French monarchy
Pre-revolutionary French government
The French monarchy refers to the system of royal government that ruled France for over a millennium, from the medieval Frankish kings through the Bourbon dynasty that ended with the Revolution in 1792, with brief restorations afterward.
The term encompasses the institution itself, the succession of royal houses, and the political system of absolute or constitutional rule by a king.
The French monarchy reached its apex under Louis XIV.
When people speak of restoring the French monarchy today, they typically mean the Bourbon pretenders.
- VersaillesFrench royal palace complex
- fleur-de-lisStylized heraldic lily motif
- FranceWestern European republic
- Treaty of Verdun843 Frankish succession agreement
- Estates-GeneralFrench representative body, three classes
Louis XIV · royal crown · Edict of Nantes · Marie Antoinette · ancien régime · feudalism · Bastille Day · Hundred Years' War · absolutism · Charlemagne · chandeliers · gilded · powdered wigs · throne · dauphin · guillotine · coronation · dynasty
- FranceParis, Notre-Dame, Lyon, croissant, Toulouse
- French HistoryNapoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon, Bastille, Reign of Terror, Charles de Gaulle
- Medieval FranceValois, Philip II, Charles VII, Saint Louis, Joan of Arc
- 1830s FranceBourbon Restoration, tricolor flag, tricolor, barricades, National Guard
- French Culturebaguette, baguettes, beret, berets, brie
- Napoleonic EraNapoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte, Bonaparte, Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic Code
French monarchyFrench Republic
Official name for France
French Revolution · republic · constitutional republic · democracy · parliamentary democracy
French monarchyFrench Revolution
Late-1700s republican upheaval
Marianne · tricolor · Jacobins · sans-culottes · revolutionary tribunal
French monarchyrepublicanism
Government by elected officials
popular sovereignty · revolutionary ideals · egalitarianism · democratic principles · Enlightenment ideals