Abstract

The patriotic discredit suffered by the Restoration arose not just from the circumstances of its advent both in 1814 and 1815 (the return of the Bourbons in «the foreigner’s wagons») but also from the dissociation between royalism and patriotism. The regime countered its critics on two scores attacking, on the one side, the revolutionary repudiation of continuity, which is the corner stone of any fatherland; and on the other side, the Napoleonic expansion of the borders and the ensuing adulteration of the national identity. This traditionalist and identity-based orientation of monarchical patriotism was to influence French nationalism over the long term. However, in the years 1815-1830, out of fear of challenging the property-based foundations of the social order, the Restoration did not encourage any popular monarchic patriotism; in doing so it weakened its position in the country and disappointed a part of the royalist right.