L’obstination d’un roi. Louis XVIII en exil, 1791-1814
Emmanuel de Waresquiel
Napoleonica. La Revue 2015/1 (n° 22), pages 32 à 43

Abstract

When Louis-Stanislas-Xavier de France left the kingdom on 20 June, 1791, then the Comte de Provence but also «Monsieur» as per his position as Louis XVI’s younger brother, could he have thought for a moment that he would spend nearly a third of his life, that is 23 years, in exile? The aim of this article is to illustrate the unswerving determination of the future Louis XVIII to restore the Bourbon dynasty by mounting the throne, despite his exile marked by many changes of address forced upon him by circumstances and the wars and military victories of the Republic and later Empire, despite the fluctuating support of his “allies”, and despite the harsh shortages in resources. Indeed the strongest Restoration card in his hand was the fact that he presented himself as the only French sovereign capable of restoring and guaranteeing European peace. He made a triumphal entry into Paris on 3 May, 1814, dictated his conditions to the Senate, and ever conscious of the antecedence of his sovereignty over that of the Nation, he freely granted a Constitutional Charter to the Nation, not only dated to the nineteenth year of his reign but also designed to safeguard the key part of his royal prerogative.

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