The restoration of the Bourbon Dynasty to the French throne placed two brothers of Louis XVI on the throne and encouraged them to attempt, with the support of foreign powers and Royalists of the old aristocracy, to reverse the revolutionary process and withdraw basic rights. After sixteen years of growing public dissatisfaction, a new revolution overthrew the Bourbons a second time.
In October, 1813, after Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by the combined coalition forces in the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig, he returned to France to consolidate his rule amid growing disillusionment with his regime. Unable to defeat the powerful coalition of Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia arrayed against France, Napoleon
Louis XVI’s son had died as a child in prison in 1795 but was acknowledged by Royalists as King Louis XVII. The succession next passed to the brothers of Louis XVI, first to the childless comte de Provence who became King Louis XVIII, and then to the comte de Artois, who became King Charles X
Within France, enthusiastic support for the Bourbons was limited to a conservative portion of the old nobility and certain Royalist regions of France, such as the south. Most French people, however, were exhausted by long years of war, and members of the middle class wanted an end to economic disruptions caused by Napoleon’s
Louis XVIII, the first brother to become king, personally sought national reconciliation through a compromise between revolutionary freedoms and royal authority. The victorious coalition leaders, especially Britain’s Viscount Castlereagh,
Louis’s appointment of Talleyrand
Napoleon I signing his abdication at Fontainbleau.
On March 1, 1815, Napoleon
Louis XVIII reentered France, this time clearly returned to the throne by virtue of foreign military conquest and against the wishes of many of the French. The second Treaty of Paris
The new peace settlement made it more difficult for Louis XVIII to win support inside France. Furthermore, enraged Ultraroyalists
Encouraged and supported by his British and Russian allies, the Bourbon king soon dismissed the Ultra Chamber, and a new election led to a much more moderate majority in the parliament. Between 1816 and 1820, Louis XVIII gained support for his moderate policies and political conditions liberalized. France’s economy expanded, the war reparations were paid, and the occupation army departed in 1818. France again played a significant, but not dominant, role in European affairs. Although fewer than 1 percent of France’s male population could vote or hold elected office, the French people gained experience in confronting issues through parliamentary debate and public discussions in the press, rather than through revolution.
A crisis occurred in 1820 that reversed these positive developments and resulted in repressive measures and the ascendancy of the Ultras
Artois then ascended the throne as King Charles X
During sixteen years of restored Bourbon rule, Louis XVIII and Charles X managed to alienate almost every faction in France. Under Charles X, freedom of expression disappeared. The entire middle class and French citizens who had valued the freedoms gained during the French Revolution turned against their Bourbon king. Secret underground opposition groups plotted renewed revolution, since open political dissent had been outlawed. Royal policies could scarcely have seemed better calculated to force together all factions of opinion against the Ultras
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Alexander, Robert. Re-Writing the French Revolutionary Tradition: Liberal Opposition and the Fall of the Bourbon Monarchy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Expansive exploration of France’s revolutionary political tradition between 1815 and 1830 that looks at all classes of French citizens. -
Artz, Frederick B. France Under the Bourbon Restoration, 1814-1830. New York: Russell & Russell, 1931. Despite its age, this book still provides thorough, balanced coverage of the people and events that were important through the years of the Bourbon Restoration. -
Bertier de Sauvigny, Guillaume de. The Bourbon Restoration. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1966. Detailed study by a French specialist who offers a sympathetic treatment of the Bourbons. -
Fraser, Elisabeth A. Delacroix, Art, and Patrimony in Post-Revolutionary France. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Examination of the paintings that the French painter Eugène Delacroix created during the years of the Bourbon Restoration in an attempt artistically to reconcile the turmoil of the French Revolution with the events of the Restoration. -
Furet, François. Revolutionary France, 1770-1880. Translated by Antonia Nevill. Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell, 1992. Written by a leading French historian, this work includes recent interpretations and views the Restoration as a stage in France’s transition from medieval monarchy to modern democracy. -
Magraw, Roger. France, 1815-1914: The Bourgeois Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. The first chapter places the Bourbon Restoration in its context and interprets it primarily as an ill-fated last effort of the old nobility to control France. -
Wright, Gordon. France in Modern Times: From the Enlightenment to the Present. 5th ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1995. The chapters dealing with the end of the French Empire and the establishment of the Restoration provide an excellent starting place for those not already familiar with the period.
Bonaparte Is Crowned Napoleon I
Dos de Mayo Insurrection in Spain
Congress of Vienna
Battle of Waterloo
Second Peace of Paris
Neapolitan Revolution
July Revolution Deposes Charles X
Delacroix Paints Liberty Leading the People
Paris Revolution of 1848
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte Becomes Emperor of France
Third French Republic Is Established
Viscount Castlereagh; Eugène Delacroix; Metternich; Napoleon I; Talleyrand.