The drama of the French royal family dates back to the rivalry between the two branches of the Capetians, between the Bourbons and the Orléans. This rivalry was one of the elements that fueled the revolution of 1789 where the royal palace opposed Versailles. The Duke of Orléans did not hesitate to vote for the death of his cousin Louis XVI. Two irreconcilable branches.
Jean Paul Garnier revisits the history of France. He takes us into the complexities of this family drama in which France was at stake. The white flag, falsely evoked as the symbol of the monarchy, versus the tricolor flag, the symbol of the revolution and the empire.
Henri de Bourbon will never be Henri V, as he refused to compromise on the flag. Honor? Foolishness? With a 21st-century mindset, one cannot understand the meaning given to these words: honor and flag. Henri V in 1871 is still, due to his upbringing, a man of the Restoration; he cannot accept, admit, or therefore compromise on the colors of the national flag. Moreover, he is the last of the direct heirs of the Bourbons. The “child of the miracle,” son of the Duke of Berry, has no heirs. This book sheds light on the choices of this prince at the fall of the second empire.
France could have experienced a third restoration. But for that, a more enlightened prince, more involved and with a son to continue the dynasty, would have been necessary. Henri was too imbued with the concepts inherited from Louis XVIII and Charles X, and he had no legitimate son.
Did he want the crown? Which, since the Restoration, seemed truly too heavy to bear. This book explains to us this turbulent period in France where the monarchy could not impose itself or adapt to new times. 1848 was already on the horizon.
Thierry Jan
