Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Two unpopular kings by Thomas Lawrence


George IV of the United Kingdom in his coronation robes, 1821.
Charles X of France, 1825.

George IV, had long been the regent for his father, the indisposed George III, when he finally became king in 1821; the Regency period is named for those years that he was Prince Regent. All his adult life he had been unpopular as a result of his scandalous personal life, his inattention to duty, and his outrageous extravagance in dress and building; he was constantly in debt. The British public only had to endure him for ten more years before his lifelong excesses finally did him in at the age of sixty-seven.

Charles X, who was known for most of his life as the comte d'Artois, was the last of the senior-line Bourbon kings. The younger brother of the deposed and executed Louis XVI, and successor of the middle brother who reigned, post-Napoléon, as Louis XVIII, in his youth he was know for his extravagance and reckless lifestyle.  After becoming king in 1824, he proved to be increasingly reactionary, and the regime quickly grew more and more unpopular, finally leading to the "July Revolution" of 1830. He had ruled for less than six years before he was forced to abdicate and flee to England, then Prague, then Slovenia, where he died of cholera in 1836, at the age of seventy-nine.


Thomas Lawrence, see here.



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