Western Civilization - History Of European Society

The Defense of the Old Regime, 1815–48 473

The breakdown of Louis XVIII’s compromise wors-
ened in 1824, when Artois came to the throne as King
Charles X. Historians have characterized Charles as a
blind reactionary, an image that contemporary cartoon-
ists fostered by drawing the king with his crown cover-
ing his eyes. Charles earned this image when he named
the leading ultra, Count Jean-Baptiste Villèle, premier.
Villèle’s government adopted a Law of Indemnity
(1825) to repay aristocrats who had lost land during the
revolution and a Law of Sacrilege, making irreligion a
capital crime.
Such extreme conservatism ended middle-class, lib-
eral acceptance of the compromise and precipitated a
revolution in 1830 that drove Charles X from the
throne. When Charles tried to keep ultras as his minis-
ters without the support of the Chamber of Deputies,
elections in May 1830 showed that even rich voters op-
posed him. Then Charles responded in July 1830 with
strict decrees known as the July Ordinances, tightening

censorship further, dissolving the chamber again, and

reducing electoral eligibility once more. The July Ordi-

nances provoked a vehement reaction in the Parisian

press. Adolphe Thiers, the editor of a liberal newspaper

and a future president of France, drafted a protest stat-

ing, “The government has violated legality and we are

absolved from obedience.” The Chamber agreed that

the king had violated the constitution, but newspaper-

men and politicians did not overthrow the king. Their

anger became a revolution when radical insurgents took

to the streets of Paris. After a few incidents of rioting

(such as breaking windows in government buildings),

crowds built barricades across the streets in working-

class districts. Charles X, who had learned a lesson from

the execution of his eldest brother, fled into exile.

The revolution of 1830 ended the rule of the Bour-

bon dynasty and removed the ultras from power, but

France remained a monarchy. The liberal opponents of

Charles X agreed upon his cousin, Louis-Philippe, the

GENEALOGY 24.1

French Royal Families of the Nineteenth Century

King Louis XIV

King Louis XVI

(reigned 1774–92)

(executed 1793)

King Louis XVIII

(reigned 1814–24)

King Louis-Philippe

(reigned 1830–48)

(deposed 1848)

King Charles X

(reigned 1824–30)

(deposed 1830)

(his son) (his son) (his son)

(his son) (his grandson)

(brothers)

"King Louis XVII"

(died in prison 1795)

House of Bourbon House of Orléans

Duke de Berry

(assassinated 1820)

Count of Chambord

(last Bourbon claimant, died 1883)

End of Bourbon dynasty

(his great-great-great grandsons) (his great-great grandson)

Duke of Orléans

Philippe Egalité

Duke of Orlèans

(executed 1793)

Count of Paris