Restoration of the French Monarchy 1873
This November 19, a strange spectacle takes place in the court of Versailles, in front of the statue of Louis XIV: the Count of Chambord, Henri V, pensive, waits. Will he be king of France in a few hours?
Since February 17, 1871, Adolphe Thiers has taken over the country. He became head of government after the armistice with Prussia and the election of a monarchically-majority National Assembly on February 8, 1871, which met first in Bordeaux and then in Versailles. Its fall in May 1873 finally opened the possibility of a direct restoration of the french monarchy.
Marshal MacMahon became President of the Republic on May 24, 1873. This former soldier crowned with numerous victories, who personally led the terrible repression against the Communards, has many advantages for conservatives of all stripes. He symbolizes strength and order, and is very popular. But for those who want to restore the monarchy, he represents a lesser evil, a temporary step for the accession of Henry V to the throne.
What suitor?
In fact, the monarchists, even if they agree in their struggle against the Republicans, are deeply divided. The Legitimists support the Count of Chambord, Henri V, who lives in exile in Frohsdorf, near Vienna; and the Orleanists, strong in their experience of the Second Restoration, the Count of Paris. The Legitimists campaign for an immediate restoration, while the Orleanists maneuver for the medium term, claiming them to be younger than Henri V, with no direct descendants. We must not forget either the Bonapartists, who do not despair of regaining power. Secret negotiations are going well between the suitors and the parliamentarians favorable to the monarchy. Also, as soon as we learned of the meeting of the two suitors on August 5, 1873, the royalists were certain of the reestablishment of royalty.
The obstacle of the tricolor flag
But one detail seems to crystallize the debate. The Count of Chambord refuses to endorse the tricolor flag, a symbol for him of revolutionary horror, and defends the white flag with fleur de lys. He had his position printed in the press, in which he declared: "French, Henri V cannot abandon the flag of Henri IV. MacMahon and all parliamentarians defend the tricolor. This stubbornness of the Count of Chambord appears to many, and in particular to the Orleanists, as an abdication and relaunches controversy. In fact, the color of the flag masks two diametrically opposed conceptions of executive power, one is personal, the other is parliamentary.
The extended seven-year term
The stake of the ballot of November 19, 1873 is therefore crucial. If the septennant is rejected, Henri V, who has been in France incognito for a few days, will appear before the National Assembly to be acclaimed and begin his reign. By a narrow majority of 60 votes (378 against 310), while this assembly generally included 400 monarchists and about 300 republicans, MacMahon was appointed for 7 years at the head of the Republic. Have the demands of the Count of Chambord forever ruled out the possibility of a restoration of the monarchy ?
Not really, because it was without counting on the appearance of republican statesmen of great stature, like Thiers, Gambetta or Jules Grévy, who will make a fragile republic credible, and manage all the achievements of the Revolution and the economic progress of the Second Empire, by installing a parliamentarism which will gradually take precedence over the political prejudices of the Ancien Régime.
The elections that follow will bring the Republicans to power. Even the Senate, a new institution, will pass in the Republican majority in 1879. However, until the death of the Count of Chambord in 1883, the monarchists will try to restore the royalty. On May 16, 1877, the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies, with a strong Republican majority, by MacMahon, to re-establish a right-wing regime favorable to a monarchical restoration, appeared to be too late a coup de force. Didn't the divided monarchy, in 1873, take its chance?
Flaubert's gaze
Flaubert, close to the Orleanists, commented in his own way on the return of a Legitimist monarchy after the “merger” of the two pretending royalists, in a letter of September 7, 1873, which he sent to Mme Roger des Genettes: “In four months, we will enjoy us from Henri V? I don't think so (although that is so silly as it could be). The merger seems to me and we remain in a republic by necessity. Is it grotesque! A form of government, which we do not want, whose very name is almost defended and which persists despite everything."
