The following long term causes which led to the fall of the Bourbons are all part of the policies which Charles introduced in the early stages of his reign. Charles brought in policies which compensated the émigrés, favoured the Roman Catholic Church and allowed pre-emptive press censorship. The compensation of the émigrés included giving them land which was taken off middle class French men and led to the decrease in middle class deputies which disgruntled the pays legal. Charles’ religious policies highly favoured the Roman Catholic Church and allowed Jesuits to return to France and a cleric was appointed Minister for Education. Charles’ policy which allowed pre-emptive censorship of press infuriated the pays legal as a large quantity of them were journalists and provoked huge opposition which led Charles losing even more support and confidence from the pays legal. These policies led to the fall of the Bourbons as they all alienated the pays legal and led to Charles being even more mistrusted and disliked. These were factors which although they led to Charles being greatly disliked and mistrusted were not major as they caused people to oppose him but did not make the French people revolutionary.
A further long term cause which led to the fall of the Bourbons in 1830 was the mishandling of the chamber between 1827 and 1828. This was when Charles although there is no evidence that he was trying to restore the ancien regime was aiming to still rule with authority and because he was lacking support in the chamber he called an election in 1827 and after he lost and Villele had resigned he replaced him with Martignac. This led to the fall of the Bourbons because it showed the French people that Charles was disliked which caused a unity between the working class and the pays legal and when Martignac was appointed both Charles who was an Ultra and the pays legal who were suspicious of this appointment were unhappy with this as a compromise. These factors were major influences in fall of the Bourbons as it created a unity between the pays legal and the working class and also eventually led to driving the moderates over to opposition.
Another long term cause which led to the fall of the Bourbons in 1830 was the revolutionary tradition which the working class had. This is referring to the way in which the previous generations of the working class had revolted against the regime which led to the encouragement of the generation of 1830 to revolt. The main event which was looked back on by the generation of 1830 would have been when the working class revolted and stormed the Bastille in 1789. This led to the fall of the Bourbons because it encouraged the working classes and gave them the confidence to revolt again because they had been set a revolutionary example by their predecessors. This was a minor factor which led to the fall of the Bourbons because it merely encouraged the working class to revolt instead of directly causing them to revolt.
The final long term cause which led to the fall of the Bourbons in 1830 was the disbanding of the National Guard by Charles in 1827. This was when Charles disbanded the lower middle class National Guard because when he reviewed it he believed it acted in a disrespectful manner. This led to the fall of the Bourbons in 1830 because it meant that Charles would not have any means of putting down a revolution in the future because the National Guard was the force which the regime used within Paris.
These long term causes of revolution primarily meant that by 1828 Charles had alienated the pays legal by showing himself as oppressive and trying to restore the ancien regime however although there was a great amount of opposition at this point in time there were very few who were actually willing to revolt.
The short term factors which caused the fall of the Bourbons in July 1830 are arguably allot more significant than the long term factors as they are more directly linked with the fall of the Bourbons. The first short term cause of the fall of the Bourbons in 1830 was the replacement of Martignac with Polignac in 1829. This was when Charles was unhappy with Martignac as he was a moderate and Charles wanted a more supportive chief minister so he appointed Polignac. This led to the fall of the Bourbons as it meant that Charles had created another situation which led to him being disliked as he appointed an Ultra as soon as he had gained enough support and as a result of this the press were infuriated and started publishing frantically especially Thiers’ ‘National’ newspaper. This was a key point in Charles’ reign as it was what caused the moderates in the chamber to finally become opposition.
Another short term factor which led to the fall of the Bourbons in 1830 was the kings ‘speech from the throne.’ This was when Charles gave a speech in response to the articles which had been written after the appointment of Polignac, in this speech the king threatened to use force in order to suppress his opposition. This led to the fall of the Bourbons because it led to 221 pays legal declaring ‘no confidence’ in the government and demanded ministerial accountability, this therefore escalated the situation from it being an unpopular king to a whole uncertainty about the sovereignty. This although it escalated the situation just reinforced the fact that the moderates were right in finally becoming opposition.
In addition to these short term causes for the fall of the Bourbons another reason for the fall was because of the second failed election. This was when Charles called another election in June 1829 in order to find out whether he had the support to continue without any fear of being overthrown, however Charles lost by 125 votes. This led to the fall of Bourbons because it led to Charles issuing the ‘four ordinances’ which stated the chamber would be dissolved, 75% of the electorate was to be disenfranchised, a new election was to be called and the press was to be censored. These four ordinances were a complete shock to the people as they had not been warned about them, the pays legal and the working class hated them and Charles had no National Guard to contain any protests. This was a major factor in the causes for the fall of the Bourbons as it caused protests by the pays legal who wre then joined by the newly revolutionary working class.
Another short term cause of the fall of the Bourbons was the fact that the working class went revolutionary. This was when all the following factors caused the working class to become so discontent that they went revolutionary: the economic which was worsened by bad harvests and a severe winter, the Paris geography which meant that the poor were close to the government and so protests were serious problems, the working class felt there was an affinity with the pays legal as they were both being oppressed, many had a revolutionary tradition going back to the storming of the Bastille and finally many had experience in fighting from being in the National Guard. This led to the fall of the Bourbons as now the working class were not just opposing the king but wanted to overthrow the monarchy and now that they were alongside the pays legal this had a become an ‘intertwining of hesitant elite mutterings with more robust popular protest’ which showed that there was a great potential for this to succeed. This was a major factor which led to the fall of the Bourbons as it meant that this was now a full revolution not just a protest which it was when it was only the pays legal and had the working class not joined in ‘it is likely that they [the pays legal] would have grudgingly absorbed the four ordinances.’
The last short term causes which led to the fall of the Bourbons in 1830 was the fact that Charles remained in St Cloud during the revolution, he did not have a suitable commander or force to suppress the revolution and he did not revoke the four ordinances and sack Polignac while he still could. This was when Charles who remained in St Cloud during the revolution appointed Marmount to lead the army, this was a bad choice as he lacked credibility and was also complacent which led to him sending his troops home on the night of the 27th of July. However even after these poor decisions Charles still had the opportunity to regain control of the throne all he had to do was to revoke the four ordinances and sack Polignac however he delayed. These events led to the fall of the Bourbons because it meant that Charles did not have a decent commander who could have suppressed the uprising, furthermore Charles wasn’t in Paris and so did not realise the gravity of the situation which meant that he did not realise that in order for him to keep his throne he would have to revoke the four ordinances and sack Polignac. These points were a major cause in the fall of the Bourbons as it led to pushing the pays legal to a point where they had no choice but to overthrow Charles because they themselves feared a republic and so in order to save the constitutional monarchy they had to remove Charles from the throne.
In conclusion having examined all the evidence for the long term and short term causes of the fall of the Bourbons in 1830 it is clear that although the short term causes were dependant on the long term causes they were the more important reasons for the fall of the Bourbons. This is because although Charles had a large amount of opposition up to 1828 there were few who were actually revolutionary and it was not till 1829 when the working class became revolutionary. The overall main cause which led to the fall of the Bourbons was the fact that Charles did not revoke the four ordinances and sack Polignac this was the main cause because it led the pays legal having to overthrow Charles in order to retain a constitutional monarchy. This helps to show that the short term causes were more important when looking at the fall of the Bourbons as this was the very last action before Charles and the last Bourbon was overthrown and had Charles revoked the four ordinances immediately it is likely that the Bourbons would have retained the thrown.
