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The University High School Band
The History and Theory of Music

The July Monarchy

King Charles X by François Gérard
King Louis-Philippe I by Franz Winterhalter

King Louis XVIII, the younger brother of Louis XVI, had become King of France after the defeat of Napoléon in 1814. When he passed away in 1824, his younger brother became King Charles X. Having lived through the French Revolution, lost his brother to the guillotine, been exiled to Austria, and now encouraged by the conservative faction at the Congress of Vienna, King Charles was very much a traditionalist.

Many of the French people, however, having been born subjects of a king and then grown up free citizens of a Republic, were no longer traditionalists, and not all too happy to be informed they were once again subjects of a king. Riots broke out in 1830 and Charles X was overthrown and replaced with his distant cousin, Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans. Louis-Philippe took the title "King of the French" instead of "King of France" and decided to rule as a constitutional monarch, rather than an absolute monarch. He endorsed the idea of national sovereignty and brought back the revolutionary blue-white-and-red flag.

The people of France were satisfied with this arrangement for almost a whole 18 years.

Open-Ended Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a constitutional monarchy?