CARLO X, king of FRANCE. — Son of Luigi, dauphin of France, and of Maria Giuseppa of Saxony, born on 9 October 1757 at Versailles, died on 6 November 1836 at Gorizia. He held the title of count of Artois, and in 1773 married Maria Teresa of Savoy. Opposed to any reform, he left France immediately after the fall of the Bastille and settled in Turin. He subsequently moved to Coblenz, and finally to England, and was one of the leaders of the emigration. After the fall of Napoleon, on 12 April 1814, he made a triumphal entry into Paris as lieutenant general of his brother, King Luigi XVIII. On the latter’s death, in 1824, he succeeded him on the throne.
He promised to be, and was, the king of the émigrés. He secured the passage of a law to compensate those whose property had been confiscated during the Revolution, and also sought to reintroduce the right of primogeniture, encountering the opposition of the Chamber. In 1829 he proceeded to form a ministry of staunch royalists, whose leading figure was Prince de Polignac. On 26 July 1830 the four “ordinances” were issued concerning the suppression of freedom of the press, the dissolution of the Chamber, the modification of the electorate, and the date of the new elections. This was the signal for the so-called July Revolution, and on 2 August the king was forced to abdicate. C. X, although not free from the traditional Gallican prejudices of the sovereigns of France, maintained, during his reign, a cordial attitude toward the Catholic Church and the Holy See.