The Declaration of Saint-Ouen is a statement made by the future King Louis XVIII of France on 2 May 1814, which paved the way for the “First Restoration” of the House of Bourbon on the throne of France following its defeat in the Napoleonic Wars and Napoleon’s forced abdication and demise.
Unlike Ferdinand VII of Spain, who repudiated a constitution in favor of absolutism upon his restoration in 1814, Louis limited himself to the revision of the Senate’s draft constitution while maintaining a claim to the recognition of unlimited monarchical sovereignty.
[1] The declaration also promised basic freedoms for the people as well as national representation and equality before the law.
[2] Upon landing in France, the future king rejected the provisional constitution proposed by the Senate as part of the Treaty of Paris, stating that "the principles thereof were good" but since a great number of articles displayed the haste with which they were worded, "it could not in their present form become fundamental laws of the State.
The declaration stated, notably, that the lands of the aristocrats who fled, which the Republic had sold at auction, were not to be confiscated, and that no restitution was to be given.