to sign another Treaty of Paris that formally ended Napoleon's Hundred Days. The previous treaty had been quite favourable to France, but this one took a hard line. France's borders were retracted to their extent at 1790. France had to pay for an army to occupy her, for at least five years, at a cost of 150 million francs per year. France also had to pay a war indemnity of 700 million francs to the allies.^[121]
In 1818, the Chambers passed a military law that increased the size of the army by over 100,000. In October of the same year, Louis XVIII's foreign minister, the Duke of Richelieu, succeeded in convincing the powers to withdraw their armies early in exchange for a sum of over 200 million francs.^[122]
Louis XVIII chose many centrist cabinets, as he wanted to appease the populace, much to the dismay of his brother, the ultra-royalist Count of Artois.^[123] Louis always dreaded the day he would die, believing that his brother, and heir, Artois, would abandon the centrist government for an ultra-royalist autocracy, which would not bring favourable results.^[124]
King Louis disliked the First Prince of the Blood Louis-Philippe d'Orléans, and took every opportunity to snub him,^[125] denying him the title of "Royal Highness", partly out of resentment for the Duke's father's role in voting for Louis XVI's execution. Louis XVIII's nephew, the Duke of Berry, was assassinated at the Paris Opera on 14 February 1820. The royal family was grief-stricken^[126] and Louis XVIII broke an ancient tradition to attend his nephew's funeral, as previous kings of France could not have any association with death.^[127] The death of the Duke of Berry meant that the House of Orléans was more likely to succeed to the throne.

Louis XVIII's grave, at the Basilica of St Denis, Paris.

Berry was the only member of the family thought to be able to beget children. His wife gave birth to a posthumous son in September, Henry, Duke of Bordeaux,^[126] nicknamed Dieudonné (God-given) by the Bourbons because he was thought to have secured the future of the dynasty. However the Bourbon succession was still in doubt. The Chamber of Deputies proposed amending Salic law to allow the Duchess of Angoulême to accede to the throne.^[128] On 12 June 1820, the Chambers ratified legislation that increased the number of deputies from 258 to 430. The extra deputies were to be elected by the wealthiest quarter of the population in each département. These individuals now effectively had two votes.^[129] Around the same time as the “law of the two votes”, Louis XVIII began to receive visits every Wednesday from a lady named Zoé Talon, and ordered that nobody should disturb him while he was with her. It was rumoured that he inhaled snuff from her breasts,^[130] which earned her the nickname of tabatière (snuffbox).^[131] In 1823, France embarked on a military intervention in Spain, where a revolt had occurred against the King Ferdinand VII. France succeeded in crushing the rebellion,^[132] an effort headed by the Duke of Angoulême.^[133]

Death

Louis XVIII's health began to fail in the spring of 1824. He was suffering from obesity, gout and gangrene, both dry and wet, in his legs and spine. Louis died on 16 September 1824 surrounded by the extended royal family and some government officials. He was succeeded by his youngest brother, the Count of Artois, as Charles X.^[134]
Louis XVIII was the last French monarch, and the only one after 1774, to die while still ruling. He was interred at the Basilica of St Denis, the necropolis of French kings.

Ancestors

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[show]Ancestors of Louis XVIII of France

In fiction

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Louis XVIII appears briefly in the novel The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas.
The young Count of Provence was portrayed by Sebastian Armesto in a few brief scenes in the 2006 motion picture Marie Antoinette, a biographical film written and directed by Sofia Coppola, based on the book, Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Lady Antonia Fraser. This movie makes a great error by naming him as the father of Louis XIX, who was in fact the son of Louis XVIII's brother Charles X.
In the 1970 film Waterloo, Louis XVIII was portrayed by Orson Welles.
He appears briefly as well in the novel "Les Miserable", by Victor Hugo. In Book the Third, Hugo writes that Lois XVIII enjoys running fast in his carriage as he is unable to walk.