The Coronation of Charles X took place in Reims on 29 May 1825 when Charles X was crowned as King of France, marking the last coronation of a French monarch. It took place at Reims Cathedral in Champagne, the traditional site of the coronation of French sovereigns. It was the only coronation to take place following the 1815 defeat of Napoleon and the Bourbon Restoration before the direct line were deposed in 1830.
As the Count of Artois Charles has spent many years in exile following the execution of his brother Louis XVI in 1793 during the French Revolution. During the later years of the Napoleonic Wars he settled in Britain, returning to France when his brother was restored by Allied Forces in 1814 and again after the Waterloo campaign in 1815. In the restored monarchy he was the heir of his childless elder brother Louis XVIII. Artois emerged as the leader of the Ultra-royalists a conservative political grouping which rejected most of the changes of the French Revolution. Louis XVIII never had a coronation. Plans to hold one kept falling through due to various circumstances, and ultimately were postponed indefinitely by the King's poor physical health. He therefore reigned for ten years without any formal religious ceremony. [1] The country was occupied by Allied forces until the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in November 1818 agreed a withdrawal.
As the King's health declined, it was clear that Charles was likely to succeed him. While his eldest son had no children, his younger son the Duke of Berry who had been assassinated had been survived by his pregnant wife who gave birth to a son Henri in September 1820. Henri was therefore heir to the throne after the childless Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, apparently securing the succession for at least another generation. Louis XVIII died in September 1824 and Artois was proclaimed his successor as Charles X. In a speech from the throne on 22 December 1824, Charles made clear his intention to be crowned in the tradition of the Ancien régime. [2] While the 1804 Coronation of Napoleon had taken place at Notre-Dame de Paris, the new king selected the ancient site of Reims Cathedral. [3]
The tradition of French monarchs stretched back to Clovis I in the fifth century and coronations had taken place in Reims since the ninth century. In 1825 the event had four stages: The King's journey from Paris to Reims, the ceremonies in that city, his return journey to Paris and entry into the city and various events held in the capital. [4] On 24 May 1825 the King left Paris and travelled to Compiègne where he remained for three days. He then travelled to Reims via Soissons. Extensive preparations had taken place in Reims, for which Charles had contributed a significant amount from the royal treasury, including the remodelling of the Palace of Tau where he stayed. A new gold coach was designed by Charles Percier. [5]
Large crowds gathered in the city of Reims for the event. The Holy Ampulla that had been used for more than six hundred years had been destroyed by French Revolutionaries in 1793. [6] A new ampulla was designed by Louis Lafitte for the ceremony. A special mass had been commissioned by he King from the Italian composer Luigi Cherubini. [7] The ceremony was performed by Jean-Baptiste de Latil, the Archbishop of Reims. In a new innovation, four Napoleonic Marshals of France presented the King with the symbols of royal authority and in his oath he swore to uphold the Charter of 1814 which had established a constitutional monarchy rather than an absolute one. Nonetheless the overall sense was one of nostalgia for the pre-Revolution era, and pride of place was given to the nobility and clergy. [8] As a Prince of the Blood the King's distant cousin the Duke of Orleans participated.
The ceremony attracted visitors from across Europe. [9] Notable French figures in attendance included the Royalist writers Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo and Charles Nodier. [10] King Charles returned to Compiègne on 1 June, where he rested for a few days, before entering Paris on 6 June. [11] He arrived in the city through the Villette Gate. The scene was depicted in a painting by Louis-François Lejeune.
At the Covent Garden theatre in London a pageant The Coronation of King Charles X was organised by Charles Kemble, based on the research of James Planché, and proved to be popular with audiences. [12] The Italian composer Gioachino Rossini created an opera The Journey to Reims focusing on several characters on their way to the coronation. It premiered in Paris on 19 June 1825. The same year as part of a duel commission by George IV the English artist Sir Thomas Lawrence painted both Charles and his eldest son the Duke of Angoulême, for which Lawrence was awarded the Legion of Honour. [13]
Despite the splendour of the coronation, political troubles continued throughout his reign. In 1830 Charles was overthrown in the July Revolution and went into exile in Britain. From 1830 until his death in 1836 he was the Legitimist claimant to the French throne. His successor Louis Philippe I rejected the idea of a coronation in an attempt to distance himself from the rule of his cousins. Napoleon III, who established the Second Empire in 1852, never had a coronation ceremony although a crown was designed for him in 1855.
Reims is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies 129 km (80 mi) northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne.
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. Before his reign, he spent 23 years in exile from France beginning in 1791, during the French Revolution and the First French Empire.
The Second Bourbon Restoration was the period of French history during which the House of Bourbon returned to power after the fall of the First French Empire in 1815. The Second Bourbon Restoration lasted until the July Revolution of 26 July 1830. Louis XVIII and Charles X, brothers of the executed King Louis XVI and uncles of the tortured King Louis XVII, 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 of 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.
Louis Philippe I, nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wars and was promoted to lieutenant general by the age of nineteen, but he broke with the Republic over its decision to execute King Louis XVI. He fled to Switzerland in 1793 after being connected with a plot to restore France's monarchy. His father Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, fell under suspicion and was executed during the Reign of Terror.
The Peerage of France was a hereditary distinction within the French nobility which appeared in 1180 during the Middle Ages.
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution, Second French Revolution, or Trois Glorieuses, was a second French Revolution after the first in 1789. It led to the overthrow of King Charles X, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans. After 18 precarious years on the throne, Louis-Philippe was overthrown in the French Revolution of 1848.
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, while rejecting the political philosophy of popular will and the interests of the bourgeoisie along with their liberal and democratic tendencies.
Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey, 1st duc de Conegliano was a French military officer and a prominent commander in the French Revolutionary Wars and later a Marshal of the Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. He later became governor of the Hôtel des Invalides. Moncey is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on Column 33.
Marie-Thérèse Charlotte was the eldest child of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France, and their only child to reach adulthood. In 1799 she married her cousin Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, the eldest son of Charles, Count of Artois, henceforth becoming the Duchess of Angoulême. She was briefly Queen of France in 1830.
The French Crown Jewels and Regalia comprise the crowns, orb, sceptres, diadems and jewels that were symbols of Royal or Imperial power between 752 and 1870. These were worn by many Kings and Queens of France as well as Emperor Napoleon. The set was finally broken up, with most of it sold off in 1885 by the Third Republic. The surviving French Crown Jewels, principally a set of historic crowns, diadems and parures, are mainly on display in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre, France's premier museum and former royal palace, together with the Regent Diamond, the Sancy Diamond and the 105-carat (21.0 g) Côte-de-Bretagne red spinel, carved into the form of a dragon. In addition, some gemstones and jewels are on display in the Treasury vault of the Mineralogy gallery in the National Museum of Natural History.
Louis Antoine of France, Duke of Angoulême was the elder son of Charles X and the last Dauphin of France from 1824 to 1830. He is identified by the Guinness World Records as the shortest-reigning monarch, reigning for less than 20 minutes during the July Revolution, but this is not backed up by historical evidence. He never reigned over the country, but after his father's death in 1836, he was the legitimist pretender as Louis XIX.
The Crown of Napoleon was a coronation crown manufactured for Napoleon I and used in his coronation as Emperor of the French on December 2, 1804. Napoleon called this crown the "Crown of Charlemagne", which was the name of the ancient royal coronation crown of France that had been destroyed during the French Revolution. This name allowed Napoleon to compare himself to the famed mediaeval monarch Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor.
The Kingdom of France is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe from the High Middle Ages to 1848 during its dissolution. It was also an early colonial power, with colonies in Asia and Africa, and the largest being New France in North America centred around the Great Lakes.
Louis-Victor-Léon de Rochechouart was a French general of the House of Rochechouart fighting in the Royalist, Imperial Russian and Bourbon armies of the Napoleonic Wars.
The Holy Ampulla or Holy Ampoule was a glass vial which, from its first recorded use by Pope Innocent II for the anointing of Louis VII in 1131 to the coronation of Louis XVI in 1775, held the chrism or anointing oil for the coronation of the kings of France.
The accession of the King of France to the royal throne was legitimized by a ceremony performed with the Crown of Charlemagne at the Reims Cathedral. In late medieval and early modern times, the new king did not need to be anointed in order to be recognized as French monarch but ascended upon the previous monarch's death with the proclamation "Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!"
Jean-Baptiste Marie Antoine de Latil, count then duke of Latil, Peer of France, French ecclesiastic. He is the last to have crowned a King of France in the person of Charles X in 1825. He performed the Coronation of Charles X while Archbishop of Reims, five years before the July Revolution brought down the Bourbon Dynasty.
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