Bourbon Restoration

The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution (1789–1799), the end of the First Republic (1792–1804), and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon (1804–1814/1815) – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the heirs of the House of Bourbon, who once again became possessors of the Kingdom of France. The Bourbon Restoration existed from (about) 6 April 1814 until the popular uprisings of the July Revolution of 1830, excepting the interval of the "Hundred Days", less than a full year into the Restoration, when the Bourbon monarchy had again made themselves so unpopular with the general population of France that the family was again forced to flee Paris and France for Ghent, ahead of exploding civil disorders and collapsing civil authority.

At the beginning of the Hundred Days, deposed Emperor Napoleon I returned triumphantly to Paris from Elba. He was greeted with great acclaim and joy by French crowds lining the roads. Coming from far away with advance news spreading of his approach all along the way, crowds swelled his army overnight at his back, growing at every step, even by aggregating the very troops sent to arrest him by the monarchy on several occasions. With the flight of the king, after reaching Paris, he re-announced and reclaimed his dignities as Emperor. The European Great Powers were nowhere near as welcoming, and they quickly mobilized armies once more. This resulted in Napoleon's decisive defeat in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo.

There is little evidence that the Bourbon regime took away any lesson in the aftermath, and became increasingly annoying to the Parisian populace, and around France in general. The pre-revolution problems soon returned with court behavior driving home new hatreds between the upper and lower classes.

The new Bourbon regime was, however, a constitutional monarchy, unlike the Ancien Régime, which was absolute, so it had some limits on its abilities to govern. The period was characterized by a sharp conservative reaction, and consequent minor but consistent occurrences of civil unrest and disturbances. It also saw the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic Church as a power in French politics.