Monarchism in France

1. The Legitimists for the royal House of Bourbon,
2. the Orléanists for the cadet branch of the House of Orléans, and
3. the Bonapartists for the imperial House of Bonaparte

History

Following the French Revolution, the deposition of Louis XVI in 1792 (later execution in 1793) and the establishment of the First French Republic, monarchist sentiment still remained strong among many elements in France as well as among the exiled émigré community abroad. The rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and the creation of the First French Empire further complicated monarchist politics, as some former royalists supported Bonaparte as a stabilizing figure, while others remained loyal to the deposed House of Bourbon. With the fall of Napoleon in 1814, the monarchy was restored in the Bourbon Restoration under Louis XVIII and Charles X, only to be overthrown again in the July Revolution of 1830, which replaced the senior Bourbon line with the more liberal House of Orléans under Louis-Philippe I. The overthrow of Louis-Philippe in the French Revolution of 1848 marked the end of the July Monarchy and the beginning of the Second French Republic. The rise of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, whose declaration of the Second French Empire in 1852 as Napoleon III, revived the monarchy in Bonapartist form.

Although Napoleon III abdicated and the Third Republic was declared after the 1870 defeat by Prussia, The 1871 Paris Commune was crushed by Orléanist Adolphe Thiers. Legitimists and Orléanists controlled the majority of the Assemblies, supported Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta as president of the Ordre moral government, and a Third Restoration of the monarchy was expected. However, the intransigence of the Count of Chambord, who refused to abandon the white flag and its fleur-de-lis against the republican tricolore, and the 16 May 1877 crisis forced the legitimists to abandon the political arena, while some of the more liberal Orléanists "rallied" throughout the years of the Third Republic. However, since the monarchy and Catholicism were long entangled ("the alliance of the Throne and the Altar"), republican ideas were often tinged with anti-clericalism, which led to some turmoil during Radical Émile Combes' cabinet in the beginning of the 20th century.

Concerns about monarchists caused the French government to bury the Unknown Soldier of World War I at the Arc de Triomphe, because the Panthéon was associated with the Republic. The Action Française, founded in 1898 during the Dreyfus affair, remained an influential far right movement throughout the 1930s, taking part in the 6 February 1934 riots. Some monarchists, such as Georges Valois who founded the Faisceau, became involved in fascism after the 1926 Papal condemnation of the Action Française by Pius XI.

Monarchists were then active under the Vichy regime, with the leader of the Action Française Charles Maurras qualifying as "divine surprise" the overthrow of the Republic and the arrival to power of Marshal Pétain. A few of them, such as Henri d'Astier de la Vigerie, took part in the Resistance out of patriotic concerns. The Action Française was then dissolved after the war, but Maurice Pujo founded it again in 1947.

Some legitimists had become involved in the traditionalist Catholic movement which arose in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council and some ultimately followed the 1970 foundation of the traditionalist Catholic Society of Saint Pius X by Marcel Lefebvre. Bertrand Renouvin made a breakaway movement from the Action Française in 1971, the Nouvelle Action Française which became the Nouvelle Action Royaliste, while some legitimists joined Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National, founded in 1972.