Editing Charles X of France (section)

=== Domestic policies ===
[[File:Médaille Charles X.jpg|thumb|Medal engraved by Alexis-Joseph Depaulis with, on the reverse, Charles X's oath on the Constitutional Charter, September 17, 1824.]]
Like Napoleon and then Louis XVIII before him, Charles X resided mainly at the [[Tuileries Palace]] and, in summer, at the [[Château de Saint-Cloud]], two buildings that no longer exist today. Occasionally he stayed at the [[Château de Compiègne]] and the [[Palace of Fontainebleau|Château de Fontainebleau]], while the Palace of Versailles, where he was born, remained uninhabited.

The reign of Charles <abbr>X</abbr> began with some liberal measures such as the abolition of press censorship, but the king renewed the term of [[Joseph de Villèle|Joseph de Villèlle]], president of the council since 1822, and gave the reins of government to the [[Ultra-royalist|ultraroyalists]].

He got closer to the population by the trip he made to the north of France in September 1827,<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1827 |title=King's journey to the Saint-Omer camp and in the northern departments , Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1827, p. 237 |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k28479p.texteImage |journal=Imprimerie Royale}}</ref> then to the east of France in September 1828.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1828 |title=King's trip to the eastern departments and to the Lunéville maneuver camp , Paris, Imprimerie Royale,1828, III + 213 p. |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k4259115/f2.item.texteImage |journal=Imprimerie Royale,1828}}</ref> He was accompanied by his eldest son and heir-apparent, the Duke of Angoulême, now [[Dauphin of France]].

In his first act as king, Charles attempted to bring comity to the House of Bourbon by granting the style of [[Royal Highness]] to his cousins of the [[House of Orléans]], a title denied by Louis XVIII because of the former Duke of Orléans' vote for the death of Louis XVI.

Charles gave his prime minister, Villèlle lists of laws to be ratified in each parliament. In April 1825, the government approved legislation originally proposed by Louis XVIII to pay an [[indemnity]] (the ''[[biens nationaux]]'') to nobles whose estates had been confiscated during the Revolution.<ref name="Price116" /> The law gave approximately 988 million [[francs]] worth of government bonds to those who had lost their lands, in exchange for their renunciation of their ownership. In the same month, the [[Anti-Sacrilege Act]] was passed. Charles's government attempted to re-establish male-only [[primogeniture]] for families paying over 300 francs in tax, but this was voted down in the Chamber of Deputies.<ref name="Price116">Price, pp. 116–118.</ref>

That Charles was not a popular ruler in the mostly-liberal minded urban Paris became apparent in April 1827, when chaos ensued during the king's review of the [[National Guard (France)|National Guard]] in Paris. In retaliation, the National Guard was disbanded but, as its members were not disarmed, it remained a potential threat.<ref name="Price119" /> After losing his parliamentary majority in a general election in November 1827, Charles dismissed Prime Minister Villèle on 5 January 1828 and appointed [[Jean Baptiste Gay, vicomte de Martignac|Jean-Baptise de Martignac]], a man the king disliked and thought of only as provisional. On 5 August 1829, Charles dismissed Martignac and appointed [[Jules de Polignac]], who, however, lost his majority in parliament at the end of August, when the Chateaubriand faction defected. Regardless, Polignac retained power and refused to recall the Chambers until March 1830.<ref name="Price122">Price, pp. 122–128.</ref>