ABSTRACT
June Constitutional Charter issued by Louis XVIII
1815 March-Napoleon returns for One June Hundred Days
8 July Louis XVIII’s second restoration 1818 Indemnity paid off; Allied occu-
pation troops withdrawn 1820 Feb. Assassination of Duc de Berry;
Ultra reaction follows 1823 French army intervenes in Spain
and restores Ferdinand VII 1824 Charles X succeeds Louis XVIII 1830 26 July Charles X issues Four Ordin-
ances and dissolves new Chamber 31 July Louis Philippe and Lafayette
appear at Hôtel de Ville after Charles X abdicates
9 Aug. Louis Philippe proclaimed King of the French; revised Charter
1831 Nov. Lyon silk-weavers’ insurrection suppressed
1839 April France signs treaty of London guaranteeing Belgium’s neutrality
1840 Aug. Louis Napoleon imprisoned after attempting a rising at Boulogne
Nov. France’s former ally Mehemet Ali accepts treaty of London and peace with Turkey
1847 Opposition starts banqueting movement
The Habsburg empire and the German Confederation
1806 Aug. Holy Roman Empire abolished; Holy Roman Emperor renamed Emperor Francis I of Austria
1809 Oct. Metternich appointed Chief Minister
1814 Sept.– Congress of Vienna; Austria 1815 June given presidency of German
Confederation 1817 Wartburg Festival; expression of
German nationalism 1819 Carlsbad Decrees following mur-
der of Kotzebue 1821 Metternich made Chancellor of
Habsburg empire 1830 Risings in Hesse, Brunswick and
Saxony; constitutions follow 1832 Metternich’s Six Acts or Articles 1834 Deutscher Zollverein established by
Prussia; Austria excluded 1835 Ferdinand I becomes Emperor on
Francis I’s death
Russia
1801 Alexander I becomes Tsar on assassination of Paul
1810 Council of State set up 1812 Napoleon’s invasion of Russia 1815 Alexander I sets up Holy Alliance
alongside Quadruple Alliance; Kingdom of Poland set up
1819-20 Kazan University purged 1825 Alexander I’s death occasions
Decembrist Revolt; Nicholas I now Tsar
1826 Imperial Chancery developed; Third Section set up
1826-35 Speransky codifies laws 1830-31 Polish Rising suppressed; consti-
tution revoked 1833 Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi with
Ottoman empire; Münchengrätz agreement with Austria
1841 Straits Convention; closure to Russian and other warships
During the thirty-three years which followed Napoleon’s second abdication, a succession of three monarchs ruled France, which experienced two revolutions, in July 1830 and in February 1848. The restored Bourbon King Louis XVIII had an uphill task to establish a constitutional monarchy following the upheaval of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period, and his task was complicated by the One Hundred Days of Napoleon’s return in 1815. However, he stuck to the Constitutional Charter and helped the French recovery. He was succeeded in 1824 by his brother, the Comte d’Artois, who as Charles X tried to re-establish most of the authority that the throne had had before 1789 (see Figure 10.1). Old divisions were reopened. Only the extreme Ultras supported him, and when he attempted to rule by using the emergency powers in article 14 of the Charter he lost control of Paris and fled into exile. The power-vacuum of July 1830 was filled quickly by Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, who came from the branch of the Bourbon family which had embraced the Revolution. Styling himself ‘King of the French’ to emphasise that he accepted the progress of popular sovereignty since the fall of the ancien régime, his regime became known as the bourgeois monarchy because it confirmed the rights of property and office claimed by the middle classes. However, Louis Philippe’s regime became unpopular; it offered no glamour, no reform, and excluded most of the middle class from the franchise. Poor harvests and dreadful living conditions in the cities added to the revolutionary mixture which exploded in February 1848. It was now Louis Philippe’s turn to flee, and a second Republic was proclaimed at the Hôtel de Ville by a city which had finally abandoned monarchy for good.
