Volker Sellin European Monarchies from 1814 to 1906
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Volker Sellin European Monarchies from 1814 to 1906 Volker Sellin European Monarchies from 1814 to 1906 A Century of Restorations Originally published as Das Jahrhundert der Restaurationen, 1814 bis 1906, Munich: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2014. Translated by Volker Sellin An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libra- ries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access. More information about the initiative can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License, as of February 23, 2017. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. ISBN 978-3-11-052177-1 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-052453-6 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-052209-9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Cover Image: Louis-Philippe Crépin (1772–1851): Allégorie du retour des Bourbons le 24 avril 1814: Louis XVIII relevant la France de ses ruines. Musée national du Château de Versailles. bpk / RMN - Grand Palais / Christophe Fouin. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Contents Introduction 1 France1814 8 Poland 1815 26 Germany 1818 –1848 44 Spain 1834 63 Italy 1848 83 Russia 1906 102 Conclusion 122 Bibliography 126 Index 139 Introduction In 1989,the world commemorated the outbreak of the French Revolution two hundred years earlier.The event was celebratedasthe breakthrough of popular sovereignty and modernconstitutionalism. ThenamesofSieyès and Mirabeau recall the achievements of the first French National Assembly, the abolition of feudalism,the declaration of the rights of man, and the democratic constitution of 1791. In 2014,another event of French history wascommemorated as well, though it has been givenmuchless significanceinhistorical memorythan the outbreak of the French Revolution: the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the monar- chyunder the houseofBourbon. It is true that awhole erahas been namedafter this event,but the term restoration does not bring to mind objectiveswhich have remained valid till today. The concept rather denotes the questionable attempt to renew an obsolete reality in opposition to the spirit of the time. The history of the Bourbon restoration in France seems to confirm this judgment,since the restored dynasty remained in power for onlysixteen years. Twohundred years after the accession of Louis XVIII, the time has come to subjectthe prevailing interpreta- tion of the Restoration to acritical examination. The term itself is equivocal. Contemporaries viewed the return of the Bour- bons to the French throne as arestoration not so much because monarchyas such, but because divine right monarchywas reinstated and the principle of popularsovereignty which every regime in France since 1789 had been based on, was repudiated. If Louis XVIII had accepted the offer to become ademocrati- callylegitimized Kingofthe French which the Napoleonic Senate had inserted in its draft constitution of 6April 1814, the monarchywould likewise have been re- instated, but not in the sense of arestoration. Even though Louis was the de- scendant of the old French dynasty,hewould not have become King by historic right,but Kingbythe revolution, “un roipar la revolution,” as Jacques-Claude Beugnot wroteinaletter to Louis on 2June 1814, and instead of obtaining the recognition of his inherited right to rule and of having the revolution absorbed by the monarchy, he would have permitted the monarchytobeabsorbed by the revolution.¹ It was onlythe renewal of divine right legitimacythat impartedtothe return of the monarchythe character of arestoration. The legitimacy of agovernment is Jacques-Claude Beugnot,Rapport au Roi, 2June 1814, Archives Nationales Paris 40 AP 7, fol. 114; cf. VolkerSellin, Die geraubte Revolution. Der Sturz Napoleons und die Restauration in Europa (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &Ruprecht,2001), 277. 2 Introduction the acknowledgement on the part of the subjects of its right to rule. Accordingly, in order to be successful the restoration had to bring back to life convictions which had been lost during the Revolution and the Empire. The operation suc- ceeded thanks to the courage, the shrewdness, and the perseverance of Louis XVIII. He handled the draft constitution of the Senate with utmostcircumspec- tion and instead of repudiatingitout of hand he onlyinsisted on its revision. In the course of the revision in which members of the Senate and the Corps lég- islatif participated, instead of the nation the monarch was declared the author of the constitution and its democratic basis was replacedbythe monarchical prin- ciple. In this waythe King remained in full possession of power,withouthowev- er excludingthe nation altogetherfrom concurringinthe determination of pol- icy.When the revision was completed Louis XVIII imposed the constitution as a constitutional charter (Charteconstitutionnelle).² In the Middle Ages a charte or carta was adocument by which aruler conferred privileges. Aprivilegewas a voluntary gift to which the recipient did not possess anyrightfulclaim. By im- posing the Charte the King formallyrecovered the legitimacy which his brother Louis XVIhad gambled away during the Revolution. Thereforethe imposition of the Charte must be regarded as the essential act of the Restoration. It is true that by conceding the constitution Louis XVIII acknowledgedsubstantial achieve- ments of the Revolution, but at the sametime he avoided basing on the Revolu- tion his right to rule. Instead he transformed the Revolution from amenace to the monarchyinto apledge for its stability. Louis dated the Charte from the 19th year of his reign as if the monarchyhad remained in uninterrupted existence. As amatter of fact he had never acknowl- edgedneither the usurpation of the constituent power by the nation in June 1789 nor the abolition of the monarchyinSeptember 1792.If, however,the monarchy had not perished during the Revolution there was no need to restoreit, and if it had perished nobodyinthe world could have brought it backtolife in the plen- itude of its historic right,not even the nation which could onlyhaveconferred democratic, not divine right legitimacy.Louis XVIII was convinced that only the monarch himself was in the position to restore the monarchyand thatits re- storation did not mean remakingitbut onlyconsolidatingitagain and procuring its general acceptance. If Louis XVIII imposed the Charte in order to recover the recognitionofdi- vine right legitimacy,the imposition of 1814did not essentiallydiffer from the impositions of constitutions to which other monarchs in the course of the next one hundred years weretorecur.Accordingly, these impositions should no On the origins of the Charteconstitutionnelle cf. ibid., 225–73. Introduction 3 less be interpreted as monarchical restorations and restoration turns out to be not asingular act,limited to aspecific moment in history,but amethod which the European rulersadopted between the French Revolution and the First World Warifrequired, in order to render their imperiled thrones secure. In- stead of an epoch of European history restoration thus turns out to be an epoch in the history of each particularmonarchy, and the 19th century is revealed as a century not onlyofrevolutions, but of restorations as well. Nevertheless,the French restoration of 1814occupies aspecial place within this series. By imposing the Charte constitutionnelle Louis XVIII transmitted con- stitutional government as created by the Revolution to the new century.One might even attribute arevolutionizing effect to the Restoration, since no less than the Revolution it served the progress of liberty.Therefore, next to the revo- lutionaries of 1789 Louis XVIII must be numbered among thosewho pavedthe wayfor constitutionalism in Europe. By imposingthe Charte constitutionnelle he demonstratedtothe 19th century how elementarydemands of the Revolution could be renderedcompatible with divine right legitimacy.The strongerthe rev- olutionary menace grew,the more restoration on the French example became the strategyofsurvival in other monarchies as well. Not constitution making by con- stituent assemblies based on popularsovereignty,but the imposition of consti- tutionsasinFrance in 1814determined the constitutional development in the monarchies on the continent,and the breakthrough of modern constitutionalism in Europe is much less due to the Revolution itself than to the several restora- tions which have been staged in the intent of avoiding or overcoming revolu- tions. Whereas the Charte in its original form remained in forceuntil 1830, and after its revision duringthe July Revolution for another 18 years, some of the constitutions which in othermonarchies had been framed on its example en- joyed an even much longer lease of life. Restoration is opposed to revolution. Without the revolutionary menace re- storations would not have taken place. The appearance and the magnitude of the menace determined the moment of the recourse to restoration. Restorations always originated from acrisis of monarchical