Louis XVIII

King of France · 1814-1824 · born on 17 November 1755, died on 16 September 1824

Brother of Louis XVI, Louis-Stanislas-Xavier lived in exile from 1791 to 1814; on the death of his nephew Louis XVII (1795), he became the legitimist claimant. He really reigned only with the fall of the Empire: king in 1814, he was driven out by Napoleon’s return during the Hundred Days, then restored after Waterloo in 1815.

Mindful of reconciling the monarchy with the gains of the Revolution, he granted the Charter of 1814, which established a constitutional monarchy based on two chambers. Under his reign, the White Terror and the excesses of the ultras nonetheless marked political life.

A prudent and liberal king by temperament, Louis XVIII died in 1824, leaving a restored but fragile monarchy, swept away by the revolutions of 1830 and 1848.

In the tree of power

Further reading