The Monarchs of France ~ (768-1870)

From The Romanian Monarchist

The monarchs of the Kingdom of France and its predecessors (and successor monarchies) ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of the West Franks in 843 until the fall of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Between the period from King Charles the Bald in 843 to King Louis XVI in 1792, France had 45 kings. As well as the 7 undisputed Emperors and Kings after the French Revolution, this comes to a total of 52 undisputed monarchs of France. In August 843 the Treaty of Verdun divided the Frankish realm into three kingdoms, one of which was short-lived; the other two evolved into France and, eventually, Germany. By this time the eastern and western parts of the land already had different languages and culture. The Capetian dynasty, the male-line descendants of Hugh Capet, included the first rulers to adopt the title of 'King of France' for the first time with Philip II (r. 1180–1223). The Capetians ruled continuously from 987 to 1792 and again from 1814 to 1848. The branches of the dynasty which ruled after 1328, however, are generally given the specific branch names of Valois (until 1589) and Bourbon (from 1589). During the brief period when the French Constitution of 1791 was in effect (1791–92) and after the July Revolution in 1830, the style of "King of the French" was used instead of "King of France (and Navarre)". It was a constitutional innovation known as popular monarchy, which linked the monarch's title to the French people rather than to the possession of the territory of France. With the House of Bonaparte, "Emperors of the French" ruled in 19th-century France between 1804 and 1814, again in 1815, and between 1852 and 1870.