LOUIS XVIII OF FRANCE: BIOGRAPHY - HISTORY - 2024

Louis XVIII was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief period in 1815. He came to the throne when France was going through a transitional stage. The country had just witnessed the beheading of King Louis XVI by the revolutionary government, and had witnessed the rapid rise and tragic fall of the empire of Napoleon I.

Tired of war, the French wanted a stable government that would allow their voices to be heard. Even before coming to power, King Louis XVIII realized that the days of absolute monarchy were long gone. Thus he adopted a more liberal attitude and made efforts to accommodate each section of society in his government.

Consequently, he was hailed as an intelligent and liberal king by scholars. However, many more regard him as a skeptical and narrow-minded monarch whose sole goal was to cling to his throne.

Biography

Prince Luis Estanislao Javier, count of Provence, was born on November 17, 1755 in Versailles. He was the third child of the dolphin Luis and María Josefa de Sajonia. He was the grandson of King Louis XV of France and King Augustus III of Poland.

Being fourth in the line of succession, he was given little importance. However, that changed quite quickly with the death of his older brother in 1761. In 1765 his father died.

As a result of this, the young Louis happened to be surpassed only by his only surviving older brother, the future King Louis XVI, to succeed his grandfather, King Louis XV.

Training

When he began his education as a crown prince, it was discovered that he was an exceptionally bright boy. Classical history and literature were his favorite subjects.

He could quote Horacio by heart, he was an expert on the Bible and was fluent in English and Italian, as well as his native French language. As he got older he developed many good qualities, but he had some shortcomings.

Although highly intellectual, the Count of Provence never enjoyed exercise or physical activity. He liked to eat and soon after reaching adulthood he became increasingly obese, sluggish and sedentary.

Marriage

To better serve the interests of France, it was decided that he should be married to a princess of the House of Savoy. To the disappointment of both, the choice fell on Princess Maria Josefina de Saboya, daughter of King Victor Amadeo III of Piedmont.

The earl found her unattractive and sadly ignorant of the complex court etiquette of Versailles. Although the two were married in 1771, it was several years before the marriage was consummated.

Louis remained in Paris at the beginning of the 1789 Revolution, but fled France three years later. He spent the remainder of the war actively participating from a safe distance, issuing manifestos and seeking support from other monarchs.

His actions did little to protect the captive king and queen, who were executed in 1793. After his death, Louis declared himself regent to his nephew, the dolphin Louis XVII. He was proclaimed Louis XVIII after the dolphin died in 1795.

Resistance to Napoleon Bonaparte

Unable to formally claim the throne, Luis traveled throughout Europe for the next 20 years.

He met with other monarchs frequently, in an effort to maintain his legitimacy as heir to the French throne and to promote resistance to Napoleon. When Napoleon offered him a pension in exchange for his abdication, Louis refused.

After Napoleon's military defeat in 1813, Louis issued a statement in which he promised to preserve some of the revolutionary reforms in the context of a restored Bourbon regime.

On May 3, 1814, the crowd welcomed him back to Paris. The new king moved quickly to institutionalize the constitutional monarchy he had promised. The new Constitution guaranteed a bicameral parliament, as well as religious tolerance.

The constitutional experiments were truncated by the arrival of Napoleon from exile on Elba. Louis was forced to wait the hundred days for Napoleon's return in the Belgian city of Ghent.

To reign peacefully, Louis XVIII had to balance the power of the monarchy with the demands of the post-revolutionary public.

Appearance of the "ultras"

While Luis exercised executive authority, his power was controlled by Parliament. He voted on the laws and approved the budgets. One of his greatest challenges was maintaining control of the "ultras," a royalist faction within Parliament that sought to repeal all revolutionary reforms.

The actions of the ultras led Luis to dissolve Parliament at one point, rather than allow the constitutional legitimacy of the legislature to be undermined.

Death

Louis remained on the throne until his death in Paris on September 16, 1824.

Illustrated monarch

Louis XVIII was an enlightened monarch, capable of maintaining control of the situation in an environment as heated as France after Napoleon and the Revolution.

Despite everything, his ability to understand that, after the French Revolution, it was not possible to return to the old form of government, where the absolute monarchy ruled; this would only cause more social unrest and desire for revenge towards the sovereign.

He instituted one of the first parliamentary monarchies in Europe and was one of the pioneers in creating a Magna Carta that recognized and accepted the rights of the people.

King Louis XVIII always had the right priorities and knew what was expected of him. He suffered greatly during his time in exile, but he continued his duty with remarkable intelligence, skill, and determination as he carried the torch of traditional French monarchism in its darkest and most turbulent times.

He was very cultured and intelligent, very practical and, unlike some, had a firm understanding of what was realistic and what was not.

References

1. Álvarez, C. (2014). King Louis XVIII and the lamb chops. ABC. Recovered in: abc.es
2. Ander (2016). List of kings of France. Historical Criticism. Recovered in: criticahistorica.com
3. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (1998). Louis XVIII. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Recovered at: britannica.com
4. Smethurst, C. (2002). François-René de Chateaubriand, Écrits politiques (1814-1816). Geneva, Droz "Les classiques de la pensée politique". Recovered at: persee.fr
5. Alicia, P. (2014). François-Memories of the reign of Louis XVIII de Chateaubriand, in the translation of Ramón López Soler (1830). Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library. Recovered at: cervantesvirtual.com