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Louis XVIII

Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (French: le Désiré),[1][2] was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent 23 years in exile from 1791: during the French Revolution and the First French Empire (1804–1814), and during the Hundred Days.

Louis XVIII
Portrait, c. 1814
King of France
1st reign3 May 1814 – 20 March 1815
2nd reign8 July 1815 – 16 September 1824
PredecessorNapoleon (as Emperor of the French)
Louis XVI (as King of France)
SuccessorCharles X
Prime ministers
See list
King of France (claimant)
1st tenure8 June 1795[a]3 May 1814
2nd tenure20 March 1815 – 8 July 1815
PredecessorLouis XVII
Born(1755-11-17)17 November 1755
Palace of Versailles, France
Died16 September 1824(1824-09-16) (aged 68)
Tuileries Palace, Paris, France
Burial24 September 1824
Spouse
(m. 1771; died 1810)
Names
French: Louis Stanislas Xavier de France
See more
  • Spanish: Luis Estanislao Javier de Francia
  • Portuguese: Luís Estanislau Xavier da França
  • Italian: Luigi Stanislao Saverio di Borbone-Francia
  • Dutch: Lodewijk Stanislaus Xaverius van Frankrijk
HouseBourbon
FatherLouis, Dauphin of France
MotherMaria Josepha of Saxony
ReligionCatholicism
Signature

Until his accession to the throne of France, he 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 Louis XVI, who was later executed by guillotine.[3] When his young nephew Louis XVII died in prison in June 1795, the Count of Provence proclaimed himself (titular) king under the name Louis XVIII.[4]

Following the French Revolution and during the Napoleonic era, Louis XVIII lived in exile in Prussia, Great Britain, and Russia.[5] When the Sixth Coalition first defeated Napoleon in 1814, Louis XVIII was placed in what he, and the French royalists, considered his rightful position. However, Napoleon escaped from his exile in Elba and restored his French Empire. Louis XVIII fled, and a Seventh Coalition declared war on the French Empire, defeated Napoleon again, and again restored Louis XVIII to the French throne.

Louis XVIII ruled as king for slightly less than a decade. The government of the Bourbon Restoration 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. His return in 1815 led to a second wave of White Terror headed by the Ultra-royalist faction. The following year, Louis dissolved the unpopular parliament (the Chambre introuvable), giving rise to the liberal Doctrinaires. His reign was further marked by the formation of the Quintuple Alliance and a military intervention in Spain. Louis had no children, and upon his death the crown passed to his brother, Charles X.[5] Louis XVIII was the last French monarch to die while still reigning, as Charles X (1824–1830) abdicated and both Louis Philippe I (1830–1848) and Napoleon III (1852–1870) were deposed.

Youth

Louis Stanislas Xavier, styled Count of Provence from birth, was born on 17 November 1755 in the Palace of Versailles, a younger 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. He 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 also became 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 Stanislaus I of Poland who was still alive at the time; 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 to their father until the Dauphin's own premature death in 1765. The two deaths elevated Louis Stanislas to second in the line of succession, while his brother Louis Auguste acquired the title of 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 [fr], a friend of his father, was named as his governor.

Louis Stanislas was an intelligent boy, excelling in the 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's education was quite religious in nature; several of his teachers were priests, such as Jean-Gilles du Coëtlosquet, Bishop of Limoges; the Abbé Jean-Antoine Nollet; and the Jesuit Guillaume-François Berthier.[9] 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, when he was 15, Louis Stanislas's education was formally concluded, and his own independent household was established,[10] which astounded contemporaries with its extravagance: in 1773, the number of his servants reached 390[11] 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.[12] During this period of his life he was often known by the title Count of Provence.

On 17 December 1773, he was inaugurated as a Grand Master of the Order of St. Lazarus.

Marriage

 
Marie Joséphine of Savoy

On 16 April 1771, Louis Stanislas was married by proxy to Princess Maria Giuseppina of Savoy. The in-person ceremony was conducted on 14 May at the Palace of Versailles. 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.[13] Louis Stanislas found his wife repulsive; she 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.[14] 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.[15]

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.[16] The Dauphin and Louis Stanislas did not enjoy a harmonious relationship and often quarrelled,[17] as did their wives.[18] Louis Stanislas did impregnate his wife in 1774, having conquered his aversion. However, the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.[19] A second pregnancy in 1781 also miscarried, and the marriage remained childless.[6][14]

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-Dagoty, 1775

On 27 April 1774, Louis XV fell ill after contracting smallpox and died a few days later on 10 May, aged 64.[20] Louis Stanislas' elder brother, the Dauphin Louis Auguste, succeeded their 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's prestige. However, the appanage generated only 300,000 livres a year, an amount much lower than it had been at its peak in the fourteenth century.[12]

Louis Stanislas travelled about France more 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.[11] 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. That the baby was 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 limited affection for each other cooling entirely.[30] Louis Stanislas commissioned a pavilion for his mistress on a parcel of land at Versailles which became known as the Parc Balbi.[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, his long-awaiting opportunity to establish himself in politics.[34] The reforms proposed a new property tax,[35] and new elected provincial assemblies which 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-Stanislas-Xavier, comte de Provence by Joseph Boze

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 declared 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 a convocation of 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 of 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. The king duly obliged on 27 December.[42]

Outbreak of the 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.

The Count of Provence urged the King to act strongly against the declaration, while the King's popular minister Jacques Necker aimed at reaching a 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 Régiment Royal–Allemand Cavalerie (Royal German Cavalry Regiment) of Charles-Eugène de Lorraine, Prince de Lambesc, against a crowd gathered at the Tuileries gardens, sparked the Storming of the Bastille two days later.[44][45]

On 16 July, the King's brother, Charles, Comte d'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 (Carlo Emanuele Ferdinando Maria IV) Kingdom of Sardinia, with the family of Louis Joseph, Prince de 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 taken 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 Orleans, thus bypassing the Count of Artois. If Orleans 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

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-en-Argonne. 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 Condé princes 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 (or "Treves"), where their maternal uncle, Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony, was the Archbishop-Elector. The activities of the émigrés 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 by 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]

The young King, still a minor, died in prison 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[4] and 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".[18]

Louis XVIII negotiated the release of Marie-Thérèse 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 Louis XVIII's wishes.[59]

Louis XVIII was forced to abandon Verona when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Republic of Venice in 1796.[60]

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.[60] Louis XVIII moved to Blankenburg in the Duchy of Brunswick after his departure from Verona. He lived in a modest two-bedroom apartment over a shop.[61] Louis XVIII was forced to leave Blankenburg 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.[62]

In 1798, Tsar Paul I of Russia offered Louis the use of Jelgava Palace in Courland (now Latvia). The Tsar also guaranteed Louis' safety and bestowed on him a generous pension,[61] though later discontinued payment.[63] Marie-Thérèse finally joined Louis XVIII at Jelgava in 1799.[64] In the winter of 1798–1799, Louis XVIII wrote a biography of Marie Antoinette titled Réflexions historiques sur Marie Antoinette. Moreover, being surrounded at Jelgava with many old courtiers, he attempted to recreate the court life of Versailles, re-establishing various of the former court ceremonies, including the lever and coucher (ceremonies that accompanied waking and bedding, respectively).[65]

On 9 June 1799, Marie-Thérèse married her cousin Louis-Antoine at the Jelgava Palace. Desperate to display to the world a united family, Louis XVIII ordered his wife Queen Marie Joséphine, who at the time was living apart from her husband in Schleswig-Holstein, to attend the wedding. Furthermore, she was to come without her long-time friend (and rumoured lover) Marguerite de Gourbillon. The Queen refused to leave her friend behind, creating an unpleasant situation that rivalled the wedding in notoriety.[66] 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.[67]

In 1800, Louis XVIII attempted to strike up a correspondence with Napoleon Bonaparte (by then First Consul of France), urging him to restore the Bourbons to their throne, but the future emperor was impervious to this idea and continued to consolidate his own position as ruler of France.[68]

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.[65] 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.[63]

Marie-Thérèse persuaded Queen Louise of Prussia to give her family refuge on Prussian territory. Though Louise consented, 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 spelt as Comte de Lille.[69] After an arduous journey from Jelgava,[70] he and his family took up residence in the years 1801–1804 at the Łazienki Palace in Warsaw, which after the partitions of Poland became part of the province of South Prussia. According to Wirydianna Fiszerowa, a contemporary living there at the time, the Prussian local authorities, wishing to honour the arrivals, had music played, but trying to give this a national and patriotic character, unwittingly chose La Marseillaise, the hymn of the French Republic with unflattering allusions to both Louis XVI and Louis XVIII. They later apologised for their mistake.[69]

It was very soon after their arrival that Louis and Marie-Thérèse learned of the death of Tsar Paul I. Louis hoped that Paul's successor, Alexander I, would repudiate his father's banishment of the Bourbons, which he later did. Louis 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 the King did not do so at that time. Artois had an allowance from King George III of Great Britain and he sent some money to Louis, whose court-in-exile was not only being spied on by Napoleonic agents[71] but was also being forced to make significant economies, financed as it was mainly from interest owed by the Emperor Francis II on valuables his aunt, Marie Antoinette, had removed from France.[72]

In 1803, Napoleon tried to force Louis XVIII to renounce his right to the throne of France, but Louis refused.[73] In May the following year, 1804, Napoleon declared himself Emperor of the French. In July, Louis XVIII and his nephew departed for Sweden for a Bourbon family conference, where Louis XVIII, the Count of Artois, and the Duke of Angoulême issued a statement condemning Napoleon's move.[74] When the King of Prussia decreed that Louis XVIII would have to leave Prussian territory, and hence Warsaw, Tsar Alexander I invited Louis XVIII to resume residence in Jelgava, which he did. However, having to live under less generous conditions than those enjoyed under Paul I, Louis XVIII decided to embark for England as soon as possible.[75]

As time went on, Louis XVIII realised that France would never accept an attempt to return to the Ancien Régime. Accordingly, in 1805 he reformulated his public policies with a view to reclaiming his throne, issuing a declaration that was far more liberal than his earlier pronouncements. This repudiated his Declaration of Verona, promised to abolish conscription, retain the Napoleonic 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 Antoine de Bésiade, Count of Avaray, Louis's closest advisor in exile.[76]

Louis XVIII was forced once again to leave Jelgava when Tsar Alexander informed him that his safety could not be guaranteed in continental Europe. In July 1807, Louis boarded a Swedish frigate bound for Stockholm, bringing with him only the Duke of Angoulême. This stay in Sweden was short-lived since in November 1807 he disembarked at Great Yarmouth, on the Eastern coast of England. He then took up residence in Gosfield Hall in Essex, leased to him by the Marquess of Buckingham.[77]

England, 1807–1814

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

In 1808, Louis brought his wife and queen, Marie Joséphine, to join him in England. His stay at Gosfield Hall did not last long; he soon moved to Hartwell House in Buckinghamshire, where over one hundred courtiers were housed.[78] The King paid £500 in rent each year to the owner of the estate, Sir George Lee. The Prince of Wales (the future George IV of the United Kingdom) was very charitable to the exiled Bourbons. As Prince Regent, he granted them permanent right of asylum and extremely generous allowances.[79]

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.[80] That same winter, Louis had a particularly severe attack of gout, which was a recurring problem for him at Hartwell, and he had to take to a wheelchair.[81]

In 1812, Napoleon I embarked on an invasion of Russia, initiating a war which would prove to be the turning point in his fortunes. The expedition failed miserably, and Napoleon was forced to retreat with an army in tatters.

In 1813, Louis XVIII issued another declaration from Hartwell. The Declaration of Hartwell was even more liberal than his Declaration of 1805, asserting that those who had 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 nobility and clergy during the Revolution) would be compensated for their losses.[82]

Allied troops entered Paris on 31 March 1814.[83] Louis, unable to walk, had sent the Count of Artois to France in January 1814 and issued letters patent appointing Artois Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom in the event of his being restored as king. On 11 April, five days after the French Senate had invited Louis to resume the throne of France, Napoleon I abdicated.[84]

Bourbon Restoration

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

First Restoration (1814–1815)

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 staging a procession through the city.[85] 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 been imprisoned 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 a lower house styled the Chamber of Deputies[b] and an upper house, styled the Chamber of Peers. The press would enjoy a degree of freedom, and there would be a provision that the former owners of the Biens nationaux, confiscated during the Revolution, would be compensated.[90] 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.[91] There were 90,000 citizens eligible to vote.[92]

 
Louis XVIII in 1814

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 immediately 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).[93]

It did not take Louis XVIII long to go back on one of his many promises. He and his Comptroller-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. Expenditure on the army was slashed in the 1815 budget – in 1814, the military had accounted for 55% of government spending.[94]

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 of Berry to the Royal Council in May 1814, upon its establishment. The council was informally headed by Prince Talleyrand.[95] 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 Parma branch of the Bourbons, and not to the former Empress Marie-Louise of France, as was being suggested by the Allies.[96] Louis also protested at 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 was learned that Murat corresponded with Napoleon, which was explicitly forbidden by a recent treaty. In fact, Murat never did actually write to Napoleon, but Louis, intent on restoring the Neapolitan Bourbons at any cost, had taken care to have such a correspondence forged, and subsidised the Austrian expedition with 25 million francs.[97]

Louis XVIII succeeded in getting the Neapolitan Bourbons restored immediately. Parma, however, was bestowed upon Empress Marie-Louise for life, and the Parma Bourbons were given the Duchy of Lucca until the death of Marie-Louise.

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 Southern France, because he was having another case of gout.[98] Minister of War Marshal Soult dispatched Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans (later King Louis Philippe I), the Count of Artois, and Marshal MacDonald to apprehend Napoleon.[99]

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.[100] That same day, Louis XVIII quit the capital with a small escort at midnight, first travelling to Lille, and then crossing the border into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, halting in Ghent.[101] Other leaders, most prominently Tsar Alexander I, debated whether in the case of a second victory over the French Empire, the Duke of Orleans should be proclaimed king instead of Louis XVIII.[102]

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.[103]

Second Restoration (from 1815)

 
Old Bumblehead the 18th trying on the Napoleon Boots – or, Preparing for the Spanish Campaign, by George Cruikshank, mocking 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 returned to France promptly after Napoleon's defeat to ensure his second restoration "in the baggage train of the enemy", i.e. with Wellington's troops.[104] The Duke of Wellington used King Louis' 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 those who served the Emperor in the Hundred Days would not be persecuted, except for the "instigators". It was also acknowledged that Louis's government might have made mistakes during the First Restoration.[105] King Louis was worried that the counter-revolutionary element sought revenge. He promised to grant a constitution that would guarantee the public debt, freedom of the press and of religion, and equality before the law. It would guarantee the full property rights of those who had purchased national lands during the revolution. He kept his promises.[106]

On 29 June, a deputation of five from among the members of 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 is] the best way to preserve the integrity of France"[107] and ordered the delegation to espouse King Louis' cause.[108] The King 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 during that evening that he could not converse with the King.[109]

Although the Ultra faction of returning exiles wanted revenge and were eager to punish the usurpers and restore the old regime, the new king rejected that advice. He instead called for continuity and reconciliation, and a search for peace and prosperity. The exiles were not given back their lands and property, although they eventually received repayment in the form of bonds. The Catholic Church was favoured. The electorate was limited to the richest men in France, most of whom had supported Napoleon. In foreign policy he removed Talleyrand, and continued most of Napoleon's policies in peaceful fashion. He kept to the policy of minimizing Austria's role but reversed Napoleon's friendly overtures to Spain and the Ottomans.[110][111][112]

The King's role in politics was voluntarily diminished; he assigned most of his duties to his council. During the summer of 1815, he and his ministry embarked on a series of reforms. The Royal Council, an informal group of ministers that advised Louis, 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.[113] On 14 July, the ministry dissolved the units of the army deemed "rebellious". Hereditary peerage was re-established by the ministry at Louis' behest.[114]

In August, elections for the Chamber of Deputies returned unfavourable results for Talleyrand. The ministry hoped for moderate deputies, but the electorate voted almost exclusively for ultra-royalists, resulting in what King Louis called the 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 chose the Duke of Richelieu to be his new Prime Minister. Richelieu was chosen because he was acceptable to Louis' family and to the reactionary Chamber of Deputies.[115] Louis dissolved the Chambre introuvable on 5 September 1816, after a rise in anti-monarchical sentiments.[116][117]

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, along with the execution or assassination of others. Popular vengeance led to 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.[118] Louis publicly deplored such illegal acts, but vehemently supported the prosecution of those marshals of the army who had helped Napoleon in the Hundred Days.[119][120] Louis's government executed Napoleon's Marshal Ney in December 1815 for treason. The King's 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 was not executing enough.[121] The government issued a proclamation of amnesty to the "traitors" in January 1816, but such trials as had already begun took their course. That same declaration also banned any member of the House of Bonaparte from owning property in, or entering, France.[122] It is estimated that between 50,000 – 80,000 officials were purged from the government during what was known as the Second White Terror.[123]

In November 1815, Louis'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 now less extensive, being drawn back to their 1790 extent. 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.[124]

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's foreign minister, the Duke of Richelieu, succeeded in convincing the Allied Powers to withdraw their armies early in exchange for a sum of over 200 million francs.[125]

Louis chose many centrist cabinets, as he wanted to appease the populace, much to the dismay of his brother, the ultra-royalist Count of Artois.[126] 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.[127]

King Louis disliked the premier prince du sang, Louis-Philippe d'Orléans, and took every opportunity to snub him,[128] 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[129] and Louis broke an ancient tradition by attending his nephew's funeral, whereas previous kings of France could not have any association with death.[130] The death of the Duke of Berry meant that the House of Orleans was more likely to succeed to the throne.

 
Louis XVIII on a balcony of the Tuileries Palace receiving the Duke of Angoulême after his successful military campaign in Spain

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,[129] 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.[131] 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.[132] Around the same time as the "law of the two votes", Louis 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,[133] which earned her the nickname of tabatière (snuffbox).[134] In 1823, France embarked on a military intervention in Spain, where a revolt had occurred against King Ferdinand VII. France succeeded in crushing the rebellion,[135] in a campaign headed by the Duke of Angoulême.[136]

Death

Louis XVIII's health began to fail in the spring of 1824. He was experiencing 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.[137] As a historical footnote, the young science of disinfection had advanced in the early 1820s to the point where it was recognized that chlorides of lime could be used to both eliminate smells and slow decomposition. The body of Louis XVIII was washed with chlorides by a French scientist, Antoine Germain Labarraque, permitting his corpse to be "presented to the public without any odour" (emphasis in the original) in 1824.[138]

Film and television

Louis XVIII is portrayed by Orson Welles in the 1970 film Waterloo. British actor Sebastian Armesto played Comte Louis de Provence prior to his accession in the 2006 motion picture Marie Antoinette directed by Sofia Coppola.[139] In the 2022 TV series Marie Antoinette, created by Deborah Davis, the Count of Provence is portrayed by British-Irish actor Jack Archer.[140]

Honours

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.

Succession

The French line of succession upon the death of Louis XVIII in 1824.

Ancestors

See also

Notes

  1. ^ In his official acts as king, Louis XVIII dated the years of his reign from 1795, when his nephew Louis XVII died.
  2. ^ Suffrage for the Chamber of Deputies was granted to adult males who paid 300 francs a year in tax.

References

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  139. ^ Marie Antoinette at AllMovie
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Works cited

  • Artz, Frederick Binkerd (1931). France Under the Bourbon Restoration, 1814-1830. Harvard University Press.
  • Artz, Frederick Binkerd (1938). Reaction and Revolution 1814-1832. Harper & Row.
  • Fenby, Jonathan (October 2015). "Return of the King". History Today. 65 (10): 49–54.
  • Fraser, Antonia (2002). Marie Antoinette: The Journey. London: ORION. ISBN 978-0-7538-1305-8.
  • Frederking, Bettina (2008). "'Il ne faut pas être le roi de deux peuples': Strategies of National Reconciliation in Restoration France". French History. 22 (4): 446–468.
  • Hibbert, Christopher (1982). The French Revolution. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-1400-4945-9.
  • Lever, Évelyne (1988). Louis XVIII (in French). Fayard, Paris. ISBN 2-2130-1545-7.
  • Mansel, Philip (1999). Louis XVIII (paperback ed.). Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-2217-6.
  • Nagel, Susan (2008). Marie-Thérèse: Child of Terror (Reprint ed.). USA: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-5969-1057-7.
  • Price, Munro (2008). The Perilous Crown. Pan Books. ISBN 978-0-3304-2638-1.

Further reading

  • Holroyd, Richard (1971). "The Bourbon Army, 1815-1830". Historical Journal. 14 (3): 529–552. JSTOR 2637744.
  • Mansel, Philip (2011). "From Exile to the Throne: The Europeanization of Louis XVIII". In Mansel, Philip; Riotte, Torsten (eds.). Monarchy and Exile. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 181–213.
  • Weiner, Margery (1961). The French Exiles, 1789-1815. Morrow.
  • Wolf, John B. (1940). France 1814-1919: the Rise of a Liberal Democratic Society. pp. 1–58.

Historiography

  • Sauvigny, G. de Bertier de (Spring 1981). "The Bourbon Restoration: One Century of French Historiography". French Historical Studies. 12 (1): 41–67. doi:10.2307/286306. JSTOR 286306.

External links

    Louis XVIII
    Cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty
    Born: 17 November 1755 Died: 16 September 1824
    Regnal titles
    Vacant
    Napoleon I as emperor
    Himself as titular king
    Title last held by
    Louis XVI
    King of France
    11 April 1814 – 20 March 1815
    Vacant
    Napoleon I as emperor
    Himself as titular king
    Vacant
    Napoleon II as emperor
    Himself as titular king
    King of France
    7 July 1815 – 16 September 1824
    Succeeded by
    French nobility
    Vacant
    Title last held by
    Philippe
    Duke of Anjou
    1771 – 1790
    Vacant
    Title next held by
    Jacques
    Royal titles
    Preceded by Monsieur
    1774–1793
    Succeeded by
    Titles in pretence
    Loss of title — TITULAR —
    King of France
    20 March 1815 – 7 July 1815
    Reason for succession failure:
    Hundred Days
    Succeeded by
    Himself
    Preceded by — TITULAR —
    King of France
    8 June 1795 – 11 April 1814
    Reason for succession failure:
    Monarchy abolished in 1792
    Succeeded by
    Himself

    louis, xviii, louis, stanislas, xavier, november, 1755, september, 1824, known, desired, french, désiré, king, france, from, 1814, 1824, except, brief, interruption, during, hundred, days, 1815, spent, years, exile, from, 1791, during, french, revolution, firs. Louis XVIII Louis Stanislas Xavier 17 November 1755 16 September 1824 known as the Desired French le Desire 1 2 was King of France from 1814 to 1824 except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815 He spent 23 years in exile from 1791 during the French Revolution and the First French Empire 1804 1814 and during the Hundred Days Louis XVIIIPortrait c 1814King of France more 1st reign3 May 1814 20 March 18152nd reign8 July 1815 16 September 1824PredecessorNapoleon as Emperor of the French Louis XVI as King of France SuccessorCharles XPrime ministersSee list The Prince of Talleyrand 1814 The Duke of Blacas 1814 1815 The Prince of Talleyrand 1815 The Duke of Richelieu 1815 1818 Jean Joseph Dessolles 1818 1819 The Duke of Decazes 1819 1820 The Duke of Richelieu 1820 1821 The Count of Villele 1821 1824 King of France claimant 1st tenure8 June 1795 a 3 May 18142nd tenure20 March 1815 8 July 1815PredecessorLouis XVIIBorn 1755 11 17 17 November 1755Palace of Versailles FranceDied16 September 1824 1824 09 16 aged 68 Tuileries Palace Paris FranceBurial24 September 1824Basilica of Saint DenisSpouseMarie Josephine of Savoy m 1771 died 1810 wbr NamesFrench Louis Stanislas Xavier de FranceSee more Spanish Luis Estanislao Javier de FranciaPortuguese Luis Estanislau Xavier da FrancaItalian Luigi Stanislao Saverio di Borbone FranciaDutch Lodewijk Stanislaus Xaverius van FrankrijkHouseBourbonFatherLouis Dauphin of FranceMotherMaria Josepha of SaxonyReligionCatholicismSignatureUntil his accession to the throne of France he 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 Louis XVI who was later executed by guillotine 3 When his young nephew Louis XVII died in prison in June 1795 the Count of Provence proclaimed himself titular king under the name Louis XVIII 4 Following the French Revolution and during the Napoleonic era Louis XVIII lived in exile in Prussia Great Britain and Russia 5 When the Sixth Coalition first defeated Napoleon in 1814 Louis XVIII was placed in what he and the French royalists considered his rightful position However Napoleon escaped from his exile in Elba and restored his French Empire Louis XVIII fled and a Seventh Coalition declared war on the French Empire defeated Napoleon again and again restored Louis XVIII to the French throne Louis XVIII ruled as king for slightly less than a decade The government of the Bourbon Restoration was a constitutional monarchy unlike the Ancien Regime which was absolutist As a constitutional monarch Louis XVIII s royal prerogative was reduced substantially by the Charter of 1814 France s new constitution His return in 1815 led to a second wave of White Terror headed by the Ultra royalist faction The following year Louis dissolved the unpopular parliament the Chambre introuvable giving rise to the liberal Doctrinaires His reign was further marked by the formation of the Quintuple Alliance and a military intervention in Spain Louis had no children and upon his death the crown passed to his brother Charles X 5 Louis XVIII was the last French monarch to die while still reigning as Charles X 1824 1830 abdicated and both Louis Philippe I 1830 1848 and Napoleon III 1852 1870 were deposed Contents 1 Youth 2 Marriage 3 At his brother s court 3 1 Outbreak of the French Revolution 4 Exile 4 1 Early years 4 2 1796 1807 4 3 England 1807 1814 5 Bourbon Restoration 5 1 First Restoration 1814 1815 5 2 Hundred Days 5 3 Second Restoration from 1815 5 4 Death 6 Film and television 7 Honours 7 1 Succession 8 Ancestors 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 11 1 Works cited 12 Further reading 12 1 Historiography 13 External linksYouthLouis Stanislas Xavier styled Count of Provence from birth was born on 17 November 1755 in the Palace of Versailles a younger 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 He 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 also became 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 Stanislaus I of Poland who was still alive at the time and Xavier was chosen for Saint Francis Xavier whom his mother s family held as one of their patron saints 6 nbsp The Count of Provence and his brother Louis Auguste Duke of Berry later Louis XVI depicted in 1757 by Francois Hubert DrouaisAt 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 to their father until the Dauphin s own premature death in 1765 The two deaths elevated Louis Stanislas to second in the line of succession while his brother Louis Auguste acquired the title of 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 Quelen de Stuer de Caussade Duke of La Vauguyon fr a friend of his father was named as his governor Louis Stanislas was an intelligent boy excelling in the 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 s education was quite religious in nature several of his teachers were priests such as Jean Gilles du Coetlosquet Bishop of Limoges the Abbe Jean Antoine Nollet and the Jesuit Guillaume Francois Berthier 9 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 when he was 15 Louis Stanislas s education was formally concluded and his own independent household was established 10 which astounded contemporaries with its extravagance in 1773 the number of his servants reached 390 11 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 12 During this period of his life he was often known by the title Count of Provence On 17 December 1773 he was inaugurated as a Grand Master of the Order of St Lazarus Marriage nbsp Marie Josephine of SavoyOn 16 April 1771 Louis Stanislas was married by proxy to Princess Maria Giuseppina of Savoy The in person ceremony was conducted on 14 May at the Palace of Versailles Marie Josephine 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 13 Louis Stanislas found his wife repulsive she 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 14 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 15 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 16 The Dauphin and Louis Stanislas did not enjoy a harmonious relationship and often quarrelled 17 as did their wives 18 Louis Stanislas did impregnate his wife in 1774 having conquered his aversion However the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage 19 A second pregnancy in 1781 also miscarried and the marriage remained childless 6 14 At his brother s court nbsp Louis Stanislas Count of Provence during the reign of Louis XVI of France nbsp Marie Josephine Countess of Provence Louis Stanislas wife by Jean Baptiste Andre Gautier Dagoty 1775On 27 April 1774 Louis XV fell ill after contracting smallpox and died a few days later on 10 May aged 64 20 Louis Stanislas elder brother the Dauphin Louis Auguste succeeded their 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 Alencon in December 1774 The duchy was given to enhance Louis Stanislas s prestige However the appanage generated only 300 000 livres a year an amount much lower than it had been at its peak in the fourteenth century 12 Louis Stanislas travelled about France more than other members of the Royal Family who rarely left the Ile de France In 1774 he accompanied his sister Clotilde to Chambery 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 Adelaide and Victoire while they were taking the waters at Vichy 11 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 Therese Charlotte de France and given the honorific title Madame Royale That the baby was 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 Josephine 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 limited affection for each other cooling entirely 30 Louis Stanislas commissioned a pavilion for his mistress on a parcel of land at Versailles which became known as the Parc Balbi 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 his long awaiting opportunity to establish himself in politics 34 The reforms proposed a new property tax 35 and new elected provincial assemblies which 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 Etienne Charles de Lomenie 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 nbsp Louis Stanislas Xavier comte de Provence by Joseph BozeBrienne 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 declared 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 Bearn 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 a convocation of 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 of 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 The king duly obliged on 27 December 42 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 The Count of Provence urged the King to act strongly against the declaration while the King s popular minister Jacques Necker aimed at reaching a 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 Regiment Royal Allemand Cavalerie Royal German Cavalry Regiment of Charles Eugene de Lorraine Prince de Lambesc against a crowd gathered at the Tuileries gardens sparked the Storming of the Bastille two days later 44 45 On 16 July the King s brother Charles Comte d 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 Carlo Emanuele Ferdinando Maria IV Kingdom of Sardinia with the family of Louis Joseph Prince de Conde 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 taken 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 Orleans thus bypassing the Count of Artois If Orleans 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 ExileEarly 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 en Argonne 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 Conde princes 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 or Treves where their maternal uncle Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony was the Archbishop Elector The activities of the emigres 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 by Louis XVI himself 55 In January 1792 the Legislative Assembly declared that all of the emigres 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 The young King still a minor died in prison in June 1795 His only surviving sibling was his sister Marie Therese 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 4 and 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 18 Louis XVIII negotiated the release of Marie Therese from her Paris prison in 1795 He desperately wanted her to marry her first cousin Louis Antoine Duke of Angouleme 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 Louis XVIII s wishes 59 Louis XVIII was forced to abandon Verona when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Republic of Venice in 1796 60 1796 1807 nbsp Jelgava Palace Louis XVIII s residence from 1798 to 1801 and from 1804 to 1807Louis XVIII had been vying for the custody of his niece Marie Therese 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 60 Louis XVIII moved to Blankenburg in the Duchy of Brunswick after his departure from Verona He lived in a modest two bedroom apartment over a shop 61 Louis XVIII was forced to leave Blankenburg when King Frederick William II of Prussia died In light of this Marie Therese decided to wait a while longer before reuniting with her uncle 62 In 1798 Tsar Paul I of Russia offered Louis the use of Jelgava Palace in Courland now Latvia The Tsar also guaranteed Louis safety and bestowed on him a generous pension 61 though later discontinued payment 63 Marie Therese finally joined Louis XVIII at Jelgava in 1799 64 In the winter of 1798 1799 Louis XVIII wrote a biography of Marie Antoinette titled Reflexions historiques sur Marie Antoinette Moreover being surrounded at Jelgava with many old courtiers he attempted to recreate the court life of Versailles re establishing various of the former court ceremonies including the lever and coucher ceremonies that accompanied waking and bedding respectively 65 On 9 June 1799 Marie Therese married her cousin Louis Antoine at the Jelgava Palace Desperate to display to the world a united family Louis XVIII ordered his wife Queen Marie Josephine who at the time was living apart from her husband in Schleswig Holstein to attend the wedding Furthermore she was to come without her long time friend and rumoured lover Marguerite de Gourbillon The Queen refused to leave her friend behind creating an unpleasant situation that rivalled the wedding in notoriety 66 Louis XVIII knew that his nephew Louis Antoine was not compatible with Marie Therese Despite this he still pressed for the marriage which proved to be quite unhappy and produced no children 67 In 1800 Louis XVIII attempted to strike up a correspondence with Napoleon Bonaparte by then First Consul of France urging him to restore the Bourbons to their throne but the future emperor was impervious to this idea and continued to consolidate his own position as ruler of France 68 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 65 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 Therese even sold a diamond necklace that the Emperor Paul had given her as a wedding gift 63 Marie Therese persuaded Queen Louise of Prussia to give her family refuge on Prussian territory Though Louise consented 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 spelt as Comte de Lille 69 After an arduous journey from Jelgava 70 he and his family took up residence in the years 1801 1804 at the Lazienki Palace in Warsaw which after the partitions of Poland became part of the province of South Prussia According to Wirydianna Fiszerowa a contemporary living there at the time the Prussian local authorities wishing to honour the arrivals had music played but trying to give this a national and patriotic character unwittingly chose La Marseillaise the hymn of the French Republic with unflattering allusions to both Louis XVI and Louis XVIII They later apologised for their mistake 69 It was very soon after their arrival that Louis and Marie Therese learned of the death of Tsar Paul I Louis hoped that Paul s successor Alexander I would repudiate his father s banishment of the Bourbons which he later did Louis 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 Therese to him in Edinburgh but the King did not do so at that time Artois had an allowance from King George III of Great Britain and he sent some money to Louis whose court in exile was not only being spied on by Napoleonic agents 71 but was also being forced to make significant economies financed as it was mainly from interest owed by the Emperor Francis II on valuables his aunt Marie Antoinette had removed from France 72 In 1803 Napoleon tried to force Louis XVIII to renounce his right to the throne of France but Louis refused 73 In May the following year 1804 Napoleon declared himself Emperor of the French In July Louis XVIII and his nephew departed for Sweden for a Bourbon family conference where Louis XVIII the Count of Artois and the Duke of Angouleme issued a statement condemning Napoleon s move 74 When the King of Prussia decreed that Louis XVIII would have to leave Prussian territory and hence Warsaw Tsar Alexander I invited Louis XVIII to resume residence in Jelgava which he did However having to live under less generous conditions than those enjoyed under Paul I Louis XVIII decided to embark for England as soon as possible 75 As time went on Louis XVIII realised that France would never accept an attempt to return to the Ancien Regime Accordingly in 1805 he reformulated his public policies with a view to reclaiming his throne issuing a declaration that was far more liberal than his earlier pronouncements This repudiated his Declaration of Verona promised to abolish conscription retain the Napoleonic 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 Antoine de Besiade Count of Avaray Louis s closest advisor in exile 76 Louis XVIII was forced once again to leave Jelgava when Tsar Alexander informed him that his safety could not be guaranteed in continental Europe In July 1807 Louis boarded a Swedish frigate bound for Stockholm bringing with him only the Duke of Angouleme This stay in Sweden was short lived since in November 1807 he disembarked at Great Yarmouth on the Eastern coast of England He then took up residence in Gosfield Hall in Essex leased to him by the Marquess of Buckingham 77 England 1807 1814 nbsp Hartwell House Buckinghamshire Louis XVIII s court in exile from 1808 until the RestorationIn 1808 Louis brought his wife and queen Marie Josephine to join him in England His stay at Gosfield Hall did not last long he soon moved to Hartwell House in Buckinghamshire where over one hundred courtiers were housed 78 The King paid 500 in rent each year to the owner of the estate Sir George Lee The Prince of Wales the future George IV of the United Kingdom was very charitable to the exiled Bourbons As Prince Regent he granted them permanent right of asylum and extremely generous allowances 79 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 Josephine died on 13 November 1810 80 That same winter Louis had a particularly severe attack of gout which was a recurring problem for him at Hartwell and he had to take to a wheelchair 81 In 1812 Napoleon I embarked on an invasion of Russia initiating a war which would prove to be the turning point in his fortunes The expedition failed miserably and Napoleon was forced to retreat with an army in tatters In 1813 Louis XVIII issued another declaration from Hartwell The Declaration of Hartwell was even more liberal than his Declaration of 1805 asserting that those who had 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 nobility and clergy during the Revolution would be compensated for their losses 82 Allied troops entered Paris on 31 March 1814 83 Louis unable to walk had sent the Count of Artois to France in January 1814 and issued letters patent appointing Artois Lieutenant General of the Kingdom in the event of his being restored as king On 11 April five days after the French Senate had invited Louis to resume the throne of France Napoleon I abdicated 84 Bourbon RestorationMain article Bourbon Restoration in France nbsp Allegory of the Return of the Bourbons on 24 April 1814 Louis XVIII Lifting France from Its Ruins by Louis Philippe CrepinFirst Restoration 1814 1815 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 staging a procession through the city 85 He took up residence in the Tuileries Palace the same day His niece the Duchess of Angouleme fainted at the sight of the Tuileries where she had been imprisoned 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 a lower house styled the Chamber of Deputies b and an upper house styled the Chamber of Peers The press would enjoy a degree of freedom and there would be a provision that the former owners of the Biens nationaux confiscated during the Revolution would be compensated 90 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 91 There were 90 000 citizens eligible to vote 92 nbsp Louis XVIII in 1814Louis 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 immediately 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 93 It did not take Louis XVIII long to go back on one of his many promises He and his Comptroller 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 Expenditure on the army was slashed in the 1815 budget in 1814 the military had accounted for 55 of government spending 94 Gold coin of Louis XVIII struck 1815 nbsp 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 Angouleme and of Berry to the Royal Council in May 1814 upon its establishment The council was informally headed by Prince Talleyrand 95 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 Parma branch of the Bourbons and not to the former Empress Marie Louise of France as was being suggested by the Allies 96 Louis also protested at 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 was learned that Murat corresponded with Napoleon which was explicitly forbidden by a recent treaty In fact Murat never did actually write to Napoleon but Louis intent on restoring the Neapolitan Bourbons at any cost had taken care to have such a correspondence forged and subsidised the Austrian expedition with 25 million francs 97 Louis XVIII succeeded in getting the Neapolitan Bourbons restored immediately Parma however was bestowed upon Empress Marie Louise for life and the Parma Bourbons were given the Duchy of Lucca until the death of Marie Louise Hundred Days Main article Hundred Days nbsp 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 Southern France because he was having another case of gout 98 Minister of War Marshal Soult dispatched Louis Philippe Duke of Orleans later King Louis Philippe I the Count of Artois and Marshal MacDonald to apprehend Napoleon 99 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 100 That same day Louis XVIII quit the capital with a small escort at midnight first travelling to Lille and then crossing the border into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands halting in Ghent 101 Other leaders most prominently Tsar Alexander I debated whether in the case of a second victory over the French Empire the Duke of Orleans should be proclaimed king instead of Louis XVIII 102 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 Blucher 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 103 Second Restoration from 1815 nbsp Old Bumblehead the 18th trying on the Napoleon Boots or Preparing for the Spanish Campaign by George Cruikshank mocking the French intervention in Spain nbsp The royal family From left to right Charles Count of Artois Louis XVIII Marie Caroline Duchesse of Berry Marie Therese Duchesse of Angouleme Louis Antoine Duke of Angouleme and Charles Ferdinand Duke of BerryLouis returned to France promptly after Napoleon s defeat to ensure his second restoration in the baggage train of the enemy i e with Wellington s troops 104 The Duke of Wellington used King Louis 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 those who served the Emperor in the Hundred Days would not be persecuted except for the instigators It was also acknowledged that Louis s government might have made mistakes during the First Restoration 105 King Louis was worried that the counter revolutionary element sought revenge He promised to grant a constitution that would guarantee the public debt freedom of the press and of religion and equality before the law It would guarantee the full property rights of those who had purchased national lands during the revolution He kept his promises 106 On 29 June a deputation of five from among the members of 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 is the best way to preserve the integrity of France 107 and ordered the delegation to espouse King Louis cause 108 The King 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 during that evening that he could not converse with the King 109 Although the Ultra faction of returning exiles wanted revenge and were eager to punish the usurpers and restore the old regime the new king rejected that advice He instead called for continuity and reconciliation and a search for peace and prosperity The exiles were not given back their lands and property although they eventually received repayment in the form of bonds The Catholic Church was favoured The electorate was limited to the richest men in France most of whom had supported Napoleon In foreign policy he removed Talleyrand and continued most of Napoleon s policies in peaceful fashion He kept to the policy of minimizing Austria s role but reversed Napoleon s friendly overtures to Spain and the Ottomans 110 111 112 The King s role in politics was voluntarily diminished he assigned most of his duties to his council During the summer of 1815 he and his ministry embarked on a series of reforms The Royal Council an informal group of ministers that advised Louis was dissolved and replaced by a tighter knit privy council the Ministere de Roi Artois Berry and Angouleme were purged from the new ministere and Talleyrand was appointed as the first President du Conseil i e Prime Minister of France 113 On 14 July the ministry dissolved the units of the army deemed rebellious Hereditary peerage was re established by the ministry at Louis behest 114 In August elections for the Chamber of Deputies returned unfavourable results for Talleyrand The ministry hoped for moderate deputies but the electorate voted almost exclusively for ultra royalists resulting in what King Louis called the Chambre introuvable The Duchess of Angouleme and the Count of Artois pressured King Louis for the dismissal of his obsolete ministry Talleyrand tendered his resignation on 20 September Louis chose the Duke of Richelieu to be his new Prime Minister Richelieu was chosen because he was acceptable to Louis family and to the reactionary Chamber of Deputies 115 Louis dissolved the Chambre introuvable on 5 September 1816 after a rise in anti monarchical sentiments 116 117 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 along with the execution or assassination of others Popular vengeance led to barbarous acts against some of these officials Guillaume Marie Anne Brune a Napoleonic marshal was savagely assassinated and his remains thrown into the Rhone River 118 Louis publicly deplored such illegal acts but vehemently supported the prosecution of those marshals of the army who had helped Napoleon in the Hundred Days 119 120 Louis s government executed Napoleon s Marshal Ney in December 1815 for treason The King s confidants Charles Francois 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 was not executing enough 121 The government issued a proclamation of amnesty to the traitors in January 1816 but such trials as had already begun took their course That same declaration also banned any member of the House of Bonaparte from owning property in or entering France 122 It is estimated that between 50 000 80 000 officials were purged from the government during what was known as the Second White Terror 123 In November 1815 Louis 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 now less extensive being drawn back to their 1790 extent 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 124 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 s foreign minister the Duke of Richelieu succeeded in convincing the Allied Powers to withdraw their armies early in exchange for a sum of over 200 million francs 125 Louis chose many centrist cabinets as he wanted to appease the populace much to the dismay of his brother the ultra royalist Count of Artois 126 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 127 King Louis disliked the premier prince du sang Louis Philippe d Orleans and took every opportunity to snub him 128 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 129 and Louis broke an ancient tradition by attending his nephew s funeral whereas previous kings of France could not have any association with death 130 The death of the Duke of Berry meant that the House of Orleans was more likely to succeed to the throne nbsp Louis XVIII on a balcony of the Tuileries Palace receiving the Duke of Angouleme after his successful military campaign in SpainBerry 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 129 nicknamed Dieudonne 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 Angouleme to accede to the throne 131 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 departement These individuals now effectively had two votes 132 Around the same time as the law of the two votes Louis began to receive visits every Wednesday from a lady named Zoe Talon and ordered that nobody should disturb him while he was with her It was rumoured that he inhaled snuff from her breasts 133 which earned her the nickname of tabatiere snuffbox 134 In 1823 France embarked on a military intervention in Spain where a revolt had occurred against King Ferdinand VII France succeeded in crushing the rebellion 135 in a campaign headed by the Duke of Angouleme 136 Death Louis XVIII s health began to fail in the spring of 1824 He was experiencing 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 137 As a historical footnote the young science of disinfection had advanced in the early 1820s to the point where it was recognized that chlorides of lime could be used to both eliminate smells and slow decomposition The body of Louis XVIII was washed with chlorides by a French scientist Antoine Germain Labarraque permitting his corpse to be presented to the public without any odour emphasis in the original in 1824 138 Film and televisionLouis XVIII is portrayed by Orson Welles in the 1970 film Waterloo British actor Sebastian Armesto played Comte Louis de Provence prior to his accession in the 2006 motion picture Marie Antoinette directed by Sofia Coppola 139 In the 2022 TV series Marie Antoinette created by Deborah Davis the Count of Provence is portrayed by British Irish actor Jack Archer 140 Honours nbsp Kingdom of France Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit 2 February 1767 141 Grand Master and Knight of the Order of Saint Michael Grand Master and Grand Croix of the Legion of Honour Grand Master and Grand Croix of the Order of Saint Louis Grand Master and Grand Croix of the Order of Saint Lazarus nbsp Austrian Empire Grand Cross of the Order of St Stephen 31 August 1815 142 nbsp Denmark Knight of the Order of the Elephant 25 January 1818 143 nbsp Kingdom of Portugal Grand Cross of the Sash of the Three Orders 10 October 1823 142 nbsp Kingdom of Prussia Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle 17 July 1815 144 Grand Cross of the Order of the Red Eagle 31 August 1815 142 nbsp Russian Empire 145 Knight of the Order of St Andrew 5 March 1800 Knight of the Order of St Alexander Nevsky 5 March 1800 nbsp Spain Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece 22 May 1767 146 nbsp United Kingdom Stranger Knight of the Order of the Garter 21 April 1814 147 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 Succession The French line of succession upon the death of Louis XVIII in 1824 nbsp Louis XV 1710 1774 Louis Dauphin of France 1729 1765 Louis Duke of Burgundy 1751 1761 nbsp Louis XVI 1754 1793 Louis Joseph Dauphin of France 1781 1789 nbsp Louis XVII 1785 1795 nbsp Louis XVIII 1755 1824 1 Charles Count of Artois b 1757 2 Louis Antoine Duke of Angouleme b 1775 Charles Ferdinand Duke of Berry 1778 1820 3 Henri Duke of Bordeaux b 1820 Ancestors8 Louis Duke of Burgundy4 Louis XV of France9 Marie Adelaide of Savoy2 Louis Dauphin of France10 Stanislaw I Leszczynski5 Marie Leszczynska11 Katarzyna Opalinska1 Louis XVIII of France12 Augustus II of Poland6 Augustus III of Poland13 Christiane Eberhardine of Bayreuth3 Maria Josepha of Saxony14 Joseph I Holy Roman Emperor7 Maria Josepha of Austria15 Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick 148 See alsoList of works by James PradierNotes In his official acts as king Louis XVIII dated the years of his reign from 1795 when his nephew Louis XVII died Suffrage for the Chamber of Deputies was granted to adult males who paid 300 francs a year in tax References nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Louis XVIII of France Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 17 11th ed Cambridge University Press p 47 Louis XVIII 1755 1824 Le Roi fauteuil in French Retrieved 12 August 2013 Hibbert 1982 pp 331 332 a b Nagel 2008 pp 152 153 a b Fraser 2002 p 532 a b Mansel 1999 p 10 Fraser 2002 p 41 a b Mansel 1999 p 11 Flamand Gretry Louis Victor 1840 Itineraire historique geographique topographique statistique pittoresque et bibliographique de la vallee de Montmorency a partir de la porte Saint Denis a Pontoise inclusivement Contenant la description complete de la ville de St Denis suivie de la biographie des rois reines princes in French Paris Bertrand p 218 Mansel 1999 p 12 a b Mansel 1999 p 20 a b Mansel 1999 p 24 Mansel 1999 p 3 a b Mansel 1999 pp 13 14 Fraser 2002 p 114 Fraser 2002 p 115 Fraser 2002 p 120 a b Mansel 1999 p 111 Mansel 1999 pp 14 15 Fraser 2002 pp 136 138 Fraser 2002 p 43 Mansel 1999 p 16 Mansel 1999 p 21 Castelot Andre 1962 Madame Royale in French Paris Librairie Academique Perrin p 15 ISBN 2 262 00035 2 Fraser 2002 p 199 Fraser 2002 p 201 Fraser 2002 pp 221 223 Fraser 2002 pp 224 225 Mansel 1999 p 28 Mansel 1999 p 30 Mansel 1999 p 29 Mansel 1999 p 34 Fraser 2002 p 178 Hibbert 1982 p 38 Mansel 1999 p 40 Mansel 1999 p 41 Hibbert 1982 p 39 Hibbert 1982 p 40 Mansel 1999 p 44 Hibbert 1982 p 329 Mansel 1999 p 45 Hibbert 1982 p 44 Fraser 2002 p 326 Le Petit Robert 2 Dictionnaire universel des noms propres Dictionnaires Le Robert Paris 1988 p 1017 Lever Evelyne 1985 Louis XVI Paris Fayard p 508 Fraser 2002 p 338 Nagel 2008 p 65 Fraser 2002 p 340 Fraser 2002 p 342 Fraser 2002 p 357 Fraser 2002 pp 361 362 Fraser 2002 p 383 Fraser 2002 p 412 Nagel 2008 p 113 Nagel 2008 pp 113 114 Nagel 2008 p 118 Hibbert 1982 p 180 Nagel 2008 p 136 Nagel 2008 p 165 a b Nagel 2008 p 190 a b Nagel 2008 p 203 Nagel 2008 p 201 a b Nagel 2008 p 216 Nagel 2008 p 206 a b Nagel 2008 p 213 Nagel 2008 pp 210 211 Nagel 2008 p 208 Mansel 1999 p 128 a b Fiszerowa Wirydianna 1998 Dzieje moje wlasne Warsaw a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Nagel 2008 pp 218 219 Nagel 2008 p 220 Nagel 2008 p 222 Nagel 2008 p 223 Nagel 2008 pp 227 228 Nagel 2008 pp 228 229 Mansel 1999 p 119 Nagel 2008 pp 233 234 Nagel 2008 p 235 Nagel 2008 p 243 Nagel 2008 p 241 Mansel 1999 p 147 Mansel 1999 p 162 Price 2008 p 143 texte France Auteur du 1 July 1814 Bulletin des lois de la Republique francaise Imprimerie nationale via gallica bnf fr Fenby 2015 pp 49 54 Price 2008 p 113 Mansel 1999 p 175 Mansel 1999 p 176 Price 2008 p 52 Price 2008 p 53 Price 2008 p 54 Price 2008 p 55 Price 2008 p 69 Mansel 1999 p 190 Mansel 1999 p 192 Mansel 1999 p 196 Mansel 1999 p 197 Price 2008 p 75 Mansel 1999 p 222 Price 2008 p 79 Price 2008 p 80 Price 2008 p 81 Price 2008 pp 82 83 Price 2008 p 83 Mansel 1999 p 253 Artz 1938 p 127 Mansel 1999 p 254 Mansel 1999 p 255 Mansel 1999 p 256 Rooney Jr John W Reinerman Alan J 1986 Continuity French Foreign Policy of The First Restoration Consortium on Revolutionary Europe 1750 1850 Proceedings Vol 16 pp 275 288 Frederking 2008 pp 446 468 Artz 1931 pp 16 21 Mansel 1999 p 260 Mansel 1999 p 261 Mansel 1999 p 266 France France 1815 1940 Britannica www britannica com Retrieved 11 May 2022 CORCIULO MARIA SOFIA 1 January 2000 La dissolution de la Chambre Introuvable 5 septembre 1816 coup d etat de Louis XVIII Parliaments Estates and Representation 20 1 167 175 doi 10 1080 02606755 2000 9522104 ISSN 0260 6755 S2CID 144649560 Lever 1988 p 417 Price 2008 p 84 Mansel 1999 p 424 Mansel 1999 p 425 Mansel 1999 p 426 Mansel 1999 p 427 Price 2008 p 89 Price 2008 pp 95 96 Price 2008 p 93 Price 2008 p 94 Price 2008 p 98 a b Price 2008 pp 106 107 Mansel 1999 p 194 Nagel 2008 p 287 Price 2008 p 108 Price 2008 p 109 Lever 1988 p 537 Price 2008 p 110 Nagel 2008 Nagel 2008 pp 297 298 Alcock Thomas 1827 An Essay on the Use of Chlorurets of Oxide of Sodium and of Lime as Powerful Disinfecting Agents and of the Chloruret of Oxide of Sodium More Especially as a Remedy of Considerable Efficacy in the Treatment of Hospital Gangrene Phagedenic Syphilitic and Ill Conditioned Ulcers Mortification and Various Other Diseases London Burgess and Hill p 152 Retrieved 21 April 2021 Marie Antoinette at AllMovie Marie Antoinette at IMDb nbsp Teulet Alexandre 1863 Liste chronologique des chevaliers de l ordre du Saint Esprit depuis son origine jusqu a son extinction 1578 1830 Chronological list of knights of the Order of the Holy Spirit from its origin to its extinction 1578 1830 Annuaire bulletin de la Societe de l histoire de France in French 2 99 Retrieved 24 March 2020 a b c Braganca Jose Vicente de 2011 A Evolucao da Banda das Tres Ordens Militares 1789 1826 The Evolution of the Band of the Three Military Orders 1789 1826 Lusiada Historia in Portuguese 2 8 278 282 ISSN 0873 1330 Retrieved 17 March 2020 Berlien Johann Heinrich Friedrich 1846 Der Elephanten Orden und seine Ritter Berling pp 154 155 Liste der Ritter des Koniglich Preussischen Hohen Ordens vom Schwarzen Adler 1851 Von Seiner Majestat dem Konige Friedrich Wilhelm III ernannte Ritter p 18 Almanach de la cour pour l annee 1817 l Academie Imp des Sciences 1817 pp 62 76 Guerra Francisco 1819 Caballeros Existentes en la Insignie Orden del Toison de Oro Calendario manual y guia de forasteros en Madrid in Spanish p 41 retrieved 17 March 2020 Shaw Wm A 1906 The Knights of England I London p 51 Genealogie ascendante jusqu au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l Europe actuellement vivans Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living in French Bourdeaux Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel 1768 p 11 Works cited Artz Frederick Binkerd 1931 France Under the Bourbon Restoration 1814 1830 Harvard University Press Artz Frederick Binkerd 1938 Reaction and Revolution 1814 1832 Harper amp Row Fenby Jonathan October 2015 Return of the King History Today 65 10 49 54 Fraser Antonia 2002 Marie Antoinette The Journey London ORION ISBN 978 0 7538 1305 8 Frederking Bettina 2008 Il ne faut pas etre le roi de deux peuples Strategies of National Reconciliation in Restoration France French History 22 4 446 468 Hibbert Christopher 1982 The French Revolution London Penguin Books ISBN 978 0 1400 4945 9 Lever Evelyne 1988 Louis XVIII in French Fayard Paris ISBN 2 2130 1545 7 Mansel Philip 1999 Louis XVIII paperback ed Thrupp Stroud Gloucestershire UK Sutton Publishing ISBN 0 7509 2217 6 Nagel Susan 2008 Marie Therese Child of Terror Reprint ed USA Bloomsbury ISBN 978 1 5969 1057 7 Price Munro 2008 The Perilous Crown Pan Books ISBN 978 0 3304 2638 1 Further readingHolroyd Richard 1971 The Bourbon Army 1815 1830 Historical Journal 14 3 529 552 JSTOR 2637744 Mansel Philip 2011 From Exile to the Throne The Europeanization of Louis XVIII In Mansel Philip Riotte Torsten eds Monarchy and Exile London Palgrave Macmillan pp 181 213 Weiner Margery 1961 The French Exiles 1789 1815 Morrow Wolf John B 1940 France 1814 1919 the Rise of a Liberal Democratic Society pp 1 58 Historiography Sauvigny G de Bertier de Spring 1981 The Bourbon Restoration One Century of French Historiography French Historical Studies 12 1 41 67 doi 10 2307 286306 JSTOR 286306 External links nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Louis XVIII of France Quotes of Louis XVIIILouis XVIIIHouse of BourbonCadet branch of the Capetian dynastyBorn 17 November 1755 Died 16 September 1824Regnal titlesVacantNapoleon I as emperorHimself as titular kingTitle last held byLouis XVI King of France11 April 1814 20 March 1815 VacantNapoleon I as emperorHimself as titular kingVacantNapoleon II as emperorHimself as titular king King of France7 July 1815 16 September 1824 Succeeded byCharles XFrench nobilityVacantTitle last held byPhilippe Duke of Anjou1771 1790 VacantTitle next held byJacquesRoyal titlesPreceded byPhilippe de France Monsieur1774 1793 Succeeded byCharles Philippe de FranceTitles in pretenceLoss of title TITULAR King of France20 March 1815 7 July 1815Reason for succession failure Hundred Days Succeeded byHimselfPreceded byLouis XVII TITULAR King of France8 June 1795 11 April 1814Reason for succession failure Monarchy abolished in 1792 Succeeded byHimself Portals nbsp Biography nbsp France nbsp Monarchy Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Louis XVIII amp oldid 1199893392, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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