Charles X

Charles X, Count d'Artois, King of France (1824-1830)
(Versailles, 1757 - Goritz, 1836)

Brother of Louis XVI and Louis XVIII. Last king of France.

Charles, younger brother of Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, distinguished himself especially before the revolution by his pranks. After July of 1789 he left France and visited foreign sovereigns, soliciting their aid in repressing the revolution. In 1795 he directed a corps of emigres and Englishmen intending to disembark in the Vendee. The operation failed and became the disaster of Quiberon.

During the Consulate and the Empire the Count d'Artois spent most of his time in London. He returned to France in 1814 with the coalition armies. Lieutenant general of the kingdom, he represented his brother, Louis XVIII. He signed on 23 April 1814 the first Treaty of Paris, which ceded many fortresses to the allies.

During the second restoration the Count d'Artois sided with the ultra-royalists. On September 16, 1824, he succeeded his brother on the French throne. The following year he had himself annointed with great ceremony at Reims. The liberal oposition and the royalist party diverged more and more during his reign. The laws of July 25, 1830, unleashed riots. Charles X, seventy three years old, had to leave Paris and abdicate. It was the end of Bourbon rule in France, the beginning of the July Monarchy. Charles died six years later of cholera.