Joseph de Villèle (14 dic 1821 anni – 4 gen 1828 anni)

Descrizione:

Jean-Baptiste Guillaume Joseph Marie Anne Séraphin, 1st Count of Villèle, better known simply as Joseph de Villèle, was a French statesman. Several times Prime minister, he was a leader of the Ultra-royalist faction during the Bourbon Restoration.

Under the electoral law of 1817 the Abbé Grégoire, who was popularly supposed to have voted for the death of Louis XVI of France in the convention, was admitted to the Chamber of Deputies. The Conservative party gained strength from the alarm raised by this incident and still more from the shock caused by the assassination of the duc de Berry. The duc de Richelieu was compelled to admit to the cabinet two of the chiefs of the "ultras", Villèle and Corbière. Villèle resigned within a year, but on the fall of Richelieu at the end of 1821 he became the real chief of the new cabinet, in which he was minister of finance.

Although not himself a courtier, he was backed at court by Sosthene de la Rochefoucauld and Madame du Cayla, and in 1822 Louis XVIII gave him the title of count and made him formally prime minister. He immediately proceeded to muzzle opposition by stringent press laws, and the discovery of minor liberal conspiracies afforded an excuse for further repression. Forced against his will into interference in Spain by Mathieu de Montmorency and Chateaubriand, he contrived to reap some credit for the monarchy from the successful campaign of 1823.

Meanwhile, he had consolidated the royal power by persuading Louis XVIII to swamp the liberal majority in the upper house by the nomination of twenty-seven new peers; he availed himself of the temporary popularity of the monarchy after the Spanish campaign to summon a new Chamber of Deputies. This new and obedient legislature, to which only nineteen liberals were returned, made itself into a septennial parliament, thus providing time, it was thought, to restore some part of the ancien regime. Villèle's plans were assisted by the death of Louis XVIII and the accession of his brother, Charles X, a staunch believer in absolute monarchy. Prudent financial administration since 1815 had made possible the conversion of the state bonds from 5 to 3%. It was proposed to utilize the money set free by this operation to indemnify by a billion francs (Le milliard des émigrés) the émigrés for the loss of their lands at the Revolution; it was also proposed to restore their former privileges to the religious congregations.

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