Everything about Legitimist totally explained
Legitimists are
Royalists in
France who believe that the
King of France and
Navarre must be chosen according to the simple application of the
Salic Law. Called "
Ultra-royalists" under the
Bourbon Restoration, they're adherents of the elder branch of the
Bourbon dynasty, overthrown in the 1830
July Revolution. Distinguished historian
René Rémond analyses the legitimists as one of the three main
right-wing factions in France, which was principally characterized by their
counterrevolutionary opinions (they rejected the 1789
French Revolution, the
Republic and everything that went with it; thus, they progressively became a
far-right movement, close to
traditionalist Catholics). The other two right-wing factions are, according to Rémond, the
Orleanists and the
Bonapartists.
The Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830)
Following the
Bourbon Restoration in 1814, a strongly restricted
census suffrage sent to the
Chamber of deputies an
ultra-royalist majority in
1815–
1816 (
la Chambre introuvable) and from
1824 to
1827. Called as such because they were "more royalist than the king" (
plus royalistes que le roi), the Ultras were thus the dominant political faction under
Louis XVIII (1815–1824) and
Charles X (1824–1830). Opposed to the
constitutional monarchy of Louis XVIII and to the limitation of the
sovereign's power, they hoped to restore the
Ancien Régime and cancel the rupture created by the
French Revolution. Just as the Restoration, Ultras opposed themselves to
liberal,
republican and
democratic ideas. While Louis XVIII hoped to moderate the "restoration" of the
Ancien Régime in order to make it acceptable by the population, the Ultras would never abandon the dream of an integral restoration, even after the 1830
July Revolution which set the
Orleanist branch on the throne and the Ultras back to their castles in the countryside and to private life. Their importance during the Restoration was in part due to electoral laws which largely favored them (on one hand, a
Peer Chamber composed of hereditary members; on the other hand, a Chamber of Deputies elected under a heavily restricted census suffrage, which permitted approximatively 100,000 Frenchmen to vote).
Louis XVIII's first ministers, who included
Talleyrand, the
duc de Richelieu and
Decazes, were replaced by the
Chambre introuvable dominated by the Ultras. Louis XVIII finally decided to dissolve this chaotic assembly, but the new liberals whom had replaced them were not any more easy to govern. After the 1820 assassination of the
duc de Berry, the ultra-
reactionary son of the comte d'Artois (Louis XVIII's brother and future Charles X), and a short interval during which the duc de Richelieu governed, the Ultras were back in government, headed by the
comte de Villèle.
The death of Louis XVIII in 1824, seen as too moderate, lifted the Ultras' spirits. In January 1825, Villèle's government passed the
Anti-Sacrilege Act, which punished of
capital punishment the stealing of sacred vases (with or without consecrated hosts). This "anachronistic law" (
Jean-Noël Jeanneney) was in the end never applied (except on a minor point) and repealed in the first months of
Louis-Philippe's reign (1830–1848). The Ultras also wanted to create courts to punish
Radicals, and passed laws restricting
freedom of the press.
After the 1830
July Revolution, which replaced the Bourbons with the
Orleanist branch, which supported more liberal policies, the Ultras' influence declined, although it subsisted until at least the
16 May 1877 crisis and 1879, and even longer. Thus, they softened their views and made the restoration to the throne of the
House of Bourbon their new primary target. From 1830 on they became known as Legitimists.
Legitimists under the July monarchy (1830–1848)
During the
July Monarchy of
1830 to
1848, when the junior
Orleanist branch held the throne, the Legitimists were politically
marginalized, many withdrawing from active participation in political life. The situation was complicated before 1844 by debate as to who the legitimate
king was:
Charles X and his son
Louis-Antoine the Dauphin had both
abdicated during the 1830 Revolution in favor of Charles's young grandson, Henri
comte de Chambord. Until the deaths of Charles X and his son in 1836 and 1844, respectively, many Legitimists continued to recognize each of them in turn as the rightful king, ahead of Chambord.
Legitimists under the Second Republic and the Empire (1848–1871)
The fall of King
Louis Philippe in
1848 led to a strengthening of the Legitimist position. Although the childlessness of Chambord weakened the hand of the Legitimists, they came back into political prominence during the
Second Republic. Through much of this time there was discussion of "fusion" with the
Orleanist Party. This prospect prompted several
sons of Louis Philippe to declare their support for Chambord. But fusion wasn't actually achieved, and after 1850 the two parties again diverged. The period of the
Second Empire saw the Legitimists once again cast out of active political life.
Legitimists under the Third Republic (1871–1940)
Nevertheless, the Legitimists remained a significant party within
elite opinion, attracting support of the larger part of the
ancien régime aristocracy. After the
Siege of Paris in 1870 and the 1871
Paris Commune, the Legitimists returned for one final time to political prominence. The
8 February 1871 democratic elections, held with the
manhood universal suffrage sent to the
National Assembly a royalist majority, supported by the provinces, while all Parisian deputies were
Republican. This time, the Legitimists were able to agree with the Orleanists on a program of fusion, largely because of the growing likelihood that the count of Chambord would die without children. The liberal Orleanists agreed to recognize Chambord as king, and the Orleanist claimant himself,
Louis-Philippe Albert d'Orléans (1838–1894), count of Paris, recognized Chambord as head of the French royal house. In return, Legitimists in the Assembly agreed that, should Chambord die childless, Philippe d'Orléans would succeed him as king. Unfortunately for French monarchism, Chambord's refusal to accept the
Tricolor as the flag of France and to abandon the
fleur-de-lys, symbol of the
Ancien régime, made
restoration impossible until after his death, by which time the monarchists had long since lost their parliamentary majority due to the
16 May 1877 crisis. The death of the
comte de Chambord in
1883 effectively dissolved the
parti légitimiste as a political force in France.
The
nationalist Action française, founded in 1899 during the
Dreyfus Affair, conversed itself to monarchism under
Charles Maurras' influence. Although Maurras'
integralism and faith in monarchy and the Catholic Church was mostly based on pragmatic reasons, the
Action française remained quite popular among French
reactionary elements, at least until its 1926 Papal condemnation, and might have attracted in that sense some legitimists. Unsurprisingly, Maurras advocated as soon as 1919
women's right to vote (obtained only by
Charles de Gaulle's 1944 ordonnance), on the grounds that just as the countryside had supported the monarchists during the 1871 elections, women would support the more
conservative representatives.
Affected by
sinistrisme, few conservatives explicitly called themselves
right wing during the Third Republic, a term associated with the
Counter-Revolution and anti-republican feelings. As soon as 1910, the appellation was thus reserved to radical groups. Those Orleanists whom had rallied the Republic in 1893, after the comte de Chambord's death ten years before, still called themselves
Droite constitutionnelle or
républicaine (Constitutional or Republican Right). But they changed their name in 1899, and went to the 1902 elections under the name of the
Action libérale party. Thus, the only group which openly reinvidicated itself from the right-wing in 1910 gathered some nostalgics royalists, and from 1924 on the term "right wing" practically vanished from the parliamentary right's glossary.
By this time, the vast majority of legitimists had retired to their
castles in the countryside and deserted the political arena. Although the
Action française remained an influential movement throughout the 1930s, its motivations for the
restauration of monarchy were quite distinct from older Legitimists' views, and Maurras' instrumental use of Catholicism achieved setting them apart. Thus, Legitimists didn't much participate in political events in the 1920s–1930s, in particular in the
6 February 1934 riots organized by
far right leagues that, apart from the
Action française, had little in common with their reactionary nature. These royalist
aristocrats clearly distinguished themselves from the new ultra right, influenced by
fascism and
nazism, which was appearing. However, Legitimists acclaimed, just as Maurras, the fall of the Third Republic after the 1940
Battle of France as a "divine surprise", and many of them joined
Philippe Pétain's
Vichy regime as an unexpected opportunity to impose a reactionary program in occupied France.
Legitimists under Vichy and after World War II (1940–Present)
However, they returned to prominence during
Vichy France, according to historian
René Rémond's studies of the
right-wing factions in France. Some would also support the
OAS during the
Algerian War (1954–62).
Marcel Lefebvre's
Society of St. Pius X, founded in 1970, especially in France, shares aspects with the legitimist movement, according to Rémond.
As of 2006, they remain strongly attached to the
traditionalist wing of the
Catholic Church and are particularly encouraged by the
theological conservatism of Pope
Benedict XVI. Such Legitimists are strongly opposed to the proposed
European Constitution and anything else perceived as threatening the independence of France. Among French Legitimists, there's diversity of opinion. Some are closer to the mainstream (Orleanist) Royalists. Others, totally devoted to the Bourbon
dynasty and the memory of the
Vendée, tend to gather around
Traditionalist Catholic places, such as the
Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet church in Paris, or around far-right parties such as
Jean-Marie Le Pen's
Front National or
de Villiers'
Mouvement pour la France. There are small but active Legitimist circles throughout France.
After Chambord's death, only the descendants of
Philip V of Spain remained senior in descent to the Orléans branch of the royal dynasty. But Philip's branch had been Spanish for 170 years, having been obliged by the 1713
Treaty of Utrecht to renounce their claim to the French throne. So most French royalists recognized the comte de Paris as the legitimate pretender.
Carlism
A remnant, known as the
Blancs d'Espagne, by repudiating Philip V's renunciation of the French throne as
ultra vires and contrary to the monarchical constitution of the
ancien régime, upheld the rights of the eldest branch of the Bourbons, represented as of 1883 by the
Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne. This group was initially minuscule, but began to grow larger after
World War II due both to the political
leftism of the Orleanist Pretender,
Henri, comte de Paris, and to the active efforts of the claimants of the elder line—
Jaime, Duke of Segovia, the disinherited second son of
Alfonso XIII of Spain, and his son,
Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz—to secure legitimist support, such that by the 1980s, the elder line had fully reclaimed for its supporters the political title of "Legitimists". This means that the current legitimist claimant is the Spanish-born
Louis-Alphonse de Bourbon (Luis-Alfonso de Borbón y Martínez Bordiú), styled
duc d'Anjou. A 1987
attempt
by the Orleanist heir (and other Bourbons) to contest Louis-Alphonse's
use of the Anjou title and to deny him use of the plain
coat of arms of France was dismissed by the French courts in March 1989. The duc d'Anjou, a French citizen through his paternal grandmother, is generally recognised as the senior legitimate
representative of the House of
Capet.
List of Legitimist Claimants to the French throne since 1792
In the 1870s the rival Orleanist and Legitimist claimants agreed, for the sake of the French Monarchy, to end their rivalry. The comte de Paris accepted the prior claim to the throne of the comte de Chambord. Chambord, who remained childless, in turn acknowledged that the comte de Paris would claim the right to succeed him as heir. Since then, many Legitimists have accepted the descendants of the comte de Paris as the joint Legitimist-Orleanist pretender.
According to those Legitimists who accepted the Orléans successors following the death of the comte de Chambord, the list of claims is as follows:
Philippe, Comte de Paris (Philippe VII) (1883 – 1894)
Philippe, duc d'Orléans (Philippe VIII) (1894 - 1926)
Jean, Duc de Guise (Jean III) (1926 – 1940)
Henri, Comte de Paris (Henry VI) (1940 – 1999)
Henri, Comte de Paris, Duc de France (Henry VII) (1999 - Present)
However, the more ardent Legitimists argued that the renunciation of the French throne by Philip V of Spain, second grandson of Louis XIV, was invalid, and that in 1883 [whenChambord died childless] the throne had passed to Philip V's male heirs, as follows:
Juan, Count of Montizón (Jean III) (1883 – 1887) (male heir of Philip V of Spain)
Carlos, Duke of Madrid (Charles XI) (1887 – 1909)
Jacques, Duke of Anjou and Madrid (Jacques I) (1909 – 1931)
Alfonso Carlos, Duke of San Jaime (Charles XII) (1931 – 1936)
Alfonso XIII, King of Spain (1886-1931), Claimant (as Alphonse I, 1936 – 1941)
Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia (Jacques II) (1941 – 1975)
Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz (Alphonse II) (1975 - 1989)
Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou (Louis XX) (1989 - Present)Further Information
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