Guide Note

Louis-Philippe was a French nobleman of anti-Royalist sentiments who, through complex circumstances and misadventure, was the last king to rule France. Louis-Philippe reigned from 1830 to 1848, during a relatively brief return to monarchy following the Napoleonic Era, eschewing the title 'King of France' for the more egalitarian 'King of the French.' His reign ended with the Revolution of 1848 and the establishment of the Second Republic.

Fast Facts

1. Born: October 6, 1773, Paris, France
2. Reign: 1830-1848
3. House: Bourbon
4. Predecessor: Charles X
5. Successor: None
6. Son of: Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of Chartres
7. Also known as: The Citizen King
8. Died: August 26, 1850, Surrey, England
9. Lived in exile 1793-1815 and 1848-1850
10. Had ten children

1. 1788: Helped break down a prison door during the French Revolution
2. 1789: Went to England to negotiate an independent kingdom in the Austrian Netherlands
3. 1791: Began service as a colonel in the army
4. 1793: Self-exile after involvement in a military plot to overthrow the government
5. 1809: Married Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies
6. 1815: Returned to France after Napoleon's abdication
7. 1830: Becomes King of the French
8. 1848: Attempts to abdicate throne to nine-year-old grandson, flees to England

Louis-Philippe's career is as complex as the period of French history he inhabited, and is marked by numerous enthusiasms, reverses, and strange alliances. In the long view, he was a committed liberal revolutionary who was nearly always afoul of one or more powerful forces in French politics, including the radical populist revolutionaries, the established nobility, and the force of French nationalism represented by Napoleon -- while at times representing an agreeable compromise among otherwise warring factions. At the beginning of his reign he was seen as a reformer cleaning up after the Bourbon Restoration of his cousins Louis XVIII and Charles X. At the end he was seen as a lackey to moneyed, conservative interests. But Louis-Philippe's positions, during his reign and his life, seem to have remained far more static than the events which flowed swiftly around them.