Charles X of France

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Charles X
King of France and of Navarre
King Charles X in coronation robes by Ingres, 1829.
Reign	16 September 1824 – 2 August 1830
Coronation	28 May 1825
Predecessor	Louis XVIII
Successor	De Jure Louis XIX immediately abdicated, never proclaimed King Henry V never proclaimed King De Facto Louis-Philippe I
Spouse	Princess Maria Teresa of Savoy
Issue
Louis Antoine, Duc d'Angoulême Charles Ferdinand, Duc de Berry
Full name
Charles-Philippe de France
Father	Louis-Ferdinand, Dauphin of Viennois
Mother	Marie-Josèphe of Saxony
Born	9 October 1757(1757-10-09) Palace of Versailles, France
Died	6 November 1836 (aged 79) Gorizia, Austrian Empire (now in Italy)
Burial	Kostanjevica Monastery, Nova Gorica, Slovenia

"Charles X" redirects here. For king Charles X of Sweden, see Charles X Gustav of Sweden.

Charles X (9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830.^[1] His short rule of almost six years came to an end when he instituted his July Ordinances in July 1830, suspending most of the liberties granted in the Charter of 1814. During a popular revolt known as the July Revolution, Charles abdicated on 2 August in favor of his son Louis-Antoine, duc d'Angoulême, who in turn abdicated in favor of his nephew, Henri, duc de Bordeaux. This effort to keep the crown in the senior branch of the House of Bourbon proved futile when the Chamber of Deputies by-passed young Bordeaux and elected the First Prince of the Blood, Louis Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, as King of the French. Charles was the last king of the senior House of Bourbon to reign over France. He died in Gorizia, Austria, after six years in exile.^[2] Charles X was also the youngest brother of two kings, Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, and his youngest sister was Queen of Sardinia.

[edit] Childhood and adolescence

[edit] Birth

Charles-Philippe^[3] was born in 1757, the youngest son of the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand, and his wife, the Dauphine Marie Josèphe, at the Palace of Versailles. Charles, was created Comte d'Artois at birth by his grandfather, the reigning King Louis XV.^[4] As the youngest male in the family, it was very unlikely that Charles would ever reign over France.

[edit] Charles at the Court of Louis XV

Charles' father died in 1765, which left Charles' oldest surviving brother, Louis Auguste, to succeed their father as the Dauphin, the French equivalent to a crown prince or heir apparent. Charles' mother, Marie Josephe, never recovered from the loss of her husband, and she died in March 1767 from tuberculosis.^[5] This left Charles an orphan, at the age of 9, with his siblings; Louis Auguste, the Comte de Provence,Clothilde, and Elisabeth.

Charles met his brother's future wife, Marie Antoinette, when she arrived in France in April 1770 when he was 12. Charles was thought of as the most attractive in his family, bearing a strong resemblance to his grandfather, Louis XV.^[6] Charles would marry Princess Marie Thérèse of Savoy in November 1773. The new Comtesse d'Artois was thought to be quite ugly by most contemporaries, but, unlike Marie Antoinette's and Louis Auguste's marriage, it was consummated almost immediately,^[7] despite the initial protests from Charles, who thought that his new wife was disgusting.^[8] Charles decided to put the House of Bourbon first, but he formed a penchant for extra-marital affairs.

[edit] Charles at Louis XVI's Versailles

It was a week after the première of the celebrated composer Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera, Iphigénie en Aulide, that Louis XV began to fall ill on 27 April 1774. On 4 May, the dying king was pressured to send his mistress comtesse du Barry away from Versailles, because he could not enter heaven if he had not repented. On 10 May, at three in the afternoon, he died of smallpox at the age of sixty-four.^[9] Louis XV was succeeded as King of France by his grandson, Louis Auguste, as King Louis XVI.

[edit] A son for Artois

Charles as Comte d’Arotis

After less than two years of marriage, the Comtesse d'Artois gave birth to a boy, the heir in the next generation, as Louis XVI, and his brother Provence, were still to produce any children. The child was named Louis-Antoine, and was created Duc d'Angoulême by Louis XVI. The libellistes (pamphleteers, who published scandalous leaflets about important figures in court and politics) created several leaflets lampooning King Louis' alleged impotence, and accusing the Queen of having "relations" with Artois.^[10]

It was around the time of Louis Antoine's birth that Louis Philippe, Duc de Chartres schemed to create a rift between the King and his youngest brother. Louis Philippe introduced Charles to gambling and the brothels at the Palais-Royal, the ancestral home of Louis Philippe's family.Louis Philippe wanted Charles to catch a venereal disease, either dying, or becoming sterile. Therefore increasing Louis Philippe's chances of one day gaining the throne of France (as first prince of the blood, Louis Philippe would have been fourth-in-line to the throne, after Provence, Artois and Louis Antoine) as Artois was the only member of his family to produce any children, so far.^[11]

[edit] 1778 - 1785

In 1778, the Comtesse d’Artois gave birth to another son, Charles Ferdinand, who enjoyed the courtesy title Duc de Berry. ^[12]

Charles enjoyed participating in Marie Antoinette’s amateur theatricals at the Petit Trianon, which they, and several other of the Queen’s friends performed until the Affair of the Diamond Necklace in 1785, which severely damaged the Queen's reputation, despite the fact that she was innocent.

Charles expended lavishly throughout the 1770s, and in the early 1780s, Charles asked Louis XVI to pay for his debts of 21 million livres. Their brother the Comte de Provence also mounted debts of a similar magnitude, and Louis paid off their debts , as requested^[13]

Charles acted as godfather, by proxy, for the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, at the christening of the new Dauphin, Louis Joseph, in 1781.^[14] This nativity dislodged Charles’ eldest son as heir in the next generation, as Charles was demoted to third-in-line to the throne.

[edit] The Fall of the Bastille

The Fall of the Bastille

Louis XVI called an Estates-General for May 1789 to ratify new financial reforms, as the realm was bankrupt from previous military endeavours, the Seven Years War, and the American War of Independence. Charles was the most conservative member of the family, along with his sister Elisabeth.^[15] Charles opposed any sort of reform at the convened Estates-General.

The Dauphin Louis Joseph died in early June 1789, and the Third Estate declared themselves a National Assembly, in the same month, intent on providing France with a new constitution.^[16] Soon after the fall of the Bastille, Charles, his wife and his children had to flee France, along with several other courtiers, including the Duchesse de Polignac, the Queen’s favourite.^[17]

[edit] Exile

Blue plaque at 72 South Audley Street, London, his home 1805–14

Upon Artois’ and his family's escape from France, they decided to seek refuge in his wife’s native Savoy, while the other Princes of France were in Koblenz.^[18] The Artois' were joined by some of the Condé family in Turin (capital of the Duchy of Savoy).^[19]

Meanwhile in France, Louis XVI was struggling with the tribulations of the new National Assembly, who were committed to earth-shattering reform. Louis saw his prerogative encroached in the French Constitution of 1791. The new constitution entailed the Assembly's dissolution and election every two years. The King could not prorogue or dismiss the assembly. Executive authority was still invested in the King though, this occurrence would never feature in a modern constitutional monarchy.^[20]

In March 1791, the National Assembly created a regency bill, in case of the death of Louis XVI while his heir Louis Charles was still a child. The bill promulgated the regency as follows: Louis Charles' closest male relative in France (the Comte de Provence at this time), then Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, and if he rejected/were unavailable, the regency would go to an election.^[21] The Comte d'Artois was preparing for a counter-revolutionary attack on France from the Holy Roman Empire from his headquarters in Trier. Marie Antoinette, upon hearing of this, penned an indignant letter to him to request that any invasion of France should be postponed until the Royal Family had escaped France.^[22]

The Royal Family did attempt an escape, but the Flight to Varennes, as it is known, failed to materialise. Artois moved to Coblenz, the Condés and himself jointly declared their intention to invade France. The Comte de Provence, who had escaped France just before the Flight to Varennes, was sending dispatches to various European sovereigns for assistance. Artois meanwhile set up a court-in-exile in the Electorate of Trier, where his uncle was the incumbent Archbishop-Elector. On August 25, the rulers of Austria and Prussia issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, which called on other European powers to intervene in France.^[23] Public opinion of the monarchy never recovered after the scandalous flight.

On New Year's Day 1792, the French Legislative Assembly declared all of the émigré princes traitors. They had their titles repudiated and their lands confiscated.^[24]The French Monarchy was abolished on September 21, 1792, having been suspended since August 10. Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the royal children - Louis Charles and Marie Thérèse - and Madame Elisabeth (Louis XVI's spinster sister) were imprisoned in the Temple^[25]

Louis XVI was executed in January 1793^[26], as was his Queen in October of that year ^[27], and Madame Elisabeth in June 1794.^[28] Little Louis Charles, the Dauphin, died in the Temple in May 1795. Louis Charles had been in a pitiful state before his death, suffering from rickets, a curvature of the spine, and scabies.^[29]

After the French Revolutionary Wars broke out in 1792, Charles escaped to Great Britain. King George III of Great Britain welcomed the Comte d'Arotis warmly, and he gave him a generous allowance. He lived in Edinburgh and London.Here Charles met his mistress Louise de Polastron, whom he later lived with.^[30]

Charles' son, Louis Antoine, married Louis XVI's only surviving child, Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte on 10 June 1799 at Jelgava Palace, Mitau.^[31] The Comte d'Artois sent several thousand pounds to his brother, the titular King Louis XVIII (formerly the Comte de Provence, pretender since the death of his nephew Louis XVII), while the latter was in Poland in 1802.^[32]

In 1807, Louis XVIII had to relocate his court-in-exile from Mitau to Great Britain, as Emperor Alexander I of Russia (Mitau then being part of the Russian dominions) informed them that their safety could not be guaranteed on continental Europe. King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden offered the Royal Family asylum, but Louis felt he could get better assistance in Britain.^[33]

In January 1814, Charles covertly left his home in London to join the Coalition forces in southern France. The titular King Louis, supplied Charles with letters patent creating him Lieutenant General of the Kingdom. Louis was unable to journey to France with his brother, as at this time in his life, his health had deteriorated.

On March 31, 1814, the allies captured Paris, and a week later, Napoleon I abdicated for his son, Napoleon II. Charles arrived in the capital on April 12, and the Bourbons had been officially restored upon Napoleon's abdication by his senate.Charles now was de facto regent of France as Lieutenant General of the Kingdom, until his brother, King Louis XVIII, was to arrive shortly over two weeks later. In this time, Charles created a kind of ultra-royalist secret police, that reported directly back to him without Louis XVIII's knowledge, and which operated for over five years.^[34]

On May 3, 1814, Louis XVIII entered Paris to a rousing reception.^[35]

[edit] Bourbon Restoration

[edit] Louis XVIII restored

Louis XVIII of France and of Navarre

Louis XVIII was greeted with great rejoicing from the Parisians, who shouted "Vive le Roi!", as he made his formal entry into Paris.^[36]

Louis XVIII and the rest of the Royal Family took up residence in the Tuileries Palace (which hadn't been used since the days of Louis XIV^[37]). the Comte d'Artois lived in the Pavillon de Mars, with his son, the Duc de Berry. Louis XVIII lived in the old Royal Apartments on the centre of the palace, and the Duc and Duchesse d'Angoulême lived in the Pavillon de Flore, which overlooked the River Seine.^[38] Marie Thérèse, the Duchesse d'Angoulême, fainted upon arriving at the palace, as it brought back terrible memories of her family's incarceration there, and August 10th.^[39]

The newly restored King Louis XVIII, was told by the occupying allied army, that France needed a liberal constitution, and Louis proceeded to draft one. The constitution drafted, entailed a bicameral legislature, a Chamber of Deputies and a Chamber of Peers. An electorate of 90,000 men elected deputies, and Louis XVIII had the right to nominate as many peers as he wanted, either for life, or on an hereditary basis. The constitution also envisioned freedom of religion. The Charter of 1814, as this constitution is known, created more of a limited monarchy, than a fully fledged constitutional monarchy^[40] The Charter of 1814, would also be used through the reign of Charles X, unaltered.

Louis lived in constant fear of when he would die, as Charles would succeed him to the throne, and his ultra-royalist conservative tendencies would exile the family once more. Charles would be very vociferous about his disapproval of his brother's liberal ministries, and would threaten to leave the country unless Louis dismissed them on several occasions.^[41]

[edit] Hundred Days

Napoleon I arrived back from his island prison of Elba in March 1815.^[42] Napoleon's campaign in France, began to gain momentum, with many of his old soldiers supporting him in his battle against the restored Kingdom of France.^[43]

The powers at the Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon to be an outlaw^[44] Napoleon eventually captured Paris, and once again reigned as Emperor of the French. His time on the throne did not last very long though, and he was deposed by the allies in the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815.

During this time, King Louis XVIII fled to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Emperor Alexander I of Russia, was calling for Louis' relative Louis Philippe to take the throne once Bonaparte was once again defeated. Fortunately for the Bourbons, the allies decided to restore them again for a second time, and Louis XVIII rode back into France with the Duke of Wellington's army on the June 24^[45] Napoleon was exiled once more, not for Elba, but the desolate and isolated Atlantic island of St.Helena for the rest of his life.^[46]

[edit] The loss of a son

Following Napoleon's second exile, the White Terror occurred. The white terror, was the purging of all Napoleonic officials and generals from their positions in the government of Restoration France. Many of the Bonapartists were also illegally executed and killed in very gorey fashions by civilians. The most notable victim of the white terror was Marshall Brune, who was violently killed by royalist supporters and chopped up into little pieces and thrown into River Rhone. While the aforementioned acts were illegal, the terror took on a legal incarnation also. As many as 80,000 people whose loyalties were questionable were flushed out of government. The Marshall Ney, a prominent official under Napoleon was executed and tried for treason during the terror. Louis XVIII was a vehement supporter of the legal terror.^[47]

The Comte d'Arotis ebulliently patronized members of the ultra royalist party in the Chambers, such as Jules de Polignac, the writer François-René de Chateaubriand and Jean-Baptiste de Villèle. Charles and his cronies were yearning for the ancien régime, and felt the Charter was unacceptable.^[48]

Tragedy struck Charles when his youngest son Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry was assassinated at the Paris Opera on February 14, 1820. The family were devastated.^[49] Berry's marriage to Princess Caroline Ferdinande of Bourbon-Two Sicilies was the only hope of the dynasty, as Artois' eldest son, Louis Antoine, had not produced any chidren with this wife, which meant that the House of Bourbon was on the verge of extinction. The Duchesse de Berry was unaware at the time that she was pregnant, and gave birth to Charles Ferdinand's posthumous son, and the Comte d'Artois' grandson, Henri, Duc de Bordeaux on September 29.^[50]

Louis XVIII's health began to fail in Autumn 1824, it would seem that the King was suffering from gangrene in his leg and spine. Louis died on September 16 after a long drawn out period of illness. Louis was succeeded in his capacity as King of France by his brother the Comte d'Artois as Charles X.^[51]

[edit] King at last

Charles' first act as King of France, was to grant the style of Royal Highness to his cousins, the junior branch of the House of Bourbon the House of Orléans.Louis XVIII, greatly disliked the Orléans family. Charles intended to create a unity among the Bourbons, reversing his brother's policy.^[52]

Charles X, by Guerin

Coronation of Charles X by François Gérard

Charles X in Coronation robes by Gérard

In the first few months of Charles X's reign, his government passed a series of unpopular bills that bolstered the power of the nobility and clergy. Charles gave his Prime Minister Jean-Baptiste de Villèle, lists of laws that he wanted ratified, every time he opened parliament. In April 1825, the government approved legislation that paid an indemnity to nobles who had lost land during the French Revolution. The lands in question, where know as the Biens nationaux. The restored Louis XVIII, engineered this law, but died before he could implement it. The law gave government bonds to those who had lost their lands in exchange for their renunciation of their right of ownership. This cost the state approximately 988 million francs. Charles' government also attempted to re-establish male only primogeniture, for families paying over 300 francs in tax. This measure failed, when it was voted out by the Chamber of Deputies. These conservative measures invoked a backlash from the liberal press.^[53]

The Anti-Sacrilege Act was passed in the same month as the indemnity laws. This act sought to punish those, who committed offences against the Catholic Church. This law was met with fierce hostility from the public, but was passed nonetheless.^[54]

Charles' coronation took place on May 29, 1825. The coronation occurred at Reims, Charles had intentionally chosen this site, as it was the site of all the coronations of the Ancien Régime. Charles was anointed by the Archbishop of Reims, which agitated people already critical of the regime's attempt to recreate the old France.^[55]

All the ultra-royalist legislation that had been passed caused public opinion of King Charles to slide. This was most apparent in April 1827, while the King was reviewing the National Guard. Many of the regiments of guards began to scream things at the King, and pandemonium ensued. It all ended in Charles disbanding the National Guards of Paris. King Charles had made many enemies, capable of revolting against him, at any time. The National Guards where not disarmed before their dismissal.^[56]

The Ultra-Royalist Prime Minister Villèle, lost his parliamentary majority, in November 1827, after a general election. Villèle's ministry was terminated on January 5, 1828. A ministry under Jean-Baptise de Martignac followed. King Charles disliked Maritgnac, and thought of his ministry as only provisional. Charles would have to wait longer than he thought for a new ministry. Charles eventually got the chance to dismiss Marignac on August 5, 1829. Matignac was succeeded by Jules de Polignac. Jules was very much ultra-royalist, and he enjoyed the confidence of the King. Jules' government lost its majority at the end of August, when Chateaubriand defected, with his deputies. Therefore, Jules would not recall the Chambers until March 1830.^[57]

France declared her intention to invade Algeria on 31 January 1830. This action had been taken, because the viceroy of Algeria, Hussein Dey hit a French ambassador with a fly whisk. The original cause for the tensions between them, were; Algerian pirates were threatening trade in the Mediterranean, and France owed Algeria a lot of money, due to Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798. It was also hoped that by triumphing over Algeria, people would be distracted from the governments' unpopularity.^[58]

The Chambers convened on March 2 1830. Charles' spoke at the opening of the parliament, and his speech invoked a reaction from many deputies. They responded, by voting on a document on March 18 saying that the King's ministers should have the backing of the Chambers. 221 deputies voted for the document, and achieved a majority by 30. The King was furious about the bill. The day before, the King, and his council of ministers decided to call a general election for September. The Chambers were suspended on March 19, pending the results of the election.^[59]

On June 23, the elections began. On July 6 the King and his council of ministers decided to execute Article 14 of the charter. This article allowed the King to suspend the constitution in the event of an emergency. The King intended to use his emergency powers to call another general election, and manipulate electoral laws to return a favourable result. The council began working on the Four Ordinances. The first ordinance censored the press, the second ordinance dissolved the new Chamber of Deputies, the third ordinance altered the electoral system, and the fourth declared that new elections will be held that September.^[60]

On July 9, French troops captured Algiers. On July 25, Charles signed the Four Ordinances at Château de Saint-Cloud. The results would be disastrous.^[61]

[edit] The July Revolution

Louis Philippe I, King of the French (1830 - 1848)

The Moniteur (the official government newspaper) printed the ordinances on July 26. Parisians were shocked by the ordinances, and did not endorse them, but no revolt or upheaval occurred that day. The first spark of resistance to the ordinances came from the media, who were effectively abolished by the ordinances. Adolphe Thiers, a journalist at the time, called for the people to revolt. That evening, huge crowds had began to form in the gardens of the Palais-Royal, such gatherings at the palace played a prominent part in the French Revolution. People cried "Down with the Bourbons!" and "Vive la Charte". That night, the police closed off the gardens of the Palais-Royal. The mob reformed in a nearby street, and began to shatter street lamps.^[62]

On the morning of July 27, the police raided the newspapers that continued to publish, and shut them down. When news of this reached the mob, who had re-gained access to the gardens of the Palais-Royal, things began to turn violent. Soldiers opened fire on civilians, in response to projectiles being fired at them. Shops were looted that evening.^[63]

On July 28, the people of Paris began to erect barricades in the streets. Marshal Marmont, who had been called in the day before to remedy the situation, by King Charles, urged the King to reconcile with the Parisians, and recant his ordinances. Marmont's men began defecting to the rioters that morning. Marmont took the offensive against the rioters, but, by the evening, the Marshal's troops were forced to retreat to the Tuileries Palace.^[64]

The deputies of the Chamber of Deputies, were gathered at the house of Audrey de Puyraveau. They sent a delegation of five deputies to Marmont. Their intention was to ask Marmont, to advise the King to revoke the ordinances, as the Parisians' anger would only be assuaged by doing so. Marmont asked Jules de Polignac, who was at the Tuileries also, to intervene with the King, and he refused. King Charles dismissed all of his ministers that afternoon, realising the precariousness of the situation. That evening, the Chamber of Deputies, were meeting at Jacques Laffite's home, and they decided that Louis Philippe d'Orléans should take the throne from King Charles. They printed posters endorsing Louis Philippe that evening, and distributed them throughout the city. By the end of the day, the government's authority was crumbling.^[65]

King Charles had to flee St. Cloud in the early hours of July 31, as the Parisians were scheming to sack it. Charles sought refuge at the Palace of Versailles. Meanwhile, in Paris, Louis Philippe d'Orléans was in the city, and had just accpeted the post of Lieutenant General of the Kingdom, from deputies of the Chambers. ^[66]

On August 2, King Charles had retreated further to Rambouillet. Three regiments of the Royal Guard, abandoned Charles that day, and left for Paris. Charles' situation was falling apart, and that day, he, and his son the Dauphin, abdicated for Henri, Duc de Bordeaux. The abdication document was sent to the Lieutenant General of the Kingdom, Louis Philippe. The document demanded him to declare Henri, Henri V. Louis Philippe ignored the document, much to the indignation of Charles X.^[67]

The Royal Family, were forced to abandon Rambouillet, when it became apparent that a mob of aproximately 14,000 people was coming to get them.^[68]

On August 9, the Chamber of Deputies declared Louis Philippe, Louis Philippe I, King of the French, thereby deposing the House of Bourbon.^[69]

[edit] Second exile and death

On August 16, the Royal Family embarked on packet steamers, sent by Louis Philippe, to take them to the United Kingdom. They were informed by the Prime Minister, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, that they needed to arrive in England as private citizens, therefore, all of the royal family adopted pseudonyms, with Charles X becoming the Comte de Ponthieu. The Bourbons were greeted coldly by the English, and upon arrival, tri-colour flags were being waved at them. The Bourbons were allowed to reside in Dorset, in Lulworth Castle.^[70]

Charles X's arrival in England, was quickly picked up by his creditors, who had loaned him money during his first exile. Fortunately for Charles X, his niece and daughter-in-law, Marie-Thérèse had money stocked away in London banks, just in case of a second exile^[71]

The family's stay in Dorset did not last long and his family moved to Edinburgh soon after their arrival. In Edinburgh, Charles X lived in Holyrood Palace.^[72] The Duchesse de Berry was vying for the regency of her son, Henri. At first , Charles X refused to name her regent. In early 1831, he signed a document that gave the duchesse the regency of her son, but soon after that she disappeared.^[73] The duchesse would resurface, when she tried to instigate a Bourbon rising at Vendée, and was arrested by King Louis Philippe. Charles X was horrified and embarrassed by his daughter-in-law's behaviour.^[74]

The family was invited to Prague, by Emperor Francis I of Austria in 1832. The Bourbons arrived in Prague in that winter. Francis allowed them to live in Hradschin Palace.^[75] Since leaving her prison in France, the Duchess de Berry, had remarried to a minor Neapolitan noble, Count de Luchessi-Palli. This only served to dismay Charles X further, and he banned her from seeing her children in Prague.^[76]

In September 1833, Charles X's grandson, Henri V, reached the age of majority (13). Many Bourbon legitimist supporters gathered in Prague to celebrate the event, they had expected grand celebarations to take place, but, Charles X merely proclaimed his grandson's majority in a statement. On the same day, after much cajoling by the Countess de Luchessi-Palli's emissary, Chateaubriand, Charles X agreed to meet with the Countess. They met in a hotel in Leoben on October 13, 1833. During the journey there, Charles X informed his grandchildren, Henri V and Louise, that their mother had re-married. The children were stunned by the news, and they refused to meet with their mother. In the course of the meeting, the Countess de Luchessi-Palli made various demands, which Charles X refused. The Countess would, eventually be allowed to see her children in the summer of 1834. ^[77]

Charles, and the rest of his royal family in exile, Marie-Thérèse, the former Dauphine, her husband, Louis Antoine, and Charles X's grandchildren, Henri V and Princess Louise, were forced to leave Hradschin Palace, when the Emperor Francis I died in March 1835. Francis' eldest son and successor, Emperor Ferdinand I, wished to use the palace, for his coronation. The family briefly moved to Teplitz, but, upon discovering Ferdinand's intention to use the palace on a more permanent basis, Charles X purchased Kirchbeg Castle. They were unable to establish themselves at Kirchberg immediately, due to an outbreak of cholera in the region. Charles X and the royal family, left Bohemia, for the warmer climate, on Austria's Mediterranean coast in October 1835. Charles would catch cholera soon after he arrived in the town of Gorizia. He died on November 6, 1836. The townspeople draped their windows in black, to mourn him. Charles was interred in the Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady, in the Franciscan Kostanjevica Monastery (now in Nova Gorica, Slovenia). He would be the last Bourbon King of France.^[78]

[edit] In fiction

Comte d'Artois was portrayed by Al Weaver in the 2006 film Marie Antoinette, a biography film written and directed by Sofia Coppola about the life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

[edit] Ancestors

[edit] Marriage and issue

Charles X married Marie-Thérèse de Savoie, the daughter of King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia, on 16 November 1773.

The couple had four children:

1. Louis-Antoine, duc d'Angoulême (Louis XIX) (6 August 1775 – 3 June 1844)
2. Sophie (5 August 1776 – 5 December 1783)
3. Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry (24 January 1778 – 13 February 1820)
4. Marie-Thérèse (1783).

[edit] References

This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (June 2009)

v • d • e Pretenders to the French Throne since 1792 Monarchy in Exile (1792–1815) 1792 Louis XVI 1793 Louis XVII 1795 Louis XVIII 1814 1815 Legitimist Pretenders (1830–present) 1830 Charles X 1836 Louis XIX 1844 Henri V 1883 Jean III 1887 Charles XI 1909 Jacques I 1931 Alphonse I 1936 Alphonse II 1941 Jacques II 1975 Alphonse III 1989 Louis XX present Orléanist Pretenders (1848–present) 1848 Louis-Philippe I 1850 Philippe VII (or Louis-Philippe II) 1894 Philippe VIII 1926 Jean III 1940 Henri VI 1999 Henri VII present Bonapartist Prince Imperial (1814–present) 1814 1815 Napoléon I 1821 Napoléon II 1832 Joseph 1844 Louis 1846 Napoléon III (Emperor 1852–1870) 1873 Napoléon IV Eugene 1879 Napoléon V Victor 1926 Napoléon VI Louis 1997 Napoléon VII Charles/Napoléon VIII Jean-Christophe present (disputed) Bonapartist Prince Canino (1832–1924) 1832 Lucien I 1840 Charles 1857 Joseph 1865 Lucien II 1895 Napoléon III Charles 1899 Roland 1924