Regicide and Political Chaos
Jacobins and historians accuse Louis XVI of being a “tyrant.” Jacobins celebrated their treasons against their king. Even today, the anthem of the French Republic is filled with Jacobin lyrics!
Was Louis XVI a tyrant? Of course not! He was a good man, though not very politically savvy, which would aid in his downfall.
It is well-known that Louis XVI signed the Edict of Versailles, which granted religious toleration to Protestants. This edict nullified the infamous Edict of Fontainebleau, which led to many Protestants, including many intellectuals and a few military men, to leave the kingdom.
Louis XVI also ended serfdom on royal land and ended the taille, a much-hated land tax imposed on the peasantry. Louis also ended the tax exemption for the nobility and ended the corvée, a type of forced labour.
Regardless, Jacobins decried their king as a tyrant. On 21 January 1793, Louis the Martyr King was murdered. Jacobins rejoiced.
What followed, however, was the Reign of Terror, resulting in the executions of 16,000 people, 2,000 of which were in Paris alone.
This was led by the ironically named “Committee of Public Safety.” The rule of the Committee of Public Safety ended after the execution of Robespierre in 1794. The Committee would be abolished in 1795, to be replaced by the French Directory.
The Directory would late be overthrown by Napoleon. This was called the Coup of 18 Brumaire in accordance with the new “Republican Calendar,” an insane creation of the Jacobins.
This led to the French Consulate, led by Napoleon as First Consul of France.
The Consulate ended on 2 December 1804, when Napoleon became “Emperor of the French.” Thus began the First French Empire, which would fall in 1814, only to be restored again in the Hundred Days. Napoleon was finally defeated at Waterloo and sent into exile on St. Helena.
The Bourbons would be re-restored after Waterloo under Louis XVIII and Charles X.
Charles X would go on to be overthrown in the July Revolution of 1830, which led to the illegitimate July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe as the so-called “King of the French.”
The July Monarchy would fall in the Revolution of 1848.
There was a short-lived Second Republic, which was overthrown in an auto-coup by Napoleon III in the Second French Empire.
The Third Republic came after the fall of the Second Empire in 1871. The Third Republic lasted until World War II. It was replaced by the Fourth, and eventually, the Fifth Republic.
Division and Dissatisfaction
We see today what the Fifth Republic looks like. One unpopular president follows another. France has an elected head of state, a politician, one who is divisive. It is the nature of politics to be divisive. That is the problem with the Republic.
Emmanuel Macron rules like a “Jupiterian,” but he is unpopular and has had to walk-back some of his proposals. This is of no surprise. All of it is to be expected.
France is not some nation born to be a republic. It is true that the Fifth Republic, with its strong presidency, is better than the Fourth Republic. But the president is still a politician.
Restoration
France was, and by all rights ought to be, a kingdom. Restoration of the rightful king, Jean IV, is the proper solution for bringing France out of the gutter of politics.
France desperately needs, and deserves, a head of state above the fray of politics. France needs a head of state who did not get his position on some quest for power. A king, of course, is born into it. He does not search for it.
This is the obvious solution: a head of state not dependant on the will of political factions, one who does not thirst for power. For, as we all know, it is the nature of politics to attract the power-hungry. And those who rise to the top are so often the most cunning and hungry of all.
France needs her king.
Vive le Roi Jean IV !
The French Unionist Project 