WI: Henri accepted the Tricolor ?

What if the Count of Chambord accepted the Flag instead of insisting in the Bourbon flag ? How would French History change if the Monarchy was restored after the Franco-Prussian War ?
 
Under a monarchic system, Georges Ernest Boulanger, also known as "Général Revanche" would have it a lot easier to propel himself into a position of power. Not as president as he considered IOTL, but rather as prime minister.

If that were to happen, another conflict with Germany would be pretty much guaranteed.
 
The flag is an issue but not the only one : he believes in rule by divine right and rejects the idea of being a "king of the revolution". In short, he seems quite similar to his grandfather (Charles X) and may meet a similar fate. Even if not, it is not certain the monarchy can survive his death as OTL republicans gained a majority in the 1876 elections and never lost them - it seems that the 1871 results may have been an abberration due to the specific circumstances of the war. The extinction of the Bourbon line could offer an easy chance to restore the Republic.
 
The flag is an issue but not the only one : he believes in rule by divine right and rejects the idea of being a "king of the revolution". In short, he seems quite similar to his grandfather (Charles X) and may meet a similar fate. Even if not, it is not certain the monarchy can survive his death as OTL republicans gained a majority in the 1876 elections and never lost them - it seems that the 1871 results may have been an abberration due to the specific circumstances of the war. The extinction of the Bourbon line could offer an easy chance to restore the Republic.

Chambord was much less strict than people make him out to be. In some of his earlier writings in exile and his meeting with royalists from France he acknowledged that Absolute Monarchy was dead and things had to be changed. This did not make him a liberal however. The fact of the matter is that Henri had no reason to buckle his principles to become King. By 1871 it was clear he would have no children and his heirs would be the hated Orleanists (who he personally loathed for what that branch of the family did to his, no matter what Orleanists propagandists put out about him "adopting" the Count of Paris and all that). He also had a very comfortable existence courtesy of his Habsburg relatives. He lived like a King without being a King. Henri had the option of backing away from his family's principles in order to take a shaky throne for a limited period, surrounded by anti-clerical Republicans in the Assembly and be succeeded by the Orleanist branch of the family, or sticking to what he referred to as the white flag of Henri IV and Joan of Arc. It was not a tough decision for him.

To get this option going, give Henri a male heir of his own dynasty and then see if he changes any on the tricolor - which was also the flag (albeit briefly) of the constitutional monarchy of Louis XVI (so there is precedent if he wants it). My bet is yes.
 
What if the Count of Chambord accepted the Flag instead of insisting in the Bourbon flag ? How would French History change if the Monarchy was restored after the Franco-Prussian War ?

A poster on soc.history.what-if argued (sorry, the URL is no longer working):

"I have always seen it as more than simple stubbornness. He was a traditionalist and had little love for the modernistic profiteers of revolution he saw in the Orleanist line. Why should he leave his tranquil exile home in Austria and become king for the probably short rest of his life, when in the grand view this only meant enabling the Orleanist heirs-of-regicides? IMO the flag issue was just the symbol, not the reason.

"Having Chambord die before 1870 and the Legitimist line extinct in 1871, thereby uniting the claims (save the Carlist ones, which no one in France took seriously) looks like a vastly better way to restore Bourbon monarchy - the offer is made to the one remaining claimant, the comte de Paris, to become the "King of the French".

"Again, IMO, a constitutional Orleanist monarchy after 1871 with tricoleur and 1831 coat of arms...would probably look a lot like the Third Republic in nearly all important regards, except perhaps for a bit (but not that much) less anti-clericalism, and might survive to the current day just like the monarchy in the Netherlands and Belgium has."
 

BigBlueBox

Banned
Under a monarchic system, Georges Ernest Boulanger, also known as "Général Revanche" would have it a lot easier to propel himself into a position of power. Not as president as he considered IOTL, but rather as prime minister.

If that were to happen, another conflict with Germany would be pretty much guaranteed.
Not necessarily. The King might view Boulanger as a Bonapartist and keep him away from power.
 
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