July Revolution
The July Revolution, also known as the French Revolution of 1830, Second French Revolution, or les Trois Glorieuses, was a second French Revolution after the first of 1789–99. It led to the overthrow of King Charles X, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans.
The 1830 Revolution marked a shift from that point on as the constitutional monarchy was restored with the July Monarchy; the transition of power from the House of Bourbon to its cadet branch, the House of Orléans; and the replacement of the principle of hereditary right by that of popular sovereignty. Supporters of the Bourbons would be called Legitimists, and supporters of Louis Philippe were known as Orléanists. In addition, there continued to be Bonapartists supporting the return of Napoleon's heirs. After 18 precarious years on the throne, Louis-Philippe was overthrown in the French Revolution of 1848.
Background
After Napoleonic France's defeat and surrender in May 1814, Continental Europe, and France in particular, was in a state of disarray. The Congress of Vienna met to redraw the continent's political map. Many European countries attended the Congress, but decision-making was controlled by four major powers: the Austrian Empire, represented by the Chief Minister Prince Metternich; the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, represented by its Foreign Secretary Viscount Castlereagh; the Russian Empire, represented by Emperor Alexander I; and Prussia, represented by King Frederick William III.France's foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, also attended the Congress. Although France was considered an enemy state, Talleyrand was allowed to attend the Congress because he claimed that he had only cooperated with Napoleon under duress. He suggested that France be restored to her "legitimate" borders and governments—a plan that, with some changes, was accepted by the major powers. France was spared large annexations and returned to its 1791 borders. The House of Bourbon, deposed by the Revolution, was restored to the throne in the person of Louis XVIII. The Congress, however, forced Louis to grant a constitution, the Charter of 1814.
Charles X's reign
On 16 September 1824, after a lingering illness of several months, the 68-year-old Louis XVIII died. As he was childless, his younger brother, Charles, aged 66, inherited the throne of France. He was known to have more reactionary politics. On 27 September Charles X made his state entry into Paris to popular acclaim. The Coronation of Charles took place at Reims Cathedral on 29 May 1825. In an elaborate ceremony the King swore both to uphold the Charter but also France's ancient "fundamental laws". During the ceremony, while presenting the King the keys to the city, the comte de Chabrol, Prefect of the Seine, declared: "Proud to possess its new king, Paris can aspire to become the queen of cities by its magnificence, as its people aspire to be foremost in its fidelity, its devotion, and its love."Eight months later, the mood of the capital had sharply worsened in its opinion of the new king. The causes of this dramatic shift in public opinion were many, but the main two were:
- Imposition of the death penalty for anyone profaning the Eucharist.
- The provisions for financial indemnities for properties confiscated by the 1789 Revolution and the First Empire of Napoleon—these indemnities to be paid to anyone, whether noble or non-noble, who had been declared "enemies of the revolution."
The second matter, that of financial indemnities, was far more opportunistic than the first. Since the restoration of the monarchy, there had been demands from all groups to settle matters of property ownership in order to reduce, if not eliminate, the uncertainties in the real estate market. But opponents, many of whom were frustrated Bonapartists, began a whispering campaign that Charles X was proposing this action in order to shame those opponents who had not left the country. Both measures, they claimed, were nothing more than clever subterfuge meant to bring about the destruction of the Charter of 1814.
Up to this time, thanks to the popularity of the constitution and the Chamber of Deputies with the people of Paris, the king's relationship with the élite—both the Bourbon supporters and Bourbon opposition—had remained solid. This, too, was about to change. On 12 April, propelled by both genuine conviction and the spirit of independence, the Chamber of Deputies roundly rejected the government's proposal to change the inheritance laws. The popular newspaper Le Constitutionnel pronounced this refusal "a victory over the forces of counter-revolutionaries and reactionism."
The popularity of both the Chamber of Peers and the Chamber of Deputies skyrocketed, and the popularity of the king and his ministry dropped.
On 16 April 1827, while reviewing the Royal Guard in the Champ de Mars, the king was greeted with icy silence, and many of the spectators refused to remove their hats, the traditional sign of respect for the king. Charles X "later told Orléans that, 'although most people present were not too hostile, some looked at times with terrible expressions'."
Because of what Charles X's government perceived to be growing, relentless, and increasingly vitriolic criticism of both the government and the Church, it introduced a proposal at the Chamber of Deputies for a law to tighten censorship, especially of newspapers. The Chamber, for its part, objected so violently that the humiliated government had no choice but to withdraw its proposals.
On 30 April, on the grounds that it had behaved in an offensive manner towards the crown, the king abruptly dissolved the National Guard of Paris, a voluntary group of citizens formerly considered a reliable conduit between the monarchy and the people. Cooler heads were appalled: " would rather have my head cut off", wrote a nobleman from the Rhineland upon hearing the news, "than have counseled such an act: the only further measure needed to cause a revolution is censorship."
On 17 March 1830, the majority in the Chamber of Deputies passed a motion of no confidence, the Address of the 221, against the king and Polignac's ministry. The following day, Charles dissolved parliament, and alarmed the opposition by delaying elections for two months. During this time, the liberals championed the "221" as popular heroes, while the government struggled to gain support across the country, as prefects were shuffled around the departments of France. Legislative elections were then held between 5 and 19 July 1830. The liberal opposition won close to two-thirds of the seats, with a 274–143 majority over Polignac's supporters.
On Sunday, 25 July 1830, the king, with the agreement of Polignac, set out to alter the Charter of 1814 by decree. His decrees, known as the July Ordinances, dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, suspended the liberty of the press, excluded the commercial middle class from future elections, and called for new elections. On Monday 26 July, these decrees were published in the leading conservative newspaper in Paris, Le Moniteur. On Tuesday 27 July, a revolution began in earnest Les trois journées de juillet, and ultimately ended the Bourbon monarchy.
The Events of July 1830
Monday, 26 July 1830
It was a hot, dry summer, pushing those who could afford it to leave Paris for the country. Most businessmen could not, and so were among the first to learn of the Saint-Cloud "Ordinances", which banned them from running as candidates for the Chamber of Deputies. Such membership was indispensable to those who sought the ultimate in social prestige. In protest, members of the Bourse refused to lend money, and business owners shuttered their factories. Workers were unceremoniously turned out into the street to fend for themselves. Unemployment, which had been growing through early summer, spiked. "Large numbers of... workers therefore had nothing to do but protest."While newspapers such as the Journal des débats, Le Moniteur, and Le Constitutionnel had already ceased publication in compliance with the new law, nearly 50 journalists from a dozen city newspapers met in the offices of Le National. There they signed a collective protest, and vowed their newspapers would continue to run.
That evening, when police raided a news press and seized contraband newspapers, they were greeted by a sweltering, unemployed mob angrily shouting, "À bas les Bourbons!" and "Vive la Charte!".
Armand Carrel, a journalist, wrote in the next day's edition of Le National:
France... falls back into revolution by the act of the government itself... the legal regime is now interrupted, that of force has begun... in the situation in which we are now placed obedience has ceased to be a duty... It is for France to judge how far its own resistance ought to extend.
Despite public anger over the police raid, Jean-Henri-Claude Magin, the Paris Préfet de police, wrote that evening: "the most perfect tranquility continues to reign in all parts of the capital. No event worthy of attention is recorded in the reports that have come through to me."
Tuesday, 27 July 1830: Day One
Throughout the day, Paris grew quiet as the milling crowds grew larger. At 4:30 pm commanders of the troops of the First Military division of Paris and the Royal Guard were ordered to concentrate their troops, and guns, on the Place du Carrousel facing the Tuileries, the Place Vendôme, and the Place de la Bastille. In order to maintain order and protect gun shops from looters, military patrols throughout the city were established, strengthened, and expanded. However, no special measures were taken to protect either the arm depots or gunpowder factories. For a time, those precautions seemed premature, but at 7:00 pm, with the coming of twilight, the fighting began. "Parisians, rather than soldiers, were the aggressor. Paving stones, roof tiles, and flowerpots from the upper windows... began to rain down on the soldiers in the streets". At first, soldiers fired warning shots into the air. But before the night was over, twenty-one civilians were killed. Rioters then paraded the corpse of one of their fallen throughout the streets shouting "Mort aux Ministres! ''À bas les aristocrates!''"One witness wrote:
a crowd of agitated people pass by and disappear, then a troop of cavalry succeed them... In every direction and at intervals... Indistinct noises, gunshots, and then for a time all is silent again so for a time one could believe that everything in the city was normal. But all the shops are shut; the Pont Neuf is almost completely dark, the stupefaction visible on every face reminds us all too much of the crisis we face....
In 1828, the city of Paris had installed some 2,000 street lamps. These lanterns were hung on ropes looped-on-looped from one pole to another, as opposed to being secured on posts. The rioting lasted well into the night until most of them had been destroyed by 10:00 PM, forcing the crowds to slip away.