Orleanism, 1780-1830 | History Today - 0 views
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The ousting in 1830 of the Bourbon dynasty in France in favour of the Orleanist branch of the family v as more than a mere palace coup, the replacement of one king by another; it represented a decisive challenge to a principle of monarchy which de- pended on hereditary succession for its legitimacy. Charles X had relied on the sanction of tradition, the support of the nobility, and the bonding of 'Throne and Altar', as the foundations of his authority. By contrast, Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orleans, symbolised the marriage of monarchy to liberalism; Orleanism was not yet a fully articulated political philosophy (if it ever was), but the supporters of the duc d'Orleans stood for press freedom, the legality of opposition, an end to the dominance of high politics by the old notable families, and a curb on the political influence of the Catholic church
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As late as the Revolution of 1830, it remained a remarkably vague creed predicated on personalities rather than ideology
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Orleans tried to remedy his conspicuous unpopularity at Versailles by courting public opinion – a force no politician could afford to ignore by Louis XVI's reign
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His eldest son, Louis-Philippe (created duc de Chartres in 1785) was left with no party to inherit and a lot to live down
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Events after the Bourbon Restoration in 1814-15 showed that Orleanism and constitutionalism were still seen as different sides of the same coin by dynasts and liberals throughout Europe
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Louis-Philippe was an obvious target for criticism from the Ultras, no matter how hard he tried not to embarrass Louis XVIII
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The succession of the comte d'Artois, Louis XVIII's younger brother, as Charles X in 1824 ought to have eased Orleans' position still further.
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Charles X's policies denied Orleans a decent obscurity for, as criticism of the king mounted in the late 1820s, Louis-Philippe found himself the darling of the opposition groups in the Chamber and outside. The virtues of Orleanism were rediscovered (or freshly invented) by those intent on checking the policies of the Bourbons and their ministers.
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Louis-Philippe I turned out to be the first and last Orleanist king, for this experiment in limited monarchy based on the revised Charter of 1830 lasted only eighteen years. By the time of the 1848 Revolution, his regime stood condemned by its diverse critics as a self-satisfied, bourgeois polity, and the genius of cartoonists like Philipon and Daumier at distorting the features of the king (which, admittedly, readily lent themselves to caricature as he grew older) have created an enduring image of Orleanist monarchy that does it no credit
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Instead of making new friends, the July Monarchy simply added to the numbers of those who felt cheated by its inauguration
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By the 1840s, the basis of Orleanist monarchy had been effectively reduced to a defence of the status quo