List of heads of state of France
The dynasty is named after one of these mayors of the palace, Charles Martel, whose son Pepin the Short dethroned the Merovingians in 751 and, with the consent of the Papacy and the aristocracy, was crowned King of the Franks.
[1] Under Charles the Great (r. 768–814), better known as "Charlemagne", the Frankish kingdom expanded deep into Central Europe, conquering Italy and most of modern Germany.
The Valois line died out in the late 16th century, during the French Wars of Religion, to be replaced by the distantly related House of Bourbon, which descended through the Direct Capetian Louis IX.
The last Capetian to rule would be Louis Philippe I, king of the July Monarchy (1830–1848), a member of the cadet House of Bourbon-Orléans.
The Valois claimed the right to the succession by male-only primogeniture through the ancient Salic Law, having the closest all-male line of descent from a recent French king.
The Plantagenets based their claim on being closer to a more recent French king, Edward III of England being a grandson of Philip IV through his mother, Isabella.
As Navarre did not have a tradition of male-only primogeniture, the Navarrese monarchy became distinct from the French with Joan II, a daughter of Louis X.
This marked the second time the thrones of Navarre and France were united under one monarch, as different inheritance laws had caused them to become separated during the events of the Hundred Years Wars.
From 22 September 1792 to 2 November 1795, the French Republic was governed by the National Convention, whose president (elected from within for a 14-day term) may be considered as France's legitimate head of state during this period.
The following day, amidst profound silence, the proposition was put to the assembly, "That royalty be abolished in France"; it carried, with cheers.
[84] At the end of May 1793, an uprising of the Parisian sans culottes, the day-laborers and working class, undermined much of the authority of the moderate Girondins.
The days of 31 May – 2 June (French: journées) resulted in the fall of the Girondin party under pressure of the Parisian sans-culottes, Jacobins of the clubs, and Montagnards in the National Convention.
[87] On 27 July 1794, the National Convention voted for the arrest of Maximilien Robespierre, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, and several allies, and they were executed the following day.
Centre (Thermidorians) Right-wing (Clichyens) Left-wing (Montagnards) Other (Maraisards) After the Coup of 18 Brumaire (9 November 1799), Barras, Ducos, and Sieyès resigned.Moulin and Gohier, refusing to resign, were arrested by General Moreau.
The Bourbon Restoration came to an end with the July Revolution of 1830 which deposed Charles X and replaced him with Louis Philippe I, a distant cousin with more liberal politics.
Charles X named Louis Philippe as Lieutenant général du royaume, a regent to the young Henry V, and charged him to announce his desire to have his grandson succeed him to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the French Parliament at the time, the French equivalent at the time of the UK House of Commons.
Political parties Socialist (SFIO) Centre-right (MRP) Political parties Socialist (SFIO) Centre-right (CNIP) Political parties: Centre-left (PS) (2) Centrist (RE) (1) Centre-right (CD; RI; PR; UDF) (1) Gaullist (UNR; UDR) (2) Neo-Gaullist (RPR; UMP; LR) (2) Various pretenders descended from the preceding monarchs have claimed to be the legitimate monarch of France, rejecting the claims of the President of France, and of each other.
