A fascinating account of the life, trials, tribulations—and ultimately failure—of one of Europe’s first notable “constitutional monarchs,” Louis Philippe (1773–1850).
The first king to be properly elected by the National Assembly, his reign was based on the principle of union of king and people, and marked the first real shift away from the “divine right to rule” approach to kingship.
This sweeping work reveals many details not generally known about this momentous change in European politics, all the while keeping the reader’s attention by weaving together the story of Louis Philippe’s youth, his years of exile, the dramatic events leading to his appointment as king, his extended family and relations, and finally his steady decline in popularity until his own forced abdication and exile in 1848.
Regarded as a usurper by the aristocracy, but rejected by the masses because of the fact that he was made king by an assembly elected by only one hundred and fifty thousand voters—he was stalked by assassins at every step, becoming known as the “Target King.” Finally, caught between the conflicting demands of the aristocracy and the 1848 revolutions, he resigned and fled into exile once again.
“We may search history in vain for the record of any monarch so unrelentingly harassed as was Louis Philippe from the time he ascended the throne until he was driven from it. He was irreproachable in morals, a man who had seen much of the world in all its phases, sagacious and well meaning. But he was placed in a position in which no earthly wisdom could rescue him from the direst trouble.”