The story
On July 26, 1830, King Charles X of France issued four ordinances that suspended press freedom, dissolved the newly elected Chamber of Deputies and narrowed the electorate. Parisians answered with barricades. During the Trois Glorieuses (July 27 to 29), workers, students and veterans fought royal troops until the army withdrew. Charles abdicated on August 2, and the Chamber offered the crown to Louis-Philippe, duke of Orleans, who became king of the French.
The Bourbons had returned after Napoleon's fall at Waterloo, ruling under a Charter that kept some revolutionary gains such as legal equality. Charles X, who took the throne in 1824, favored the Church and the old nobility, which alarmed liberals, and he struck back when the opposition won the 1830 elections. The new July Monarchy served wealthy property owners and fell in 1848, but the revolution inspired uprisings in Belgium, Poland and Italy and showed that the Vienna settlement could be broken.
Why it mattered
- Belgium declared independence from the Netherlands in 1830 and became a separate kingdom, the first successful break from the Vienna settlement.
- The July Monarchy gave France a constitutional monarchy favored by the middle class, until its fall in the Revolution of 1848.
- The event encouraged revolts in Poland, Italy and Germany in 1830 and 1831, though most were crushed.
- France's conquest of Algeria, launched by Charles X in June 1830 partly to win popularity, continued under the new July Monarchy.
Sources
- July Revolution Britannica
- Liberty Leading the People Britannica
- July 28: Liberty Leading the People Louvre
Drafted by AI (Claude) from the sources above and checked against them by AI; no historian has reviewed this page. Spot a mistake? Suggest a correction. How pages are made
Community notes
Loading notes…