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 had 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 Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême had no children, his younger son Charles Ferdinand, 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 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 the 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 Orléans participated.
The ceremony attracted visitors from across Europe. [9] Notable French figures in attendance included the Royalist writers François-René de 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.
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.
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.
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.
Emmanuel de Grouchy, marquis de Grouchy was a French military leader who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was the last Marshal of the Empire to be created by Napoleon, and is best known for his actions during the Waterloo campaign.
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.
François Pascal Simon Gérard, titled as Baron Gérard in 1809, was a French painter. He was born in Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador, and his mother was Italian. After he was made a baron of the Empire in 1809 by Emperor Napoleon, he was known formally as Baron Gérard.
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 while Archbishop of Reims, five years before the July Revolution brought down the Bourbon Dynasty.
The French Restoration style was predominantly Neoclassicism, though it also showed the beginnings of Romanticism in music and literature. The term describes the arts, architecture, and decorative arts of the Bourbon Restoration period (1814–1830), during the reign of Louis XVIII and Charles X from the fall of Napoleon to the July Revolution of 1830 and the beginning of the reign of Louis-Philippe.
Portrait of Charles X is an 1825 portrait painting by the British artist Sir Thomas Lawrence depicting the reigning French monarch Charles X. Following the French Revolution that saw his eldest brother overthrown and executed, Charles has spent many years in exile including a period in Britain. His brother Louis XVIII was restored to the throne with British assistance in 1814 and then again in 1815 following the Battle of Waterloo. Charles, as his heir, led the conservative Ultra-royalist faction in French politics. When his brother died in 1824 he succeeded to the throne. The last member of the House of Bourbon to reign, he had an elaborate coronation in Reims in May 1825. The same year Charles was painted in his coronation robes by the French artist Robert Lefèvre.
The Coronation of Louis XVI the King of France took place at Reims Cathedral on 11 June 1775 which fell on Trinity Sunday. Louis XVI had come to the throne the previous year in succession to his grandfather Louis XV who had reigned for 59 years. It was the first coronation since 1722 and only the second since 1654 due to the longevity of the two previous monarchs Louis XV and Louis XIV.
Louis François Sosthènes I de La Rochefoucauld, Viscount of La Rochefoucauld, 2nd Duke of Doudeauville GE, was a 19th-century French ultra-royalist politician. From 1814 to 1836, he was aide-de-camp to Charles, Count of Artois and from 1824 to 1830, the King's Director of Fine Arts. He served in the Chamber of Deputies in 1815 and from 1827 to 1830 during the Bourbon Restoration, until his retirement from public life after the July Revolution in 1830. From 1861 to 1864 he published his memoirs with his correspondence in fifteen volumes.
The Coronation of Charles X is an 1827 history painting by the French artist François Gérard depicting the Coronation of Charles X of France at Reims Cathedral on 29 May 1825.
Portrait of Louis XVIII is an 1814 portrait painting by the French artist François Gérard depicting Louis XVIII of France in his coronation robes.
Portrait of the Duke of Angoulême' is an 1825 portrait painting by the British artist Sir Thomas Lawrence depicting Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, the Dauphin and heir to his father Charles X.