Louis XVIII (Reign of Kings)

Louis XVIII was King of France from 26 February 1848 to May 1878. Shortly before his third birthday, Louis became King after his grandfather Louis XVII died, but his succession was disputed by his great-great uncle Charles Philippe, Count of Artois (leader of the Ultra-Royalists), whose refusal to recognize him led to the Liberal Wars. He spent most of his childhood in Great Britain while his grandmother Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily acting as regent during his minority. This regency was was a period marked by palace intrigues, back-stairs and antechamber influences, barracks conspiracies, and military *pronunciamientos*

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert shared with the boy king their liberal views and hopes that France should become a constitutional monarchy, based on the British model. Louis, in spite of his conservative family background, had developed liberal tendencies as a result of his ties with Britain. Louis XVIII, taciturn and suspicious, relied heavily on his chief ministers, and most of his governmental power was entrusted to various advisers and counsel. Louis died aged 30 in 1875, and was succeeded by his son, Louis XIX, who was born the following year.

## Early life and the Regency

### Birth and regencies

Louis XVIII was the grandson of Louis XVII as the son of the Dauphin Louis Antoine, and his wife Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. His father died two months before his birth. He was born in the Louvre Palace on 15 February 1845. His godparents were Queen Victoria, Leopold II of Belgium, and his grandmother Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. When Louis XVIII died on 6 February, Louis, only nine-days old, inherited the throne. As Louis was a nine-day old infant when he inherited the throne, France was ruled by regents until she became an adult.

His mother Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin became regent 18 February 1845 when her son was proclaimed sovereign on the death of the king. However many distrusted the Duchess's capacity to be regent, and was ousted from power by his grandmother Maria Amalia Teresa of Naples and Sicily, upon Maria Amalia managed to succeed her. She formed a cabinet, presided over by François Guizot. The first pretender to the throne, Louis's uncle Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; fought seven years during the minority of Louis to dispute his title. Charles and his descendants' supporters were known as Absolutists, and the fight over the succession was the subject of a number of Civil Wars in the 19th century.

## Life in Great Britain

### Second Fronde and Civil War.

The Second Fronde (after the slings used to smash windows) erupted in France. The '**Frondeurs'**, political heirs of the disaffected feudal aristocracy, sought to get back their traditional feudal privileges from the reestablished constitutional and parliamentary government, Furthermore, they believed their traditional influence and authority was being usurped by the new bourgeoisie class. This further complicated as the concept of liberalism in France, which evolved during the French Revolution, was gaining widespread and enthusiastic support.

The liberals were constitutional monarchists who desired a constitution to ensure equal protection under the law, the protection of property, and the safeguarding of basic civil rights. Overall, the liberals desired a government ruled by popular representation, these emergent nationalistic and liberal sentiments sparked a series of political uprisings across France, for his safety he went to great britain to live with his godmother Queen Victoria, who was made his guardian. Although the uprisings ultimately brought about no lasting changes, liberal sentiments remained an influential force in France politics throughout Louis's life.

### Guardianship of Queen Victoria

Five-year-old Louis was sent to Great Britain to spend the next thirteen years at the British court. The British fleet sailed with Louis from Roscoff to London, and lived in buckingham palace with Queen Victoria's children. Louis had a promising childhood. Eager to make the king the instrument of the liberalisation of France, Prince Albert took advantage of his stay to give the King the most comprehensive training possible, the future Edward VII, became a close friend of whom Louis "retained nostalgic memories in later life".

His godparents were determined that Louis should have an education that would prepare him to be a model constitutional monarch. His time spent with the British, coupled with the influence of less conservative family members, were instrumental in his embrace of liberal beliefs. Meanwhile in France his reign was maintained only through the support of the army, along with the British. Making France a client state of Great Britain.

His minority saw the abolition of slavery in France.

## Reign as an adult

### Return to France

On 15 September 1850, as Louis approached his thirteenth birthday, the year of his majority, although Louis XVIII became of age at thirteen (1850), he did not return to france until 1853, when he was 16. Louis returned to France nine months later, arriving in Calais on 19 August 1851. On 25 October, Louis was crowned King at the Cathedral of Reims. Louis's coming-of-age and subsequent coronation deprived them of the 'Frondeurs**'**' pretext for revolt. The 'Second Fronde' thus gradually lost steam and ended in 1853.

Having lived in Great Britain since the age of five, Louis had little direct experience of the dangerous and complex political situation in France. The uneasy alliance between Constitutional Feuillants and the Resistance Party was already cracking up by the time of the coming of age of the king. Frances's liberal elements hoped that he would usher in a new era of liberal policies. Despite the alleged parliamentary supremacy, in practice, the "double trust" led to Louis XVIII having a role in the making and toppling of governments, undermining the progressives. Despite this the new king was initially considered politically neutral; as he intervened less in politics than his grandfather. Following a brief government led by progressive parliamentarian Jacques de Bourgeois, Louis XVIII commissioned a Constitutional Feuillant, Alphonse Henri d'Hautpoul, to form a new ministry.

### Feuillant Decade

The new Parliament that assembled in May 1852, which gained the name of "Loyal Parliament", was initially favourable to Louis, and the new king sent word that even most of the former exclusionists would be forgiven if they acquiesced to his rule. From May 1853 to January 1854, the Federal Parliament convened for an unprecedented 171 days, this session was dominated by political infighting from the Constitutional Feuillants and the Progressives none were able to gain a majority. Debates heard on the floor of the houses concerned the popular demand for a new constitution and the passage of a free trade bill. The main issues of contention between the new monarch and the legislators were the retention of his cabinet ministers, since political division prevented Louis from appointing a balanced council and the 1815 Charter gave Parliament the power to vote for the dismissal of his cabinet.

Seven resolutions of want of confidence were introduced during this session, and four of his self-appointed cabinets. On January 13, 1854, after the Federal Parliament dismissed the Léon Faucher cabinet (which had political sympathies to the Parliamentarians), he appointed on advice from the privy council, Émile Ollivier to form a new ministry. The council was dominated by the Party leaders from the Constitutional Feuillants, as his new cabinet ministers. Only four of his ministers were progressives and Liberals. After the subsequent decision to dissolve the hostile Parliament by Louis on 28 November, this resulted in the Resistance Party being beheaded.

Under the government of Émile Ollivier (whose ascension to premiership had been solely founded on the support from the networks of the royal court), the system was in a critical state by June 1854. On 28 June 1854 a military *pronunciamiento* intending to force the king to oust the government of the Émile Ollivier, featuring Jean-de-Dieu Soult, took place in Languedoc. The situation was followed by a full-scale people's revolution, with revolutionary juntas organised on 17 July in Paris, and barricades erected in the streets. With the perspective of a civil war in the horizon, Louis was advised to appoint Charles Cousin-Montauban, Comte de Palikao (who enjoyed charisma and popular support) as prime minister.

### Resistance biennium

Charles-Montauban entered the capital of france on 28 July, and proceeded to separate again Louis from the influence of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. A Liberal Constitution ("the Unborn One") was drafted in 1856, yet it was never enacted as the pro-British elements in France overthrew the Federal Government of Charles-Montauban. The overthrow was bolstered by the landing of British Royal Marines to protect British interests, which rendered the monarchy unable to protect itself, and Liberals seized power.