Worst Monarch of France?

Worst French Monarch?

  • John II the Good

    Votes: 8 7.8%
  • Henry I

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Philip IV the Fair

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Charles VI the Beloved, the Mad

    Votes: 12 11.7%
  • Charles IX

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Louis XV the Beloved

    Votes: 7 6.8%
  • Louis XVI the Restorer of French Liberty

    Votes: 17 16.5%
  • Philip VI the Fortunate

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Charles X

    Votes: 35 34.0%
  • Napoleon III

    Votes: 10 9.7%
  • Louis-Philippe I the Citizen-King

    Votes: 4 3.9%
  • Other? Specify.

    Votes: 4 3.9%
  • Louis VII

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Louis XIV

    Votes: 3 2.9%

  • Total voters
    103
  • Poll closed .
Back to these threads. If anyone missed them, sorry I haven't done one in a while.

As for definition of French, I take it as starting with the Capetian Dynasty, and therefore Hugh Capet. I am not counting Henry VI of England.
This is overall, note.


Any trashy Kings I missed? ;) Hopefully my options covered them all!
 
Charles X because His pitiful behavior, his disastrous policy, his economic choices, and he really badly educated his son.

Even before being king he was already horrible.

But really you think thant Napoleon III could be considered as one of the worst French monarch ? (personally for me he was the best French monarch)
 
Charles X because His pitiful behavior, his disastrous policy, his economic choices, and he really badly educated his son.

Even before being king he was already horrible.

But really you think thant Napoleon III could be considered as one of the worst French monarch ? (personally for me he was the best French monarch)
Nappy 3 gets a bum wrap because Bismark played him like a fiddle and then Prussia took France's lunch money.
Otherwise I agree he doesn't really deserve to be here
 
I put other for Louis VII, the mess he left France in tend to be grosly underestimated because his ridiculously brilliant son Philip Augustus managed to put everything back toguether and then some.

But really you think thant Napoleon III could be considered as one of the worst French monarch ? (personally for me he was the best French monarch)
Nappy 3 gets a bum wrap because Bismark played him like a fiddle and then Prussia took France's lunch money.
Otherwise I agree he doesn't really deserve to be here

His inept foreign policy made german unification possible, the greatest long term disaster in the history of french foreign policy, that's not enough to get him to be considered the worst but he does deserve his place here. How can one make him a great monarch, let alone the greatest, is beyond me.

I'd be also very interested in knowing why Philip IV of all peoples ended up here as is reign is frequently quoted as one of high marks of french power.
 
People seems to forget that republican could get a better treaty in begining of the franco-prussian war with only minnor concession, that many people pushed the war, that Napoleon III never lanunch the war himself, I acknowledge that his policy with Bismarck was bad and the german unification was a disaster to french foreign policy but he became the only responsable of it and people only remember that.

For me without him France could never became so modern, He established many diplomatic ties, His economic policy was just great, He himself created devices to improve the life of the French, He himself designated the Haussmann plans, ...
But we agree that he should not be in this list :)
 
His economic policy was just great, He himself created devices to improve the life of the French, He himself designated the Haussmann plans, ...

Heh? No, he didn't.

And it's Charles X. Not only did he screw up on a massive level with everything he touched, both pre and post-coronation, the very act of his coronation was a screw-up! And then there's the debt he saddled Haiti with, the start of the occupation of Algeria for no good reason which was the start of a particularly ugly war with its own genocidal episodes...

Edit: can't see why Philippe le Bel would be on the list. And while Henri I certainly wasn't the most effective of the early Capetian king, his marriage was a very good one, which provided the dynasty with a very suitable heir.
 
Not all you're right but he designated some plan hismelf you can make some search if you don't believe me
 
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Not all you're right but he designated some plan hismelf you can make some search if you don't believe me

I'd rather see your sources, because Haussman (who was a préfet, not an architect) allowing his monarch with more or less power of purse over the whole ruinous operation (heh, Les comptes fantastiques, good one, Jules) one indulgent tinkering or two is not on the same level of Alphand, Baltard, Belgrand, Bienvenüe, or Viollet-le-Duc. And it's not even the job of the head of state in the first place.

As for his economic policies... well, he perpetuated France's trend to be part of the Industrial Revolution more or less initiated by the July Monarchy. Whoop-dee-freaking-doo.
 
Haussmann tells in his memmories, that on his arrival at the Seine Prefecture, the Emperor showed him a "colored plan" on which his ideas for Paris were indicated by signs of color drawing a new network of channels of communication. He describes a map of Paris, on which were traced by himself (Napoleon III.), In blue, in red, and in green according to their degree of urgency, the different new ways which he proposed to have executed "2. This version is confirmed by the testimony of other contemporaries who were members of the Court and who claim to have seen the plan. We can conclude from all the literary testimonies that Napoleon III drew up a plan expressing his plans to which Haussmann would later have made some modifications.

Origin : Le plan d'Haussmann en 1864 by Rosa Tamborrino translate by Mathieu Cloarec :

sorry this link is in french : http://www.persee.fr/doc/genes_1155...38#genes_1155-3219_1994_num_15_1_T1_0139_0000


Added Louis VII

Not going to remove anyone, as people are voting for them and at worst they just don't get votes. :)

You totally right, i just explain why personally i think that he shouldn't be here but it's your quizz :)
 
People seems to forget that republican could get a better treaty in begining of the franco-prussian war with only minnor concession, that many people pushed the war, that Napoleon III never lanunch the war himself, I acknowledge that his policy with Bismarck was bad and the german unification was a disaster to french foreign policy but he became the only responsable of it and people only remember that.

For me without him France could never became so modern, He established many diplomatic ties, His economic policy was just great, He himself created devices to improve the life of the French, He himself designated the Haussmann plans, ...
But we agree that he should not be in this list :)

That's leaving Nappy out very, very, very easily.

Your assertion that the Republicains could have made peace with minor conscessions is doubtfull at best and if anything they probably came relatively close to get better term Nap would have ever gotten. In any case, as pointed before the real problem wasn't that he lost Alsace-Lorraine and pay reparations but that he allowed the German empire to happen. They're is no way in hell that Bismarck would have concluded a peace that didnd't give him free rein in Germany after Sedan. That's Nap doing, not the republicans.

As for his supposed role in industrialisation I have heard that argument before but the thing is the whole of western europe was experimenting the industrial revolution at the time so I don't why simply following the lead would give him so much brownie points.

No he didn't, Bismark did have some semblance of a plan.
It went something like this
Step 1: Kick Austria out of Germany
Step 2: Kick France out of Germany
Step 3: Profit

Had Nap not shot himself and France in the foot said plan would have been a bit more complicated to realise.
 
Napoléon III did launch a lot of public works projects across the country. There are numerous ports, bridges, etc. that were constructed during his rule. The railway system was also greatly extended. At the same time he granted workers the right to strike. His economic record is quite positive overall, I think. He also gradually became less authoritarian and more of a constitutional monarch as time went on.

But his foreign policy (at least from 1862 on) - ugh.
 
Origin : Le plan d'Haussmann en 1864 by Rosa Tamborrino translate by Mathieu Cloarec :

sorry this link is in french : http://www.persee.fr/doc/genes_1155...38#genes_1155-3219_1994_num_15_1_T1_0139_0000

...

Selon mon hypothèse, la paternité de ce plan de 1864 – le mot plan doit être entendu ici au sens de projet – doit être attribuée au préfet de la Seine George Eugène Haussmann.

What little Napoléon III may have had in connection with that plan is essentially saying which parts he wanted done first.
 
Alright, first off: it's not Louis XVI. The poor guy inherited a clusterfuck from his grandfather that the vast majority of monarchs couldn't have solved. He was an okay King who unfortunately ruled when France needed a great King. I was going to put Louis XV, but then I remembered that at least, at least, Louis had somewhat good taste in women. Charles X truly had no redeeming facet and as a Monarchist I blame him and his idiotic vindictiveness for the fall of the French Monarchy more than any Republican.
 
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