Blasphème politique et «religion royale» sous la Restauration (France, 1814-1830)

Abstract

This article is intended to revisit the “symbolic policy” of the French Restoration, whose knowledge has been greatly enriched and renewed for the last twenty years. Without aiming at “rehabilitating” the regime, recent historiography has highlighted its efforts to find a solution for the political conflict resulting from the French Revolution, and to rebuild a power capable of perpetuating itself. The republican system being widely rejected, the country’s stabilization involved reinventing an acknowleged and accepted “royalty”. Not only should it be supported by strong institutions, but also enjoy consensual respect. This demanded some form of “monarchical religion” (or royal religion) whose loss Chateaubriand would mourn during the July 1830 revolution. Recent research is thus revised in the light of the Bourbons’ “self-introduction” between 1814 and 1830, and the hostility loudly expressed against the regime, which was considered as ambiguous “political blasphemy”.