LOUIS XVIII., STANISLAS XAVIER, the next younger brother of Louis XVI., b. at Versailles, Nov. 17, 1755, received the title of count de Provence. In 1771 he married Maria Josephine Louisa, daughter of Victor Amadeus III. of Sardinia. After the acces sion of Louis XVI. to the throne he assumed the designation of tnonsievr, and became an opponent of every salutary measure of the government. He fled from Paris on the same night with the king, and was more fortunate, for, taking the road by Lille, he reached the Belgian frontier in safety. With his brother, the count d'Artais, lie now issued declarations against the revolutionary cause in France, which had a very unfavor able effect on the situation of the king. The two brothers for some time held a sort of court at Coblentz. Louis joined the body of 6.000 emigrants who accompanied the Prus sians across the Rhine in July, 1792, and issued a manifesto even more foolish and extravagant than that of the duke of Brunswick. After the death of his brother, Louis XVI., he proclahned his nephew king of France, as Louis XVII., and in 1795 himself assumed the title of kino.. The events of subsequent years compelled Win frequently to change his place of abode, removing from one country of Europe to another, till at last, in 1807, he found a refuge in England, and purchased a residence, Hartwell, in Bucking hamshire, where his wife died in 1810, and where he remained till the fall of Napoleon opened the way for him to the French throne. He landed at Calais on April 26, 1814,
and entered Paris, after 24 years' exile, on May 3; and the nation received the consti tutional charter from his hands on June 4. See FRANCE.
The conduct of the government, however, WEIS far from being constitutional or lib eral. The nobles and priests exercised an influence over the weak king which led to severe treatment of the imperialists, the republicans, and the Protestants. Then followed Napoleon's return from Elba, when the king and his family fled from Paris, remained at Ghent till after the battle of Waterloo, and returned to France under protection of the duke of Wellington. He issued from Cambrai a proclamation in which he ackuowl edged his former errors, and promised a general amnesty to all except traitors. Again, however, he followed in rnany things the counsels of the party which detested- all the fruits of the revolution. But the chamber of deputies, elected with many irregularities, was fanatically royalist, and the king, by advice of the duke de Richelieu, dissolved it; whereupon arose royalist plots for his dethronetnent, and the abolition of the charter. Bands of assassins were collected by nobles and priests in the provinces, who slew hun dreds of adherents of the revolution and of Protestants, and years elapsed ere peace and good order were in any measure restored. Louis died Sept. 16, 1824.