Revolutionary Frence timelines?

The French get weirdly short shrift on this site, especially republicans. Alt-history loves monarchs, so timelines about 1789- or 1848 or 1870 for that matter- disproportionately involve the triumphant returns of the Bourbons.

It's rather sad really, given just how fascinating the Republics are.
True. The Revolution has all sorts of great opportunities for a PoD, and as ineffectual as they initially were, the First Republic has the trappings to be successful.
 
Yes, that's the thing I don't understand. The Bonapartes have a cult around their achievements that even survived for a while after Napoleon III did everything he could to destroy their reputation for competence.

But who looks at a country and goes- 'We need strong leadership. We need rulers who will rise above personal pettiness. We need rulers who will think of the nation before their own ego. We need the Bourbons!'

It's like saying- 'we need a President with enormous self-control. Get me Bill Clinton.'
I mean, let's be fair, Louis XVI was a good King who needed to be a great King, and Louis XVIII was, IMO, outright a really solid King who did a good job with managing the situation he inherited. If it wasn't for Charles X stepping on as many toes as possible the Bourbon Restoration could have lasted.
 
Louis XVIII handled the situation better than could reasonably be expected, I'll grant you that, but Louis XVI was not a good king. He may have been a good man- but time and time again, he was either too indecisive to act, too willing to go back on the decisions he had made, and perhaps worst of all, couldn't stand firmly behind any government that actually had a program.
I mean, it would be absurd to blame the revolution on him- even some of the most able ancien regime ministers like Vergennes were responsible for the spiralling financial crisis of the 1780s.
But Louis deserves a good share of the blame for no French government being able to stabilise between 1789 and 1792.
 
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