orig. Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, count de Provence
born Nov. 17, 1755, Versailles, France
died Sept. 16, 1824, Paris
King of France by title from 1795 and in fact from 1814 to 1824.
He fled the country in 1791, during the French Revolution, and issued counterrevolutionary manifestos and organized émigré-nobility associations. He became regent for his nephew Louis XVII after the 1793 execution of Louis XVI , and at the dauphin's death in 1795 he proclaimed himself king. When the allied armies entered Paris in 1814, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand negotiated the Bourbon Restoration and Louis was received with jubilation. He promised a constitutional monarchy, and the Charter of 1814 was adopted; after the interruption of the Hundred Days , when Napoleon returned from Elba, he resumed his constitutional monarchy. The legislature included a strong right-wing majority, and though Louis opposed the extremism of the ultra s, they exercised increasing control and thwarted his attempts to heal the wounds left by the Revolution. He was succeeded at his death by his brother, Charles X .