| Charles X | |
|---|---|
| King of France and of Navarre | |
 |
|
| King Charles X in coronation robes by Ingres, 1829. | |
| Reign | 16 September 1824 – 2 August 1830 |
| Coronation | 28 May 1825 |
| Predecessor | Louis XVIII |
| Successor | Louis-Philippe I as King of the French. Louis XIX, de jure King of France, immediately abdicated; never proclaimed King Henry V never proclaimed King either. |
| Spouse | Princess Maria Teresa of Savoy |
| Issue | |
| Louis Antoine, duc d'Angoulême Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry |
|
| Full name | |
| Charles-Philippe de France | |
| Father | Louis-Ferdinand, Dauphin of Viennois |
| Mother | Marie-Josèphe of Saxony |
| Born | 9 October 1757 Palace of Versailles, France |
| Died | 6 November 1836 (aged 79) Gorizia, Austrian Empire (now in Italy) |
| Burial | Kostanjevica Monastery, Nova Gorica, Slovenia |
- "Charles X" redirects here. For king Charles X of Sweden, see Charles X Gustav of Sweden.
- For the heir to the throne proposed by the Catholic League in 1589, see Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon.
Charles X (9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830.[1] His short rule of almost six years came to an end when he instituted his July Ordinances in July 1830, suspending most of the liberties granted in the Charter of 1814. During a popular revolt known as the July Revolution, Charles abdicated on 2 August in favor of his son Louis-Antoine, duc d'Angoulême, who in turn abdicated in favor of his nephew, Henri, duc de Bordeaux. This effort to keep the crown in the senior branch of the House of Bourbon proved futile when the Chamber of Deputies by-passed young Bordeaux and elected the First Prince of the Blood, Louis Philippe, duc d'Orléans, as King of the French. Charles was the last king of the senior House of Bourbon to reign over France. He died in Gorizia, Austria, after six years in exile.[2] Charles X was the younger brother of two previous kings of France, Louis XVI and Louis XVIII. His sisters were Clotilde, Queen of Sardinia, and Madame Élisabeth.
Contents |
Childhood and adolescence
Birth
Charles-Philippe[3] was born in 1757, the youngest son of the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand, and his wife, the Dauphine Marie Josèphe, at the Palace of Versailles. Charles was created comte d'Artois at birth by his grandfather, the reigning King Louis XV.[4] As the youngest male in the family Charles seemed unlikely ever to become king.
Charles at the Court of Louis XV
Charles' father died in 1765, which left Charles' oldest surviving brother, Louis-Auguste, to succeed their father in the capacity of Dauphin, the French equivalent to a crown prince or heir apparent. Charles' mother, Marie Josèphe, never recovered from the loss of her husband and she died in March 1767 from tuberculosis.[5] This left Charles an orphan at the age of nine, along with his siblings Louis Auguste, the Comte de Provence,Clotilde, and Élisabeth.
Charles met his brother's future wife, Marie Antoinette, when she arrived in France in April 1770 when he was twelve. Charles was thought of as the most attractive in his family, bearing a strong resemblance to his grandfather, Louis XV.[6] Charles married Princess Marie Thérèse of Savoy in November 1773. The new comtesse d'Artois was thought to be quite ugly by most contemporaries. The marriage, unlike that of Marie Antoinette and Louis-Auguste, however, was consummated almost immediately.[7]
Charles at Louis XVI's Versailles
Louis XV began to fall ill on 27 April 1774, a week after the première of the celebrated composer Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera, Iphigénie en Aulide. On 4 May, the dying king was pressured to send his mistress, the comtesse du Barry, away from Versailles because he could not be cleansed of all his sins if he had not repented. On 10 May, at three in the afternoon, he died of smallpox at the age of sixty-four.[8] Louis XV was succeeded as King of France by his grandson, Louis-Auguste.
Because he thought that his new wife was disgusting,[9] Charles sought attention elsewhere. He struck up a firm friendship with his sister-in-law, Marie Antoinette. The closeness of the relationship was such that he was falsely accused of having seduced Marie Antoinette by Parisian rumor mongers. As part of Marie Antoinette's social set, Charles often appeared opposite her in the private theatre of her favourite royal retreat, the Petit Trianon. They were both said to be very talented amateur actors; with Marie Antoinette playing milkmaids, shepherdesses and country ladies, and Charles playing lovers, valets and farmers. A famous story concerning the two involves the construction of the Château de Bagatelle. In 1775, Charles purchased a small hunting lodge in the Bois de Boulogne. He soon had the existing house torn down with plans to rebuild. Marie Antoinette wagered her brother-in-law that the new château could not be completed within three months. Charles engaged the neoclassical architect François-Joseph Bélanger to design the building. He won his bet, with Bélanger completing the house in sixty-three days. It is estimated that the project, which came to include manicured gardens, cost over two million livres.
Despite her husband's distaste for her, the comtesse d'Artois gave birth to a boy in 1775. The little boy was heir in the next generation of Bourbons, as Louis XVI and his brother Provence had as yet no children. The child was named Louis-Antoine, and was created duc d'Angoulême by Louis XVI. At the time, Parisian libellistes (pamphleteers who published scandalous leaflets about important figures in court and politics) lampooned Louis XVI's alleged impotence and accused the Queen of having "relations" with Artois.[10]
It was around the time of Louis-Antoine's birth that Louis Philippe, duc de Chartres schemed to create a rift between the King and his youngest brother. Louis Philippe introduced Charles to gambling and the brothels at the Palais-Royal, the ancestral home of Louis Philippe's family. Louis Philippe wanted Charles to catch a venereal disease, either dying, or becoming sterile[citation needed]. Therefore increasing his own chances of one day gaining the throne of France (as first prince of the blood, Louis Philippe would have been fourth-in-line to the throne, after Provence, Artois and Angoulême) as Artois was the only member of his family to produce any children, so far.[11]
As the handsomest member of the royal family, his affairs became numerous. According to the comte d'Hezecques, "few beauties were cruel to him." Later, he embarked upon a life-long love affair with the beautiful Louise de Polastron (1764–1804). She was the sister-in-law of Marie Antoinette's closest companion, the duchesse de Polignac. Mme de Polastron stayed with the prince for the rest of her life.
Throughout the 1770s, Charles spent lavishly. He accumulated enormous debts (they totalled 21 million livres), which Louis XVI paid for him in the early 1780s. Their brother the comte de Provence also accumulated debts of a similar magnitude, which Louis XVI also paid off.[12]
In 1778, the comtesse d’Artois gave birth to another son, Charles Ferdinand, who enjoyed the courtesy title duc de Berry.[13]. In the same year Marie Antoinette gave birth to her first child, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France, quelling any rumours that she could not bear children.
Charles acted as a proxy for the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II at the christening of his godson the Dauphin, Louis Joseph, in 1781.[14] The birth of the Dauphin demoted Charles to third-in-line to the throne.
His political awakening started with the first great crisis of the monarchy in 1786, after which he headed the reactionary faction at the court of Louis XVI. The comte d'Artois supported the removal of the aristocracy's financial privileges, but he was opposed to any reduction in the social privileges enjoyed by either the Church or the nobility. He believed that France's finances should be reformed without the monarchy being overthrown. In his own words, it was "time for repair, not demolition."
The Fall of the Bastille
Louis XVI called the Estates-General to meet in May 1789 to ratify financial reforms, as the realm was bankrupt from previous military endeavours (the Seven Years War, and the American War of Independence) and needed fiscal reform to survive.
Charles was the most conservative member of the family, along with his sister Elisabeth.[15] and opposed any sort of reform at the convened Estates General. He enraged the Third Estate (politicians representing the commoners) by objecting to every initiative to increase their voting power. This prompted criticism from his brother, who accused him of being "plus royaliste que le roi" ("more royalist than the King").
At the time of the assembly of the Estates General of 1789, the Dauphin Louis Joseph died in early June and was succeeded as Dauphin by his brother Louis-Charles. The Third Estate declared themselves a National Assembly in the same month, intent on providing France with a new constitution.[16]
In conjunction with the baron de Breteuil, Charles had political alliances arranged to depose the liberal prime minister, Jacques Necker. These plans backfired when Charles attempted to secure Necker's dismissal on 11 July without Breteuil's knowledge, much earlier than they had originally intended. It was the beginning of a decline in his political alliance with Breteuil, which ended in mutual loathing.
Soon after the fall of the Bastille, at the insistence of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Charles and his family left France, along with several other courtiers, including the duchesse de Polignac, the Queen’s favourite.[17]
Exile
The Artois family decided to seek refuge in the Savoy (Charles' wife's homeland).[18] The Artois' were joined by some of the Condé family in Turin (capital of the Duchy of Savoy).[19]
Meanwhile in France, Louis XVI was struggling with the tribulations of the new National Assembly, who were committed to earth-shattering reform. Louis saw his prerogative encroached in the French Constitution of 1791. The new constitution entailed the Assembly's dissolution and election every two years. The King could not prorogue or dismiss the assembly. Executive authority was still invested in the King although this occurrence would never feature in a modern constitutional monarchy.[20]
In March 1791, the National Assembly created a regency bill in case of the premature death of Louis XVI while his heir Louis-Charles was still a minor. The bill promulgated the regency as follows: Louis-Charles' closest male relative in France (the comte de Provence), then the duc d'Orléans, if he rejected/were unavailable the regency would go to an election.[21] The comte d'Artois meanwhile had left Turin and was preparing for a counter-revolutionary attack on France from the Holy Roman Empire from his headquarters in Trier. Marie Antoinette, upon hearing of this, penned an indignant letter to him to request that any invasion of France should be postponed until the Royal Family had escaped France.[22]
The Royal Family did attempt an escape, but the Flight to Varennes, as it is known, failed. Public opinion of the monarchy never recovered after the flight. Artois moved on to Coblenz. The Condés and himself jointly declared their intention to invade France. The comte de Provence, who had escaped France just before the flight to Varennes, was sending dispatches to various European sovereigns for assistance. Artois set up a court-in-exile in the Electorate of Trier, where his uncle was the incumbent Archbishop-Elector. On 25 August, the rulers of Austria and Prussia issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, which called on other European powers to intervene in France.[23]
On New Year's Day 1792, the Legislative Assembly declared all of the émigrés princes traitors. Their titles were repudiated and their lands confiscated.[24] The French Monarchy was abolished on 21 September 1792, having been suspended since 10 August of that year. Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette the royal children, Louis Charles and Marie Thérèse, and Louis XVI's sister Madame Élisabeth were imprisoned in the Temple[25]
Louis XVI was executed on 21 January 1793[26]. Marie Antoinette met the same fate on 16 October.[27] Madame Élisabeth was executed on 10 May 1794.[28] Louis-Charles, the Dauphin, died in the Temple on 8 June 1795. Louis Charles was in a pitiful state before his death, suffering from rickets, a curvature of the spine and scabies.[29]
When the French Revolutionary Wars broke out in 1792, Charles escaped to Great Britain. King George III of Great Britain welcomed the comte d'Artois warmly, and gave him a generous allowance. He lived in Edinburgh and London with his mistress Louise de Polastron[30]
Charles' son, Louis-Antoine, married Louis XVI's only surviving child, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte on 10 June 1799 at Jelgava Palace, Mitau.[31] The comte d'Artois sent several thousand pounds to his brother, the titular King Louis XVIII (formerly the comte de Provence, pretender since the death of his nephew Louis XVII), while the latter was in Poland in 1802.[32]
In 1807, Louis XVIII had to relocate his court-in-exile from Mitau to Great Britain, as Emperor Alexander I of Russia (Mitau then being part of the Russian dominions) informed them that their safety could not be guaranteed on continental Europe. King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden offered the Royal Family asylum, but Louis felt he could get better assistance in Britain.[33]
In January 1814, Charles covertly left his home in London to join the Coalition forces in southern France. The titular King Louis supplied Charles with letters patent creating him Lieutenant General of the Kingdom. Louis was unable to journey to France with his brother as he was wheelchair-bound.
On 31 March 1814, the Allies captured Paris, and a week later Napoleon I abdicated for his son, Napoleon II. The senate ignored Napoleon I's abdication and chose to restore Louis XVIII instead. Charles arrived in the capital on 12 April. Charles now was de facto regent of France as Lieutenant General of the Kingdom, until Louis XVIII arrived in France from England. During his brief tenure as regent, Charles created an ultra-royalist secret police, that reported directly back to him without Louis XVIII's knowledge. It operated for over five years.[34]
On 3 May 1814, Louis XVIII entered Paris.[35]
The Bourbon Restoration
Louis XVIII restored
Louis XVIII was greeted with great rejoicing from the Parisians, who shouted "Vive le Roi!", as he made his way to the Royal family's new residence, the Tuileries Palace[36]. The comte d'Artois lived in the Pavillon de Mars, with the duc de Berry. Louis XVIII lived in the old royal apartments in the centre of the palace and the duc and duchesse d'Angoulême lived in the Pavillon de Flore, which overlooked the River Seine.[37] The duchesse d'Angoulême fainted upon arriving at the palace, as it brought back terrible memories of her family's incarceration there, and of the storming of the palace and the massacre of the Swiss Guards on 10 August 1792.[38]
Louis XVIII was told by the occupying allied army that France needed a liberal constitution. Louis proceeded to draft one. The constitution drafted entailed a bicameral legislature, a Chamber of Deputies and a Chamber of Peers, and made an electorate of 90,000 men. Louis XVIII had the right to nominate as many peers as he wanted, either for life or on an hereditary basis. The constitution instituted freedom of religion. The Charter of 1814, as this constitution is known, created more of a limited monarchy than a fully fledged constitutional monarchy[39] The Charter of 1814 would also be used unaltered through the reign of Charles X.
Louis lived in constant fear of his impending death as Charles was going to succeed him as king. Louis XVIII believed that his brother's ultra-royalist tendencies would send the family into exile once more. On several occasions, Charles was vociferous about his disapproval of his brother's liberal ministries and threatened to leave the country unless Louis XVIII dismissed them.[40]
The Hundred Days
Napoleon I disembarked in Southern France in March 1815. He had been exiled to the island of Elba, which lay a few miles from the Tuscan coast[41]. His campaign in France quickly gained momentum. Many of his old soldiers supported him in his battle against the restored Kingdom of France.[42] The nations at the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw.[43]
Napoleon eventually captured Paris and, for a period known as the Hundred Days, once again reigned as Emperor of the French. He abdicated after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815.
Louis XVIII fled to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Emperor Alexander I of Russia wanted Louis XVIII's cousin, Louis Philippe, to ascend the throne after Napoleon's final defeat. Fortunately for the Bourbons, the Allies decided to restore them for a second time. Louis XVIII rode back into France with the Duke of Wellington's army.[44] Napoleon was exiled once more, not to Elba, but to the desolate and isolated Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where he lived until his death in 1821.[45]
The loss of a son
Following Napoleon's second exile, the White Terror (Terreur blanche) gripped rural France. The White Terror was the purging of all Napoleonic officials and generals from their positions in the government of Restoration France. Bonapartists were illegally executed and killed in very gory fashions by civilians. The most notable victim of the White Terror was Marshall Brune, who was violently killed by royalist supporters. He was chopped up into little pieces and thrown into the River Rhône. While the aforementioned acts were illegal, the terror took on a legal incarnation also. As many as 80,000 people were flushed out of government. Marshall Ney, a prominent official under Napoleon was tried for treason and executed by the government. Louis XVIII was a vehement supporter of the legal terror.[46]
The comte d'Artois ebulliently patronized members of the ultra-royalist party in the Chambers, such as Jules de Polignac, the writer François-René de Chateaubriand and Jean-Baptiste de Villèle. Charles and his cronies were yearning for the Ancien Régime and felt the Charter was unacceptable.[47]
Charles' youngest son, the duc de Berry was assassinated at the Paris Opera on 14 February 1820. The family was devastated.[48] Berry's marriage to Princess Caroline Ferdinande of Bourbon-Two Sicilies had been the only hope for the continuation of the Bourbon dynasty, which was on the verge of extinction (Angoulême, Artois' eldest son, had not produced any children with his wife). The Chamber of Deputies debated the abolition of the salic law, which excluded females from the succession, to allow the duchesse d'Angoulême to succeed. However, the duchesse de Berry was pregnant when her husband died. She gave birth to a male child, Henri, duc de Bordeaux on 29 September 1820.[49] Henri was hailed as "godgiven". The people of France bought him the Château de Chambord in celebration of his birth[citation needed].
Louis XVIII's health began to fail in Autumn 1824. The King was suffering from both dry and wet gangrene in his leg and spine. He died on 16 September after much suffering. The comte d'Artois was now Charles X, King of France.[50]
King at last
Charles' first act as King of France was to grant the style of Royal Highness to his cousins of the cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, the Orléans. Because their Philippe Égalité had voted the death of his brother Louis XVI, Louis XVIII had greatly disliked the Orléans family; however, Charles intended to create a unified House of Bourbon.[51]
In the first few months of Charles X's reign, his government passed a series of unpopular laws that bolstered the power of the nobility and clergy. Charles gave his Prime Minister, Jean-Baptiste de Villèle, lists of laws that he wanted ratified every time he opened parliament. In April 1825, the government approved legislation that paid an indemnity to nobles who had lost their estates during the French Revolution, those were known as the Biens nationaux. The restored Louis XVIII engineered this law, but died before he could implement it. The law gave government bonds to those who had lost their lands in exchange for their renunciation of their right of ownership. This cost the state approximately 988 million francs. Charles' government attempted to re-establish male only primogeniture for families paying over 300 francs in tax. This measure was voted down by the Chamber of Deputies.[52]
The Anti-Sacrilege Act was passed in the same month as the indemnity law. This act sought to punish those who committed offences against the Catholic Church. It was met with fierce hostility from the population, but was passed through the Chambers nonetheless.[53]
Charles' coronation took place on 29 May 1825 at the cathedral of Reims, the site of nearly all the coronations in the Ancien Régime. Charles was anointed by the Archbishop of Reims, yet another unpopular conservative move. Public opinion on Charles X took another dive.[54] This was most apparent in April 1827, while the King was reviewing the National Guard. Many of its regiments deplored the King, and pandemonium ensued. It all ended in Charles disbanding the National Guard of Paris. Charles X had made many enemies capable of revolting against him at any time. The National Guard was not disarmed before its dismissal, something which would come back to haunt Charles X.[55]
Villèle lost his parliamentary majority in November 1827 after an unfavourable general election. His ministry was terminated on 5 January 1828. A ministry under Jean-Baptise de Martignac succeeded. Charles X disliked Martignac and thought of his ministry as only provisional, but he would have to wait longer than he thought for a new ministry. Martignac was dismissed on 5 August 1829. Jules de Polignac formed a new ministry. Jules, as has been mentioned, enjoyed the confidence of the King. His government lost its majority in parliament at the end of August, when the Chateaubriand faction defected. Ergo Jules would not recall the Chambers until March 1830.[56]
France declared war on Algeria on 31 January 1830. It was done so because the viceroy of Algeria, Hussein Dey, had hit a French ambassador with a fly whisk. The initial cause for the tensions between the nations were the unruly Algerian pirates threatening Mediterranean trade and France's indebtedness to Algeria, a legacy of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798. It was hoped that by triumphing over Algeria the citizens of France would be distracted from the governments' unpopularity and bask in national victory.[57]
The Chambers convened on 2 March 1830, as planned. Charles' speech at the opening invoked a negative reaction from many deputies. They responded by voting, on 18 March, a document promulgating that the King's ministers should have the backing of the Chambers. 221 deputies voted for the document, a majority by 30. The King was furious about the bill. The day before, he and his council of ministers decided to call a general election for September. The Chambers were suspended on 19 March pending the results.[58]
On 23 June, the elections began. On 6 July, the King and his council of ministers decided to execute Article 14 of the Charter. This article allowed the King to suspend the constitution in the event of an emergency. Charles X intended to use his emergency powers to call another general election and manipulate electoral laws to return the desired result. The council drafted the Four Ordinances. The first ordinance censored the press, the second dissolved the new Chamber of Deputies, the third altered the electoral system and the fourth set an election for September.[59]
On 9 July, French troops captured Algiers, winning the Franco-Algerian war. On 25 July, Charles gave his Royal Assent to the Four Ordinances at the Château de Saint-Cloud.[60]
The July Revolution
The Moniteur (the official government newspaper) printed the ordinances on 26 July. Parisians were shocked by the ordinances, but weren't discontented enough immediately. The first spark of resistance came from the media, who were effectively abolished by the commands. Adolphe Thiers, a journalist, beckoned the people to revolt. That evening, huge crowds formed in the gardens of the Palais-Royal, such gatherings at the palace had played a prominent part in the French Revolution of 1789. People cried "Down with the Bourbons!" and "Vive la Charte". As the night progressed, the police closed off the gardens of the Palais-Royal. The crowd re-grouped in a nearby street, where they shattered the street lamps.[61]
On the morning of 27 July, the police raided the newspapers that continued to publish (including Thiers') and shut them down. When news of this reached the crowd, who had re-gained access to the gardens of the Palais-Royal, things began to turn violent. Soldiers opened fire on civilians, in response to missiles. By the evening carnage ruled, shops were looted.[62]
The next day, the people of Paris began to erect barricades in streets. Marshal Marmont, who had been called in the day before to remedy the situation, urged the King to reconcile with the Parisians and recant his ordinances. Marmont's men defected to the rioters that morning. Marmont took the offensive against them, but by the afternoon the Marmont's troops had retreated to the Tuileries Palace.[63]
The members of the Chamber of Deputies were gathered at the house of Audrey de Puyraveau. They sent a delegation of five to Marmont. Their intention was to ask Marmont to advise the King to revoke the ordinances, as they believed that the Parisians' anger would only be assuaged by doing so. Marmont agreed, and asked Jules de Polignac to intervene with the King, who refused. King Charles dismissed all of his ministers that afternoon, realising the precariousness of the situation. That evening, the Deputies, met at Jacques Laffite's residence and decided that Louis-Philippe d'Orléans should take the throne from King Charles. They printed posters endorsing Louis-Philippe and distributed them throughout the city. By the end of the day, the government's authority was trampled.[64]
Charles X had to flee St. Cloud in the early hours of 31 July, as the Parisians were scheming to sack it. Charles sought refuge at the Palace of Versailles. Meanwhile in Paris, Louis-Philippe d'Orléans accepted the post of Lieutenant General of the Kingdom from deputies of the Chambers.[65]
On 2 August, Charles X had retreated further to the Château de Rambouillet. Three regiments of the Royal Guard abandoned him. Charles realised that all hope was lost for him and the same day he and the Dauphin abdicated in favor of Henri, duc de Bordeaux. The abdication document was sent to the Lieutenant General of the Kingdom. The document requested him to declare Bordeaux King Henri V of France. Louis-Philippe ignored the document, much to the indignation of Charles X.[66]
The Royal Family, were forced to leave Rambouillet when it became apparent that a mob of aproximately 14,000 people was coming to get them.[67]
On 9 August, the Chamber of Deputies declared Louis-Philippe King of the French, thereby deposing the senior line of the House of Bourbon.[68]
Second exile and death
On 16 August, Charles and his family embarked on packet steamers, provided by Louis-Philippe, to the United Kingdom. They were informed by the British Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, that they needed to arrive in England as private citizens. Therefore, all of the Royal Family adopted pseudonyms, with Charles X becoming the comte de Ponthieu. The Bourbons were greeted coldly by the English, upon their arrival tri-colour flags were waved at them mockingly (the flag of Louis-Philippe's France). The Bourbons were allowed to reside in Dorset, in Lulworth Castle.[69]
Charles X's arrival in England was quickly picked up by his creditors, who had loaned him vast sums during his first exile, who were yet to be paid back in full. Fortunately, Marie-Thérèse had money stocked away in London.[70]
The family's stay in Dorset was brief in duration, and soon moved to Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.[71] Here, the Duchesse de Berry lived nearby in Regent Terrace[72] and vied for the nominal regency of her son, Henri V. At first, Charles X refused to give in to her demands. In December 1830, he capitulated and gave the Duchesse her desired regency,[73] but only should she land in France[72]. The Duchess mysteriously vanished soon after, and made her way to her Italian relatives by way of the Netherlands, Prussia, Austria and Italy[72]. She got little encouragerment there and arrived in Marseilles, France in April[72], then making her way to the Vendée where she tried to instigate a Royalist rising. The attempt failed, and she was imprisoned. Charles X was horrified and embarrassed by his daughter-in-law's behaviour.[74]
The family was invited to Prague by Emperor Francis I of Austria in 1832. The Bourbons arrived in Prague in that winter and were given the use of Hradschin Palace by the Emperor.[74] Since leaving her prison in France, the duchesse de Berry had re-married. Her new husband was a minor Neapolitan noble, the Count de Luchessi-Palli. This morganatic match only served to dismay Charles X further. As a result he banned her from seeing her children.[75]
In September 1833, Henri V reached the age of majority (thirteen). Bourbon legitimists gathered in Prague to celebrate the event. They had expected grand celebrations, but Charles X merely proclaimed his grandson's majority in a statement. On the same day, after much cajoling by Chateaubriand, the Countess de Luchessi-Palli's emissary, Charles X agreed to meet with the Countess. They met in a hotel in Leoben on 13 October 1833. Charles X informed Henri V and his sister, Louise, that their mother had re-married en route. They were disgusted by the news and refused to meet with her. At the meeting, the Countess de Luchessi-Palli made an assortment of demands, which Charles X refused, but after much protest from the duchesse d'Angoulême, he capitulated once more, and allowed the duchesse de Berry to see her children in the summer of 1834.[76]
The family left Hradschin Palace when the Emperor Francis I died in March 1835. Francis' successor, Ferdinand I wished to use the palace for his coronation. Charles and his family briefly moved to Teplitz, but upon discovering Ferdinand's intention to use the palace on a more permanent basis, they purchased Kirchberg Castle. The Bourbons were unable to establish themselves at Kirchberg immediately, due to an outbreak of cholera in the locality. Charles X left Bohemia for the warmer climate on Austria's Mediterranean coast in October 1835. Charles caught cholera when he arrived in Gorizia. He died on 6 November 1836. The townspeople draped their windows in black to mourn him. Charles was interred in the Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady, in the Franciscan Kostanjevica Monastery (now in Nova Gorica, Slovenia). Charles X was the last senior Bourbon to rule France.[77]
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In fiction
The comte d'Artois was portrayed by Al Weaver in the 2006 film Marie Antoinette, a biography film written and directed by Sofia Coppola about the life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.
Ancestors
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10. Stanisław Leszczyński |
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5. Maria Leszczyńska |
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11. Katarzyna Opalińska |
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23. Catherine-Sophie-Anne Czarnkowska | |||||||||||||||
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1. Charles X of France |
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24. John George III, Elector of Saxony | |||||||||||||||
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6. Augustus III of Poland |
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26. Christian Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth | |||||||||||||||
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13. Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth |
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27. Sofie Luise of Württemberg | |||||||||||||||
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3. Princess Marie-Josèphe of Saxony |
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28. Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor | |||||||||||||||
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14. Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor |
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29. Eleonore-Magdalena of Neuburg | |||||||||||||||
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7. Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria |
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30. John Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg | |||||||||||||||
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15. Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick |
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31. Benedicta-Henrietta of Simmern | |||||||||||||||
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Marriage and issue
Charles X married Marie-Thérèse de Savoie, the daughter of King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia, on 16 November 1773.
The couple had four children:
- Louis-Antoine, duc d'Angoulême (Louis XIX) (6 August 1775 – 3 June 1844)
- Sophie (5 August 1776 – 5 December 1783)
- Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry (24 January 1778 – 13 February 1820)
- Marie-Thérèse (1783).
References
 |
This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (June 2009) |
- ^ Parmele, Mary Platt (1908) [1894]. A Short History of France. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 221. http://books.google.com/books?id=lr0sAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA221. Retrieved 2009-03-23.
- ^ Munro Price, The Perilous Crown: France between Revolutions Macmillan ISBN 978-0-330-42638-1, pp. 185-187
- ^ Charles Philippe shall be referred to as "comte d'Artois", "Artois", "Charles X", "Charles" and "King Charles" throughout the narrative
- ^ http://www.nndb.com/people/833/000093554/
- ^ Lever, Évelyne, Louis XVI, Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris, 1985
- ^ Fraser, Antonia: Marie Antoinette: the Journey [ORION] ISBN 978-0-7538-1305-8, pp. 80-81
- ^ Fraser, Antonia, pp. 128-129
- ^ Fraser, pp. 113–116
- ^ Nagel, p. 12
- ^ Fraser, pp. 137–139
- ^ Susan Nagel, Marie Thérèse: Child of Terror, ISBN 1-59691-057-7, pp. 11-12
- ^ Fraser, p. 178
- ^ Fraser, p. 189
- ^ Fraser p. 221
- ^ Fraser, p. 326
- ^ Fraser, p. 274 – 278
- ^ Fraser, p. 338
- ^ Fraser, p. 340
- ^ Nagel, p. 65
- ^ http://sourcebook.fsc.edu/history/constitutionof1791.html
- ^ Fraser, p. 383
- ^ Nagel, p. 103
- ^ Nagel, p. 113
- ^ Nagel, p. 118
- ^ Fraser, p. 456
- ^ Fraser, p. 399
- ^ Fraser, p. 440
- ^ Nagel, p. 143
- ^ Nagel, pp. 152-153
- ^ Nagel, p. 207
- ^ Nagel, p. 210
- ^ Nagel, p. 222
- ^ Nagel, p. 233-235
- ^ Price, pp. 11-12
- ^ Nagel, p. 153
- ^ Nagel, p. 253
- ^ Price, p. 50
- ^ Nagel, p. 254
- ^ Price, pp. 52-54
- ^ Price, pp. 94-95
- ^ Nagel, p. 263
- ^ Price, p. 72
- ^ Price, p. 81
- ^ Price, p. 80-83
- ^ Balcombe 1845
- ^ Price, p. 84
- ^ Price, p. 91 - 92
- ^ Price, pp. 106-107
- ^ Price, p. 109
- ^ Price, pp. 113-115
- ^ Price, p. 115
- ^ Price, pp. 116-117
- ^ Price, p. 118
- ^ Price, p. 119
- ^ Price, pp. 119-121
- ^ Price, pp. 122-127
- ^ Price, pp. 127-128
- ^ Price, pp. 130-132
- ^ Price, pp. 136-137
- ^ Price, p. 138
- ^ Price, pp. 141-142
- ^ Price, pp. 151-152
- ^ Price pp. 153-154, 157
- ^ Price, pp. 158, 161-163
- ^ Price, pp. 173-176
- ^ Price, pp. 177, 181-182
- ^ Nagel, p. 318
- ^ Price, p. 185
- ^ Nagel, pp. 321-323
- ^ Nagel, p. 322,
- ^ Nagel. p. 325
- ^ a b c d Mackenzie-Stuart, A.J.(1995), A French King at Holyrood John Donald Publishers Ltd., Edinburgh, ISBN 0 85976 413 3
- ^ Nagel, p. 327
- ^ a b Nagel, p. 328
- ^ Nagel, pp. 322, 333
- ^ Nagel, pp. 340-342
- ^ Nagel, pp. 349-350
|
Charles X of France
Cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty
Born: 9 October 1757 Died: 6 November 1836 |
||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Louis XVIII |
King of France and Navarre 16 September 1824 – 2 August 1830 |
Succeeded by Louis-Philippe, as King of the French |
| French royalty | ||
| Preceded by Napoleon Francis, King of Rome |
Heir to the Throne as Heir presumptive 4 June 1814 – 19 March 1815 |
Succeeded by Napoleon Francis, King of Rome |
| Preceded by Joseph Bonaparte |
Heir to the Throne as Heir presumptive 8 July 1815 – 16 September 1824 |
Succeeded by Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême |
| Titles in pretence | ||
| Vacant
Title last held by
Louis XVIII |
— TITULAR — King of France and Navarre Legitimist pretender to the French throne 9 August 1830 – 6 November 1836 Reason for succession failure: July Revolution |
Succeeded by Louis XIX |
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