`The King´s entry into Paris is positively fixed'

CHARLES X: (1757-1836) King of France 1824-30.

Brief A.L.S., Charles Philippe, one page, 4to, Paris, 1st May n.y. (1814), to an unidentified correspondent, in French. The King states, in full, `The King´s entry into Paris is positively fixed for next Tuesday at ten in the morning.´ With blank integral leaf. Some very light, minor wrinkling to the right edge and light overall age toning, otherwise VG

The present letter is written at an important date in the Bourbon Restoration.

In January 1814, Charles covertly left his home in London to join the Coalition forces in southern France. His brother Louis XVIII, by then wheelchair-bound and in exile in England, supplied Charles, his younger brother, with letters patent creating him Lieutenant General of the kingdom. On 31st March, the Allies captured Paris and a few days later, on 4th April, Napoleon I abdicated. The Senate declared King Louis XVIII restored. Charles had arrived in the capital on 12th April and acted as Lieutenant General of the kingdom until Louis XVIII arrived from England. Two days after the present letter was written, on 3rd May, the King was greeted with great rejoicing from the Parisians and proceeded to occupy the Tuileries Palace.

Charles X, known as the Count of Artois for much of his life, reigned as the last Bourbon King of France from 1824-30. An uncle of the uncrowned King Louis XVII and the younger brother of reigning Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, Charles supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him. During his brief tenure as regent, Charles created an ultra-royalist secret police that reported directly back to him without Louis XVIII's knowledge. It operated for over five years. His rule of almost six years ended in the July Revolution of 1830, which resulted in his abdication and the election of Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, as King of the French.