Legitimists

The Legitimists (French: Légitimistes) are royalists who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession to the French crown of the descendants of the eldest branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They reject the claim of the July Monarchy of 1830–1848 which placed Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, head of the Orléans cadet branch of the Bourbon dynasty, on the throne until he too was dethroned and driven with his family into exile.

Following the movement of Ultra-royalists during the Bourbon Restoration of 1814, Legitimists came to form one of France's three main right-wing factions, which were principally characterized by their counter-revolutionary views. According to historian René Rémond, the other two right-wing factions were the Orléanists and the Bonapartists.

Legitimists believe that the traditional rules of succession, based on the Salic law, determine the rightful King of France. The last ruling king whom Legitimists acknowledge as legitimate was Charles X, and when the line of his heirs became extinct in 1883 with the death of his grandson Henri, Count of Chambord, the most senior heir to the throne according to the Blancs d'Espagne was Infante Juan, Count of Montizón, a descendant of Louis XIV through his grandson Philip V of Spain.

The fact that all Legitimist claimants since 1883 have been members of the Spanish royal dynasty as well as the fact that Philip V renounced his and his lines claims to the French throne in the Treaty of Utrecht, are all irrelevant according to Legitimists; however, these facts have prompted other French royalists to pivot to support of the Orléans line, who would be next in the traditional line of succession if Philip V's heirs were excluded.

The current Legitimist pretender is Prince Louis, Duke of Anjou, the senior great-grandson of Alfonso XIII of Spain by male primogeniture, whose line was excluded from the Spanish succession due to the renunciations of Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia.

Following the Bourbon Restoration in 1814, a strongly restricted census suffrage sent to the Chamber of Deputies an Ultra-royalist majority in 1815–1816 (la Chambre introuvable) and from 1824 to 1827. Known to be more royalist than the king (plus royalistes que le roi), the Ultras were the dominant political faction under Louis XVIII (1815–1824) and Charles X (1824–1830). Opposed to the constitutional monarchy of Louis XVIII and to the limitation of the sovereign's power, they hoped to restore the Ancien Régime and cancel the liberal, republican and democratic ideas of the French Revolution. While Louis XVIII hoped to moderate the restoration of Bourbon rule to make it acceptable to the population, the Ultras would never abandon the dream of an integral restoration, even after the 1830 July Revolution which set the Orléanist branch on the throne and sent the Ultras back to private life in their country chateaux. Their importance during the Restoration was in part due to electoral laws which largely favored them (on one hand a Chamber of Peers composed of hereditary members and on the other a Chamber of Deputies elected under a heavily restricted census suffrage which permitted approximately 100,000 voters).

Louis XVIII's first ministers, who included Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu and Élie, duc Decazes, were replaced by the Ultra-dominated Chambre introuvable. Louis XVIII finally decided to dissolve this chaotic assembly, but had an equally difficult relationship with the new liberals who replaced them. After the 1820 assassination of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, the ultra-reactionary son of the comte d'Artois (Louis XVIII's brother and future Charles X) and a short interval during which Richelieu governed, the Ultras were back in government headed by the Jean-Baptiste de Villèle.

The death in 1824 of the moderate Louis XVIII emboldened the Ultra faction. In January 1825, Villèle's government passed the Anti-Sacrilege Act which punished by death the theft of sacred vessels (with or without consecrated hosts). This anachronistic law (according to Jean-Noël Jeanneney) was in the end never applied (except on a minor point) and repealed in the first months of Louis Philippe's reign (1830–1848). The Ultras also wanted to create courts to punish radicals and passed laws restricting the press.