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An (Alternate) History of the Restoration
Allegory of the Return of the Bourbons: Louis XVIII standing on the Ruins...
1789 - 1804: Tragedies during the Emigration Revolution descended upon France like a deluge in 1789, and the revolutionary storm swept away not only the French monarchy but the House of Bourbon as well. For the senior branch of the family, it had reached its nadir at the turn of the 18th century. As the revolution radicalized, many aristocrats chose to leave France behind. Condemned as émigrés, anti-aristocratic sentiment swelled and the republic was declared, with Louis XVI and his queen Marie-Antoinette executed by the guillotine. Yet no member of the royal family who remained in France was safe. Philippe Égalite, the Duke d’Orléans and the Princesse de Lamballe were executed, proving that whether revolutionary or reactionary, if you possessed royal blood in your veins you were nothing but a liability to the revolutionaries. Those that survived the Jacobin bloodbath, such as the Prince of Conti and Princess of Condé found their circumstances severely reduced; though they escaped the guillotine, they did not escape the confiscation of their property and fortunes.
Other princes managed to escape. The Prince of Condé created an army of émigrés financed by British subsidies that fought in Germany until 1801, whilst the two brothers of Louis XVI, the Counts of Provence and d’Artois succeeded in escaping. While the Count d’Artois fled to Britain in 1792, the Count of Provence declared himself Regent successively for both his brother and nephew the Dauphin (who became Louis XVII in the eyes of the royalists following the death of his father), while taking up residence successively in the Low Countries, Trier, and Verona. It was at Verona that Provence declared himself Louis XVIII following the death of his young nephew; his stay at Verona was short lived however, as the army of Napoleon Bonaparte dismembered the Republic of Venice and sent Louis XVIII packing. Initially settling in Brunswick, where he was joined by his nephew, the Duke of Berry (his eldest nephew, the Duke of Angoulême, had died leading an uprising in the Vendée[1] in 1795) the death of the King of Prussia obliged them to seek out a new home. In 1798 Paul I of Russia offered Louis XVIII use of Jelgava Palace in Courland. It was here that Louis XVIII was able to reconstitute the French court. It was at Jelgava that his niece, Marie-Thérèse (the surviving daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette) joined him. Madame Royale as she was called was married to her cousin, the Duke of Berry[2]. Although the couple had their differences, they managed to create a harmonious family life, which pleased Louis XVIII. The first of many children, Princess Louise Josèphe, was born in the spring of 1800.
Marie-Thérèse, Madame Royale and the Duchess of Berry.
These happy times were shortlived. In 1801 Paul I told Louis XVIII that the Bourbons could no longer stay in Russia. The finances of the French court-in-exile were also wreaked; although the Duchess de Berry convinced the Queen of Prussia to allow the family refuge in Prussia, which was agreed. Yet the Bourbons were only able to finance their trip outside of Russia by pawning several valuables, including a diamond necklace which the Tsar had given the Duchess de Berry upon her marriage. By 1804 Louis XVIII was living in Warsaw with the Duke and Duchess of Berry. They lived in reduced circumstances, supported by the money sent by the Count of Artois and by interest owed by the Habsburg Emperor Francis II on valuables which Marie-Antoinette had removed from France. The Bourbons, having already suffered great tragedies were forced suffer even more, when two terrible events occurred in 1804, indeed only days apart. First, the Duke of Enghien, the grandson of the Prince of Condé found himself captured by the French army from his home in Baden. Smuggled across the border, he was accused of treason and executed by firing squad just outside Paris, causing a great uproar against Napoleon and fear amongst other French princes living abroad that they might be next.
A second tragedy that befell the Bourbons fell much closer to home to Louis XVIII. His brother, the Count d’Artois had lived in Britain since 1792, where he lived a life of pleasure in London with one of his most celebrated mistresses, the Countess of Polastron. In 1804 it was obvious that she was dying of tuberculosis. The distraught Count of Artois fell into a deep depression and while nursing Polastron, he fell sick with tuberculosis[3] as well. Staying at her side until her death, d’Artois survived his mistress only by a few hours. His death further complicated things, leaving the Duke of Berry as the sole successor to his uncle, Louis XVIII who formally named the Duke of Berry as Dauphin of France as his heir, making Marie-Thérèse the Dauphine, and solidifying that she would be the next Queen of France. The death of Artois also impacted the Bourbons financially, placing further strains upon their household. Although Alexander I of Russia once more offered the Bourbons use of Jelgava Palace, the uncertain financial situation meant that Louis XVIII was already looking for a new place of exile, especially following the loss of revenue sent from Britain by Artois.
[1]The first of a series of minor PODs.
[2] Madame Royale married the Duke of Angoulême IOTL. The two were mismatched and the marriage was childless owing to Angoulême’s impotence. Here she marries the Duke of Berry, the only surviving son of the Count d’Artois.
[3] In OTL his mistress died of tuberculosis and he took a vow of perpetual chastity following her death. Here he catches the disease and dies.