Charles X of France

Charles X, King of France and of Navarre (October 9 1757 – November 6 1836) was born at the Palace of Versailles. He was the grandson of Louis XV and his Polish queen, Marie Leszczynska, and youngest son of Louis, dauphin de France, who never reigned, and his German wife Marie-Josèphe of Saxony. He was crowned King of France in 1824 in the cathedral at Reims and reigned until the French Revolution of 1830 when he abdicated rather than become a constitutional monarch. He was the last king of the senior Bourbon line to reign over France.

Restoration and reign as king of France

Charles was still living in Edinburgh in 1814 when the French monarchy was restored under his other brother, who assumed the name Louis XVIII. The two royal brothers were not especially close, since Charles viewed Louis XVIII as treacherous and irreligious.

Related Topics:
1814 - Louis XVIII

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Charles never met any of the claimants pretending to be his long-lost nephew, Louis XVII, since he was convinced the child had died in Paris in 1795.

Related Topics:
Louis XVII - Paris - 1795

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During the reign of Louis XVIII he headed the ultra-royalist opposition, which took power after the traumatic assassination of Charles's son, the Duc du Berry. The event caused the fall of the ministry of Élie Decazes and the rise of the Comte de Villèle, who continued as chief minister after Charles became king. Emotionally, Charles never really recovered from his son's murder.

Related Topics:
Ultra-royalist - Élie Decazes - Comte de Villèle

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In 1824 Charles was crowned king upon the death of his brother, Louis XVIII.

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The Villèle cabinet resigned in 1827 under pressure from the liberal press. His successor, the Vicomte de Martignac, tried to steer a middle course, but in 1829 Charles appointed Prince Jules Armand de Polignac (Louise de Polastron's nephew), an ultra-reactionary, as chief minister. Polignac initiated French colonization in Algeria. His dissolution of the chamber of deputies, his July Ordinances, which set up rigid control of the press, and his restriction of suffrage resulted in the July Revolution. The major cause of his downfall, however, was that, while he managed to keep the support of the aristocracy, the Catholic Church and even much of the peasantry, he was deeply unpopular with industrial workers and the bourgeoisie.

Related Topics:
1827 - Vicomte de Martignac - 1829 - Jules Armand de Polignac - Algeria - July Ordinances - Suffrage - July Revolution

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Charles abdicated in favor of his grandson, the Comte de Chambord, and left for England. However, the liberal, bourgeois-controlled Chamber of Deputies refused to confirm the Comte de Chambord as Henri V. In a vote largely boycotted by conservative deputies, the body declared the French throne vacant, and elevated Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orleans, to power.

Related Topics:
Comte de Chambord - Louis-Philippe - Orleans

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After a sojourn in Britain, Charles later settled in Prague in the present-day Czech Republic. He died on November 6, 1836 in the palace of Count Michael Coronini Comberg zu Graffenberg at Gorizia, Italy of cholera, tended by his niece Marie-Thérèse. He is buried in the Church of Saint Mary of the Annunciation on Castagnavizza Hill in Gorizia, on what is now the Slovenian side of the border in Nova Gorica.

Related Topics:
Prague - Czech Republic - 1836 - Gorizia - Italy - Cholera - Marie-Thérèse - Slovenian - Nova Gorica

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