Louis XVIII 1755 - 1824.

Escaped from France in 1791 and travelled to various countries, ending up in England. In May 1814, after Napoleons’ defeat and abdication and the conclusion of the Treaty of Paris, he was proclaimed King of France. At the Congress of Vienne, assembled to realign European policy, it was announced that Napoleon had left the Isle of Elba and had reinstated himself in Paris. Napoleon had raised an army and had marched north, eventually meeting his fate at Waterloo at the hands of Wellington and his German allies.

The European allies re-entered Paris and Louis XVIII governed with a Liberal party, but with the aristocrats and the returned émigrés the party soon had the upper hand. One of his final acts was a war with Spain for the restoration of Ferdinand VII in 1823, the year before his death. The country was very prosperous at this time.