Charles X

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Charles X (1757–1836) King of France (1824–30). Brother of Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he fled France at the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789). He remained in England until the Bourbon restoration (1814), and thereafter opposed the ensuing moderate policies of Louis XVIII. After the assassination of Charles' son in 1820, his reactionary forces triumphed. In 1825 he signed a law indemnifying émigrés for land confiscated during the Revolution. In 1830 he issued the July Ordinance, which restricted suffrage and press freedom, and dissolved the newly elected chamber of deputies. The people rebelled and Charles was forced to abdicate. He designated his grandson Henry as successor, but the Duc d'Orléans, Louis Philippe, was selected.

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Charles X

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