Foreign policy of France under the July Monarchy

The foreign policy of France under the July Monarchy from 1830 to 1840 was dominated by two main elements: a new system of alliances marked by rapprochement with the United Kingdom within the "Entente Cordiale" and the French conquest of Algeria, as part of a policy aimed primarily at keeping France at peace with its European neighbors, summarized by Casimir Perier's words: "peace without compromising honor."

Recognition of the new regime by foreign powers

The revolution of 1830 in France greatly alarmed European powers, who feared a repeat of Napoleon I's return from Elba in 1815. This fear reunited the monarchies of Europe against the danger of a bellicose and revenge-seeking republican France, especially since the republicans, though few in number but vocal, made a lot of noise about their desire to avenge the humiliation of Waterloo. In reality, France in 1830 was incapable of sustaining a war against the European powers. The economic crisis had strained finances, and the army was not in a state to fight: the best elements had been sent to Greece and Algeria, and the revolution had sown indiscipline in the ranks.

In essence, as Thiers had argued to Adélaïde d'Orléans on 30 July 1830, foreign powers could not fail to see in the new monarchy a means to avoid a republic, and to accommodate an agitation that, by dividing France, would only weaken it, as long as it remained confined within its borders and did not spread to its neighbors. It can even be thought that, for the powers, which had become annoyed by the freedom of action of Charles X, the accession to the throne of Louis-Philippe, hampered by uncertain legitimacy and primarily concerned with peace with his neighbors to consolidate his domestic position, was a real relief. Indeed, as Guy Antonetti notes: "The European sovereigns pretended to regret Charles X, but they recognized Louis-Philippe!"

Barely seated on the throne, the first objective of Louis-Philippe I was to obtain recognition of the July Monarchy by foreign powers. Before undertaking official steps, he had to wait for Charles X and his family to leave French territory. Once he had confirmation on 19 August, the king wrote letters to all the monarchs of Europe, which he had delivered by personal emissaries (marshals and generals). These letters justified the change of regime and officially notified the beginning of the new reign. They presented the July Revolution as "a catastrophe that one would have wished to avoid" and affirmed that the king "lament[ed] the misfortunes of the elder branch of his family." Louis-Philippe protested that "his only ambition would have been to prevent them and to remain in the rank where Providence had placed him," but argued that he had to devote himself to saving France from anarchy.

• Exasperated by Charles X, the United Kingdom welcomed the new monarchy, especially since the Duke of Orléans, very Anglophile, had consistently defended the interests of the United Kingdom between 1800 and 1814. Thus, even before receiving Louis-Philippe's letter, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Aberdeen, warned Metternich that the United Kingdom would remain neutral regarding the political changes in France, provided that France remained calm. On 31 August, the British ambassador, Charles Stuart, presented his letters of credence to Louis-Philippe, and on 3 September, the Council of Ministers appointed Talleyrand as ambassador to London. The neutrality of the United Kingdom, which signified the rupture of the unity of the Holy Alliance, was the best guarantee of non-interference by the powers in French affairs.
• In Austria, Emperor Francis I declared to Louis-Philippe's envoy, whom he received on 27 August, and who confirmed that the new regime would respect all treaties, even those of 1815, and would not seek any territorial expansion, "that he abhors what has just happened in France" and "that the current order of things cannot last," but that he cannot consider "favoring anarchy" and would therefore recognize the July Monarchy, which he did on 5 September. His ambassador, Count Apponyi, presented his letters of credence to Louis-Philippe on 24 October.
• In Prussia, King Frederick William III aligned his conduct with that of the Austrian Emperor and recognized the new regime without difficulty. Similarly, the July Monarchy easily obtained recognition from the King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, whose ambassador presented his letters of credence on 13 October, from the King of Sardinia, Charles Felix, and from the King of Denmark, Frederick VI.
• The Emperor of Russia, Nicholas I, on the other hand, showed marked insolence in form, even though his ambassador in Paris, Pozzo di Borgo, had supported the July Revolution and pushed for the Orleanist solution. Having himself come to the throne under suspicious circumstances, Nicholas I was all the more touchy on the subject of legitimacy. While he recognized Louis-Philippe's government, the letter he sent implicitly denied him sovereign status. Relations between the two courts normalized as early as 1831, following the appointment as ambassador to Saint Petersburg of the Duke of Mortemart, highly favored by Nicholas I, who then lifted the ban he had imposed on his subjects from traveling to France. They remained, however, devoid of any cordiality.
• In Portugal, the usurper Dom Miguel pretended to ignore the new regime. Using as a pretext judicial proceedings considered unjust against two French nationals, France sent the squadron of Admiral Roussin, who, after issuing an ultimatum to the Portuguese on 8 July 1831, forced the passes of the Tagus on the 11, despite their reputation for being impassable, laid siege to Lisbon, and compelled Portugal to accept all of France's conditions on the 14. Less than two years later, in July 1833, Dom Miguel's brother, Dom Pedro, supported by the British fleet, deposed the usurper and established a new liberal-inspired regime, immediately recognized by Paris and London.
• The only European sovereign to obstinately refuse to receive the envoy of the King of the French was the Duke of Modena, Francis IV, an attitude of hostility all the more noted as Louis-Philippe's maternal grandmother, the Duchess of Penthièvre, was born Maria Teresa Felicitas d'Este, and through his mother, Maria Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Modena, he himself descended from Princess Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans, daughter of the Regent. The Duchy of Modena never recognized the July Monarchy, and it was indeed a princess from Modena whom the legitimist pretender, the "Count of Chambord," married in 1846.

Thus, by the end of October 1830, Louis-Philippe had succeeded in having the July Monarchy recognized by all European powers by committing to respect the borders drawn by the treaties of 1815 and by presenting himself as a bulwark against "anarchy" in France.

July Monarchy and Troubles

The monarchies of Europe recognized the July Monarchy only because they saw it as a bulwark against the republican threat in France and against any temptation to export the revolutionary spirit to Europe. The goodwill of foreign powers towards the new regime was therefore contingent on these two conditions. However, troubles in Belgium, Poland, and Italy soon created a perilous context for the young monarchy.

Belgium

Occupied by revolutionary armies in 1794 and annexed in 1795, the Départements réunis, known as the Belgian provinces, were taken from France in 1814. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 united them with the former United Provinces within a Kingdom of the Netherlands, under the sovereignty of the House of Nassau. The United Kingdom then financed the construction of a series of fortresses along the French border to prevent any reconquest attempts.

Belgian Revolution

The Belgians chafed under the rule of William I of the Netherlands, and by the late 1820s, the country began to stir. On 25 August 1830, the people of Brussels rose up, and the troops sent by William I to restore order were halted by Belgian militias on 27 September, then pushed back to the former border of the Austrian Netherlands. On 4 October, Belgium's independence was proclaimed in Brussels, and a provisional government was formed, associating Catholics Félix de Mérode and Emmanuel d'Hoogvorst with liberals Alexandre Gendebien and Charles Rogier.

Main article: Belgian Revolution

In France, the left, nationalist and revanchist, saw in the Belgian troubles an opportunity to regain control of what public opinion then considered a lost French province. It loudly called for military intervention in favor of the Belgian insurgents: this party included liberal Catholics, patriots like Armand Carrel, republicans like Godefroy Cavaignac, Bonapartists like General Lamarque, and the petty bourgeoisie that identified with the "movement party" of Laffitte and Thiers.

The risk, however, was to provoke Prussian intervention in support of the King of the Netherlands. Indeed, besides William I being the brother-in-law of Frederick William III, Prussia, which had seized the territories beyond the Rhine annexed by the Empire in 1815 (Trier, Mainz, Cologne, etc.), could fear that if it allowed France to intervene in Belgium, it would be the next victim of French revanchist patriotism.

Independent Belgium

For Louis-Philippe, who in this respect was merely following the political line defined by Louis XV in 1748, there was no question of France seeking to recover Belgium, as such territorial expansion would be unacceptable to the United Kingdom, which considered it a dogma of its international policy not to tolerate French sovereignty over the mouths of the Scheldt. By reassuring the United Kingdom in this way, Louis-Philippe sought to obtain its support for the creation of a neutral state in Belgium, under the joint guarantee of the European powers:

The Netherlands, Louis-Philippe explained to Guizot, have always been the stumbling block to peace in Europe: none of the great powers can, without concern and jealousy, see them in the hands of another. Let them be, by general consent, an independent and neutral state; this state will become the keystone of the European order.

This operation would also allow France to avenge 1815 by breaking up the Holy Alliance and obtaining the dismantling of the fortified "barrier" established by the United Kingdom.

Prince Talleyrand. Portrait by Ary Scheffer, 1828. Chantilly, Musée Condé.

The King of the French began by informing Prussia and Russia that France would not intervene in Belgium but would not tolerate intervention by another power. Molé told the Prussian ambassador, Werther, on 31 August, and the king declared to the Russian ambassador, Pozzo di Borgo: "If the Prussians enter Belgium, it is war, for we will not tolerate it." Thus appeared the "principle of non-intervention," which was to have a bright future. Then, Louis-Philippe tasked Talleyrand with proposing to the United Kingdom France's renunciation of Belgium in exchange for its neutrality. The British government immediately accepted and requested that the Belgian question be discussed by the conference of the five powers (United Kingdom, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and France) convened in London to discuss the Greek affair.

The Belgian provisional government convened a National Congress, which decided at the end of November 1830 that Belgium would be a constitutional monarchy while excluding members of the House of Nassau from the crown. However, the powers gathered in London had considered installing on the Belgian throne the Prince of Orange, son of the King of the Netherlands, so as not to inflict too great a blow to the treaties of Vienna of 1815.

But the Tory ministry of Wellington, very attached to the respect of the treaties of 1815, was overthrown in London and replaced on 22 November by a Whig ministry presided over by Lord Grey, whose Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, proved much more conciliatory; moreover, the Russian army was mobilized by the repression of the Polish insurrection, which broke out on 29 November, and could not come to the aid of William I. Palmerston and Talleyrand then took control of the London conference, which imposed an armistice on the Dutch and Belgians, recognized Belgium's independence (20 December), decided that Belgium would be a perpetually neutral state under the guarantee of the powers, but awarded the King of the Netherlands the entirety of Luxembourg and Limburg (20 January 1831), which the Belgians contested and which would soon reopen the conflict.

Belgian throne

Starting from the end of December 1830, the Belgians began to search for a king. As Louis-Philippe observed to Marshal Maison on 11 November, "the composition of the National Congress of Brussels is quite similar to what it was in 1790 under Vandernoot and Van Enpen, that is, it is largely composed of the aristocracy and clergy of the country." Therefore, it was unlikely that a Protestant prince could be elected to the Belgian throne.

Nicolas Gosse, King Louis-Philippe refuses the crown offered by the Belgian Congress to the Duke of Nemours, 17 February 1831, 1836 – Palace of Versailles

Furthermore, Louis-Philippe posited as a principle that it was impossible for a French or Austrian prince to become King of the Belgians: "It is believed that the Belgians would be inclined to ask for one of my sons, but this idea must be dismissed, and it must not even be discussed, since in the current state of Europe, this discussion would be dangerous and would present no chance of success. The same can be said of all the archdukes of Austria."

Thus, the possible contenders were, in reality, relatively few:

• Count Félix de Mérode, a member of the Belgian provisional government, was a good Catholic, married to a Frenchwoman, niece of La Fayette, but although a member of one of the greatest families of the Belgian aristocracy, he was not a prince and refused, for this reason, to stand as a candidate. But he could act as regent for a minor king or become a hereditary grand duke.
• Auguste de Beauharnais (°1810), Duke of Leuchtenberg, son of Prince Eugène de Beauharnais and Princess Augusta of Bavaria. His candidacy was supported in France by the Bonapartists, among whom the Duke of Bassano. But Louis-Philippe could not accept seeing Napoleon's family installed in Belgium, even in the form of what he disdainfully called the "Beauharnaiserie."
• Charles Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies (°1811), Prince of Capua, first brother of King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies and nephew of Queen Maria Amalia.
• Prince Otto of Bavaria (°1815), second son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. He was the United Kingdom's candidate.
• Prince John of Saxony (°1801), second nephew of King Anthony of Saxony.
• Ferdinand of Savoy (°1822), Duke of Genoa, second son of the Prince of Carignano, heir to the King of Sardinia, Charles Felix of Sardinia.

Within the Belgian National Congress, a strong movement of sympathy leaned towards the Duke of Leuchtenberg. From the beginning of January 1831, Louis-Philippe let the Belgians know that he would never recognize the latter as King of the Belgians, that he refused to consider the crown going to his son, the Duke of Nemours, but that he would be pleased to see the election of Otto of Bavaria, to whom he would gladly give one of his daughters in marriage. While Count de Mérode supported the Prince of Bavaria, two other parties formed within the Congress, one in favor of the Duke of Leuchtenberg, the other for the Duke of Nemours. On 3 February, out of 191 voters (absolute majority 96), Nemours had 89 votes, Leuchtenberg 67, and Archduke Charles Louis of Austria 35. In the second round, out of 192 voters (absolute majority 97), Nemours had 97 votes, Leuchtenberg 74, and the Archduke 21. Having just obtained the absolute majority, the Duke of Nemours—soon called the "Brussels sprout" in Paris—was proclaimed king.

As a delegation from the Belgian National Congress set out for Paris to officially notify this result to Louis-Philippe, Talleyrand negotiated with the United Kingdom an agreement whereby France would refuse the Belgian throne for the Duke of Nemours if, in return, the powers committed not to recognize the Duke of Leuchtenberg if he were elected. To the Belgian deputies who visited him at the Palais-Royal on 17 February 1831, Louis-Philippe could then declare that his concern for maintaining peace in Europe and his lack of dynastic ambition led him to decline their offer. The Belgians, after conferring temporary regency on the president of the National Congress, Surlet de Chokier, resumed their search for a king.

Leopold of Saxe-Coburg

The candidacies of John of Saxony, Otto of Bavaria, and Charles Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies were thus re-examined. Officially, Louis-Philippe supported the latter, who was a nephew of Queen Maria Amalia, but he had the significant disadvantage of also being the half-brother of the Duchess of Berry and, consequently, the uncle of the "Count of Chambord." Moreover, his chances were slim, as the House of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies was considered one of the most reactionary in Europe.

None of the contenders seemed poised to win when the United Kingdom presented its candidate, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, widower of Princess Charlotte, the only daughter of George IV, and whose sister, Victoria, had married Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, fourth son of George III. Although he had personal friendship for Prince Leopold, whom he had known well while living across the Channel, Louis-Philippe could not show much enthusiasm for this candidacy supported by the United Kingdom and the Holy Alliance, but his ambassador in London, Talleyrand, supported it behind the scenes and immediately conceived the project of a marriage between Leopold and a princess of Orléans.

On 4 June 1831, the Belgian National Congress elected Prince Leopold with 152 votes out of 196 voters. Leopold received the Belgian delegation in London and accepted the crown of Belgium on 9 July, being enthroned in Brussels on 21 July.

Dutch military intervention

William I of the Netherlands

Main article: Ten Days' Campaign

Leopold of Saxe-Coburg had made his acceptance of the Belgian crown conditional on the National Congress recognizing the "Eighteen Articles" developed by the London Conference as principles for settling territorial disputes between the Netherlands and Belgium. These Eighteen Articles, which took the 1790 borders as a reference, were rather favorable to Belgian claims on Limburg and Luxembourg. It was therefore the King of the Netherlands, William I, who rejected the Eighteen Articles and, breaking the armistice on 1 August, invaded Belgium starting on the 2.

Immediately, Leopold requested assistance from the United Kingdom and France. Without consulting the powers, due to the urgency, Casimir Perier immediately ordered Marshal Gérard, who had taken command of the Northern Army, strong of 50,000 men, since mid-June, to come to the aid of the Belgians. Louis-Philippe sent his two eldest sons, the Duke of Orléans and the Duke of Nemours, to participate in the expedition. By 6 August, French troops were ready to cross the Belgian border, but the Belgian government, seized with a scruple, invoked the kingdom's constitution, which required the authorization of the chambers to allow the entry of a foreign army onto national territory. Given the gravity of the situation, King Leopold took it upon himself to ask Marshal Gérard on 8 August to enter Belgium. The French took position in Brussels on the 12th August, and to avoid a war against France, the Dutch king decided to withdraw his army. The French army was promptly recalled by mid-September, at the injunction of the London Conference, which was concerned.

Marshal Gérard

In this affair, the July Monarchy demonstrated its military capability, but also its good faith and respect for commitments made. France had promised not to seek to reconquer the territories lost in 1815, and it kept its word. At the same time, it intervened militarily to ensure its security and independence. It obtained what it wanted: the guarantee of a free and neutral Belgium and the dismantling of the fortresses. Domestically, the outcome was very positive for Louis-Philippe: the patriots were delighted, and the revolutionaries could pride themselves on having contributed to "liberating" a people enslaved in 1815. Finally, France managed to break the unity of the Holy Alliance: with the United Kingdom, it created a third state in Belgium, thus outlining a liberal Western alliance—France, United Kingdom, Belgium—against absolute monarchies in the East—Austria, Prussia, Russia. In doing so, France broke its isolation in Europe.

In London, the conference developed the Treaty of the Twenty-Four Articles of 15 October 1831, which awarded Belgium the eastern part of Limburg and Luxembourg, as well as the mouths of the Scheldt. The Belgians accepted it, albeit reluctantly, on 15 November, while the Netherlands refused it.

On 14 December 1831, the four powers concluded a secret agreement with Belgium on the secure places, excluding France. Louis-Philippe was furious, but his ambassador in London, Talleyrand, reassured him by sending him on 5 January 1832 a note from the plenipotentiaries who had signed the agreement of 14 December: "H.M. will find in this note expressed reasons to be completely reassured about the fear of a renewal of the Holy Alliance, with which the government seemed a little too preoccupied. When the United Kingdom and France march together on all major issues, and Europe knows and sees it, there is no possible Holy Alliance." Talleyrand thus laid the foundations of the Entente Cordiale, which would be the cardinal principle of the July Monarchy's foreign policy.

Alliance between France and Belgium

Princess Louise d'Orléans, first Queen of the Belgians

In 1830, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg had sought the hand of a daughter of Louis-Philippe, but he was rebuffed on three grounds: his uncertain situation, his liaison with a dancer, and his Lutheran faith. These three reasons vanished once he acceded to the Belgian throne: his situation was secure, he had broken off with his mistress, and he committed to raising his children in the Catholic faith. For Louis-Philippe, such a marriage would set a precedent that could only facilitate the matrimonial establishment of his numerous children.

The King of the Belgians visited the King of the French at the Château de Compiègne between 29 May and 1 June 1832. The meeting allowed for the arrangement of the marriage conditions between Leopold I and Princess Louise d'Orléans, the eldest daughter of Louis-Philippe.

The ceremony was celebrated in Compiègne on 9 August 1832. Bishop Gallard, Bishop of Meaux, blessed the royal couple according to the Catholic rite, then Pastor Goepp, of the Augsburg Confession, renewed the blessing according to the Lutheran rite.

Although Louise was initially reluctant to a union with a husband twenty-two years her senior, the marriage was very happy. It helped create strong ties between the crowns of France and Belgium. Very close to the British court, uncle of Queen Victoria, Leopold I would intervene several times to strengthen ties between France and the United Kingdom, thus contributing to solidifying the new European balance based on the Entente Cordiale.

Capture of Antwerp

The Netherlands, which refused to accept the Treaty of the Twenty-Four Articles of 15 October 1831, occupied the fortress of Antwerp, leading France, supported by the United Kingdom, to propose on 1 October 1832 to the London Conference to take coercive measures against them. On 22 October, Talleyrand and Palmerston signed a convention defining the conditions for joint action.

The Northern courts protested, Prussia moved troops along the Belgian border, but France knew that these were mere formal demonstrations.

As the Dutch persisted in their refusal to evacuate Antwerp, Leopold I requested French military intervention. In Paris, on 14 November, the Council of Ministers deliberated on whether to enter Belgium without waiting for formal agreement from the United Kingdom. The king, supported by Broglie and Thiers, declared himself in favor. The British government's agreement arrived in Paris that night.

At the head of an army of 70,000 men, with the two eldest sons of Louis-Philippe, the Duke of Orléans and the Duke of Nemours, in the vanguard, Marshal Gérard crossed the Belgian border. On 19 November, the French army invested the citadel of Antwerp, which capitulated on 23 December. Immediately, Louis-Philippe, faithful to his commitments, handed the fortress over to the Belgians and brought his troops back to France. The July Monarchy once again proved itself a determined and reliable partner in the European concert.

Final settlement

In March 1838, the King of the Netherlands, William I, decided to accept the Treaty of the Twenty-Four Articles of 1831. This obliged the Belgians to evacuate the parts of Limburg and Luxembourg they occupied and to repay the Netherlands the share of the common debt assigned to them by the treaty. In Brussels, there was consternation.

Without consulting France, Palmerston agreed with Austria, Prussia, and Russia to impose on Belgium the strict execution of the 1831 treaty, presenting Paris with a fait accompli. Louis-Philippe had no choice but to convince his son-in-law Leopold that he had no other recourse but to yield, without himself appearing to capitulate to the Holy Alliance.

In this delicate negotiation, the King of the French managed to obtain a halving of the Belgian debt, which allowed for an agreement on 11 December 1838, ratified by the treaty of 19 April 1839, which definitively settled the Belgian question.

Polish Question

Polish Insurrection of November 1830: The Capture of the Warsaw Arsenal. By Marcin Zaleski.

France–Poland relations are marked by a long tradition of friendship but also by a chronic inability of each to come to the other's aid in difficult times. France could not prevent the Partitions of Poland between Austria, Prussia, and Russia at the end of the 18th century. Emperor Nicholas I viewed the Paris Revolution of 1830 as a threat to the European balance established by the Congress of Vienna and considered leading an expedition to France to restore Charles X. He was prevented from doing so by the uprising of the Kingdom of Poland against Russia on 29 November 1830. The Polish insurrection, which tied down the Russian army, aroused widespread sympathy in France, from the Catholic Montalembert to the republican La Fayette. The latter created a Franco-Polish Committee in Paris with branches throughout France. When the Polish Diet, in January 1831, formed a provisional government presided over by Prince Czartoryski and proclaimed the country's independence on 25 January, the French republican opposition called for war to support the Poles, hoping to thereby bring about the fall of the monarchy in France. But Louis-Philippe considered that the French army was not in a state to sustain a major conflict: it numbered only 78,000 men, of whom 40,000 were in metropolitan France, the rest being engaged in Algeria. During a debate in the Chamber on 27 and 28 January 1831, Foreign Minister Sébastiani declared that France, while sharing Poland's suffering, was not in a position to help and that it would not be in its interest to break the peace of Europe.

Louis-Philippe, who had no intention of meddling in Polish affairs, decided to send to Saint Petersburg, as early as December 1830, Charles X's former ambassador to Russia, the Duke of Mortemart, well regarded by Nicholas I, who was tasked with reassuring the tsar about the July Monarchy's intentions. Traveling through Poland in January 1831, Mortemart met Polish emissaries to whom he could only explain that they should not count on French military intervention.

Tsar Nicholas I of Russia

At most, France would look favorably upon an extension of the revolt to Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and Ukraine, which could keep the Russian army away from Poland. But events did not go in that direction. After some setbacks in the spring of 1831, the Russian army resumed the offensive at the beginning of July. At the end of the month, in Paris, the discussion of the address in response to the speech from the throne gave rise to heated debates on Poland, where some deputies, led by Baron Bignon, wanted to push France to intervene as it was about to intervene in Belgium. Council President Casimir Perier resisted vigorously and prevailed: the address would be limited to vague formulas on the Polish question. In paragraph 17 of the draft address, Bignon wanted to introduce an amendment worded as follows: "In the touching words of Your Majesty, the Chamber of Deputies is pleased to find a certainty that is dear to it: the nationality of Poland will not perish." The government presented a sub-amendment replacing "certainty" with "hope." Ultimately, the deputies voted for "assurance," which meant little. It was a clear victory for the government. The address was adopted on 16 August by 282 votes to 73.

Soon, the Polish insurgents held only Warsaw, which, besieged, was taken by assault by the Russians on 8 September 1831. When the news reached Paris on 15 September, demonstrators attacked the embassies of Russia and Austria. On the 16th, in the Chamber of Deputies, the left sharply interpelled the ministry. Sébastiani launched into confused explanations from which the famous, though distorted, phrase was remembered: "Order reigns in Warsaw." In fact, quoting a diplomatic dispatch, he had declared that "at the time of writing, tranquility reigned in Warsaw." A lively debate took place from 19 to 22 September, opposing François Mauguin for the opposition and Casimir Perier for the ministry. François Mauguin, affecting ironic politeness, undoubtedly had the advantage over the Council President, who became passionately heated without convincing, but he ended up worrying and tiring the majority. Ultimately, the latter obtained that the Chamber moved to the order of the day by 221 votes to 136. The Chamber of Deputies had just buried the Polish question.

At a court ball in February 1832, La Fayette met the king and tried to speak about Poland. Louis-Philippe replied that he no longer read the newspapers that constantly slandered him on the Polish question, that he was the only European sovereign to send declarations of support to the Poles but that he was the King of the French and must first and foremost look after the interests of France:"I consider that I have fulfilled my duty by protecting my country from the scourge of war and Europe from a general conflagration."

In 1836, France, which was then seeking to approach Austria (see below), once again refused to assist Poland when the three powers—Russia, Austria, Prussia—militarily invaded the Free City of Cracow, which the Congress of Vienna of 1815 had established as an independent republic, and which had become a refuge for Polish patriots fleeing Russian domination and a permanent hotbed of revolutionary agitation. At the conference of Teplitz, at the end of 1835, the Russian, Austrian, and Prussian monarchs decided to militarily cleanse Cracow. After an ultimatum worded in terms that made it impossible to satisfy, the three powers occupied the city in February 1836. The Russians and Prussians left immediately, but Austria maintained a garrison there until 1841. France limited itself to requesting that the occupation be as brief as possible and offering asylum to Polish patriots. The United Kingdom, isolated, could do nothing.

Troubles in Italy

Prince Metternich

Italy was agitated by troubles at the beginning of 1831. While the conclave had just elected Gregory XVI to replace Pius VIII (2 February 1831), the Italian Carbonari, linked to their French counterparts (see Carbonarism), triggered insurrectionary movements in the north of the Papal States, in Bologna, as well as in the Duchy of Modena, which the duke had to leave. The agitation then spread to the entire north of the Apennines.

The Pope, as well as the Duke of Modena, Archduke Francis IV, and the Duchess of Parma, Archduchess Marie Louise, ex-wife of Napoleon, requested Austrian help. Louis-Philippe and his government then invoked the "principle of non-intervention" and demanded that Austria refrain from any intervention in Italy, as France itself would. But the July Monarchy was then grappling with a troubled domestic situation—Paris had been shaken by serious riots on 14 and 15 February 1831—and its threats were not very credible. They did not prevent the Austrian army from crossing the Po at the beginning of March.

In reality, despite his ministers' martial declarations, Louis-Philippe was quite content to leave Metternich a free hand in Italy. He did not forget that among the Italian insurgents were the two sons of Louis Bonaparte, Napoleon-Louis and Louis-Napoleon. A success of one or the other in Italy could only strengthen the Bonapartists in France. Louis-Philippe was therefore not displeased to see Austria crush the Italian insurrection.

Ancona Affair (April 1832)

Pope Gregory XVI

At the end of 1831, troubles resumed in the Papal States: Romagna and the Legations, located in the north of these states, entered into dissidence and refused access to their territory to the pope's troops. The papal legate then called in the Austrians, who militarily occupied Bologna on 28 January 1832.

In reaction, Casimir Perier immediately sent, on 7 February, the ship Suffren and two frigates carrying 1,100 men of the 66th of line infantry, which went to the Adriatic off Ancona, in the heart of the papal states, and occupied the city, despite protests from Gregory XVI and Metternich. The captain commanding the operation executed it with a brutality that raised questions about whether the French wanted to protect the Italians from the Austrians or the insurgents from the papal troops.

In Paris, the left exulted, Guizot affirmed that this affair demonstrated that the Holy Alliance was destroyed and that France was master of its policy, but Louis-Philippe publicly expressed his displeasure. Casimir Perier took the opportunity to clearly affirm French doctrine: France does not seek war with its neighbors and does not seek to spread the revolutionary spirit in Europe, but it cannot accept armed intervention by one state in another; therefore, as long as Austria occupies Bologna, France will occupy Ancona. Gregory XVI had no choice but to bow and accept, on 17 April, the "temporary" occupation of Ancona by French troops: it would last until 1839, when the Austrians evacuated Bologna.

Franco-British Entente Cordiale

The July Monarchy was born in 1830 with the goodwill of the United Kingdom, which quickly recognized the new regime, nipping in the bud any reaction from the Holy Alliance. This good understanding was then consolidated by the Belgian question (see above), which allowed France and the United Kingdom, acting in concert, to neutralize the Holy Alliance and, for the latter, to place its candidate on the throne of the new monarchy, while the former obtained the independence and neutrality of Belgium and gave a princess of Orléans as wife to the new King of the Belgians.

However, these good relations soon clouded. In the Middle East, the United Kingdom worked to weaken France's influence, allied with the Viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, who was beginning to become too powerful and ambitious in the eyes of the Court of St. James. On 15 April 1834, the United Kingdom presented France with a fait accompli by concluding an alliance treaty with Spain and Portugal without informing it in advance ("The Quadruple Alliance of 1834"). Louis-Philippe began to realize the disadvantage of having the United Kingdom as his only ally in Europe.

Attempts at Franco-Austrian rapprochement (1835–1836)

Thus, he made overtures to the Holy Alliance powers, primarily Austria, with a dual objective: for the July Monarchy, it was about making the British understand that it could do without them; it was also, in the shorter term, about finding a suitable match for the Crown Prince, who was twenty-five in 1835, and whom his father, targeted by numerous assassination attempts, including that of Fieschi in July 1835, wished to marry as soon as possible.

To this end, throughout 1835, France showed great complaisance towards Metternich:

• In Poland, where France tolerated the invasion of Kraków, isolating the United Kingdom, which could only protest in vain against the violation of the resolutions of the Congress of Vienna of 1815 (see above);
• In Switzerland, where the July Revolution had sparked a wave of contestation against the oligarchic cantonal constitutions adopted after 1814, and where many French, German, Italian, Polish, etc., revolutionaries had taken refuge, France recalled its ambassador to Bern, the Marquis de Rumigny, deemed too favorable to the Swiss democrats, and replaced him in 1836 with the Duke of Montebello, whose inclinations were opposite, which obviously pleased Austria, anxious to prevent the Swiss Confederation from becoming a hotbed of revolutionary agitation that could easily spread to Vienna. Adolphe Thiers went even further by asking Switzerland, in April 1836, to expel political refugees and, as the Confederation showed little eagerness, he sent it, on 18 July, a peremptory note threatening it with nothing less than war if it did not comply, to the great satisfaction of Metternich and the Russian Emperor's Foreign Minister, Nesselrode.

Lord Palmerston

If the court of Vienna ultimately opposed a humiliating refusal to the project of marrying the Crown Prince to an archduchess, the policy of rapprochement with Austria achieved its primary goal in that it temporarily brought the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, back to more conciliatory feelings. At the end of 1835, the United Kingdom thus proposed to France a triple Franco-Ottoman-British alliance to guarantee the territorial status quo in the East. Louis-Philippe, without rejecting the proposal, made it conditional on the settlement of disputes between France and the United States of America, because the July Monarchy could not risk entering into conflict with Russia in the East if it was also exposed to uncertainties in America. On 8 December 1835, he therefore requested the King of the United Kingdom, William IV, to mediate with the United States. This mediation effectively resolved all difficulties by February 1836.

Entente Cordiale

However, relations between France and the United Kingdom deteriorated again and remained very poor in 1837–1838, as the Foreign Minister and head of government, Count Molé, was very unpopular in London, and Palmerston was violently hostile to him. France's refusal to intervene in Spanish affairs, contrary to the United Kingdom's wishes, did not improve the situation.

To try to warm up Franco-British relations, Louis-Philippe sent Marshal Soult as ambassador extraordinary to London for the coronation of Queen Victoria on 28 June 1838. Even if the choice of a Marshal of the Empire seemed misplaced to some, it did not lack prestige, and the old soldier received an excellent welcome in London.

In the affair of the sulfur of Sicily in 1840, Adolphe Thiers sacrificed the interests of his native city, Marseille, to accommodate the United Kingdom. Sulfur was then a strategic raw material because it was necessary for the production of sulfuric acid, which in turn allowed the production of soda by the Leblanc process. In Europe, the mineral was found only in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. However, a Marseille company had obtained from King Ferdinand II the exclusive concession for sulfur exploitation, which was unacceptable to the United Kingdom, whose industries were major consumers of sulfur. With the help of Guizot, ambassador in London since the beginning of the year, Thiers concluded with the United Kingdom, on 7 July, an agreement that included the withdrawal of the concession from the Marseille company.

Spanish marriages

Queen Regent Maria Christina, portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Paris, 1841

When the King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, died on 20 September 1833, he passed the crown to the Infanta Isabella, the elder of the two daughters born from his fourth marriage to Maria Christina of Bourbon-Sicily, daughter of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies. Isabella, who was only three years old, was therefore proclaimed Queen of Spain under the name Isabella II, under the regency of her mother, Queen Maria Christina.

To allow this succession through the female line, Ferdinand VII had abolished the Salic law, which had been imported into Spain by the Bourbons at the beginning of the 18th century. But the regularity of this operation was contested by the first of Ferdinand VII's brothers, Don Carlos, Count of Molina, who claimed the Spanish crown for himself and led a dissident movement, the origin of Spanish "Carlism."

An Embarrassing Situation for the July Monarchy

The troubles in Spain were a serious source of embarrassment for Louis-Philippe:

• On the one hand, for France, maintaining the Spanish crown in the male descent of Louis XIV was considered, since the Peace of Utrecht of 1713, an indispensable guarantee of the Pyrenéan border. Admitting the possibility of female transmission of the Spanish crown would imply accepting that, through Isabella II's marriage, a royal house unfriendly to France could establish itself in Madrid.
• On the other hand, the Carlist pretender, the Count of Molina, was the champion of the absolutist party, which was allied with Charles X and his French legitimist supporters and was backed by all the absolute monarchies of Europe, starting with Austria, while the regent Maria Christina, who was also the niece of Queen Maria Amalia, was liberal. Installing Don Carlos on the Spanish throne would mean setting up, south of the Pyrenees, a legitimist base that would constitute, at the very least, a permanent hotbed of agitation against the July Monarchy.

Louis-Philippe, like the British government, therefore recognized Isabella II, but this decision posed, in the long term, the question of her matrimonial establishment.

Quadruple Alliance of 1834

The regent Maria Christina considered it in her interest to definitively eliminate the usurper Dom Miguel in Portugal by consolidating the throne of Dom Pedro: holding, like Don Carlos, to absolutism, Dom Miguel could indeed offer a rear base to the Spanish Carlists.

Under the aegis of the United Kingdom, and without France's knowledge, the Spanish government negotiated the sending of military aid to the Portuguese government, which led to the conclusion, on 15 April 1834, of a treaty of Triple Alliance between Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.

When France was presented with a fait accompli, Talleyrand protested vigorously to the British Foreign Secretary, Palmerston. The latter then offered the July Monarchy to adhere to the treaty: the Quadruple Alliance was thus signed on 22 April 1834.

If this treaty saved appearances, it actually placed France in a position of inferiority. Indeed, while the United Kingdom promised naval support to Maria II of Portugal against Dom Miguel and to Isabella II of Spain against Don Carlos, France, for its part, in the event that its military assistance was required, committed "to do in this regard what would be decided, by common agreement, between it and its three allies."

Military intervention in Spain

Soon, Spain, confronted with the Carlist rebellion, sank into civil war. In May 1835, the queen regent and her government relied on the Quadruple Alliance treaty to request military aid from the United Kingdom and France: while Thiers declared himself in favor, Louis-Philippe and the Duke of Broglie, Foreign Minister and Council President, as well as the British minister Palmerston, opposed it.

Faced with the continued deterioration of the situation in Spain, Palmerston changed his position and suggested, in March 1836, a joint intervention, with the United Kingdom by sea and France by land. Louis-Philippe, not to displease Austria (see above), opposed it again, this time with the support of Thiers.

Towards the end of spring 1836, however, the French government began to view military intervention in Spain favorably. A legion of volunteers, recruited from the French army and commanded by French officers led by General Jean-Louis Baux, was formed for this purpose and stationed in Pau. On 13 August, the day after the pronunciamiento of La Granja, which forced the queen regent to accept the liberal Constitution of 1812, General Lebeau believed himself authorized to announce the imminent intervention of the legion in Spain. He had the backing of Thiers, then Council President, who wanted to avenge the refusal by Austria of the marriage proposal for the Duke of Orléans (see above) and to boost his declining popularity. But Thiers clashed with Louis-Philippe, viscerally opposed to military intervention in the Iberian Peninsula, and reinforced in his refusal by Talleyrand and Soult, who had had an unhappy experience there under the Empire.

This episode led to Thiers' resignation on 16 August. On 24 August, the king had published in Le Moniteur a correction to General Lebeau's statements: "General Lebeau was authorized by the king to enter the service of the Queen of Spain, but the king had no part in the appointment of this general officer to this command." Moreover, at the end of August, Louis-Philippe requested the dissolution of General Lebeau's legion, but the government (then de facto resigned) opposed it.

The question of military intervention in Spain was revived during the debate on the Address that took place before the Chamber of Deputies at the beginning of 1838. In his speech from the throne on 18 December 1837, Louis-Philippe had used the formula: "I continue to faithfully execute the clauses of the Quadruple Alliance treaty." Thus, the Doctrinaires, inspired by Guizot, proposed to replace the formula in the draft address "by faithfully executing the Quadruple Alliance treaty" with a formula that echoed the king's and implicitly approved the refusal to intervene in Spain: "by continuing to faithfully execute..." Louis-Philippe insisted to the head of government, Count Molé, that he obtain the vote for this amendment. Despite Thiers' attacks, the address was adopted as amended on 13 January: the policy of non-intervention thus received the approval of the deputies. However, it caused tensions with the United Kingdom, especially since the latter supported the radicals led by General Espartero, while France backed the constitutionalists.

Eastern question

In the East, Sultan Mahmud II sought to restore the power of the Ottoman Empire, shaken by the independence of Greece, but he clashed with the ambitions of the Pasha of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, supported by France in his policy of modernizing the country.

In 1832, Muhammad Ali sent his adopted son, Ibrahim Pasha, to conquer Syria. The victory at Konya on 21 December 1832 opened the road to Constantinople for his troops. Mahmud II then appealed for assistance from the Emperor of Russia: Russian troops landed in Constantinople in February 1833, which was unacceptable to France and the United Kingdom.

To secure the departure of the Russians, the two countries imposed on the Sultan the Treaty of Kütahya, signed on 8 April 1833, which recognized Muhammad Ali's hereditary pashalik of Egypt and granted him sovereignty over Syria for life. But Russia, before withdrawing its troops, forced the Sultan to sign the Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi on 8 July 1833, which conferred on Russia a kind of military protectorate over the Ottoman Empire, thus ensuring it a predominant position over the entire Mediterranean East.

From then on, France and the United Kingdom were allied to combat Russian claims on the Bosphorus, but they were opposed in Egypt and the Middle East, where the United Kingdom would henceforth strive to reduce French influence.

Between 1833 and 1839, an apparent calm nevertheless reigned in the East. In 1839, Mahmud II launched his army into Syria, but it was decimated by Ibrahim Pasha at Nezib on 24 June. A week later, the Sultan died, and the Capitan Pasha (admiral of the fleet) sailed with the fleet to Alexandria and delivered the Ottoman ships to Muhammad Ali. For Egypt, the moment seemed propitious to obtain hereditary sovereignty over Syria and to form a great Arab Empire.

The United Kingdom immediately took the side of maintaining the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, which it claimed to want to defend both against the eventuality of an Arab Empire in the south, which, with French support, would control the route to India, and against the Russian Empire in the north, which would like to get its hands on the Straits to allow its fleet to come and go at will in the Mediterranean. Austria, for its part, a secular enemy of the Turks, viewed the decomposition of the Ottoman Empire favorably, provided it did not benefit Russia.

The situation was all the more complex because France and the United Kingdom, allied in Spain, were objectively opposed in the East, while Russia, which could easily agree with France in the East, was deterred by Nicholas I's hostility towards the July Monarchy and did not see itself renewing a Franco-Russian alliance against the United Kingdom. The Tsar would therefore strive to stoke the rivalry between France and the United Kingdom in the hope of profiting from it and punishing France for its liberties with the principle of legitimacy.

In France, Louis-Philippe could not imagine allying with the Russian autocrat and therefore sought, by all means, to preserve his alliance with the United Kingdom. He also believed Muhammad Ali to be invincible and was convinced that he would achieve his goals regardless of what the European powers did. He was therefore satisfied with the principle adopted by the powers at the beginning of the crisis, on Austria's proposal, of consultation among the stakeholders: this offered France the advantage of preserving relations with the United Kingdom, which, for its part, saw the advantage of isolating Russia.

Upon his return to power at the beginning of 1840, Thiers sought to reach an agreement between the Turks and the Egyptians under French auspices, leaving aside the other powers, which would be presented with a fait accompli, while Palmerston, for his part, secretly negotiated an agreement between the four powers excluding France, which would present Egypt with a fait accompli. Despite warnings from the new ambassador in London, Guizot, who suspected "some underhanded and sudden move," Thiers sought to quickly conclude the agreement, taking advantage of a palace revolution that overthrew Grand Vizier Kosrev Pasha, who had been the main obstacle. But Palmerston, informed of all these negotiations, concluded on 15 July a treaty between the four powers, which settled the Eastern question without France.

The treaty confirmed to Muhammad Ali hereditary sovereignty over Egypt. He also received, but for life, the pashalik of Acre—and no longer the whole of Syria—on condition that he accept the agreement within 10 days of its notification. Failing that, the offer was reduced to Egypt alone. If this new proposal was not formally accepted within 10 days, the Sultan regained his sovereignty and could, consequently, depose the rebellious pasha, with the military assistance of the four powers.

The announcement of the conclusion of this treaty aroused great anger in France and brought patriotic exaltation to its peak. The king's eldest sons—Orléans, Nemours, Joinville—would not have minded a war that would be an opportunity for new military exploits. Louis-Philippe pretended to follow public opinion, while having every intention not to be pushed into war.

While taking bellicose measures—mobilization of soldiers from the classes of 1836 to 1839 (29 July), start of work on the fortifications of Paris (13 September)—Thiers advised Muhammad Ali to be conciliatory. But instead of responding to the overtures made to him, Palmerston went on the offensive, and on 2 October, the British fleet bombarded and took Beirut without Ibrahim Pasha reacting. Immediately, the Sultan pronounced the deposition of Muhammad Ali. For France, it was a new humiliation.

After long negotiations between the king and Thiers, a compromise was found on 7 October: France would renounce supporting Muhammad Ali's claims to Syria but would declare to the European powers that it would not allow Egypt to be touched. These principles were recorded in a note dated 8 October addressed to the four powers that had signed the treaty of 15 July. The United Kingdom ultimately had to recognize Muhammad Ali's hereditary sovereignty over Egypt and renounce the deposition organized by this treaty. France had obtained a return to the situation of 1832.

On this basis, negotiations between the powers led to the Straits Convention, signed in London on 13 July 1841, between the five European powers, including France this time. This convention prohibited access to the Straits to all foreign warships but guaranteed Muhammad Ali the hereditary pashalik over Egypt. The United Kingdom thus succeeded in excluding both Russia from the Bosphorus and Egypt from the Orontes.

See also

• July Monarchy

Bibliograhy

• Antonetti, Guy (2002). Louis-Philippe [Louis-Philippe] (in French). Paris: Arthème Fayard. p. 992. ISBN 2-213-59222-5.