I don't see how this is possible without involving the words "Charles Maurras".
That's what I was thinking. The Crisis of February 6 would probably be the best chance. Perhaps if the Croix-de-Feu decides to aid the rioters? The only issue is that such a turn would be more likely to leave de La Rocque in charge than any monarchists.Something from 1934 maybe?
Daladier allows Napoleon VI to sign up to the French Army in 1939, which allows him to enjoy a career in the Free French Forces during the war. He becomes a symbol of French resistance next to De Gaulle, and is granted the Crown after WW2.
Unlikely, but not impossoble - Charles De Gaulles carrer was quite unexpected as well, after all.
No Bonapartists allowed.
I never really understood the cult of Napoléon or the Bonapartists in general. Not to say that the House of Bourbon is at all better, but what's so special about a dynasty that has "given" France two emperors who left the place worse than they found it?
Uhh... you're forgetting their domestic achievements. Like, I don't know, public education, civil code, religious tolerance (Nappy I), building modern Paris (Nappy III), importing the IR to France (Nappy III)?I don't recall any of the latter-day Bourbons doing anything comparable.
No High Seas Fleet, or a significantly smaller one, leading to Britain being more reluctant to enter the war. If Belgian Neutrality is respected, or the Germans somehow trick the French into being the first to violate it, Britain will absolutely stay out, because the removal of both would make joining the war on the French side politically untenable. The removal of just the HSF stands a fair chance by itself.The Central Powers have wn very decisively by the end of 1915. As a result, a revolution breaks out in France demanding the restoration of the monarchy as many will have grown to see republicanism as discredited.
Not likely, but the best I could do with this POD.