Sukcesy i porażki przywrócenia we Francji Bourbonów w 1815- 1830. [ang]

What were successes and failures of the restored Bourbon monarchy in France 1814 - 1830?

The reigns of the subsequent members of Bourbon dynasty in the period 1814 - 1830 began from Louis XVIII and ended up with his brother Charles X . The idea of enthroning in France a king was rather a necessity, thus the republican government it was, that had been blamed for the wars in Europe. When the alternative, concerning a new king, was considered, the first proposal came originally from Charles Talleyrand - Perigord, who suggested a legitimate heir, and later induced to make him a king of France. Whether the restoration of Bourbons was a right or wrong choice, will be considered beneath.

Unquestionably, one of the successes of Louis XVIII on the beginning was acceptation of the Charter, which was some kind of the compromise between the conservative and liberal ruling. The charter contained 74 articles, and the most important were freedom of religion, press (with some limitation) and individual, as well as fair taxation or equality before law.
During his reign, after the first Napoleon’s attempt to regain his control over France and later punishing him on the Island of Elba, in the First Treaty of Paris, France was treated rather leniently by the Great Powers, as the frontiers were returned to the ones of 1792, the art treasures could be preserved and there was no indemnity payment.
Besides, Louis at least tried to co - operate with his Parliament, and, what is more, originally, was supported by the Pays Legal, an influential group of people, that had franchise. The success of the economic recovery after 1815 was also aided by the king. The country spending was in the tight control of Louis XVIII, thanks to what, the 700 million francs indemnity, that was settled in the Second Treaty of Paris, was paid off, and the troops could be withdrawn.
The significant triumph of the monarch was the Congress of Aix-La-Chapelle, where France joined the Concert of Europe, what meant, that it was now considered to be one of the Great Powers. Although, it was not in the Quadruple Alliance, as the Russian Tsar proposed, taking part in the Congress System was a magnificent progress for this country.
The last success, that can be mentioned is establishing control in Spain, when its king, Ferdinand VII needed a help against liberal movements. France took an independent action, and disregarded the work with other powers as well as British demands for nothing else, but restoring Ferdinand VII.

Nevertheless, there were many failures of Louis XVIII. When becoming a king, he accepted the Charter, however he still regarded himself as the legitimate ruler, who can govern his country, according to his own will. The next daunting, for people, experience was changing the tricolor, national flag (blue - freedom, white - equality, red - brotherhood ) into the white one, which was characteristic for Bourbons. Not long ago after this incident, the emperor Napoleon returned , and Louis XVIII, under the British and Austrian protection, had to leave country and go to Ghent. After the defeat in Waterloo, he regained his control, but was disliked by the French people very much, from what he had done. He was deemed now to be the enemy of France, since his foreign co-operation.
Moreover, his reputation as a king was crushed, after the ‘White Terror’ in 1816, which was the result of the action of the royalists, called the Ultras. They punished harshly many thousands the supporters and 57 leaders of Napoleon. It caused riots and a general outcry, but this did not help much. Then, the Ultras demanded to set their nominees in the place of Napoleonic officials and the censorship of political news and comments in the press. Louis XVIII tried to prevent somehow their influence, so made some steps toward getting rid of them from the Chamber of Deputies during the presidency of Duc de Richelieu chosen by him, but it did not work much, especially after death of the heir of his throne, duc de Berri. The Ultras took the advantage of this situation, and forced the dismissal of the Richelieu’s successor, liberal Decazes, just to return Richelieu, who was also forced to make some changes, in the accordance of Ultras’ will. This was e. g. increased Chamber of Deputies, more press censorship, compensation of migrs. Louis XVIII was too weak to hinder them, so the rules of the Ultras and the lack of the king’s confidence then, was an important failure.
What is more, Comte de Villele became a Chief Minister and in spite of his quite good strategy of making decisions, he was not accepted by the society, what partially triggered later the revolution in France in 1830.


The successor of Louis XVIII was his brother Charles X, led by the Ultras. He was not too successful because of his conservative and rather absolutist policy. The only success was the expedition against the Barbarian Pirates, but it did not bring him too much popularity.
Instead, there are many failures of this king. He abolished the annual elections, introduced by Louis XVIII, increased the term that deputies were elected, persuaded by Ultras. He also compensated migrs, who in majority were the royalist Ultras and did his best to promote Catholicism. Charles restored Jesuit Order, made heresy and sacrilege offences, replaced the lay teachers by the priests. Moreover, he wanted a press control and a censorship applied to all books and journals. What he managed to do, split the Chamber of Deputies thoroughly.
In 1830, he made four Ordinances of St Cloud, which told, that the New Chamber of Deputies was to be dissolved, there had to be fresh elections, an electorate was reduced, and the publication of an unauthorized newspaper was forbidden. Charles’ opponents used it as coup d’etat, an illegal attempt to size the power, which became one of the short – term causes of the 1830 revolution.

All in all, the Bourbons gave to French people rather a negative impression. They thought they had divine right to rule their country, they brought back migrs, and were under the influence of the Ultras. Louis XVIII occurred weak after White Terror, and Charles X’s whole reign were based upon their angles. What played an important role too, was offending by both of the kings the Pays Legal, by refusing to listen to their opinion. The above causes make me think negatively of them, either, and I’m convinced they made much more failures than successes, what we can see in my divagations.