EMIGRE

any of the Frenchmen, mostly aristocrats, who fled France at the time of the French Revolution of 1789. From their places of exile in other countries, the migrs plotted against the Revolutionary government, seeking foreign help in their goal of restoring the old regime. The Revolutionary leaders in France, fearful of their activity, took action against them: migrs who did not return by January 1792 were liable to death as traitors; in the same year their property was confiscated by the state. Under the leadership of King Louis XVI's oldest brother, the comte de Provence (future king Louis XVIII), many migrs set up a court at Coblenz in the Rhineland. One of their number, Louis-Joseph, prince de Cond, commanded an army of migrs that assisted foreign powers in the wars against France, but the exiles never posed a serious military threat. A defeat at Quiberon Bay in southern Brittany in July 1795, in an attempt to aid a peasant revolt, dashed their hopes of a military success. A great number of migrs also took refuge in England. Juniper Hall, a country house in Mickleham, Surrey, became a home for some and a meeting place for many others passing through or visiting. Louis XVI's brother the comte d'Artois (future king Charles X), who headed the Ultras, or extreme reactionary royalists, spent most of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic years in England. Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orlans and head of the Orleanists (who would become King Louis-Philippe), arrived in England in 1800 after sojourns in Scandinavia and the United States. Napoleon Bonaparte granted the great majority of migrs amnesty in 1802, and many returned to France. After the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy (1814), the migrs became an important force in French politics, their views ranging from a moderate to an extreme royalist position. Their petitioning resulted in the Law of Indemnity of 1825, designed to reimburse the most needy of those who lost their lands. The gradual disappearance of the migrs, along with King Louis-Philippe's indifference to their cause, ended their influence.