Why the Restoration Matters

Introduction

David Montgomery, journalist and host of The Siècle
On Twitter @dhmontgomery and @thesiecle
Online at thesiecle.com
Available everywhere you get podcasts

1. The Restoration matters

The Bourbon Restoration is usually ignored
When not ignored, it’s treated as a historical dead end
(Even traditionalists tend to idealize the ancien régime, not the Restoration)
My thesis: the Restoration is both interesting and important

2. The Restoration in 5 minutes

Background

The French Revolution
Napoleon
Defeat and abdication

Return of the King

New king: Louis XVIII
New regime: constitutional monarchy
Initial support faded quickly

The Hundred Days

Napoleon returns!
Louis flees
Waterloo

White Terror

Louis restored — again
Ultra-royalists seek vengeance
King vs. parliament

The Liberal Restoration

The Royal Favorite: Élie Decazes
More liberal policies
Growing liberal strength

Berry and Backlash

King’s nephew assassinated
Decazes fired
Authoritarian crackdown on the Left
“Law of the Double Vote”

Carbonari and Spain

Liberals turn to coups
Really dumb coups
France invades Spain

Charles X

Louis dies in 1824
New king: his brother, Charles X
Leader of the Ultras

Liberal resurgence

Anti-Charles popular backlash
Liberals start winning elections
Charles compromises at first
Clashes escalate

July

Charles tries his own coup
A really dumb coup
Parisians build barricades
Charles loses, flees
New king: Louis-Philippe

3. The Restoration in Les Misérables

The fun part: Almost none of that is directly relevant to the plot of Les Misérables
(Basically just Waterloo, and that indirectly)
This is deliberate!
Hugo’s concerned with society, not kings

Situating Les Misérables in history

1795: Jean Valjean steals a loaf of bread
June 1815: Waterloo
October 1815: Valjean is paroled
1820: “Monsieur Madeline” is named mayor
1823: Valjean reveals his identity, is arrested, escapes
1824: Valjean and Cosette enter the Petit-Picpus
1829: Valjean and Cosette rent 55 Rue Plumet
1831: Cosette sees Marius
1832: Barricades!
The novel’s inciting incident takes place in the First Republic, and its climax takes place in the July Monarchy, but the bulk of the novel is under the Restoration

The fingerprints of the Restoration

People
- Louis XVIII’s carriage rides
- Valjean’s banker, Jacques Laffitte
Events
- Purges
- The Year 1817
Above all, religion
- Monsieur Madeline’s religiosity
- The courtroom scene

The shabby treatment of Col. Pontmercy was entirely typical for a generation of Napoleonic army officers
The year 1817, of which Hugo makes so much, was also coming after the Year Without a Summer of 1816 — something to remember when Hugo talks about how enchanting the “bright, warm summer’s day” was for the young octet’s excursion. But the aftereffects of 1816 meant the price of bread in Paris hit a 20-year high that year and 12% of Paris’s population was classified as “destitute” — something to remember when thinking of the girls seeking economic security “The local deputy, always on his guard against competition, viewed this religious tendency with some apprehension… In private he was amiably derisive of God. But… he scented a possible rival and resolved to outdo him. He engaged a Jesuit confessor and went to high mass and vespers. Political rivalry in those days was, almost literally, a race to the altar-steps.” (157) In the Restoration public officials were expected to attend Mass on formal occasions. When Valjean’s death sentence was commuted, liberal newspapers portrayed it as a triumph for the “clerical party” because Valjean was known to be religious (326). Only difference between Valjean’s trial in 1796 and the court in 1823: “a crucifix hung on the wall above the presiding judge’s head” (246). A prison witness was introduced with favorable testimony as to his religious beliefs. “This, it must be remembered, was under the Restoration” (253).

Tangent: The missing revolution

For a novel that runs from 1815 to 1834, the massively important July Revolution of 1830 is almost completely absent.

Meanwhile the June 1832 uprising would be entirely forgotten today if Hugo hadn’t used it as his climax.

The missing revolution

The July Revolution does make a few direct contributions to the plot:

“Marius’s political fanaticisms were dispelled… By satisfying and calming him the 1830 Revolution had helped in this.”
Poor M. Mabeuf: “The July Revolution brought a slump in the book trade.”
Several characters took part in the fighting in one way or another

Just as interesting is what didn’t happen: Javert didn’t get fired.

4. The Restoration as pivot

If the French Revolution was when the modern world began, the Restoration is when the modern world was confirmed.

“Learned nothing and forgotten nothing”

The Bourbons would have absolutely restored (most of) the ancien régime if they could
The key thing isn’t that they tried — it’s that they failed
- Royal authority
- Administration
- Religion
- Manners
- Public lands
- Aristocracy

Bourbon legacy

Peace
Friendship with England
“Parliamentary apprenticeship”
Return to cultural preeminence

5. The Restoration as mirror

Why study history? To better understand the present.

5. The Restoration as mirror

But the Restoration?

200 years old
Failed
French
Monarchy

The value of historical distance

Old enough it feels different
New enough it’s still relateable

Mirror to media

What role does a free press play in contributing to instability?
Are certain arguments unacceptable?

Mirror to conspiracies

Many people in the Restoration believed in fantastic conspiracy networks
Some of them were real!

Mirror to politics

Apocalyptic fears
Manipulating electoral law
“To be ultra is to go to extremes… It is to be so much a supporter of things that you become their enemy.” — Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Mirror to foreign policy

The counter-revolutionary mindset

Mirror to foreign policy

Foreign opinion helping a small country fight off an imperial power

Questions?

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