WI - Bourbon in exile, but triumphant.

[Kaze]

During the height of the Revolution, some French nobles knew their gooses were cooked so they ran to the Americas - Quebec and New Orleans. What if a major Bourbon went into exile? I was thinking of the Dauphin Louis Charles manages to escape the blade, his house arrest, his death in obscurity, and is established as King-in-Exile as was the Pretenders of Scotland.

 

[FillyofDelphi]

During the height of the Revolution, some French nobles knew their gooses were cooked so they ran to the Americas - Quebec and New Orleans. What if a major Bourbon went into exile? I was thinking of the Dauphin Louis Charles manages to escape the blade, his house arrest, his death in obscurity, and is established as King-in-Exile as was the Pretenders of Scotland.

Said Bourbon gets put back on the throne once Nappy falls... though I fail to see why such a prized figure woulden't be put up with all the comforts as a guest of the British government in London. Surely its more comfortable than some small manor on the St. Lawrence?

 

[Kaze]

In OTL - the count of Provence was an ambitious man. As soon as he was safely out of France, he illegally declared himself as defacto regent. As soon as his brother's head left his shoulders, he declared himself king. Throughout the Bourbon Restoration, every time some pretender came around claiming to be the long-lost dauphin, Louis XVIII peed himself and secretly paid the pretender off to go away.
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In this timeline, I expect the same effect. Louis XVIII would want nothing more than have his nephew as far away as possible - because as soon as the Dauphin steps foot in restoration France there might be a civil war. As for London, the Dauphin might not have been welcome at the time of the escape.

 

[Cornelis]

In OTL - the count of Provence was an ambitious man. As soon as he was safely out of France, he illegally declared himself as defacto regent. As soon as his brother's head left his shoulders, he declared himself king. Throughout the Bourbon Restoration, every time some pretender came around claiming to be the long-lost dauphin, Louis XVIII peed himself and secretly paid the pretender off to go away

No, he did not. After Louis XVI's execution proclaimed himself "regent", as it was his position, but he waited till his nephew's death to call himself king-in-exile. The French Fundamental Laws was not something easily put aside. He dealt with false Dauphins the easiest way : by letting the courts sentence them to jail time (Bruneau in 1818).

 

[raharris1973]

Spain or England or Italy offer more comfortable and closer refuges.

Canada and Louisiana are significantly less developed, and under British and French sovereignty anyway at the time. Saint-Domingue might be a more appealing New World refuge than any mainland place, both for its independent Frenchness and for the wealth it affords those who are the slave-masters.

 

[Alex Zetsu]

Spain or England or Italy offer more comfortable and closer refuges.

England would work if as in OTL they decided Nappy was worse than the Bourbons. Going to Louisiana doesn't directly make them more threatening, but maybe their flight cause butterflies which did? Alternately butterflies could make them seem more like the last hope to make France not-threatening-Britain.

 

[Kaze]

England was the home to several exiles. The problem is these exiles became a burden to the government. The counter-revolutionary revolts in 1793 during the French Revolution was a great drain on the British government's man-power, resources, and they all ended with the same result - dead French and dead British regulars. Even later, there was still talk among the exiles to retry the counter-revolutionary revolts as late as Napoleon's era - the British delayed them as long as possible saying that they did not have the men, the tides were not in their favor, or some other convenient lie. It was not until Napoleon was safely placed onto his island home, that the exiles could step forth onto their former homeland.

 

[Alex Zetsu]

the British delayed them as long as possible saying that they did not have the men, the tides were not in their favor, or some other convenient lie.

Wait, that was 100% true. After 1775's events, the British had no real shot at putting the Bourbons on the French throne, even if we triple their numbers. They did have a chance to do something about other exiles, at least until the War of the Third Coalition had Napoleon kick their butts and destroy Austria, a counterweight the British were funding, and after that war the tides pretty much were against any restoration efforts for any of those countries for a long time. So what convenient lie? Even after the Russia disaster, Napoleon still was able to hold on for a while and British Continental efforts still didn't work.