How successful was Louis XVIII as the King of France?

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How successful was Louis XVIII as the King of France?

In April 1814, Napoleon abdicated from the throne unconditionally due to other European monarchs rising against him. This meant the question erupts to who was going to rule France. This decision fell on the shoulders of the quadruple alliance (Britain, Russia, Austria, Prussia), who then decided to restore the Bourbon Dynasty that had ruled in 1793. The rightful Bourbon heir was Louis XVIII, brother of King Louis XVI. To decide if King Louis XVIII was a successful monarch, success must first be defined. I would define a successful monarch as one for which puts the interests of their country first, not necessarily pleasing everybody all the time, but assuring  the countries’ stability in the best way possible. When Louis first arrived on the throne he had a series of problems he needed to overcome, for which some were more difficult than others, yet he managed these issues with ease. Surely this is a sign of a successful king, but how successful was he exactly?

One of the more apparent problems was that of unpopularity of the Bourbon name.  For 20 years the Bourbon name had been in disgrace, after the execution by guillotine of King Louis XVI on 21st January 1793. Even just the mention of the name would bring disgust to Frenchmen’s faces. The family and its supporters had been associated with the enemies of France, especially now due to the Bourbon Dynasty being reinstated by the allies with hesitance.  This unpopularity became very apparent when Napoleon returned from his mild exile to Elba to rule for 100 days. He was extremely popular in France compared to Louis XVIII, to the extent for which had to flee for safety. The congress of Vienna was introduced soon after the second restoration of the Bourbon monarch.  The allies had decided that the French public had proved themselves to be untrustworthy and ungrateful for the lenient actions of both the Paris Treaties. It isolated France from the rest of Europe which decreased morale yet again. As a result of this and the failure of the twenty-five year war, morale in France was low. People had lost faith in the country and cracks were beginning to show among the public. Therefore Louis was to rehabilitate the Bourbon name and raise the morale once again. He also needed to ease foreign hostility as France was certainly not regarded as an equal to other European countries.

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The congress of Vienna also demanded that Louis bring in a constitution of some form before he was restored, hence the introduction of the charter. The charter gave the French similar rights to the people of other western European countries. Some of the points included; Equality before the law and equal eligibility for civil and military office; freedom from obituary arrest and trial; freedom of conscience, worship and expression. No monarch of France had ever ruled under the regulations of a charter. Therefore the reign of Louis XVIII would be very different to that of any other previous French monarch

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