The Comte de Chambord’s Political Ideas

Abstract

The article analyzes the political and ethical principles of the Comte de Chambord’s conception of moderate monarchism. The grandson of Charles X, the Comte de Chambord, Henri V (1820–1883), possessing high authority, throughout his life personified the hopes of the French legitimists for the restoration of the monarchy. In his writings, Chambord formulated a full-fledged political program aimed at opposing the ideas of the French Revolution. The political ideas of the Comte de Chambord were the most developed expression of the counter-revolutionary judgments of the third quarter of the 19 th century. To restore social stability, the Comte de Chambord proposed to establish a moderate Christian monarchy based on a revision of the system of government, the restoration of local freedoms, and the desire for social justice, significant improvement in working conditions. Chambord rejected Machiavellianism in politics, he understood power not as political domination, but as service with the aim of restoring harmony and justice. In his view, power in the state should be transferred to a strong sovereign, who becomes the arbiter of private interests and the guarantor of the common good. In a moderate monarchy, there should be universal suffrage, but limited to a three-tiered electoral structure that allows each member to be consulted on competent issues, trained in the performance of duties and to make decisions based on experience and merit. This political program faced opposition from liberal-conservative circles that sought to prevent the return to power of the king who was adherent to the of Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors with its well-known anti-modernist principles, and these circles demanded to acknowledge the democratic and humanistic “principles of 1789” as a condition for restoraution. However, the Comte de Chambord did not consider morally permissible to come to power through a compromise with ethical convictions.