page_title: Bourbon Restoration
section_title: Second Restoration (1815)
hierarchical_section_title: Bourbon Restoration / Louis XVIII, 1814–1824 / Second Restoration (1815)
caption_attribution_description: François-René de Chateaubriand
context_page_description: The Bourbon Restoration was the period of French history following the first fall of Napoleon in 1814 and his final defeat in the Hundred Days in 1815, until the July Revolution of 1830. The brothers of the executed Louis XVI, namely Louis XVIII and Charles X, came to power and reigned in highly conservative fashion. Exiled supporters of the monarchy returned to France. They were nonetheless unable to reverse most of the changes made by the French Revolution and Napoleon. At the Congress of Vienna, they were treated respectfully, but had to give up nearly all the territorial gains made since 1789.
context_section_description: Talleyrand was again influential in seeing that the Bourbons were restored to power, as was Fouché, Napoleon's minister of police during the Hundred Days. This Second Restoration saw the beginning of the Second White Terror, largely in the south, when supporters of the monarchy sought revenge against those who had supported Napoleon's return. About 200–300 were killed for revenge; thousands fled. About 70,000 government officials were dismissed. The perpetrators were often known as the Verdets because of their green cockets, which was the colour of the comte d'Artois – this being the title of Charles X at the time, who was associated with the hardline ultra-royalists, or Ultras. After a period in which local authorities were powerless to stop the violence, the King and his ministers sent out their own officials to restore order.
  A new Treaty of Paris was signed on 20 November 1815, which had more punitive terms than the 1814 treaty. France was ordered to pay 700 million francs in indemnities, and the country's borders were reduced to their 1790 status, rather than 1792 as in the previous treaty. France was occupied by 1.2 million foreign soldiers; occupation continued until 1818, by around 200,000 soldiers under the command of the Duke of Wellington, and France was made to pay the costs of their accommodation and rations, on top of the reparations. The promise of tax cuts, prominent in 1814, failed to actualise because of these payments. The legacy of this, and the White Terror, left Louis with a formidable opposition.
  Louis's chief ministers were at first moderate, including Talleyrand, the Duc de Richelieu, and Élie, duc Decazes; Louis himself followed a cautious policy. The chambre introuvable, elected in 1815 was given the nickname "unobtainable" by Louis, was dominated by an overwhelming ultra-royalist majority which quickly acquired the reputation of being "more royalist than the king". The legislature threw out the Talleyrand-Fouché government and sought to legitimize the White Terror, passing judgement against enemies of the state, sacking 50,000–80,000 civil service members, and dismissing 15,000 army officers. Richelieu, an émigré who had left in October 1789, who "had had nothing at all to do with the new France", was appointed Prime Minister. The chambre introuvable, meanwhile, continued to aggressively uphold the place of the monarchy and the church, and called for more commemorations for historical royal figures. Over the course of the parliamentary term, the ultra-royalists increasingly began to fuse their brand of politics with state ceremony, much to Louis' chagrin. Decazes, perhaps the most moderate minister, moved to stop the politicisation of the National Guard (many Verdets had been drafted in) by banning political demonstrations by the militia in July 1816.
  Owing to contrasting standpoints of the chamber and the King, the ultra-royalists began to assert the Chamber of Deputies' rights. This resulted in a concession from the government that the chamber had the right to approve state expenditure, granted after the ultra-royalists attempted to obstruct the 1816 budget. However, they were unable to gain a guarantee from the King that his cabinets would represent the majority in parliament.
  In September 1816, the chamber was dissolved by Louis for its reactionary measures, and electoral manipulation resulted in a more liberal chamber in 1816. Richelieu served until 29 December 1818, followed by Jean-Joseph, Marquis Dessolles until 19 November 1819, and then Decazes (in reality the dominant minister from 1818 to 1820) until 20 February 1820. This was the era in which the Doctrinaires dominated policy. The following year, the government changed the electoral laws, resorting to gerrymandering, and altering the franchise to allow some rich men of trade and industry to vote, in an attempt to prevent the ultras from winning a majority in future elections. Press censorship was clarified and relaxed, some positions in the military hierarchy were made open to competition, and mutual schools were set up that encro
caption: François-René de Chateaubriand, a Romantic writer who sat in the Chamber of Peers
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