Bourbon Restoration in France

The Bourbon Restoration returned the Bourbon monarchy to France in 1814 and again in 1815 after Napoleon’s Hundred Days. Louis XVIII and Charles X ruled under a constitutional charter, but the settlement remained contested by ultra-royalists, liberals, republicans and Bonapartists. The period ended with the July Revolution of 1830.

The restoration mattered because political identity could determine whether a person was trusted, promoted, watched or prosecuted. Officials who had served several regimes adapted quickly, while royalist reaction and fear of renewed Bonapartism encouraged denunciation and opportunism. The state preserved many changes created by the Revolution and Empire even as the dynasty attempted to restore monarchical legitimacy.

The opening and middle sections of The Count of Monte Cristo depend directly on this atmosphere. Villefort protects his royalist career by suppressing evidence connected to Bonapartism, while Dantès becomes a disposable victim of the uncertainty surrounding Napoleon’s return and the restored Bourbon government.