Summary

Charles X Philip († November 6, 1836 in Gorizia, Austria) of the House of Bourbon was King of France from 1824-1830. He was a younger brother of French kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII. As a prince, he was known as the Count of Artois before his accession. After the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789), he went into exile and, together with his brother Louis XVIII, led the emigrants' ventures against the newly established First French Republic and later against Napoleon Bonaparte. Since the Bourbon Restoration with the accession of Louis XVIII in 1814.

Ancestry, childhood and youth

Charles was the youngest son of the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand (1729-1765) and his wife Maria Josepha of Saxony, and a grandson of King Louis XV. His elder brothers were the later kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII. Before his accession to the throne, Charles bore the title of Count of Artois, which had been bestowed upon him by Louis XV immediately after his birth. As was the custom, he was not baptized until he was about four years old, on October 19, 1761, in the Palace Chapel at Versailles. As an appanage, he received from his royal grandfather in 1773

The essential character traits of Charles, when he was still a child, were his attractive informality, his spontaneous ideas and his generosity. In contrast, his older brother, the later Louis XVIII, was deliberate and taciturn. Charles was the most popular of the brothers, the spoiled child of the entire court and the favorite of his royal grandfather. If the aforementioned behavioral traits of the count seemed amusing in his childhood, they were no longer appropriate for him in adulthood. In contrast to his two older brothers, Charles was also not particularly studious, did not like to exert himself intellectually, despite his easy grasp, and did not like to know anything about studying. He was, for example, hardly interested in literature and fine arts and was therefore not very convincing in more elevated conversations. At his more mature age, he blamed his teacher La Vauguyon for not having taught him a greater enthusiasm for literature.

In fact, it was customary for princes not directly entitled to the throne (as was the case with Charles) not to be raised to be dangerous rivals of their reigning brothers by too much promotion of their talents. Thus, although Charles was appointed colonel of a dragoon regiment by Louis XV and colonel general of the Swiss Guard in May 1772, he nevertheless did not receive more extensive martial training despite his inclination for a military career, lest he pose a potential danger to the king as a successful general. The minister Maurepas advised the young prince that he should not be interested in military maneuvers, but should rather enjoy himself and run up debts. Charles then spent his early years, since he was not allowed to engage in serious political or military activities, mainly in lavish idleness. He received the French Order of the Holy Spirit on January 1, 1771, also others like that of St. Michael, St. Louis and St. Lazarus, as well as the Spanish Golden Fleece.

Marriage; role under Louis XVI.

At the age of sixteen, Charles married Maria Theresa of Sardinia from the House of Savoy. The latter was a daughter of King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia-Piedmont and a sister of Maria Josepha, who had married Charles's brother Louis, then Count of Provence, in 1771. Charles' marriage to Maria Theresa, who was almost two years his senior, by procuration took place on October 24, 1773, in the chapel of the Palace of Moncalieri, and in person on November 16, 1773, in the Palace Chapel of Versailles. The princely couple had four children, but only the two sons Louis-Antoine de Bourbon, duc d'Angoulême (1775-1844) and Charles Ferdinand d'Artois, Duke of Berry (1778-1820) reached adulthood.

Soon after his marriage to the unattractive Maria Theresa, the pleasure-seeking Charles maintained various extramarital affairs and met with his mistresses in specially purchased houses in Paris. Through his numerous affairs he attracted public criticism and also ridicule. He had a particularly intimate relationship with the witty comedienne Louise Contat, with whom he had a son. Although he did not appoint her as his official mistress as she had wished, he did acquire a palace for her in Chaillot near Paris in 1780. Louis XVI had in the meantime ascended the throne on May 10, 1774, accepted Charles' lavish lifestyle indulgently and supported him financially with large sums of money. Charles, however, did not prove grateful, showed little respect for the king and, on the contrary, frequently made fun of him in public. Queen Marie-Antoinette initially appreciated Charles' company and often participated in his festivities. In contrast, Charles's wife Maria Theresa, who remained in the background after the birth of two sons, lived in seclusion at Saint-Cloud. From the 1780s, Charles had a passionate love affair with the Comtesse de Polastron that lasted for many years.

In 1782, Charles joined the French army in the ultimately unsuccessful siege of Gibraltar. This military engagement was to partially compensate for his loss of public standing. Through his lavish lifestyle, he had accumulated debts of 14.5 million livres within a few years, which the French state - already in financial distress - took over to save the count from bankruptcy. Charles-Alexandre de Calonne was responsible for this as controller general of finances, a position he held from 1783-87.

Although Charles did not initially play a political role in accordance with the intentions of his older ruling brother, he followed political events closely and, among other things, in the fall of 1774 advocated the restoration of the parliamentary courts that had been reformed away by Chancellor Maupeou in 1771. The crisis of the Ancien Régime and the approaching Revolution then enabled him to engage in greater political activities. He supported the reform program developed by Calonne in August 1786 and at that time also loyally defended the king's respective position. Subsequently, Charles, like his brother, the Count of Provence, was a member of the Assembly of Notables opened on February 22, 1787, which Louis XVI hoped would vote in favor of the envisioned reforms. Charles presided over the sixth bureau of this assembly and voted against all the innovations demanded by public opinion. La Fayette's Americanizing tendencies and libertarian demands troubled him; thus he was very reserved about La Fayette's demand in May 1787 for the convocation of the Estates General.

Accordingly, unlike his brother, the Count of Provence, Charles appeared as a firm supporter of maintaining all the principles of absolutism and made himself hated by the people. When Louis XVI sent him to the Cour des Aides on August 18, 1787, to register the edicts on the stamp and land taxes, the crowd received him with whistles and soldiers had to cover him. In 1788, he dismissed the educator of his children, de Sénan, because he had joined the protest of the Breton nobility against absolutism. He then again presided over a bureau of the Second Assembly of Notables, which met from November 6 to December 12, 1788, and discussed, among other things, the procedure for electing deputies to the Estates General and the numerical composition of the Third Estate. In contrast to the Count of Provence, he clearly opposed doubling the number of representatives of the Third Estate to 600. On this occasion, political differences between the two brothers became apparent, which were to deepen and last permanently after the outbreak of the Revolution. In December 1788, Charles signed the manifesto of five princes of blood drafted by his chancellor de Monthyon. In it, they described what they saw as the imminent danger to the throne and the state posed by the revolution that was preparing to break out, and they glorified the nobility. In the face of the looming political crisis, Charles increasingly pleaded for decisive intervention by Louis XVI.

Departure from France; first requests for help from foreign powers

After the Assembly of the Estates General opened at Versailles on May 5, 1789, the political situation rapidly came to a head. Louis XVI now involved his two younger brothers in political discussions, so that Charles was present at a meeting of the Council of State for the first time on June 22. The main topic discussed was the course of action to be taken by the Crown in the face of the Third Estate's self-proclamation of the National Assembly. On June 21, Charles had already declared his opposition to the demands of the Third Estate in a memorandum and significantly influenced his ruling brother to reject equal rights for the Third Estate on June 23. In the weeks that followed, Charles advocated decisive action by the king against the revolutionary developments. After the storming of the Bastille on July 14, he became the leader, along with Queen Marie-Antoinette, of the reactionary wing at court that advocated defense of the traditional monarchy. However, Louis XVI rejected Charles' advice to take military action. Nor did the king accept Charles and Marie-Antoinette's recommendation to move the court from Versailles to the provinces, from where he could attempt to restore the authority of the crown under cover of loyal armed forces. At the Palais Royal, Charles was placed on a proscription list for his reactionary stance and a price was placed on his head. The National Assembly spoke unfavorably of him, but he appeared at the feast for the foreign troops at the Orangerie. Because of the threatening situation, he decided to emigrate at the request of Louis XVI and left France with a small escort during the night of July 16-17, 1789.

Via Valenciennes, located on the northern border of France, Charles traveled unmolested to Brussels with his two sons and was initially convinced of his imminent return. In Brussels, Louis V. Joseph de Bourbon, prince de Condé and other French high nobles joined the Count of Artois, who was allowed to reside in Laeken Castle. However, Emperor Joseph II, to whose empire the Dutch-Belgian territory belonged, was not very impressed by the stay of the French emigrants near Brussels. As a result, Charles traveled via Aachen, Cologne and Bonn first to Bern, where he met his mistress Louise von Polastron, and then on to Turin in early September 1789. His wife Maria Theresa had also traveled there, which is why Charles had to temporarily separate from his mistress. His father-in-law, King Victor Amadeus III, provided Charles and his entourage of about 80 people with the Cavaglia Palace as a place to stay.

Charles already appeared in Turin as the leader of the politicizing, subversive part of the noble French emigrants and installed a kind of shadow cabinet there. In accordance with his royal lineage, he behaved very self-confidently toward other European monarchs and asked them for armed help against his fatherland, but soon had to learn that the other rulers showed little solidarity and were very reserved about a military intervention in his favor. The Count of Artois also founded, in September 1789, the Turin Committee, which was pushing anti-revolutionary initiatives and whose real political head became Charles Alexandre de Calonne, then in London. The latter also came to Turin at the end of October 1790 and tried to recruit an army, organize the escape of Louis XVI and his family, and instigate unsuccessful armed uprisings in France. In doing so, Charles acted as the legitimate representative of the French crown, although Louis XVI was usually unaware of his youngest brother's actions or sometimes even opposed them. Ultimately, Charles, who was sharply attacked by the revolutionary French press, contributed significantly to the definitive overthrow of Louis XVI with his activities.

Only after much coaxing was Emperor Leopold II willing to hold a secret meeting with Charles in Florence on April 12, 1791. Another meeting followed at Mantua on May 20, 1791. The prince discussed with the emperor a plan of invasion of France devised by Calonne, but received only vague promises. Leopold II stated that the European powers would not consider a major military intervention until after Louis XVI had successfully fled. Charles then also called on the Prussian king to help, but received a rebuff and was also informed that Louis XVI had expressed disapproval of his youngest brother's actions to the Viennese court through a confidant.

Activities in Koblenz

After tensions with King Victor Amadeus III, Charles and his entourage moved their residence to Koblenz, where they arrived on June 17, 1791, and where the Comtesse de Polastron also arrived two days later. Charles, together with his companions, was given a befitting reception by the sovereign there, his uncle Clemens Wenzeslaus of Saxony, who was Archbishop and Elector of Trier. Then the prince traveled to Brussels to meet his brother, the Count of Provence, who had happily fled France. Meanwhile, the meeting of the two brothers on June 27 was not harmonious. On July 4, Charles met King Gustav III of Sweden, the champion of legitimism, in Aachen and arranged with him and the Count of Provence the future attitude. Via Bonn, Charles and his brother traveled back to Coblence and, from July 7, resided in nearby Schönbornslust Palace, where they lived lavishly and with a large court at their uncle's expense. Here they established the headquarters of the French emigrants for the next twelve months. Despite some political differences, the main goal of the exiled princes was to use military force to restore absolute monarchy in France; in doing so, they also accepted the resulting threat to Louis XVI. Charles, who was more radical than his brother, was initially able to maintain his role as the political leader of the emigrants, whose most important activities in Coblenz consisted in the formation of a powerful army and the intensification of diplomatic advances to finally persuade Austria and Prussia to support a large-scale military offensive.

In Coblenz, the Count of Provence installed a council of ministers on July 26, 1791, which was presided over by Calonne, who was devoted to Charles. The two French princes tried in vain to gain recognition for their "government in exile" among the foreign powers. It was very inconvenient for Emperor Leopold II and King Frederick William II of Prussia that at their meeting in Pillnitz on August 26, the Count of Artois also appeared with Calonne and Condé, having previously paid an unwelcome visit in Vienna. At his insistence, the two monarchs adopted the Pillnitz Declaration on August 27 as a threatening gesture toward France, but Charles found it too moderate. After Louis XVI took the oath to the constitution on September 14, he asked his brothers to refrain from protests; but they addressed a manifesto to him as early as September 10, in which they objected to everything he had done to diminish the inherited rights of the throne and described him as personally unfree. The National Assembly decreed against the exiled princes on November 9 that if they did not return by January 1, they would be liable to death. Louis XVI vetoed the decree, but was forced to order the princes to return home. On January 1, 1792, a decree of the National Assembly charged Charles, his brother the Count of Provence, and Condé with high treason and ordered the sequestration of their estates, which became national property. Charles responded with vituperation; his appanage of 2 million francs was confiscated and his numerous creditors were satisfied. France's declaration of war on Austria was made on April 20, 1792, beginning the First Coalition War.

Charles, his brother, the Count of Provence, and the French émigrés were pleased with this development, as they now expected increased support from the European powers to revise conditions in France to their liking. To Charles's displeasure, however, the rulers of Austria and Prussia were not swayed by the émigrés and treated their army only as a subordinate auxiliary force. The Allies invaded northeastern France, allowing Charles and his brother to return to home soil at the end of August 1792. In their declaration of August 8, 1792, the two princes had not demanded a return to the absolute sole royal power of the ancien régime, but they did demand a reversal of the political developments since the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789. They posed as liberators and were convinced that they were fighting to restore law and order. The inhabitants of the French territories briefly conquered by the Allies were quite sympathetic to the princes, at least in some places, such as Longwy. The princes were unyielding against die-hard representatives of the revolutionary government, and they also had constitutional priests expelled, but otherwise they generally acted in a rather moderate manner. After the Cannonade of Valmy (September 20, 1792), the Allies were forced to withdraw from France and subsequently suffered further military setbacks. This failure, unexpected for Charles and his brother, was all the more humiliating for them because they were denied any major influence on the Allies' political-military decisions.

Years of exile after the execution of Louis XVI.

Together with his brother, the Count of Provence, Charles had had to leave his main camp at Verdun in a hurry during the Allied retreat from France. Due to a lack of funds, the princes were also forced to disband their emigrant army. Prussian King Frederick William II offered them asylum in Hamm, Westphalia, where the Count of Artois arrived on December 28, 1792, followed shortly by his brother. After the execution of Louis XVI on January 21, 1793, the Count of Provence proclaimed himself regent on the following January 28 for his nephew, who was a minor and had been imprisoned in the Temple and had been raised by him as Louis XVII as the new king. At the same time, he conferred on Charles the title of lieutenant general of the kingdom. In March 1793, Charles, who had traveled to Russia, met the Empress Catherine II in St. Petersburg, but obtained from her only pecuniary support, but no political promises. She gave the count a consecrated sword set with diamonds, which he sold in London for 100,000 francs. Charles's trip to England in May 1793 was also disappointing for him. In June 1793, he went back to Hamm and lived here for about a year in the company of the Comtesse de Polastron.

After the death of Louis XVII in June 1795, the Count of Provence claimed the title of king as Louis XVIII. Charles was now referred to by royalists as Monsieur, a title traditionally held by the eldest brother of the King of France and presumptive heir to the throne. At the entreaties of the Vendeans, who had been waging a royalist rebellion against French republican forces since 1793, Charles set sail from Plymouth on August 25, 1795, with 140 transport ships equipped by the British government and placed under the command of Commodore Warren. He attempted an invasion of Brittany and landed on Île d'Yeu on September 29. Charette, a leader of the Vendée Uprising, rushed to meet him with over 15,000 men. But the venture failed, and on November 18, 1795, Charles sailed back to England. Charette attributed the failure of the expedition to the count's dithering behavior.

Now Charles asked the British government for asylum, reached Leith, the port of Edinburgh, in early January 1796, and went to the uninviting Holyrood Palace, which had been assigned to him as his residence. There the prince hid from his creditors. The British government granted him a pension of 15,000 pounds sterling. Furthermore, he supported planned revolts or conspiracies in France, such as Georges Cadoudal's plot against the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte in alliance with the English in 1803. In his various actions, he often did not consult with the Count of Provence, with whom he rivaled. Instead, he pursued his own political interests and even acted against his brother more often than not. Political agents represented his intentions at several European courts and in France. To better control his younger brother, the Count of Provence eventually assigned his representative in Britain, Duke François-Henri d'Harcourt, to monitor Charles. Outwardly, however, the two brothers tried to demonstrate a harmonious relationship, since openly airing their conflicts would not have been conducive to their common goal of restoring the Bourbon dynasty to power in France. Thus, they agreed that each of them should only exert influence in certain areas of France, from which the other was to keep out.

After reaching an agreement with his creditors that spared him the danger of imprisonment in debtor's prison, Charles moved in 1799 from Holyrood Palace to a distinguished house on Baker Street in London, not far from the residence of the British prime minister, William Pitt. Now he met almost daily with his mistress, the Comtesse de Polastron, who lived nearby, but also cultivated his relationships with the Prince of Wales and other important personalities in London. In 1803, his mistress fell ill and moved to the country, as climatic conditions were better there. However, she was unable to recover her health and was brought back to London, where she died on March 27, 1804, at the age of only 39. The Count of Artois found it difficult to bear this loss, while the death of his legitimate wife Maria Theresa, who died in Graz in June 1805, was of no concern to him.

On October 6, 1804, in the Swedish city of Kalmar, where he had traveled from London, Charles met his brother, the Count of Provence, after he had failed to appear with him in Grodno. In contrast to the latter, he still did not want to know about concessions to the changed political conditions in France due to the Revolution and therefore remained an inward stranger to his brother. From Kalmar he returned to England. In 1805, the Austrian ruler again did not allow him to participate in the coalition wars. It was unpleasant for him that his brother also moved to England in 1807. He did everything against it, because he did not want to lose the leadership of the emigrants to him, and tried to persuade George Canning to allow the Count of Provence to stay only in Scotland. However, he did not achieve his goal; his brother arrived in England in November 1807 and remained there for the next few years. Outwardly, the brothers now appeared somewhat more amicable again, but persisted in their different political attitudes. They remained in Great Britain until 1813.

First Restoration of the Bourbon Monarchy

When, after Napoleon had been largely defeated by the allied powers, a restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France seemed within reach in January 1814, Charles left England with his two sons and with the tacit approval of the British government to cross over to the European continent on British warships. In doing so, he acted in prior consultation with his elder brother, who actually wanted to ascend the French throne as soon as possible as Louis XVIII. Charles had been given great powers by his brother, landed at Scheveningen on January 27, and was to promote the interests of the Bourbons in the wake of the forces of the powers allied against Napoleon, which were advancing against France. From Holland he traveled through Germany to Switzerland, entering French territory on February 19. At first he stayed in Vesoul near the eastern French border. He tried to establish connections with the representatives of the governments of the anti-Napoleonic allies, who, however, were still considering a peace treaty with Napoleon at that time.

Talleyrand played a central role in the Bourbon restoration, but did not take official notice of Charles' presence in France for some time. Finally, after Napoleon's deposition, he asked him to come to Paris. The prince then departed from Nancy and on April 12, 1814, accompanied by National Guardsmen and high-ranking military officers, entered Paris, which he had left 25 years earlier. After being received by Talleyrand and other representatives of the provisional government and the Paris City Council, he visited Notre-Dame Cathedral. He then proceeded to the Tuileries Palace, which had been intended as his residence, amid demonstrations of sympathy from Parisians. However, since the Count of Provence was not to be officially recognized as king under the name of Louis XVIII until he had taken the oath to a liberal constitution drawn up by the Senate, the Senate was unwilling to accept those powers that had been conferred on Charles by his elder brother. The Senate argued that because the Count of Provence had not yet taken the constitutional oath, he was not yet king and therefore could not have invested Charles with any royal powers. Finally, two days after Charles' arrival in Paris, a compromise was reached that Charles had received his office as lieutenant-general of the kingdom not from a king, whom the Senate believed did not yet exist, but from the Senate itself. Thus, for the time being, Charles was given the power to govern and thus briefly occupied the first rank until the arrival of his elder brother in France at the end of April. He greeted the returned Louis XVIII at Compiègne and rode into Paris on a white horse alongside his open carriage on May 3, 1814.

Because of Charles's decisive role in the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy and because his son, the Duke of Angoulême, had been the first to enter Bordeaux on March 12, 1814, gaining significant prestige, Charles now had an influence on the policies of the reigning king that was unusual for a prince. He and his sons became Pairs and participated in 1814

When Charles heard of Napoleon's return to France in early March 1815, he was beside himself. He hurried to Lyon accompanied by Jacques MacDonald, but the soldiers were cool to him and Lyon soon declared for Napoleon, so MacDonald evacuated the city. Charles fled to Moulins and returned to the Tuileries on March 12. He felt that Paris must be evacuated. At the extraordinary meeting of the Chamber on March 16, he swore on behalf of all the princes to live and die loyal to the king and the constitutional charter. On the night of March 20, he followed the king into the second exile, dismissed the troops on the way to Bruges and went to Ghent like Louis XVIII. There the two brothers, now in the territory of the new Kingdom of the United Netherlands ruled by King William I, were allowed to reside for the next few months. Charles' influence here on his brother annoyed men like Talleyrand, among others.

Second Restoration and Charles' role during the reign of Louis XVIII.

Napoleon was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815), whereupon Louis XVIII was able to reassume the French throne and ruled until his death in 1824. At Louis' side, Charles entered Paris on July 8, 1815. He and his sons now no longer held seats in the Council of Ministers. On October 7, 1815, he invoked the Charter in the Chamber of Deputies. At the beginning of the Second Restoration, there was still some agreement between the king and his younger brother regarding their conviction that a crackdown on Napoleon's supporters was necessary during his renewed rule after his return from Elba. Charles spoke unfavorably for the accused in the trial of Marshal Michel Ney, for example. In general, he advocated more rigorous measures against former aides of Bonaparte than Louis XVIII and succeeded in getting the king to take a tougher line. However, in the following more liberal phase of Louis's reign, lasting from 1816-20, political differences between the brothers increased as the Count of Artois disapproved of Louis XVIII's moderate policies. He saw supporters of the Revolution and Bonapartists as a threat to Bourbon rule and therefore negated any concessions to them. Thus, he became the most important representative of the ultra-royalists who were in line with him politically, but he was unable to exert a dominant influence on their policies. Among Charles' reactionary advisors were Jules de Polignac and the Abbé Jean-Baptiste de Latil.

When Louis XVIII dissolved the ultra-royalist-dominated Chambre introuvable in September 1816, this decree met with Charles' fierce opposition. He also openly criticized the new electoral law passed in January 1817 because, in his view, it was too liberal. Because of his continued opposition, the king forbade him to attend the Pairskammer. Meanwhile, Charles massively objected to a regulation changing the previous career practice of officers, which found its way into laws passed at the time in 1818. Since the Minister of War, Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, had introduced the corresponding legislative initiative in November 1817, Charles demanded his dismissal, albeit in vain. The king brusquely rejected public threats made by him and expressed grave misgivings about his younger brother's succession to the throne. However, Charles even demanded the dismissal of the police minister Élie Decazes, who was close to the king, and threatened to leave the court if this request was not fulfilled. He was particularly hurt by the royal ordinance issued on September 30, 1818, under which he lost the supreme command of the National Guard, which had been an important power base for him. This order, which he understood as a humiliation, greatly outraged him; and he withdrew from the public eye.

Charles' younger son, the Duke of Berry, was fatally assassinated on February 13, 1820, for which Charles and the ultra-royalists blamed Decazes' liberal policies and exerted massive pressure for his removal. Louis XVIII was finally forced to dismiss Decazes on February 20. The new president of the Council of Ministers was once again the Duke of Richelieu, who had only assumed this office at the insistent request of Charles. The liberal era was followed by the so-called Third Restoration, in which the political influence of Charles and the ultra-royalists grew. This shift to the right intensified the antagonisms between the liberals and the reactionary politicians, who faced each other in two irreconcilable camps. Despite his promise to support Richelieu, Charles then played a major role in making Richelieu's position untenable because of the antagonism between liberals and ultraroyalists, so that Richelieu resigned bitterly in December 1821. The Count of Artois actively participated in the formation of the new cabinet, in which Jean-Baptiste de Villèle became finance minister as well as de facto - and from September 1822 also officially - head of government. Since his political allies were now members of the cabinet and Louis XVIII's health was steadily deteriorating, Charles' influence continued to increase until the king's death. He expected the French military intervention in Spain in 1823 to restore the absolutist government of King Ferdinand VII, all the more so because his elder son, the Duke of Angoulême, headed it. In December 1823 he received with satisfaction his victorious son. Villèle always consulted with Charles first before presenting the decrees to be issued to the king. On September 15, 1824, one day before his death, Louis XVIII still implored his brother to continue to observe the liberal charter as a guideline for rule.

King (1824-1830)

After the death of Louis XVIII, Charles, then almost 67 years old, ascended the French throne as King Charles X. He was a ruler to the far right of the political spectrum. He was a ruler to the taste of the ultra-royalists, who were politically far to the right. Because of Louis XVIII's previous moderate policies and the comfortable majority won by the Right in the March 1824 elections in the Chamber of Deputies elected for seven years, the change of throne went smoothly. Charles faced little parliamentary opposition at the beginning of his government, confirmed Villèle's cabinet in office, and was relieved of budgetary worries thanks to its prudent financial management. He strove to show his good will with his first pronouncements, declaring on September 17, when receiving delegations from both chambers at the morning lever in Saint-Cloud, that he would govern in the spirit of his brother and consolidate the charte. He also sought popularity and on September 29, allegedly against Villèle's wishes, lifted the censorship. He cut a fine figure when he made his ceremonial entry into Paris on horseback, was cheered, and also appeared affable to the public at the troop review on September 29. Thus, for a short time, he even won over the liberals.

However, as early as December 1824, at the opening of the session of both chambers, the king announced two bills that angered the liberals. The first bill concerned compensation for former emigrants whose properties had been confiscated by the state during the Reign of Terror and sold as "national goods." After controversial discussions, the law was passed on April 27, 1825. According to it, a total compensation sum of 988 million francs was available by handing over three-percent annuity papers. 25,000 applications for compensation were approved. Most emigrants were able to buy only small estates with these funds, so that the structure of land ownership remained more or less the same. However, the compensation law intensified the ideological antagonisms between supporters of the ideas of the Revolution and those of the Restoration. Furthermore, the king, who had become a devout Catholic since the demise of the Comtesse de Polastron, forced the passage of a sacrilege law that provided for the death penalty for the profanation of consecrated vessels or hosts. It also threatened with death the breaking and entering of churches. After the bill was passed in the Pairskammer (February 10, 1825), a large majority in the Chamber of Deputies also voted for it on April 11. However, this law was never applied.

In general, the influence of the clergy increased considerably since Charles came to power. In addition to the sacrilege law, the cabinet, following a suggestion by Charles but against Villèle's will, had already decided on November 21, 1824, to also initiate a law for the renewed authorization of religious congregations. Clergymen played an increasingly important role in French education; many priests were heads of royal colleges or rectors of municipal schools. The liberal press increasingly criticized the intrusion of Jesuitism into state, school, and society. Rumor had it that Charles himself had joined the Jesuit order and secretly had himself ordained a priest after his accession to the throne. In any case, he advocated the restoration of the power of the Catholic Church. His close alliance with Pope Leo XII worried the liberals.

The king's decision to make his eldest son, the Duke of Angoulême, the Dauphin, in accordance with the old Bourbon custom, also met with dissatisfaction in opposition circles. His anointing and coronation in Reims Cathedral on May 29, 1825, by the Archbishop of Paris, with the pompous ceremonial of the ancien régime, also made it clear that he considered himself a king by the grace of God and not a constitutional monarch. In this context, he had once expressed that he would rather saw wood than be king on the terms of the King of England. Charles X was very dignity-conscious, aspired to the restoration of time-honored monarchical traditions, and, though he did not advocate absolute royal power, would in no way tolerate being subject to control. While sincerely concerned for the welfare of his subjects, unlike his elder brother Louis XVIII, he was not so willing to compromise as to adapt his political positions to the possibilities of the current circumstances; instead, he stubbornly held to his preconceived notions about his role as ruler. His initial popularity had already waned; on his return to Paris on June 6, 1825, he received a very reserved welcome from the inhabitants of the metropolis.

Among the king's private pleasures was hunting, which he indulged in on horseback until old age. He said that it made it easier for him to bear the burden of governing. He was not very diligent in his daily political routine due to his lack of interest. He held meetings with his Council of Ministers on Wednesdays and Sundays, but did not follow them with particular concentration. Only in the later phase of his government did he deal more intensively with political and administrative issues, displaying a quick grasp of the issues. Apart from expenditures on hunting, Charles X was modest in his personal lifestyle, for example, having worn-out older clothes refurbished rather than buying new ones. Unlike Louis XVIII, he was not a gourmet and was content with simple meals. Occasionally, he would play whist with members of the court after dinner before retiring, usually at around 10 p.m. He was not a gourmet. The king was very strict about court etiquette; he also attached great importance to emphasizing his dignity by displaying splendor in public appearances.

At Villèle's instigation, Charles X recognized Haiti's independence in 1825 in exchange for the payment of 150 million francs in compensation to plantation owners formerly settled on the island. After the reopening of the sessions of the Chamber of Deputies on January 31, 1826, the budget law was approved. The king and his government then planned to pass an aristocratic inheritance law that would give the eldest son of a very wealthy family a larger inheritance share than his siblings, whereas under the inheritance laws of the Revolution and the Napoleonic Code civil, all children were equal. If the project had actually come to fruition, it would have benefited the eldest sons of the approximately 80,000 richest French families. The draft law aimed to curb the dismemberment of the nobility's large estates. However, it provided only for a weakened and optional birthright and, even when it came into force, could not have restored pre-revolutionary social relations favoring the nobility in the sense of an actual restoration, as the ultra-royalists hoped and the liberals feared. The Chamber of Couples, dominated by constitutional monarchists, rejected the legislative initiative on April 7, 1826, and Parisian merchants celebrated this heavy defeat of the king and his ministers with joyous rallies and illuminations.

The government and the court placed the main blame for their failure on the liberal opposition press. Charles X regretted his decision to abolish censorship, and the Minister of Justice, Peyronnet, drafted a bill to restrict press freedom once again. However, press trials against Freisinn authors and organs only served to increase their influence. André Dupin, a strict opponent of reaction and ultramontanism as well as a champion of the Gallican Church, then, relentlessly attacked by clerics loyal to Rome and reactionaries, became a celebrated man in the liberal camp and defended the Journal des débats and other newspapers. Count Montlosier, also a spokesman for Gallicanism, attacked the Jesuits to great acclaim and called for their expulsion. At the December 12, 1826, session of the Chamber of Deputies, the far right and the liberal opposition jointly attacked Villèle's cabinet. A motion to curb the encroachments of the Congregations and the encroachments of the Jesuits was referred to the cabinet for consideration.

The draft ultra-reactionary press law prepared by Peyronnet to stop the attacks by opposition newspapers refrained from reintroducing censorship, but all writings and journals were now to be submitted to the Directorate of the Book Trade in the Ministry of the Interior for review before publication. In addition, more expensive stamp duties for printed works and high fines for press offenses were to make journals more expensive and thus reduce their subscriber numbers and thus broad impact. Pastoral circulars and other ecclesiastical documents were not affected by these regulations. Even Chateaubriand dubbed the proposed law a "vandal's law," and the majority of members of the Académie française also expressed concern about the attack on press freedom. The government was outraged by the Academy's criticism, formulated in a supplicant, and Charles X refused to receive the petition. In the Chamber of Deputies, Peyronnet's bill met with strong opposition from both the left and the far right, but was nevertheless adopted by a majority on March 17, 1827. Meanwhile, the commission of the Chamber of Deputies appointed to examine the bill made serious changes to it and watered it down to such an extent that the government withdrew the bill altogether on April 17, which was again cheered in Paris.

The growing frustration with Charles X and the Villèle-led cabinet was now no longer confined mainly to the Parisian population. It was also fed by the economic and financial crisis of 1827

On Villèle's advice, Charles X briefly reintroduced censorship on June 24, 1827. Fearing for his majority in the Chamber of Deputies, Villèle also advised the king to hold new elections and a Pairsschub to obtain a more compliant Pairskammer. Thus Charles X signed three ordinances published on November 5, ordering the early dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies, the renewed abolition of censorship that could not be maintained during the election campaign, and the appointment of 88 new pairs (mainly bishops and reactionary former émigrés) who were more agreeable to the government. The military was deployed against violent riots in Paris directed against the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies. The opposition, however, was not frightened off. Because of the lifting of censorship, liberal newspapers were once again capable of more violent attacks on the government; new associations to mobilize the public against Villèle's cabinet, such as Chateaubriand's Society of Friends of Freedom of the Press or the club Aide-toi et le ciel t'aidera, had also emerged. In the elections still held in November, the Liberals did unexpectedly well, winning 180 seats in the new Chamber of Deputies; and since the right-wing opposition came to 75 deputies, the government camp, with the 180 deputies it provided, no longer had a majority in the chamber. During riots in Paris, barricades had been erected on the night of November 19-20, 1827. Soldiers intervening against them fired sharply; blood was shed.

Charles X was shocked by the outcome of the elections and told Louis-Philippe of Orléans-who would succeed him on the throne in 1830-that the French wanted a republic; however, he would not allow himself to be beheaded like his older brother Louis XVI. In vain were Villèle's efforts to maintain his position as senior minister. Many men in the king's immediate entourage demanded the formation of a new cabinet that would be capable of overcoming the disagreements of the royalist politicians and once again forming a unified party out of them. The monarch himself, against fierce opposition from Villèle, demanded that his close confidant Jules de Polignac join the new government. Eventually the prime minister resigned, and Charles X accepted Villèle's resignation on January 3, 1828. The viscount de Martignac, a politician of the moderate right, brought about the formation of a new cabinet composed of center-right politicians just two days later, but it was only a temporary solution. Martignac assumed the leadership function as minister of the interior. La Ferronnays, Portalis, Roy and De Caux, among others, were given the portfolios of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Finance and War; Chabrol and Frayssinous remained in their positions as Ministers of the Navy and Culture. Charles X asked Martignac to continue the system of Villèle, whom he was reluctant to dismiss.

As soon as the Martignac cabinet came into power, the king doubted that it could fulfill his political expectations. He therefore announced that he would control the actions of his ministers, would not allow his royal prerogatives to be diminished, and would reshuffle the government if necessary. Martignac, whose cabinet met with much distrust, did not want to submit completely to the king's wishes and sought the support of the liberals to facilitate parliamentary work. Chabrol was replaced on March 5, 1828, by Hyde de Neuville as Minister of the Navy; at the same time, Bishop Feutrier was given the Ministry of Culture. These and several other appointments indicated a more liberal character in the cabinet. Among other things, Martignac removed the most disfavored prefects and replaced them with moderates; he also reinstated the dismissed academicians, reopened the lectures of François Guizot and Victor Cousin suspended under Villèle, and, to the displeasure of the clerics, established a commission on the subject of teaching in the secondary ecclesiastical schools. His new electoral law was approved by 159 votes to 83, and his very liberal press law on June 19. The king was irritated by the prime minister's concessions. To accommodate the left-wing opposition, Martignac also sought to limit the influence of the Jesuits in higher schools. He succeeded in having Charles X sign ordinances on June 16, 1828, subjecting minor seminaries to the general conditions of public education, and unauthorized congregations such as the Jesuits were no longer allowed to teach.

The clerics were irritated because of the regulations instigated by Martignac and also angry with Charles X for his toleration of this policy. Even some bishops rebelled, which the king viewed negatively. However, he soon regretted taking action against the Jesuits, but for the time being he refrained from forming a new cabinet under his friend Polignac. In foreign policy, Martignac's government scored a success in Greece, with General Maison landing in the Peloponnese as commander-in-chief of the Morea expedition and forcing the Ottoman troops under Ibrahim Pasha to withdraw in September 1828.

On his journey through Lorraine and Alsace in September 1828, Charles X was greeted with such jubilation by the local population that he believed that the popular favor belonged to him personally and not to Martignac's conciliatory policy. He paid no attention to the fact that the steps initiated by Martignac to limit Jesuit influence in education had been happily received by the numerous Lutherans living in eastern France and that this had contributed to the monarch's obliging reception there. The liberals, on the other hand, considered the concessions made to them by the prime minister insufficient. When Martignac introduced two bills on February 9, 1829, for a new organization of the municipal and departmental administration, he faced criticism from the left and the ultraroyalists because, according to his ideas, prefects, subprefects, and mayors should continue to be appointed by the government. The king gave only half-hearted support to Martignac's reform project, and the cabinet was forced to withdraw both bills on April 8. A government reshuffle took place on May 14, 1829; Portalis, the previous minister of justice, took over the foreign ministry, and Bourdeau became minister of justice in his place. But Charles X felt that he was getting nowhere with concessions and could not govern with a Chamber of Deputies dominated by the Left; he feared being reduced to the position of a constitutional monarch. After the budget for 1830 had been passed, he seethed to recall Polignac from his legation post in London to Paris and appoint him as the new First Minister. On July 31, 1829, the session of the Chamber was closed. Shortly thereafter, Charles X dismissed Martignac's cabinet and appointed the new government led by Polignac on August 8, 1829.

When the new, strictly clerical and offensively ultraroyalist cabinet came to power, an unprecedented shift to the right took place, about which the liberals were extremely dismayed. Polignac first took over the foreign ministry. The second leading man in the government was La Bourdonnaye, Minister of the Interior, but he quarreled with Polignac over the post of President of the Council of Ministers. He finally abdicated, and Charles X appointed Polignac prime minister on November 17, 1829. As head of government, Polignac was determined to restore the king's authority by any means necessary, but also did not harmonize with other ministerial colleagues. The new war minister, Ghaisnes de Bourmont, was reproached for having committed desertion shortly before Napoleon's last battle.

The liberal press again rode sharp attacks on the government, and in the trials brought against critical writers, the courts once again showed the defendants the favor they had earlier testified to. Thus, as early as August 10, the Journal des débats published a much-publicized article that portrayed the bond of trust between the king and the people as torn as a result of the Polignac cabinet's assumption of power and lamented an "unhappy France." The editor of the magazine, who was accused by the government for this, was convicted at first instance but obtained an acquittal on appeal. New parties emerged on the political left, such as a republican-minded group that published its political views in the journal Le jeune France, which it founded in 1829. On the oppositional right wing, an "Orleanist party" emerged, and the liberals were already in contact with Duke Louis-Philippe of Orléans, whom they would have preferred to see as Charles X on the throne. Among the reactions of foreign monarchs and statesmen was the statement by the Russian Emperor Nicholas I that if Charles X attempted a coup d'état, he alone would be responsible for it; Metternich and Wellington also expressed similar sentiments.

In the first months after his appointment, Polignac appeared to the public to be hesitant in implementing his plans. From the very beginning, however, he pursued the intention of awarding more important political posts only to people he considered reliable. If the newly elected Chamber of Deputies made hostile statements toward Charles X after the opening of the session, the Chamber would be dissolved immediately, and if, contrary to expectations, the new elections turned out unfavorably for his cabinet, he would urge the king to take the steps necessary for the security of the state.

On March 2, 1830, Charles X opened the new session of the two chambers in the Louvre with a speech from the throne in which he threatened the deputies and Pairs that, in just confidence in the love always shown by the French to their kings, he would not hesitate to vigorously oppose resistance and malicious plotting by the chambers. The Pairs made the prudent reply that they were sure that Charles X did not desire despotism any more than France desired anarchy. In a long speech, Chateaubriand criticized the Polignac cabinet and warned of an imminent coup d'état that could be triggered by an embittered administration that did not understand the signs of its times. The politician thus astutely foresaw the looming events that were to bring about Charles X's loss of the throne. The oppositional majority of the Chamber of Deputies reacted with less restraint and, in a note drafted mainly by Royer-Collard and adopted after lively debates on March 16, 1830, by 221 votes to 181, gave the king to understand that, in their opinion, the cooperation between the two chambers and the government in thrall to the king was no longer functioning. The blame for this lay with the king and his cabinet; his ministers did not have the confidence of the nation.

Charles X responded coolly to this resolution, delivered to him by a delegation of the Chamber of Deputies on March 18, 1830, in the throne room of the Tuileries, by saying that his decisions were unalterable. He found scandalous the accusation, implicit in the statement of nonexistent interaction between the chambers and the government, that the latter was not behaving in conformity with the constitution. In his view, Louis XVIII had voluntarily conceded the liberal constitution to the Charte, and therefore it could not be used by the Chamber as the basis for a legal claim; for by doing so, the king would lose his prerogative rights. Contrary to the opinion of some ministers, Charles X, referring to the experience he had gained during the Revolution of 1789, insisted that the Crown must react decisively. On March 19, 1830, he had the next session of the Chamber of Deputies adjourned until the following September 1. He refrained from dissolving the Chamber immediately, as he wanted to wait for a more favorable time to hold new elections. First, he wanted to conduct a punitive expedition with the French Mediterranean fleet against Hussein Dey of Algiers, since piratical voyages by Algerian barbarians threatened shipping in the western Mediterranean. The king and his ministers hoped that the seemingly certain military success would have a positive impact on potential new elections and strengthen their position in domestic politics.

The revolutionary end of Charles X's rule was at the turn of 1829.

On May 19, 1830, the ministers Jean-Joseph-Antoine de Courvoisier and Count Chabrol resigned from the Polignac cabinet because they disapproved of the proposed adoption of exceptional measures under the 14th article of the charte. In their place, the less popular politicians Jean de Chantelauze and Pierre-Denis de Peyronnet took over the portfolios of Justice and Interior, respectively, as new ministers. Peyronnet declared with deep conviction that only by vigorous application of the relevant article of the Charte could the government escape ruin. Charles X believed that influencing the new elections through the new Minister of Public Works, Guillaume Capelle, should help him win. But when, despite these efforts by the cabinet to manipulate the elections, it became apparent that the government would lose, the king personally intervened in the election campaign on June 13 with an appeal to the nation.

On June 14, 1830, some 37,000 soldiers landed on the Algerian coast at Sidi-Ferruch. The troops took Algiers as early as July 5, 1830. However, the royal government's expectations of capitalizing on this news of victory were not fulfilled. The voting citizens further strengthened the opposition forces in Parliament. The Liberals won 274 seats in the elections held in July 1830. This was 53 seats more than before and a clear defeat for the political course of the Polignac government.

Outbreak of the July Revolution

Confronted with the new majority situation, Charles X planned to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies, which had just been elected but had not yet convened, and to call new elections for September 1830 under a changed legal framework. In the so-called July Ordinances of July 26, 1830, he established, among other things, a drastic increase in the electoral census that excluded the majority of the bourgeoisie from eligibility to vote. 75% of the previously eligible citizens were no longer allowed to vote. In addition, the decrees enforced a reduction in the number of deputies and stricter censorship. The aim of these decrees was to achieve a composition of the Chamber more agreeable to the government.

Charles X issued the decrees without first taking sufficient security precautions for Paris. Not enough troops had been stationed in the French capital to respond to possible protests and unrest. The king himself showed no presence. He traveled to his country estate, Saint-Cloud, and enjoyed courtly hunting. The opposition, however, saw the ordinances as a declaration of war against them by the king and his cabinet. Journalists and editors of liberal newspapers called for resistance and protest. On July 27, 1830, the first barricades appeared around the Palais Royal. By the evening of the same day, the situation was coming to a head. Protesting students, workers, and soldiers who had left the service gathered in the streets of Paris. The crowds spread unhindered throughout the city as the commanding Marshal Marmont concentrated his troops at the Louvre and occupied only a few other strategically important points of Paris. Even on July 28, the marshal, who spoke of a revolution in a letter to the king, still received no instructions from Charles X, who finally, in response to Marmont's urgent request, imposed a state of siege on Paris and called for massive action against the rebels. Resistance in Paris, however, became increasingly fierce, Marmont's troops suffered great losses, and parts of them began to defect to the insurgents during the clashes. Finally, the government troops withdrew from the city on July 29, 1830.

Abdication

Because of this failure to suppress the uprising in Paris, Charles X finally withdrew the July ordinances on July 29, 1830. He convened the Chambers for the opening of the new session on August 3, dismissed his government, and charged the Duke of Martemart with forming a new cabinet that would include men from the left center. However, the king had waited too long to take this step and could not save his ruling position. Among his opponents, there were different views as to what form of government France should have in the future. A considerable number of politicians advocated a return to the republican form of government. A faction of moderate-liberal, upper-middle-class deputies, including Périer, Laffitte, Guizot, Talleyrand, and Thiers, rejected such a solution and instead sought a transfer of power to Duke Louis-Philippe of Orleans, who would become the new king in place of Charles X. With him, these deputies saw the upper-middle-class interests in good hands; they were also convinced that Louis-Philippe would abide by the liberal charters. Until then, the duke had been cautiously reticent, but on July 31, 1830, he accepted the position of "governor-general of the kingdom" offered to him.

The Marshal Marmont having declared Saint-Cloud untenable, Charles X left this chateau on the night of July 31, 1830, and went to Trianon, where the Dauphin Louis-Antoine de Bourbon had also come with the remnants of the army, and where he heard of the de facto seizure of power by the Duke of Orleans. Once again, although torn from his illusions, he thought of a renewed struggle for the crown and, with this intention, on July 31, accompanied by his family, part of his retinue and soldiers who remained loyal, he moved to Rambouillet. The desertion of his troops intensified, but he could not yet decide to abdicate or to send to Paris his grandson Henri d'Artois, Duke of Bordeaux, whom he had chosen as heir to the throne. Searching for a middle course, he fell upon the idea of himself appointing the Duke of Orleans as Governor General on August 1 and ordering the chambers to convene immediately. The duke, however, refused this appointment on the grounds that he was already governor-general by virtue of the election of the chambers. On August 2, Charles X learned of this answer. The apostasy of the troops increased to such an extent that he had to give up everything. Marmont encouraged him in the plan of abdication and he appointed his son, the Dauphin, to renounce the succession. In a letter written in the form of a simple private letter, Charles X and the Dauphin renounced the throne in favor of the Duke of Bordeaux on August 2. Charles X sent this letter announcing his abdication to the Duke of Orléans with instructions to proclaim Henri d'Artois as Henry V as the new king and to conduct the affairs of government only during his minority. However, Louis-Philippe ignored this request.

Parliament was also unimpressed by this and proclaimed Louis-Philippe King of the French on August 7, 1830. This marked the beginning of the so-called July Monarchy in France, which lasted until 1848. With Louis-Philippe's kingship, the political interests of the aristocracy and the clergy no longer dominated the country, but those of the big bourgeoisie (especially bankers and big landowners).

Renewed exile in Great Britain

Charles X had decided at the time of his abdication to leave France and go once again into exile in Great Britain. But because he wanted to see the proclamation of his grandson as Henry V carried out before his departure, national guards and masses of people set out from Paris for Rambouillet to drive him out. Then Charles X and his family left there on August 3, 1830, to go out of the country. Apart from part of the Guard and the bodyguard, some commissioners of the new government accompanied the deposed king and his entourage on their retreat. Apart from watching his movements, the new government did nothing to stop his departure. At Maintenon Charles X parted with the bulk of his troops, sent the crown diamonds to Paris, and moved on with an escort of 1,200 men to Cherbourg, where he arrived on August 16. On two American ships provided, he and his family departed for England the same day.

Aboard the Great Britain, Charles X and his family arrived off the Isle of Wight on August 17, 1830. The family members accompanying him were his eldest son, the Duke of Angoulême and his wife Marie Thérèse Charlotte de Bourbon, the Duchess of Berry and their children, Henri d'Artois and Louise Marie Thérèse d'Artois. The two duchesses and the two children took lodgings the following day at a hotel in Cowes. Charles X, on the other hand, stayed on the ship with his son. Through two emissaries sent ahead to London, he had asked the British government for permission to stay for himself and his family. To the commander of Portsmouth, who paid him a courtesy visit, he expressed bitterness about his deposition, but also the hope that his grandson would still be able to ascend the French throne. On August 20, the British government granted the requested residence permit; however, Charles X and his relatives were classified only as private citizens and not as royalty. Officially, Charles X only had the right to use the title Count of Ponthieu; and the other members of the family also had to adopt new titles of count. On August 23, Charles X and his family sailed from Cowes to Weymouth aboard two steamships, and from there continued the following day to Lulworth Castle, which had been assigned to them as a temporary residence and was in a poor state of preservation.

Since several rooms of Ludworth Castle were not weatherproof, a longer-term stay in the castle was out of the question for Charles X. In addition, he was confronted with claims from creditors concerning former deliveries to Condé's army from the time of his first exile. After the British government granted him permission to reside once again - as in his first exile - at Holyrood Palace near Edinburgh, he set out by ship on October 17, 1830, with his grandson, the little Duke of Bordeaux, for his new domicile, where he arrived three days later. His other family members preferred to travel by land. To finance a court life, albeit a rather modest one, the ex-king used the remaining sum of those 10 million pounds deposited by Louis XVIII with London bankers in 1814. The Duke of Angoulême and his wife lived in an estate not far from Holyrood.

Meanwhile, royalists in France were planning to overthrow the "citizen king," Louis-Philippe, by arousing revolts in the Vendée and Midi, and enthrone the young Duke of Bordeaux as the new French king under his mother's regency. In a memorandum delivered to Charles X, the royalists explained this plan to him and proposed that he give the regency to the Duchess of Berry, whereupon she should return to France and fight there with the rebels for her son's cause. Charles was astonished at these efforts, made so soon, for a renewed restoration of the older line of the Bourbons, but he held the abilities of his daughter-in-law, the Duchess of Berry, in low esteem and did not want to proclaim her regent. He finally agreed at the end of January 1831, but the transfer of the regency was to apply only in the event of a successful landing of the Duchess in France. Furthermore, Charles also nominated a council of regency. The Duchess of Berry departed from England in June 1831 and first went to Genoa to obtain information from there about what was happening in France. Louis-Philippe, however, had already learned of the overthrow plans and initiated defensive measures on the borders. Charles realized that the duchess had little actual chance of realizing her plan and urged her to return to Holyrood. Nevertheless, she went to Marseilles in April 1832 in the mistaken hope of energetic support. In November 1832 she was arrested and interned in the citadel of Blaye.

Exile in Hradčany

In the meantime, Charles X's hospitality had been terminated by the British government at Louis-Philippe's insistence. In response to an offer by the Austrian Emperor Francis I to take in Charles and his family, the ex-king and his relatives had left Holyrood on September 17, 1832, and sailed from Leith in the direction of northern Germany. In Hamburg, the exiled French royal family was honorably received by the authorities and then proceeded via Berlin to Prague, where Charles and his relatives were allowed to live in the Hradčany with the consent of the Austrian Emperor Franz I after their arrival at the end of September 1832.

The conditions of the huge chateau enabled the exiled royal family to organize their lives similarly to their former daily routine in the Tuileries in Paris. Here, too, they observed strict court etiquette, as they had once done in France. Charles X suffered from attacks of gout. When occasionally receiving visitors from his homeland, he asked them how they lived under the rule of Louis-Philippe, but no longer showed any bitterness about his lot. However, he continued to dub Louis-Philippe as Duke of Orleans, thus not recognizing him as the legitimate French king.

Charles X found it difficult to believe the news conveyed to him by the imprisoned Duchess of Berry at the end of 1832 that she had entered into a secret marriage during her earlier stay in Italy and was expecting a child. This news caused intense irritation among the exiled king and the duchess's legitimist supporters and seemed so outrageous to them that they initially thought it was a deliberate smear by agents of Louis-Philippe. But the duchess confirmed her statement in February 1833 in a letter to the commander of the citadel of Blaye. In May 1833, she gave birth to a girl, whom she named Anna Marie Rosalie. Charles X saw the incident as an egregious misstep by his daughter-in-law and was outraged by what he called her "renewed proof of disobedience."

On behalf of the Duchess of Berry, Chateaubriand traveled to Charles X in Prague as late as May 1833 to request that the duchess be allowed to retain her title of French princess and the regency and guardianship of her children. The exiled former king turned down this request. According to Chateaubriand's report, Charles stressed that Maria Karolina had not fulfilled the conditions to which he had attached the transfer of the regency at the time, because the precondition had been that his grandson would be proclaimed King Henry V in a part of France brought back under Bourbon rule, which had not occurred. As for her secret marriage, if Maria Karolina had actually married Count Ettore Lucchesi Palli, she could not retain her title of French princess, but could only be considered Countess Lucchesi Palli, Princess of both Sicilies. Otherwise, she would remain Duchess of Berry and would be the mother of a bastard. Furthermore, in the parley with Chateaubriand, Charles refused to allow Maria Karolina to move back into the Hradcany after her release.

Nevertheless, the Duchess of Berry, through other negotiators, urged Charles X to allow her to return to Prague. The ex-king did not want to know anything about it at first. But when one of his confidants was presented with a marriage certificate of Maria Karolina authenticated by the Vatican, he finally agreed to a meeting with her. This was not to take place in Prague, however, but took place in Leoben on October 13, 1833. The legitimate children of the duchess and the Dauphin couple were also present at this meeting. Karl came into conflict with the duchess because of her far-reaching demands. He rejected her request that she be guaranteed by contract to live with her children in Prague and that she be allowed to proclaim Henry V's coming of age as regent. Because of her marriage to Count Lucchesi, she no longer belonged to the Bourbons.

On September 29, 1833, Henri d'Artois, the son of the Duchess of Berry, considered by French legitimists to be the future French king, had turned 13. Therefore, the proclamation of his coming of age as Henry V's pretender to the throne would have been expected, since Charles X and his only surviving son, the Duke of Angoulême, had abdicated or renounced their claims to the throne at the time. The Duchess of Berry wanted Henri d'Artois' coming of age to be effected by a solemn act. Charles X rejected this request so as not to bring about further fruitless actions by the legitimists in favor of the pretender. He also removed himself and his family from Prague so as not to be accessible to Legitimists who might be arriving for his grandson's birthday on September 29, and took up quarters in a country house provided by the Grand Duke of Tuscany about six miles from Prague. Nevertheless, some French Legitimists also came to this place to pay homage to the pretender to the throne. Charles X and his relatives then traveled to Leoben, where the previously described meeting with the Duchess of Berry took place, and soon thereafter made their way back to Prague, where they arrived on October 22, 1833. A new annoyance for Charles X was that the Duchess of Berry settled with her second husband not far from Prague in 1834. However, the duchess managed to get permission to see her children from her first marriage more often.

Death in Gorizia

When in May 1836 the festivities on the occasion of the coronation of the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I as King of Bohemia were approaching in Prague and therefore many participating guests were to be accommodated in the Hradschin, Charles X and his relatives left their Prague residence and set off for Gorizia, where they planned to stay as guests of Count Coronini von Cronberg. Due to an illness of Charles' grandson Henri d'Artois in Budweis, they stopped temporarily at Kirchberg Castle in Lower Austria, which Charles had acquired. However, due to the rapid spread of a cholera epidemic, they decided to continue their journey to Gorizia as soon as possible in September 1836. Charles X left later than the rest of his family, first celebrating his 79th birthday in a military camp in Linz, and after his arrival in Gorizia he took up quarters in Grafenberg Castle. But about two weeks later, during the morning mass of November 4, he got a chill. Three days earlier he had already felt the first signs of the cholera that had affected him. As a result, his health deteriorated rapidly. He had to vomit and suffered from violent convulsions that reached the heart region. Charles Bougon, the former king's first surgeon, was unable to cure him. Cardinal Jean-Baptiste de Latil and the Bishop of Hermopolis gave spiritual support to the dying man. Charles X still received the last rites and died on November 6 in the morning at 1:30 am in the circle of his family. His body was laid to rest in the crypt of the chapel of the Kostanjevica Monastery (now in Nova Gorica in Slovenia) on November 11, 1836, in the presence of a large crowd. Five other family members and one faithful rest in the Bourbon tomb there. In France, after the announcement of Charles' death, funeral services for the deceased were banned.

Charles had married Maria Theresa of Sardinia in 1773, with whom he had the following four children:

Sources

1. Charles X
2. Karl X. (Frankreich)
3. a b c Klaus Malettke: Die Bourbonen, Bd. 3, 2009, S. 80.
4. Selon les souvenirs, en partie extrapolés, de la Marquise de Créquy : à la suite de cette tentative de régicide, les états d'Artois se rassemblent sous la présidence du marquis de Créquy, premier baron de la province, pour exprimer à Louis XV leur désolation de ce que le criminel soit artésien, et en réparation proposent que la province paye cette année le double de ce qu'elle doit fournir en argent et en hommes pour le service de la couronne. Louis XV ne veut pas accepter ce sacrifice, et pour témoigner à cette province son absence de toute rancune, fait donner le titre de comte d'Artois à son quatrième petit-fils, né justement cette année-là.
5. Ces armes furent aussi celles portées par son petit-fils, Henri d'Artois, duc de Bordeaux.
6. Le manteau du sacre de Louis XVIII fut même réalisé et payé.
7. Avec la deuxième collection Drovetti comprenant plus de 700 pièces, achetée par Charles X en 1827 pour 200 000 francs, elles constituent le premier fonds des collections égyptiennes du musée du Louvre.
8. ^ Charles X's abdication (in French): "Mon cousin, je suis trop profondément peiné des maux qui affligent ou qui pourraient menacer mes peuples pour n'avoir pas cherché un moyen de les prévenir. J'ai donc pris la résolution d'abdiquer la couronne en faveur de mon petit-fils, le duc de Bordeaux. Le dauphin, qui partage mes sentiments, renonce aussi à ses droits en faveur de son neveu. Vous aurez donc, en votre qualité de lieutenant général du royaume, à faire proclamer l'avènement de Henri V à la couronne. Vous prendrez d'ailleurs toutes les mesures qui vous concernent pour régler les formes du gouvernement pendant la minorité du nouveau roi. Ici, je me borne à faire connaître ces dispositions : c'est un moyen d'éviter encore bien des maux. Vous communiquerez mes intentions au corps diplomatique, et vous me ferez connaître le plus tôt possible la proclamation par laquelle mon petit-fils sera reconnu roi sous le nom de Henri V."
9. ^ Évelyne Lever, Louis XVI, Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris (1985), p. 43
10. ^ Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette: the Journey, p. 113–116.
11. ^ Charles Porset, Hiram sans-culotte? Franc-maçonnerie, lumières et révolution: trente ans d'études et de recherches, Paris: Honoré Champion, 1998, p. 207.
12. ^ Fraser, p. 128-129.
13. ^ Fraser, p. 137–139.