Bourbon Dynasty Is Restored to Power (France)
The Bourbon Dynasty was restored to power in France on May 4, 1814, following the defeat of Napoléon Bonaparte. This marked the first reinstatement of the monarchy since the upheaval of the French Revolution in 1789. The restoration was facilitated by an anti-Napoleonic alliance, which included prominent nations such as Russia and Great Britain. King Louis XVIII, a brother of the executed Louis XVI, was placed on the throne. The Bourbons trace their lineage back to the late ninth century, and their prominence in French history peaked with King Louis XIV, known for establishing an absolute monarchy and constructing the opulent Palace of Versailles. However, by the time Louis XVI ascended in 1774, socio-political discontent had brewed, leading to his execution. Louis XVIII’s reign was brief, as he was succeeded by his brother Charles X, who faced his own challenges and was ultimately overthrown in the July Revolution of 1830. The Bourbon restoration was part of a broader pattern of political unrest in 19th-century France, foreshadowing the decline of monarchies across Europe in the ensuing decades.
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Bourbon Dynasty Is Restored to Power (France)
Bourbon Dynasty Is Restored to Power (France)
On May 4, 1814, after Napoléon Bonaparte was defeated in an ambitious but ill-conceived attempt to invade Russia, the victorious anti-Napoleonic alliance of Russia, Great Britain, and other nations which had vanquished the French restored the Bourbon dynasty of France by placing King Louis XVIII on the throne. The monarchy was restored for the first time since the French Revolution of 1789, but only temporarily. The political changes sweeping Europe in the 19th century could not be stopped.
The name Bourbon comes from the town of Bourbon, provincial capital of Bourbonnais in central France. Around the late ninth century, a certain Aimar, also spelled Adhemar, became baron of Bourbon. Through a series of marriages and successions, in 1594 King Henry IV was crowned the first Bourbon king of France in the Cathedral of Chartres in Paris.
Over the next two centuries, influential men such as Cardinal Richelieu and his protegé Cardinal Mazarin worked successfully behind the scenes to reduce the power of the great French nobles in order to create an absolute monarchy. When Louis XIV—the Sun King who built the magnificent palace of Versailles outside of Paris—inherited the throne in 1643, France was one of the strongest and most centralized nations in Europe, and by the end of his long reign in 1715, it was the most powerful. Nevertheless, by the time Louis XVI came to the throne in 1774, there was considerable discontent beneath the surface of French society. New ideas, such as the democratic ideals of the philosophers Voltaire and Montesquieu who helped bring about the intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment, played on the people's resentment against the privileges of the aristocracy and the desire of the rising middle class for more political power. France's support of the American Revolution was extremely costly and put the nation into near bankruptcy. The Bourbon monarchy was weakened, and Louis XVI, never a strong ruler to begin with, was deposed and executed after the French Revolution began in 1789. Years of political turmoil and warfare followed, eventually resulting in the rise to power of the military genius Napoléon Bonaparte.
Napoléon's armies swept across Europe and established a vast empire for France, but he was eventually defeated by Britain, Russia, Austria, and allied nations. Napoléon's massive Grand Army was devastated during his disastrous invasion of Russia; as he retreated toward France, most of his men were left behind, dead in the snows. After Napoléon's ouster, one of Louis XVI's brothers became King Louis XVIII on May 4, 1814, brought to power in part by the victorious allies who had occupied France. There was no Louis XVII because Louis XVI's only son, Louis Charles de France, died during the French Revolution, supposedly of tuberculosis while in captivity, but rumors have always abounded that he was secretly murdered by the revolutionaries or escaped.
When Louis XVIII died in 1824, he was succeeded by his brother Charles X, who would be the last Bourbon king of France. Both men were unremarkable rulers and Charles X was overthrown in the July Revolution of 1830 by Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, who became the next king. Louis Philippe himself was deposed in 1848, and France would go through a succession of governments, some democratic and some autocratic, through the rest of the 19th century. However, the collapse of the Bourbon dynasty presaged the general collapse of European dynasties in the decades to come. By the conclusion of World War I in the early 20th century, almost all of the major European dynasties had fallen from power.