The Chambre introuvable (French for "Unobtainable Chamber") was the first Chamber of Deputies elected after the Second Bourbon Restoration in 1815. It was dominated by Ultra-royalists who completely refused to accept the results of the French Revolution. The name was coined by King Louis XVIII, [1] referring to the impossibility of cooperating with the chamber. [2]
The elections held on 14 August 1815, under census suffrage and the impact of the "White Terror", produced a heavy Ultra-royalist majority: 350 of the 402 members were Ultra-royalists. [2]
The "Unobtainable Chamber", which was first assembled on 7 October 1815, was characterized by its zeal in favour of the aristocracy and the clergy and aimed at reestablishing the Ancien Régime . The Chambre introuvable banned the display of tricolor flags, [2] voted the establishment of military provost-marshal courts, [3] and banished all of the Conventionnels who had voted for Louis XVI's execution. [4] The chamber pursued its militant policy even in defiance of the king himself, proclaiming Vive le roi, quand même ("Long live the king, no matter what"). [2]
Louis XVIII, confronted with rising discontent in French society, followed the counsels of a group of figures including the liberal leader Élie, duc Decazes; the Duc de Richelieu, prime minister since September 1815; the Duke of Wellington, the British commander of the occupation troops; and the Russian ambassador Pozzo di Borgo, and dissolved the Chamber on 5 September 1816. [5]
The subsequent elections resulted in the Ultras being temporarily replaced by the moderate royalist Ministériels and the more liberal Doctrinaires , who attempted to reconcile the Revolution's legacy with the monarchy. [6] [7]
When the Ultra-royalists regained their parliamentary majority at the elections of February–March 1824, the resulting chamber was dubbed the Chambre retrouvée, the "Recovered Chamber", in reference to the Chambre introuvable. [8] [9]
Louis XVIII, known as the Desired, was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent 23 years in exile from 1791: during the French Revolution and the First French Empire (1804–1814), and during the Hundred Days.
The Bourbon Restoration was the period of French history during which the House of Bourbon returned to power after the first fall of Napoleon on 3 May 1814. Briefly interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815, the Restoration lasted until the July Revolution of 26 July 1830. Louis XVIII and Charles X, brothers of the executed King Louis XVI, successively mounted the throne and instituted a conservative government intended to restore the proprieties, if not all the institutions, of the Ancien Régime. Exiled supporters of the monarchy returned to France but were unable to reverse most of the changes made by the French Revolution. Exhausted by decades of war, the nation experienced a period of internal and external peace, stable economic prosperity and the preliminaries of industrialization.
Charles X was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother to reigning kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile. After the Bourbon Restoration in 1814, Charles became the leader of the ultra-royalists, a radical monarchist faction within the French court that affirmed absolute monarchy by divine right and opposed the constitutional monarchy concessions towards liberals and the guarantees of civil liberties granted by the Charter of 1814. Charles gained influence within the French court after the assassination of his son Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, in 1820 and succeeded his brother Louis XVIII in 1824.
In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the status quo ante—the previous political state of society—which the person believes was better in some ways that are absent from contemporary society. As a descriptor term, reactionary derives from the ideological context of the left–right political spectrum. As an adjective, the word reactionary describes points of view and policies meant to restore a status quo ante.
Jean-Baptiste Guillaume Joseph Marie Anne Séraphin, 1st Count of Villèle, better known simply as Joseph de Villèle, was a French statesman. Several times Prime minister, he was a leader of the Ultra-royalist faction during the Bourbon Restoration.
Jacques Laffitte was a leading French banker, governor of the Bank of France (1814–1820) and liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies during the Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy. He was an important figure in the development of new banking techniques during the early stages of industrialization in France. In politics, he played a decisive role during the Revolution of 1830 that brought Louis-Philippe, the duc d'Orléans, to the throne, replacing the unpopular Bourbon king Charles X. Laffitte was named president of the new Citizen King's Council of Ministers and Minister of Finances. After a brief ministry of 131 days, his "Party of Movement" gave way before the "Party of Order" led by the banker Casimir-Pierre Périer. Laffitte left office discredited politically and financially ruined. He rebounded financially in 1836 with his creation of the Caisse Générale du Commerce et de l'Industrie, a forerunner of French investment banks of the second half of the 19th century such as the Crédit Mobilier (1852). The Caisse Générale did not survive the financial crisis caused by the Revolution of 1848.
The Legitimists are royalists who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession to the French crown of the descendants of the eldest branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They reject the claim of the July Monarchy of 1830–1848 which placed Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, head of the Orléans cadet branch of the Bourbon dynasty, on the throne until he too was dethroned and driven with his family into exile.
Étienne-Denis, duc de Pasquier, Chancelier de France,, was a French statesman. In 1842, he was elected a member of the Académie française, and in the same year was created a duke by Louis-Philippe.
Victor de Broglie, 3rd Duke of Broglie, briefly Victor de Broglie, was a French peer, statesman, and diplomat. He was the third duke of Broglie and served as president of the Council during the July Monarchy, from August 1830 to November 1830 and from March 1835 to February 1836. Victor de Broglie was close to the liberal Doctrinaires who opposed the ultra-royalists and were absorbed, under Louis-Philippe's rule, by the Orléanists.
The Ultra-royalists were a French political faction from 1815 to 1830 under the Bourbon Restoration. An Ultra was usually a member of the nobility of high society who strongly supported Roman Catholicism as the state and only legal religion of France, the Bourbon monarchy, traditional hierarchy between classes and census suffrage against popular will and the interests of the bourgeoisie and their liberal and democratic tendencies.
Armand Emmanuel Sophie Septimanie de Vignerot du Plessis, 5th Duke of Richelieu and Fronsac, was a French statesman during the Bourbon Restoration. He was known by the courtesy title of Count of Chinon until 1788, then Duke of Fronsac until 1791, when he succeeded his father as Duke of Richelieu.
During the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830) and the July Monarchy (1830–1848), the Doctrinals were a group of French royalists who hoped to reconcile the monarchy with the French Revolution and power with liberty. Headed by Royer-Collard, these liberal royalists were in favor of a constitutional monarchy, but with a heavily restricted census suffrage—Louis XVIII, who had been restored to the throne, had granted a Charter to the French with a Chamber of Peers and a Chamber of Deputies elected under tight electoral laws. The Doctrinaires were a centrist, as well as a conservative-liberal group, but at that time, liberal was considered to be the mainstream political left, so the group was considered a centre-left group.
Élie, 1st Duke of Decazes and Glücksbierg was a French statesman, leader of the liberal Doctrinaires party during the Bourbon Restoration.
Chamber of Deputies was a parliamentary body in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries:
Legislative elections were held in France on 18 and 24 August 1815 to elect members of the first Chamber of Deputies of the Bourbon Restoration.
Events from the year 1815 in France.
The Second White Terror occurred in France in 1815–1816, following the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and the enthronement of Louis XVIII as King of France after the Hundred Days. Suspected sympathizers of the French Revolution, Republicans, Bonapartists and, to a minor degree, Protestants, suffered persecution. Several hundred were killed by angry mobs or executed after a quick trial at a drumhead court-martial.
The Chamber of Representatives was the popularly elected lower body of the French Parliament set up under the Charter of 1815. The body had 629 members who were to serve five-year terms. The upper body was the Chamber of Peers.
The Ministry of Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was formed on 9 July 1815 after the second Bourbon Restoration under King Louis XVIII of France. It replaced the French Provisional Government of 1815 that had been formed when Napoleon abdicated after the Battle of Waterloo. The cabinet was dissolved on 26 September 1815 and replaced by the First ministry of Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis de Richelieu.
Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson (1771–1842), a member of the French Chamber of Deputies. D'Argenson was a grandson of Marc-Pierre, Count d'Argenson. He was a prefect of Deux-Nèthes from 1809 to 1813. As a member of the Chamber of Dueputies during the Hundred Days in 1815, he was a member of the French deputation to the allies to obtain the exclusion of the Bourbons. After the second restoration of Louis XVIII he was often elected as a member of the Chamber of Deputies and voted with the opposition.