French Royalism Since 1870

Book excerpt: "Let them come forward, they are thirsty for the sight of a King," said Henri IV to his followerswho were trying to push back the curious crowds as he entered Paris in February, 1594. It is perhaps to be regretted that seven kings (to say nothing of two emperors) have since more than quenched the French's taste for royalty, because they have long been in need of - and periodically have sought - a symbol of national unity. Modem-day France has had far more than her share of revolutions, counterrevolutions, uprisings, days, coups, affairs, crises, scandals - and constitution drafting. While it would be an over simplification to interpret this endemic strife as a seesaw conflict between two well-integrated blocs with the ideology of the Great Revolution as the dividing issue, the fact remains that since 1789 political divisions and quarrels arnong Frenchmen have been deep, bitter, and fundamental. After 1870, a Republic may have been the one solution which divided Frenchmen the least (to borrow an expression from Monsieur Thiers) ; but like any and all of the preceding alternatives it was to incur the relentless, irreconcilable opposition of important segments of the population. This study deals with those individuals and organ izations which continued to advocate, and sought to bring about a return to the monarchy under the Third and Fourth Republics.