Louis XVIII (redirected from Louis XVIII of France)

Louis XVIII, king of France

Louis XVIII, 1755–1824, king of France (1814–24), brother of King Louis XVI. Known as the comte de Provence, he fled (1791) to Koblenz from the French Revolution and intrigued to bring about foreign intervention against the revolutionaries. He was recognized as king by the émigrés after the death (1795) of Louis XVII. He passed his exile on the Continent and in England. With the assistance of Charles de Talleyrand, he was restored (1814) to the French throne by the allies after their entry into Paris. He adopted a conciliatory policy toward the former revolutionists and granted a constitutional charter. Forced to flee once more on the news of the return of Napoleon I, he returned with the allies (1815) after the defeat at Waterloo had ended Napoleon's rule of a Hundred Days. His chief ministers were at first moderates—Armand Emmanuel, duc de Richelieu, and Élie Decazes—but the ultraroyalists, led by Louis's brother, the comte d'Artois (later Charles X), triumphed after the assassination (1820) of the count's son, Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry. Louis, then old and suffering from gout, allowed the ultraroyalists to take control. The new ministry headed by the comte de Villèle was thoroughly reactionary. Electoral laws were revised to increase the influence of the wealthy classes, and civil liberties were curbed. This trend continued and was intensified during the reign (1824–30) of his successor, Charles X. See Restoration, in French history.

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Louis XVIII

 orig. Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, count de Provence

(born Nov. 17, 1755, Versailles, France—died Sept. 16, 1824, Paris) King of France by title from 1795 and in fact from 1814 to 1824. He fled the country in 1791, during the French Revolution, and issued counterrevolutionary manifestos and organized émigré-nobility associations. He became regent for his nephew Louis XVII after the 1793 execution of Louis XVI, and at the dauphin's death in 1795 he proclaimed himself king. When the allied armies entered Paris in 1814, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand negotiated the Bourbon Restoration and Louis was received with jubilation. He promised a constitutional monarchy, and the Charter of 1814 was adopted; after the interruption of the Hundred Days, when Napoleon returned from Elba, he resumed his constitutional monarchy. The legislature included a strong right-wing majority, and though Louis opposed the extremism of the ultras, they exercised increasing control and thwarted his attempts to heal the wounds left by the Revolution. He was succeeded at his death by his brother, Charles X.

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Louis XVIII

1755--1824, king of France (1814--24); younger brother of Louis XVI. He became titular king after the death of Louis XVII (1795) and ascended the throne at the Bourbon restoration in 1814. He was forced to flee during the Hundred Days