Charles X (1757–1836) ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1824 until 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him. On May 29, 1825, King Charles X was anointed at the Cathedral of Reims, the traditional site of consecration of French kings. It had been unused since 1775, as Louis XVIII had foregone the ceremony to avoid controversy. Charles’ decision to be crowned, in contrast to his predecessor, Louis XVIII, proved unpopular with the French public. His rule of almost six years came to an abrupt end in 1830 due to the July Revolution, which ignored his attempts to keep the crown in the senior branch of the House of Bourbon and instead elected Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans as King of the French. Once again exiled, Charles died in Gorizia, Austria. His successor, Louis Phillipe, opted not to have a coronation. The French government broke up and sold off most of the French Crown Jewels after 1875, in hopes of avoiding any further royalist agitation against the newly restored republic.
From 1776 Louis XVI actively supported the North American colonists, who were seeking their independence from Great Britain, which was realized in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The ensuing debt and financial crisis contributed to the unpopularity of the Ancien Régime which culminated at the Estates-General of 1789. Discontent among the members of France’s middle and lower classes resulted in strengthened opposition to the French aristocracy and to the absolute monarchy, of which Louis and his wife, queen Marie Antoinette, were viewed as representatives. In 1789, the storming of the Bastille during riots in Paris marked the beginning of the French Revolution. Louis XVI was suspended and arrested at the time of the insurrection of August 10, 1792 one month before the constitutional monarchy was abolished and the First French Republic proclaimed on 21 September 1792. He was tried by the National Convention (self-instituted as a tribunal for the occasion), found guilty of high treason, and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793 as a desacralized French citizen known as “Citizen Louis Capet”, a nickname in reference to Hugh Capet, the founder of the Capetian dynasty – which the revolutionaries interpreted as Louis’ family name. Louis XVI is the only King of France ever to be executed, and his death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous French monarchy.
The first republic and the First Empire under Napoléon I followed the execution of Louis XVI. The Peninsular War (1807–14) and the French invasion of Russia in 1812 marked major military failures for Napoléon. His Grande Armée was badly damaged and never fully recovered. In 1813, the Sixth Coalition defeated his forces at the Battle of Leipzig and his enemies invaded France. Napoleon was forced to abdicate and go in exile to the Italian island of Elba. In 1815 he escaped and returned to power, but he was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. In April 1814, the Armies of the Sixth Coalition restored to the throne of France Louis XVIII, called the Bourbon pretender by historiographers, especially by those unfavorable to the restoration of the monarchy. A constitution, the Charter of 1814, was drafted, presenting all Frenchmen equal before the law, but retaining substantial prerogative for the king and nobility. Louis XVIII died on 16 September 1824, and was succeeded by his brother, the comte d’Artois, who took the title of Charles X.
Charles X (1757–1836) ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1824 until 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him. On May 29, 1825, King Charles X was anointed at the Cathedral of Reims, the traditional site of consecration of French kings. It had been unused since 1775, as Louis XVIII had foregone the ceremony to avoid controversy. Charles’ decision to be crowned, in contrast to his predecessor, Louis XVIII, proved unpopular with the French public. His rule of almost six years came to an abrupt end in 1830 due to the July Revolution, which ignored his attempts to keep the crown in the senior branch of the House of Bourbon and instead elected Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans as King of the French. Once again exiled, Charles died in Gorizia, Austria. His successor, Louis Phillipe, opted not to have a coronation. The French government broke up and sold off most of the French Crown Jewels after 1875, in hopes of avoiding any further royalist agitation against the newly restored republic.
Almost all the trappings of coronation had been destroyed during the revolution and melted down. As a result, for the coronation of Charles X, everything had to be re-made. In particular, the Holy Ampoule was destroyed in 1793 by French revolutionaries, when the Convention sent Philippe Rühl to smash the ampoule publicly on the pedestal of the statue of Louis XV with a hammer. The day before its destruction, the constitutional curé, Jules-Armand Seraine and a municipal officer, Philippe Hourelle had nevertheless largely emptied the ampulla of its balm and they gave some part of it respectively to Bouré, curé of Berry-au-Bac and Lecomte, judge at the tribunal of Reims. What was left was placed in a new Reliquaire de la Sainte Ampoule, seen above.
The ampoule, a vial of Roman glass about 1½ inches tall, came to light at Reims in time for the coronation of Louis VII in 1131. The legend that was associated with it at that time, asserted that it had been discovered in the sarcophagus of Saint Remi and identified it with the baptism of Clovis I, the first Frankish king converted to Christianity; it was kept thereafter in the Abbey of Saint-Remi, Reims and brought with formality to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Reims at each coronation, where the emphasis was on the unction rather than on the crowning. The story of the Holy Ampoule comes from the Legend of the Baptism of the Moribund Pagan, according to which a dying pagan asked for baptism at the hands of St Remigius (Remi), but when it was found that there was no Oil of the Catechumens or sacred Chrism available for the proper administration of the baptismal ceremony, St Remigius ordered two empty vials be placed on an altar and as he prayed before them these two vials miraculously filled respectively with the necessary Oil of the Catechumens and Chrism. The same oil was reportedly used in the Baptism of Clovis. The reality is that the vials were probably used to perfume the dead body of Saint Remi and the art of perfumery had been lost in the medieval period.
The coronation of Charles X was the last coronation performed at Reims. The coach which transported him to and from the coronation is shown above. A true masterpiece combining all the decorative arts, this coach was one of the very last to be built in Europe and the only example preserved in France. Take the time to visit the Tau Palace and see the these important historical objects if you visit Reims.
References:
Stanford Coronation of Charles X: https://www.stanford.edu/dept/music/Events/dowloads/Walton1825CoronationArticle.pdf
Mad Monarch: http://madmonarchist.blogspot.com/2010/06/monarch-profile-king-charles-x-of.html
Coronation Coach of Charles X: http://www.versaillesarras.com/index.php/en/oeuvres-salles/mur-d-images?option=com_content&view=article&id=124
Holy Ampoule: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=morris&book=french&story=ampoule
Holy Ampulla, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Ampulla
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