King de France.
Charles X, count d' Artois, are the third son of the Louis Dolphin, only son of Louis XV, and Marie-Josèphe of Saxony.
He loses his parents very young person and receives the education of a prince who is not intended to reign: little serious work, because the child does not have any taste for the studies, but much of courtesy and science of the world, which makes it appreciate, in comparison with his two brothers, the future Louis XVI and the count of Provence (future Louis XVIII), rather unbalances.
An absolutist dandy The count d' Artois is beautiful, its pretty features supplement a high and slender size, and it rides a horse well. But its ignorance is extreme in all the fields.
He is married at sixteen years with the Marie-Therese princess of Savoy, which gives him two sons: in 1775 the duke of Angouleme and, in 1778, the duke of Berry, whereas his/her two brothers, also married, do not have a descent yet. However, the young couple is divided very quickly. The count d' Artois forsakes his wife, who is avenged some well, but the various scandals are choked. The young prince spends not counting, with the play especially. The king Louis XVI must often settle the debts of Charles because the incomes of its prerogative are not enough for him.
At the court, he saw in the narrow entourage of Marie-Antoinette (it is following a bet with the queen that he makes build in sixty-four days the “madness” of Trifle). He binds to Mrs. de Polastron, relationship of the duchess of Polignac, and has for her a durable affection: it will be until its death its mistress in title. Thus, this man of pleasures takes part little in the political life, being satisfied to post the reflexes of his clan: he is opposed to the financial projects of Calonne, at the time of the Parliament of notable (1787), and posts his reserve when it is a question of convening the General states, protesting against the doubling of manpower of the third state. The Revolution appears to him threatening and it understands the direction so well that it is necessary to give to the storming of the Bastille, that on on July 16th, 1789, it is one of the first to emigrate. Its exile will last twenty-five years.
Fidelity with the Former regime Charles resides in courses foreign and in vain requests their intervention in the French business. In June 1791, the emigration of the count de Provence, his older brother, removes the direction of the operations to him (it inspired the declaration of Brunswick and will take part in the battle of Valmy). The two brothers hate themselves and their conflicts are ceaseless. The count d' Artois has his own agents in France. He encourages with risings and, with the British assistance, revives in 1795 the war of the Vendée.
During the invasion of France, in 1814, it follows the armies of united and makes replace the tricolor rosette by the white rosette. Louis XVIII appoints it general lieutenant of the kingdom, charges that he exerts of April 14th on May 3rd, 1814. He pronounces this happy sentence then to reassure an anxious opinion: “There of changed there nothing into France, it is only one French moreover.” But it waits a long time before lending oath to the Charter and appears unable to stop in front of Lyon, in March 1815, Napoleon who returns from the isle of Elba. Under the second Restoration, it takes the head of the opposition to the liberal policy of Louis XVIII; in 1820, after the assassination of his son, the duke of Berry, it obtains the reference of the Decazes minister and inspires a system of reaction.
Become king in 1824 under the name of Charles X, it gets busy to restore all that it can of the habits of the Former regime. Its sacring in Rheims seems with much an antiquated refinement, and its ostentatious piety shocks: opponents whisper, in the people, which it was made priest. Charles X especially wishes to free himself from parliamentary control. He prefers, he says, “to saw wood rather than to reign like king d' Angleterre”. Its ignorance of political reality leads it to take a series of unpopular measurements (law on the sacrilege and law on “the billion the immigrants” in 1825; censure press by the law known as “of justice and love”, in 1826).
It forms on on August 8th, 1829 a ministry with Polignac, with its devotion: he then thinks of reconsidering the principles of the Charter. This is why, after having, to flatter the opinion, committed the operation which will lead to the catch of Algiers, it threatens, in its speech from the throne of March 2nd, 1830, the Parliament of dissolution. This one counteracts by “the address of the 221”, distrust with regard to the ministry votes. On March 18th, Charles X returns the Room: the elections give the majority to the opposition (274 deputies against 143). Charles X takes on on July 25th then four ordinances which, inter alia, amend the electoral law and remove freedom of press.
It is the revolution in Paris, “the Three Glorious ones” (July 27th, 28th and 29th): Charles X resists initially (“I like better to ride a horse that in cart”) then withdraws the ordinances and abdicates with the profit of the duke of Bordeaux, his grandson. The king takes the way of a final exile: installed initially in Scotland, it will be established in Prague, where it will carry out a withdrawn and pious life.