Luttes politiques et références contradictoires à la Révolution durant la Restauration en France, 1814-1820

In 1814, an ending that no one could have anticipated brought back a dynasty swept by the winds of history twenty-five years ago. Returning to France, Louis XVIII restores their titles to the old nobility of the Ancien Régime, but "grants" a Charter which was intended to guarantee the liberal principles inherited from the Revolution. The « Restoration », the name given to the reestablishment on the throne of France of the former Bourbon dynasty, nevertheless raised many questions. What would happen to this new France that had emerged with the Revolution since 1789? Between 1814 and 1820, a period during which a liberal political program was established, the Royalists invoked the Revolution and the threats it put on the monarchy in order to fight it. The Liberals, on the other hand, saw in their royalist adversaries an old and embittered nobility, emerging once more from a distant past, and who badly conceals its secret desire to abolish the Charter and claim her former rights. This master’s thesis will discuss the divide that existed between two elites competing for political and social dominance. In the light of the debates of the time, we will see how Royalists and Liberals, the two major political groups of the period, articulated their speech. One theme appears particularly prominent: the Revolution. After two decades, it divides again. Worse, it was still relevant and its memory never ceased to occupy the political space.