Louis XVIII

French monarchy state institutions Monarchy and royalism Counter-revolution 1755–1824 ○ Died while reigning

Head of émigré royalism during the Revolution who granted the Charter of 1814 as restored king

Born at Versailles in 1755, a son of the Dauphin Louis, he was styled Count of Provence. He fled to the Austrian Netherlands during the flight to Varennes in June 1791 and proclaimed himself regent, and when his nephew Louis XVII died in prison in 1795 he took the title Louis XVIII. He spent 23 years in exile in Prussia, Russia and Britain. After Napoleon's defeat in 1814 he took the throne and opened a constitutional monarchy with the Charter of 1814; during the Hundred Days in 1815 he fled to Ghent and returned after Waterloo. His return was followed by a second White Terror led by the ultra-royalists; in 1816 he dissolved their chamber, and in 1823 France intervened militarily in Spain. He died on the throne on 16 September 1824 and was succeeded by his brother Charles X.

Also known as: Count of Provence · Comte de Provence · Louis Stanislas Xavier