Charles X, King of France. Three glorious days

Karl Gustav of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, German prince, grandson of Charles IX and nephew of Gustav Adolf, was born on November 8, 1622.

Childhood

Gustav II Adolf became king of Sweden when his nephew was only eleven years old. But his uncle, a bully and a courageous fighter, who actively participated in the Thirty Years' War and became famous for this, from a young age began to pass on his military leadership experience to Karl Gustav, without doubting that his nephew would become the Swedish king, who could not take a single step without a sword.

In 1625-1626, Karl Gustav and his pugnacious uncle successfully captured all of Livonia and invaded Courland and Lithuania. But Carl-Gustav was still a teenager! In the summer of 1626, their troops landed near Pillau. Gustav Adolf had a great desire, having neutralized the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, to create a unification of the Protestant principalities of Germany under his supremacy. But he didn’t have time, and after his death, the regency council under the young Queen Christina, the daughter of Gustav Adolf, and together with the council and Karl Gustav, revised and limited this strategic plan.

War with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which had been quiet in anticipation of the Swedish invasion, immediately took advantage of the new political situation and itself moved against Sweden. “They have some boy commanding their troops there,” the ambitious gentry used to say dismissively. - If we catch you, we'll flog you. That’s all there is to it!” But it turned out that the boy Karl Gustav flogged the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, winning the military campaign of 1643-1644, and forced the arrogant Poles to conclude a peace treaty in August 1645.

Sweden, as a result of the frivolous attitude of the gentry towards the young commander, received under this treaty the islands of Gotland and Ezel, the Norwegian regions of Jämtland and Härjedalen, and the region of Hadland in the south of the Scandinavian Peninsula.

By this time, Queen Christina began to independently rule the country and, delighted with the military successes of her talented cousin, awarded him the title of generalissimo. The outstanding commander of Sweden was then only twenty-three years old!

Accession to the throne of Sweden

According to the laws of the kingdom, Christina could remain Queen of Sweden only if, upon reaching adulthood, she got married. Christina flatly refused to start a family, and the problem of succession to the throne immediately arose in Sweden.

The State Council found a way out - Carl Gustav, the closest heir by kinship, was confirmed as the King of Sweden. So he became Charles X. It seems that at one time he and Uncle Gustav Adolf discussed this issue in advance, brought it to Christina, and she sacrificed her personal happiness in order to transfer the crown to her cousin.

Second war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Charles X's accession to the throne coincided with complications in eastern Europe, where a war between Russia and Poland over Ukraine broke out in 1654. Charles X skillfully took advantage of the situation and in 1655 once again struck the arrogant nobles.

“This is for the boy and the desire to flog him,” he chuckled, marking the map with the arrows of the Swedish offensive.

The troops of Charles X invaded Poland from two sides - from Pomerania and from Livonia. At one time, it was not in vain that he and his uncle created an excellent springboard here! Without much difficulty, the Swedes, by the end of 1655, captured the entire hitherto free part of Poland and Lithuania, including Warsaw and Krakow.

“Your king Jan Casimir has fled abroad,” Charles X told representatives of the Polish gentry. - This is not a king, but a coward and a deserter. In return, I propose my candidacy for the Polish throne, which is vacant today.”

While the Polish gentry were scratching their heads in thought and leaning towards Charles X, the Polish people immediately opposed the Swedish invasion. The troops of Charles X, who did not expect such a turn of events, quickly began to scramble.

Things got to the point that Charles X in the summer of 1656 was forced to enter into an alliance with the Elector of Brandenburg against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, for the sake of this he recognized the supreme rights to East Prussia.

This rather strange alliance temporarily improved matters, and in the battle of Warsaw, Swedish and Prussian troops defeated the rebels. But at this time the Swedes had a new enemy - the Russians.

Alliance with Russia and war with Denmark

The transfer of part of the Lithuanian-Belarusian lands under the rule of Moscow pushed Sweden to fight for the control of the mouths of the Neman and Western Dvina. Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich declared war on Sweden in the summer of 1656 and captured a significant part of the Baltic states. But he couldn’t take Riga.

And in 1658, the war between Russia and Poland resumed. The Russians immediately had no time for the Swedes and Charles X sighed with relief - Russia became his ally in the fight against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Now, in alliance with the Russian state, it cost Sweden nothing to devastate Poland. Which Charles X did successfully, and later, in the winter of 1657-1658, attacked Denmark. The Dutch tried to help the Danes by sending their fleet to help. But the winter was unusually cold, the ice in the Baltic became early and did not make it possible to get to the rescue of the Danish coast.

Denmark was forced to ask for peace, agreeing in advance to all the conditions. Peace was concluded early in 1658 at Roquilla.

Sweden now had wide access to the North Atlantic, and Norway was cut in half and could no longer compete with the Swedes. A new balance of power began to emerge in Europe.

But this newly emerging situation in the European political theater extremely frightened England and France - they had an extremely unwanted and powerful rival - competition with each other, with Spain and the Habsburgs was not enough for them!

But at that moment the British and French did not dare to openly fight with the Swedes, but preferred to conduct diplomacy hostile to Sweden. “Oh, so,” Charles X became angry, “then get more!”

In the autumn of 1658, Swedish troops once again attacked Denmark. The reason for this invasion was declared by Charles X to be a reluctance to once again demonstrate to his European rivals the strength and power of Sweden, and popular unrest in Denmark. But this time he failed. Charles X immediately besieged Copenhagen, but unrest in the country continued, and Swedish troops were soon forced to lift the siege.

In the last period of this war there were almost no active military operations - the parties preferred to clarify the terms of peace through Anglo-French intermediaries. Charles X soon died in 1660, and the Swedes, without him, concluded three treaties favorable to the country - Copenhagen, Oliva and Kardis.

From the end of the 18th century to the last quarter of the 19th century, there was no more revolutionary country in the world than France. The Great French Revolution of 1789 gave society such a charge that the processes of evolutionary development did not want to take root on this earth.

Final defeat Napoleon Bonaparte after “One Hundred Days” and restoration Bourbon dynasty, imposed on France by the victorious powers, did not force French society to return to its previous way of life.

And the repressions against Republicans and Bonapartists carried out in the first years of government King Louis XVIII, only fueled protest sentiments.

The reign of King Louis XVIII lasted about ten years. IN recent years Throughout his life, the seriously ill monarch devoted little time to state affairs. He died in 1824 at the age of 68 from gangrene in both legs.

Louis XVIII was unable to move France forward either politically or economically, but he did have one very remarkable achievement - he became the last French monarch who was not overthrown by a coup. Moreover, the transfer of power after Louis XVIII to his heir turned out to be the only regular change of leadership in France in the 19th century, since all the others were accompanied by one or another coup.

Nicholas I warns

The deceased king was childless, and his heir was his younger brother, who ascended the throne under the name Charles X. The new king at that moment was already 67 years old.

Charles X held ultra-monarchist beliefs. At one time his older brother Louis XVI, who ended his life on the guillotine, called him “a greater royalist than the king himself.” Unlike Louis XVIII, Charles X sought to most actively influence political processes in the country, seeking to limit civil liberties and strengthen the power of the monarch.

Nevertheless, in the first years of the reign of Charles X, a certain balance of power was maintained in French society. However, the economic recession that began in 1827, which was aggravated by crop failures in 1828 and 1829, led to growing discontent with the authorities.

A conservative king, to whom the ferment of minds reminded him of the events of the Great french revolution, responded to this by appointing him to the post Prime Minister Jules de Polignac, a convinced monarchist, a man personally devoted to Charles X.

The policies of Polignac's cabinet were perceived extremely negatively by workers and representatives of the bourgeoisie. Tension began to grow, threatening to turn into a political explosion.

Charles X intended to respond to this by further tightening the regime, including the abolition of the provisions of the Constitutional Charter of 1814, on the basis of which the powers that defeated Napoleon restored the Bourbon dynasty.

Russian Emperor Nicholas I, who was not distinguished by liberalism and had recently suppressed the speeches of the Decembrists, nevertheless strongly advised Charles X not to provoke the French with such radical steps.

Francois Gerard. Coronation of Charles X. 1825. Source: Public Domain

July decrees

Despite this, on March 2, 1830, in a speech from the throne opening the session of the French parliament, Charles X promised to resort to special measures to maintain public peace if parliament “creates obstacles to his power.”

In response, more than 200 members of parliament submitted a petition to the king, protesting the lack of confidence expressed by the monarch.

Then Charles X announced first the postponement of the start of parliament, and then, on May 16, 1830, its dissolution.

New elections, held in June - July 1830, ended in victory for the liberals, as a result of which the number of supporters of the monarch in parliament was further reduced.

Convinced that it was not possible to cope with parliament and preserve the Polignac cabinet by legal means, Charles X decided to do what Nicholas I had warned against.

According to them:

1) censorship was restored, and the publication of newspapers and magazines required prior permission from the authorities, given each time for 3 months;

2) the Chamber of Deputies was dissolved again;

3) the electoral law was changed: the taking away of voting rights from the owners movable property and providing them only to landowners; Only land taxes were recognized as the basis for the property qualification;

4) a time was set for new elections.

The decrees were aimed at making the only ruling class France, the conservative landed aristocracy, depriving not only the workers, but also the bourgeoisie of any influence on the government.

Charles X in his youth. Artist Henri Pierre Danloup. Source: Public Domain

Down with the bloody regime!

On July 27, clashes between oppositionists and police began on the streets of Paris. Students began to erect barricades. The clashes very quickly escalated into real street fighting.

Charles X overestimated the strength and reliability of the units loyal to him. Already on July 28, soldiers with weapons in their hands began to go over to the side of the rebels. On July 29, the rebels blocked the Louvre and the Tuileries Palace. The next day, the revolutionary tricolor was raised above the royal palace, and units loyal to Charles X retreated to the Parisian suburb of Saint-Cloud.

Prime Minister Polignac and members of his government were arrested, and power passed into the hands of the municipal commission. Moderate liberals, who advocated the preservation of the monarchical system, gained the upper hand in this body.

On August 2, 1830, Charles X, realizing that he had lost, signed an abdication. Formally, his son was supposed to ascend to the throne under the name Louis XIX, however, under the influence of his father, he also signed a renunciation.

Thus, the monarch under the name Henry V was to become the 10-year-old grandson of Charles X during the regency Duke of Orleans Louis-Philippe, a representative of the junior branch of the Bourbons.

Louis Philippe. Artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter.

King of France from the Bourbon dynasty, who reigned from 1824-1830. Son of the Dauphin Louis and Maria Josepha of Saxony. J.: Since November 16, 1773, Maria Theresa, daughter of King Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia. Genus. Oct 9 1757, d. November 6, 1836

Prince Charles, who received the title of Count d'Artois at birth, was not a very zealous person in the sciences, frivolous and stubborn. In many respects, he turned out to be the complete opposite of his more prudent and thorough older brother, the Count of Provence (later Louis XVIII). The first decades of his life He spent his life in luxury and idleness and at that time had many love affairs. With the beginning of the revolution, in the summer of 1789, Count d'Artois, in disputes with Louis XVI, insisted on the most decisive measures against the willful deputies of the third estate. At the same time, he compromised himself so much that immediately after the fall of the Bastille he was forced to retire abroad. Here his courtyard became a real center of counter-revolutionary emigration. Karl was an indispensable organizer and participant in all its main military actions against revolutionary France: campaigns of 1792, landings on the Quiberon Peninsula and expeditions to the Vendee in 1795. The defeat of the monarchist counter-revolution forced him to moderate his ardor. He settled in England, where he lived until 1814. For many years he was in connection with the Countess de Polastron. Dying in 1805, she made Karl promise that he would stop the wild life he had hitherto led and turn to God. From that time on, Count d'Artois became a zealot for morality and piety and came under the strong influence of the confessor of his former mistress, Abbot Latil.

In 1814, Charles actively participated in the restoration of the monarchy. In March he negotiated with the allies, and on April 12 he entered Paris and ruled France as viceroy for a few days before the arrival of Louis XVIII. In March 1815, during the “Hundred Days,” he was sent by his brother to Lyon to become the head of the army, but all his troops, not accepting battle, went over to Napoleon’s side. Karl had to flee. After the second restoration, Charles was invariably in opposition to his older brother. According to contemporaries, the Count d'Artois, unlike the eternally ill Louis XVIII, was always full of grandeur and energy, had graceful manners and was considered the embodiment of court elegance. He had knightly nobility, a gentle disposition and kindness of heart, but had a limited mind and narrow outlook, was bound by many aristocratic prejudices, very firm and stubborn in his few goals. He always considered the political concessions his brother made excessive, and did not hide his ultra-royalist views. His court in the Marsan Pavilion became the center of fanatical emigrants. trying to play the role of a “counter-government”.

When Charles ascended the royal throne in 1824, he was already 66 years old, but he was determined to implement all his political projects and restore in France the regime that existed before 1789. 250 Napoleonic generals were dismissed from the army. The law on sacrilege, which was soon adopted, punished by death the desecration of holy gifts. Another law, “on a billion,” provided for the payment of significant compensation to all emigrants who suffered losses during the revolution. An attempt was made to revive some of the abolished feudal institutions (for example, the right of primogeniture in the division of inheritance) and to limit freedom of the press. But all these were only minor steps preparing the abolition of the constitution of 1814. In August 1829, the king installed the Duke of Polignac at the head of the government, who was instructed to carry out more radical restrictive laws. On July 25, 1830, orders appeared on the abolition of freedom of the press, the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies, raising the electoral qualification and calling new elections to the chamber. When these important laws were promulgated, which radically changed political system France, no measures were taken in case of riots. Meanwhile, already on July 26, demonstrations began in the Palais Royal. The crowd shouted: “Long live the Charter! Down with the ministers!” Polignac, riding in a carriage along the boulevards, barely escaped reprisals. On July 27, most printing houses, due to the abolition of freedom of the press, were closed. Printing workers, scattered throughout the streets, carried away workers of other specialties with them. Excited Parisians began to build barricades. In the evening, the first clashes took place on the Rue Saint-Honoré, where troops took over several barricades. On the night of July 28, the uprising was organized under the leadership of former military men, Carbonari and a small group of energetic republicans, consisting of students and workers. On the morning of the 28th, the streets were criss-crossed with hundreds of barricades. At about 11 o'clock in the morning the troops attempted to go on the offensive, but by 3 o'clock in the afternoon they were thrown back to the Louvre and began to prepare for defense. Some of the regiments went over to the side of the rebels. On the morning of July 29, the Parisians stormed the palace. The Swiss Guard was the first to flee, dragging the rest of the troops with them. Soon tricolor banners were hoisted over the Louvre and the Tuileries. The king, who was hunting in Saint-Cloud, only realized on that day how serious the situation was. On the night of July 29-30, he agreed to the resignation of the Polignac government and canceled the ordinances. But it was too late. On July 31, the king yielded to the insistence of his daughter-in-law, the Duchess of Berry, and moved from Saint-Cloud to Trianon, and then to Rambouillet. On August 1, he signed an order appointing the Duke of Orleans as governor of the kingdom (in fact, the Duke had already accepted this title on July 31 from the deputies of the chamber). On August 2, the king abdicated the throne in favor of his young grandson, the Duke of Bordeaux, and on August 15 sailed to England. First he rented Lulworth Castle, then settled in Holyrool Castle in Scotland. In the fall of 1832, Charles moved to Prague, where the Austrian emperor gave the Bourbons part of his palace in Hradcany. Finally, in 1836, he decided to move to the small town of Hertz. On the way, Karl contracted cholera and died soon after arrival.

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Reign of Charles X (1824-1830)

A. E. Roginskaya. "Essays on the history of France in the 17th-19th centuries."
Publishing House of the Institute international relations, M., 1958

Given with some abbreviations

The accession to the throne of Charles X foreshadowed an openly reactionary political course. Charles was 67 years old when he became king of France. This was a "man of the past."
From the very first days of his reign, the king began to emphasize his commitment to the “old times” and his reluctance to make any compromises with the “regicides”. In his speech from the throne, he announced his intention to introduce "improvements required by the sacred interests of religion" as well as new laws designed to protect "the nobles plundered by the revolution."
The king did not remember the charter. The threat of new persecution hidden in these words was not long in coming true.
In April 1825, a law was published that established almost unlimited dominion of the church in the region. public education and culture. The confiscation and burning of “harmful” books began. A wide road was again opened for the activities of the Jesuits.
A huge explosion of indignation in bourgeois circles was caused by another law, published after the first, the “law on the billion-dollar reward of emigrants” (1825), according to which all former land owners received a monetary reward 20 times more than the income from those confiscated from them. in 1790 lands. Thus, the Duke of Orleans, who returned to France with the Bourbons, received 16 million francs, Lafayette received 456 thousand francs, the Duke of Choiseul - 1.1 million francs, La Rochefoucauld - 428 thousand francs.
To obtain the required billion, the government announced the conversion of the five percent state rent to three percent, which sensitively infringed on the interests of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeois opposition immediately raised a cry about the “robbery of the nation.”
In 1826, a press law was passed, subjecting the entire press to severe censorship and ex officio prosecution (that is, at the initiative of the authorities, without a complaint or demand for trial on the part of the offended person).
The reactionary activities of the government contributed to the rapid growth of the bourgeois opposition, in which scientists, writers, and publicists played a prominent role. The opposition gradually captured all layers of the bourgeoisie. The commercial and industrial crisis of 1827 intensified the activity of the bourgeois opposition. Voices against the government and against the Bourbon monarchy as a whole began to grow louder.
The bourgeoisie of all stripes began to unite in their struggle against the noble-clerical policies of the Bourbons.
The University of Paris became the center of resistance to clericalism. At this time, Moliere's Tartuffe, with its criticism of religious bigotry and hypocrisy, which, by a strange coincidence, the government did not think of banning, enjoyed great success; Bérenger's politically poignant songs became widespread. The writings of the enlighteners of the 18th century were a powerful weapon against Catholic reaction.
Opposition sentiments also captured the chamber. This forced the government to dissolve it (1827). However, new elections, against the expectations of the government clique, strengthened the opposition in the chamber and gave a minority to supporters of the ministry. This was a serious warning to the government. Charles X considered it necessary to retreat: he resigned Villel (who had headed the ministry since 1821), who personified the reactionary course, and appointed a new, less reactionary cabinet headed by the moderate royalist Martignac (January 1828-August 1829).
Trying to “calm minds,” Martignac carried out some half-hearted reforms, somewhat limiting the influence of the church in the field of public education and weakening censorship. The liberal bourgeoisie was not satisfied with the activities of Martignac and opposed him with sharp criticism.
The ultra-royalists, for their part, were also unhappy, believing that Martignac was “undermining the foundations” and “ruining the state.” Charles X was of the same opinion. Taking advantage of the increased opposition to the government on the part of the liberals, Charles X resigned Martignac and again created an ultra-royalist ministry headed by the reactionary Prince Polignac (August 1829-July 1830), who also received the portfolio of Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Polignac belonged to a family that was extremely unpopular during the Revolution: his mother was a friend of Marie Antoinette, and the whole family was close to the court of Louis XVI. Under Napoleon, Polignac participated in the royalist conspiracy of Cadoudal, aimed at killing Bonaparte, and was sentenced to death, but was pardoned. In 1815, he publicly opposed the charter and for a long time did not agree to swear allegiance to it. He was a narrow-minded and very arrogant man.
All sections of the bourgeoisie, as well as the royalist constitutionalists, expressed loud indignation at the ultra-reactionary composition of Polignac's ministry. “Thousands of ominous rumors are circulating in the capital,” one contemporary wrote in his diary, “and are causing confusion. They are afraid of a new strengthening of oppression, they consider new violations of the charter possible... However, sad experience has taught us that the people also know how to carry out coups d’etat.”
The fear of a new revolution in France was shared by such an experienced diplomat as Metternich. “The change in the ministry is of great importance,” he said, having learned about its new composition. “This event has the character of a counter-revolution.”
Discontent in bourgeois circles assumed such proportions that the king did not dare to convene the chambers for a long time. The ministry was also temporarily inactive, taking stock of the current situation.
Finally, on March 2, 1830, the next session of parliament was opened. Charles X decided to take a sharp course to suppress any opposition. In his speech from the throne, the king declared: “Peers of the kingdom, deputies of departments, I have no doubt of your readiness to promote my good intentions to reject the insidious suggestions of malicious persons. If criminal designs place obstacles in the way of my government, which I do not want to talk about in advance, I will draw strength to overcome them from my determination to maintain public peace...”
It was a direct challenge and threat. Liberal opposition, outraged by the king's speech, after long debates, composed a reply address to the king asking for the resignation of the ministers. This address was signed by 221 deputies (181 were against).
The angry king immediately issued an order that interrupted the session until September 1. "A! “Do you intend to postpone the session?” Talleyrand said to the minister who informed him about this, “in that case, I’m buying myself an estate in Switzerland.” The old diplomat sensed that there was a smell of revolution in the air. However, neither Charles X nor his entourage understood the seriousness of the situation.
The ruling circles of foreign powers followed the activities of the French government with undisguised alarm, realizing that they were fraught with very serious consequences. Metternich once said that he would have worried much less if Prince Polignac had worried more.
Both Russia and England openly expressed serious concern about French affairs. The political myopia of the Restoration government was increased by the success of the colonial war it undertook during this period against Algeria.
French troops hastily advanced through this country; On July 4, 1830 they occupied the city of Algiers. The successful course of the Algerian war strengthened the intention of the king and his entourage to go ahead - to dissolve the chamber, where the opposition raised its head too boldly, and to call new elections.
On May 16, an ordinance was published announcing the dissolution of the chamber and calling for elections and the convening of a new chamber for the August session. This decree caused an explosion of indignation in wide circles of the bourgeoisie.
Even not very far-sighted politicians like Villel understood that the government was on the brink of an abyss. “The monarchy gives the impression of a fortress,” said Villel, “under which mines and countermines are placed in all directions, so that the slightest spark is enough to explode it into the air.” “We are dancing on a volcano,” said another contemporary.
The liberals put forward the slogan of re-election of 221 liberal deputies for the new elections. They mobilized all their forces and conducted a fierce election campaign. As a result, the Liberals achieved the election of 202 deputies from the previous 221; they won 270 seats and the opposition was again in the majority. The ministry suffered a complete defeat: out of 428 elected deputies, only 145 represented the ministerial party.
The election results were a serious warning to the Restoration government. Revolutionary events were brewing.

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Introduction

Charles X (French) Charles X; October 9, 1757, Versailles - November 6, 1836, Görtz, Austria, now Gorizia in Italy), king of France from 1824 to 1830, the last representative of the senior line of Bourbons on the French throne.

1. Youth. "More royalist than the king himself"

Grandson of Louis XV, son of the Dauphin Louis, who died in 1765, younger brother of Louis XVI and the Count of Provence (future Louis XVIII). From birth to accession to the throne (that is, most of his life) he bore the title of Count d'Artois (fr. Comte d'Artois). 16-year-old Charles was married to Maria Teresa of Savoy, the daughter of the Sardinian king who was one year older than him; Having early become the father of two sons, the Duke of Angoulême and the Duke of Berry, and two daughters who died in childhood, the Count d'Artois separated from his wife.

Charles X in his youth

Unlike older brothers, respectable, weak-willed, slow and early years prone to being overweight, young Karl was handsome, active, sociable, witty, had a stormy temperament and was known as a great ladies' man; “Few beauties were cruel to him,” notes one of his contemporaries. Subsequently, Madame de Polastron, sister of the Duchess de Polignac, lady-in-waiting of Queen Marie Antoinette, became Charles’s constant life partner; the prince was sincerely and deeply attached to her. Contemporaries attributed to him an affair even with the queen herself, which was not true.

In his political views, Charles was an ardent opponent of democracy and increasing the powers of the Third Estate; this was the reason for his unpopularity, and rumors of an affair with Marie Antoinette may have been started by his political opponents. Nevertheless, he supported some reforms aimed at strengthening the French economy in the pre-revolutionary period. At the beginning of 1789, the Comte d'Artois criticized the revolutionary National Assembly so sharply that Louis XVI ironically called his younger brother "a greater royalist than the king himself" (fr. plus royaliste que le roi); these words have become proverbial.

2. Stay in exile

Memorial plaque on the house where the future Charles X lived in 1805-1814. (London, South Audley Street, 72)

After the fall of the Bastille in 1789, Louis XVI asked Charles to leave France with his family, as he feared that Charles's continued stay in Paris could ruin him - public opinion was so opposed to the conservative prince. In addition, there was a political calculation in this decision: the Count d'Artois could represent his brother at the European courts, and also, if the worst happened to the family of Louis XVI himself during the revolution - Charles, who had two sons, could continue the dynasty in exile.

The worst happened: Louis XVI, his wife and sister died on the scaffold in 1793, and his infant son, nominally reigning as Louis XVII, died after imprisonment and abuse in 1795. The next eldest brother of Louis XVI, the Count of Provence (Louis XVIII), proclaimed himself King of France in exile; since he was childless, and was much inferior to Charles in intelligence and energy, Count d’Artois became his heir and the de facto leader of the monarchist party in exile.

Charles settled in Great Britain (in London and Edinburgh) and there, especially after the death of his friend Madame de Polastron, who died of consumption in 1803, he transformed from a rake into a devout Catholic who led an impeccable private life. He supported the most conservative wing of the Roman Catholic Church - ultramontanism. In 1805, the legal wife of the Count d’Artois, with whom he had not lived for a long time, Maria Teresa of Savoy, also died in Graz.

3. Life under Louis XVIII

When Napoleon I was deposed and Louis XVIII ascended the throne (1814), the Comte d'Artois, who received the title Monsieur, lived in Edinburgh and at first did not want to move to France: he considered his brother an atheist, a cynic and an apostate from the ideals of monarchism (especially since Louis, indeed, soon agreed to the constitution and pardoned many regicides).

A great tragedy for Charles was the murder of his youngest son, the Duke of Berry, who was stabbed to death by the worker Louvel in 1820. His son was one of the few people truly close to him; in addition, the death of the duke, who left only one daughter, meant the suppression of the senior male line of the Bourbon dynasty (Charles' eldest son, the Duke of Angoulême, could not have children) and the transfer of the crown to the Duke of Orleans Louis-Philippe (a descendant of the younger brother of Louis XIV). However, the widow of the Duke of Berry turned out to be pregnant and a few months after the death of her husband gave birth to a son, Henry, Duke of Bordeaux (aka Count of Chambord), nicknamed “the child of the miracle.” Karl raised his adored grandson in the spirit of true monarchism - which later cost Henry the French throne, which he had every chance of taking in 1873.

4. Reign

Francois Gerard. Coronation of Charles X. 1825.

After the death of Louis XVIII on September 16, 1824, Charles ascended the French throne. This was the only peaceful and regular change of power in France in the 19th century. Unlike his brother, who was never crowned, Charles X decided to emphasize the traditional foundations of royal power and was crowned king at Reims Cathedral on May 28, 1825. The grandiose and luxurious ceremony, reproducing the smallest details of medieval coronations, attracted much attention from contemporaries, but also caused considerable criticism. In particular, this concerned the ritual of healing scrofulous patients, performed by Charles two months before the celebration, on March 31, at the insistence of provincial monarchists and part of the clergy (the court was inclined to abolish the ritual; see “Miracle-Working Kings” by Mark Bloch). During the coronation ceremony, Charles swore to be faithful to "the laws of the kingdom and the Constitutional Charter"; without refusing (as many feared) the oath of allegiance to the constitution, he nevertheless put it in second place.

The feelings of society in France and abroad towards Charles X were contradictory. On the one hand, he had a strong reputation as a conservative and an enemy of civil liberties, who, unlike Louis XVIII, ignored the gains of the revolution and Napoleonic times. On the other hand, the personality of the new monarch aroused sympathy: for a long time on the French throne, after the political passivity of the previous Bourbons, there had not been such a strong-willed and purposeful person, despite his advanced age (67 years) and full of desire to personally participate in politics. At first, Pushkin, in particular, was interested in the personality of Louis XVIII’s successor.

Charles retained in power the conservative cabinet of Villel, formed by his brother. In 1827-1829, the prime minister was the centrist Viscount de Martignac, under whom political passions generally subsided; however, in August 1829, Charles appointed the nephew of the late Madame de Polastron, personally devoted to the monarch, Prince Jules de Polignac, as his successor. This decision, which was based not only on the ultra-monarchist beliefs of the king, but also on the memories of his beloved woman, cost Charles X the throne.

The reactionary political measures of the Polignac cabinet were extremely unpopular among the bourgeoisie and workers (while the peasantry generally supported the conservative course). A number of moderate rightists refused any cooperation with the ministers of the new cabinet. The king began to lean towards the idea of ​​a coup d'etat. Many conservatives, including the Russian Emperor Nicholas I, warned Charles X against violating the Constitutional Charter of 1814, but the political shortsightedness of the king and ministers led to an irreversible crisis. After the Chamber of Deputies adopted an address to the king demanding the resignation of the cabinet in March 1830, Charles dissolved it, and when new elections again gave an impressive majority to the opposition, the Polignac cabinet prepared the July Ordinances, signed by the king and ministers, limiting freedom of the press and reducing the number of voters . The decision caused open rebellion in Paris.

5. Revolution of 1830

The July Revolution of 1830 swept away the Polignac government; he and most of his ministers were arrested, and the inviolability of the constitutional order was confirmed. Under these conditions, the king chose to abdicate on August 2 and immediately demanded the abdication of his eldest son, the Duke of Angoulême (who for 20 minutes was formally King Louis XIX). He named his 10-year-old grandson, the Count of Chambord, as his successor, and appointed the Duke of Orleans, Louis-Philippe, as regent (deputy of the kingdom). After this, Charles went into exile again in Great Britain; After a short stop in Dorset, he arrived at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.

The liberal majority of the Chamber of Deputies refused to recognize the young Chambord as king (Henry V) and declared the throne vacant. Louis Philippe, meanwhile, circulated proclamations declaring Chambord's sensational "miraculous birth" a hoax; supposedly the Duchess of Berry was not pregnant at all, and the boy born in 1820 is not the grandson of Charles X, but a bastard. In addition, he actively proclaimed his liberal views and promised to maintain constitutional order. A week after the abdication of Charles X, on August 9, the Chamber of Deputies transferred, in violation of the order of succession to the throne, the throne to Louis Philippe I, who became the constitutional “King of the French.”

6. Recent years

From Great Britain, Karl and his family moved to the Austrian Empire and lived in various castles in the territory of modern Czech Republic, Italy and Slovenia. Charles reacted sharply negatively to the adventure of his daughter-in-law Maria Caroline of Naples, who landed in France in 1832 and tried to raise an uprising in support of her young son. All this time he recognized his grandson as the rightful king. However, some adherents of the older line of Bourbons (legitimists) considered Charles X to be king until death. In addition, in 1835, the Duke of Angoulême declared that his abdication in 1830 was illegal and forced.

Charles X died of cholera, contracting it while moving to Görtz. On the occasion of his death, mourning was declared at the Russian imperial court. Like most of his family members who died in exile after 1830, he is buried in the Church of the Annunciation in Castagnavizza, Austria; now it is Kostanjevica in Slovenia. Earlier, after the funeral of Louis XVIII, Charles prepared a burial place for himself next to him in the Abbey of Saint-Denis: a black granite slab without an inscription, similar to those under which Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVIII rest, has survived to this day.