Editing Louis Philippe I (section)

==Rule==
[[File:Louis-philippe.lami.jpg|thumb|''Louis Philippe (1773–1850), Roi Bourgeois'' by [[Eugène Lami]]]]
[[File:Eugène-Louis Lami 001.jpg|thumb|''[[The Arrival of Queen Victoria at the Château d'Eu]]'' by [[Eugène Lami]]. [[Queen Victoria]] arrives at the [[Château d'Eu]] during her visit in 1843]]
[[File:Louis Philippe I.jpg|thumb|Louis Philippe I is the only French king to be the subject of a photograph while reigning (1842 [[daguerreotype]])]]

Louis Philippe ruled in an unpretentious fashion, avoiding the pomp and lavish spending of his predecessors. Despite this outward appearance of simplicity, his support came from the wealthy ''[[bourgeoisie]]''. At first, he was much loved and called the "Citizen King" and the "bourgeois monarch", but his popularity suffered as his government was perceived as increasingly conservative and monarchical. 

Because he owed his elevation to a revolution in Paris and a faction of liberal deputies in the parliament of Charles X, Louis Philippe's rule "lacked...the mystical appeal of its [[Divine right of kings|Divine Right]] predecessor. Support for it was to a much greater degree conditional."<ref name="Price, 1993; p. 168">Price, 1993; p. 168</ref><ref>Fortescue, 2005; p. 29</ref> Unlike his predecessor, he did not have a dynastic legacy to draw on, so he turned to the glories of Napoleon I to prop up his own regime. He supported the [[retour des cendres|return of Napoleon's remains]] to France and his son, the [[François d'Orléans, Prince of Joinville|Duke of Joinville]], brought the remains from [[Saint Helena]] for reinterment at [[Les Invalides]]. The statue of Napoleon was returned to its spot atop the [[Vendôme Column]] in 1833, and the [[Arc de Triomphe]], a monument to Napoleon's victories, was inaugurated in 1836. (The monument includes a memorial to Louis Philippe's own contributions to the Revolutionary wars, as [[Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe|his name being inscribed on the northern pillar of the Arc]] as "Chartres" because he was Duke of Chartres during his revolutionary military service.) Louis Philippe also commissioned the creation of a [[Musée de l'Histoire de France (Versailles)|national history museum]] at the [[Palace of Versailles]], where famous Napoleonic battles were painted by important artists.<ref>Fortescue, 2005; p. 28</ref>

In parliament, the narrow, property-qualified electorate of the time (only about 1 in every 170 citizens was enfranchised at the beginning of the reign) provided Louis Philippe with consistent support.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Price |first=Roger |title=A Concise History of France |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1993 |page=166}}</ref> Under his management, the conditions of the working classes deteriorated, and the [[income gap]] widened considerably.{{Citation needed|date=February 2018}} According to William Fortescue, "Louis Philippe owed his throne to a popular revolution in Paris, he was the 'King of the Barricades', yet he went on to preside over a regime which rapidly gained notoriety for political repression of the left, class oppression of the poor and rule in the interests of the rich."<ref>Fortescue, 2005; p. 27</ref> In foreign affairs, it was a quiet period, with friendship with Great Britain.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bastide |first=Charles |year=1927 |title=The Anglo-French Entente under Louis-Philippe |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/2548358 |journal=Economica |issue=19 |pages=91–98 |doi=10.2307/2548358 |jstor=2548358}}</ref> In October 1844 he paid a visit to [[Queen Victoria]] at [[Windsor Castle]]. This made him the first reigning French king to set foot on English soil since [[John II of France|Jean II]] was imprisoned there after the [[Battle of Poitiers]] in 1356.<ref>de Flers, 1891; pp. 137–138</ref>

Throughout his reign, Louis Philippe faced domestic opposition from various factions, ranging from [[Legitimists]], who supported the senior branch of the Bourbons over the Orléans branch, to [[Republicanism|Republicans]]. This opposition, however, was weak and fragmented.<ref name="Price, 1993; p. 168"/> In the spring of 1832, a terrible outbreak of [[cholera]] in Paris fueled resentment against the July Monarchy and reignited revolutionary fervor. Many Parisians blamed Louis Philippe and his government for their perceived inaction in the face of the epidemic. This resentment culminated in the short-lived Republican uprising called the [[June Rebellion]], in which insurrectionists took over a portion of central Paris. The rebellion was quickly crushed by a huge force of soldiers and [[National Guard (France)|National Guards]] who descended on the city. Louis Philippe showed a cool resolve throughout the crisis, coming to Paris as soon as he was informed of the disturbances, greeting the troops, and going amongst the people.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mansel |first=Philip |title=Paris Between Empires: Monarchy and Revolution 1814–1852 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |year=2003 |pages=283–285}}</ref><ref>de Flers, 1891; pp. 106–109</ref>

An industrial and agricultural depression in 1846 led to the [[Revolutions of 1848 in France|1848 Revolutions]], and Louis Philippe's abdication.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Louis-Philippe King of France |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-Philippe |access-date=8 June 2019 |website=www.britannica.com}}</ref> The dissonance between his positive early reputation and his late unpopularity was epitomized by [[Victor Hugo]] in ''[[Les Misérables]]'' as an oxymoron describing his reign as "Prince Equality", in which Hugo states:{{Blockquote|[Louis Philippe had to] bear in his own person the contradiction of the Restoration and the Revolution, to have that disquieting side of the revolutionary which becomes reassuring in governing power ... He had been proscribed, a wanderer, poor. He had lived by his own labor. In Switzerland, this heir to the richest princely domains in France had sold an old horse in order to obtain bread. At Reichenau, he gave lessons in mathematics, while his sister Adelaide did wool work and sewed. These souvenirs connected with a king rendered the bourgeoisie enthusiastic. He had, with his own hands, demolished the iron cage of [[Mont-Saint-Michel]], built by [[Louis XI]], and used by [[Louis XV]]. He was the companion of Dumouriez, he was the friend of [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette|Lafayette]]; he had belonged to the Jacobins' club; [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau|Mirabeau]] had slapped him on the shoulder; [[Danton]] had said to him: "Young man!" <br/><br/> What is there against him? That throne. Take away Louis Philippe the king, there remains the man. And the man is good. He is good at times even to the point of being admirable. Often, in the midst of his gravest souvenirs, after a day of conflict with the whole diplomacy of the continent, he returned at night to his apartments, and there, exhausted with fatigue, overwhelmed with sleep, what did he do? ''He took a death sentence and passed the night in revising a criminal suit'', considering it something to hold his own against Europe, but that it was a still greater matter to rescue a man from the executioner.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hugo |first=Victor |url=http://www.online-literature.com/victor_hugo/les_miserables/225 |title=Les Miserables |chapter=III. Louis Philippe |author-link=Victor Hugo |via=Online-literature.com}}</ref>}}