The Second White Terror () occurred in France in 1815–1816, following the defeat of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

at the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...

(18 June 1815) and the enthronement of

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

as King of France after the

Hundred Days The Hundred Days ( ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition (), marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII o ...

. Suspected sympathizers of the French Revolution (including former

Jacobins The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential List of polit ...

), Republicans,

Bonapartists Bonapartism () is the political ideology supervening from Napoleon Bonaparte and his followers and successors. The term was used in the narrow sense to refer to people who hoped to restore the House of Bonaparte and its style of government. In ...

and, to a minor degree,

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

, suffered persecution. Several hundred were killed by angry mobs or executed after a quick trial at a

drumhead court-martial A drumhead court-martial is a court-martial held in the field to render summary justice for offenses committed in action. The term is said to originate from drums used as improvised tables and drumheads as writing surfaces at fast-track mil ...

. Historian John B. Wolf argues that

Ultra-royalist The Ultra-royalists (, collectively Ultras) were a Politics of France, French political faction from 1815 to 1830 under the Bourbon Restoration in France, Bourbon Restoration. An Ultra was usually a member of the nobility of high society who str ...

s — many of whom had just returned from exile — were staging a counter-revolution against the French Revolution and also against Napoleon's revolution. :Throughout the

Midi Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

— in

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (, , ; ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately . History ...

, and many other places — the White Terror raged with unrelenting ferocity. The royalists found in the willingness of the French to desert the king fresh proof of their theory that the nation was honeycombed with traitors, and used every means to seek out and destroy their enemies. The government was powerless or unwilling to intervene. The period is named after the

First White Terror The White Terror () was a period during the French Revolution in 1795 when a wave of violent attacks swept across much of France. The victims of this violence were people identified as being associated with the Reign of Terror – followers o ...

that occurred during the

Thermidorian Reaction In the historiography of the French Revolution, the Thermidorian Reaction ( or ''Convention thermidorienne'', "Thermidorian Convention") is the common term for the period between the ousting of Maximilien Robespierre on 9 Thermidor II, or 27 J ...

in 1794–1795, when people identified as being associated with

Robespierre Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; ; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman, widely recognised as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre fer ...

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...

(by means of distinction, also known as the "Red Terror") were harassed and killed.

Bourbon reprisals

After the Hundred Days, Napoleon's brief return to power in 1815, the second White Terror focused mainly on the purging of a civilian administration which had almost completely turned against the

Bourbon monarchy The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a dynasty that originated in the Kingdom of France as a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Kingdom of Navarre, Navarre in the 16th century. A br ...

. About 70,000 officials were dismissed from their positions. The remnants of the Napoleonic army were disbanded after the

and its senior officers

cashiered Cashiering (or degradation ceremony), generally within military forces, is a ritual dismissal of an individual from some position of responsibility for a breach of discipline. Etymology From the Flemish (to dismiss from service; to discard ...

. Marshal

Michel Ney Michel Ney, 1st Prince de la Moskowa, 1st Duke of Elchingen (; 10 January 1769 – 7 December 1815), was a French military commander and Marshal of the Empire who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The son of ...

was executed for treason, Marshal

Guillaume Brune Guillaume Brune, 1st Count Brune (, 13 March 1764 – 2 August 1815) was a French military commander, Marshal of the Empire, and political figure who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Early life Brune was b ...

was murdered by a royalist mob in

, and General

Jean-Pierre Ramel Jean-Pierre Ramel (1768 – 15 August 1815) was a French Army officer who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Following the Hundred Days, he was assassinated by French royalists in Toulouse during the Second White Terror. ...

was assassinated in

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

. Approximately 6,000 individuals who had rallied to Napoleon were brought to trial. There were about 300 mob

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of i ...

s in the south of France, notably in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, where at least eighteen of his

Mamelukes Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

were massacred in their barracks.

''Chambre introuvable''

These actions struck fear in the population, persuading liberal and moderate electors (48,000 of the 72,000 voters eligible under the franchise in force) to vote for the

ultra-royalists The Ultra-royalists (, collectively Ultras) were a French political faction from 1815 to 1830 under the Bourbon Restoration. An Ultra was usually a member of the nobility of high society who strongly supported Roman Catholicism as the state an ...

in the August 1815 elections. According to ''

Winkler Prins The ''Winkler Prins'' is a Dutch-language encyclopedia, founded by the Dutch poet and clergyman Anthony Winkler Prins (1817–1908) and published by Elsevier. It has run through nine printed editions; the first, issued in 16 volumes from 187 ...

'' (2002), the royalist electoral victory 'provided the Terror legality'. Of 402 members, the first Chamber of Deputies of the Restoration was composed of 350 ultra-royalists; the king himself thus named it the ''

Chambre introuvable The ( French for "Unobtainable Chamber") was the first Chamber of Deputies elected after the Second Bourbon Restoration in 1815. It was dominated by Ultra-royalists who completely refused to accept the results of the French Revolution. The n ...

'' ("the Unobtainable Chamber"), called as such because the Chamber was "more royalist than the king" (''plus royalistes que le roi'') in Louis XVIII's words. Meanwhile, the upper house, the Chamber of Peers, whose members were appointed by the King and served at his pleasure, sentenced Marshal Michel Ney and the Comte Charles de la Bédoyère to death for treason, while 250 people were given prison sentences and some others exiled, including

Joseph Fouché Joseph Fouché, 1st Duc d'Otrante, 1st Comte Fouché (; 21 May 1759 – 26 December 1820) was a French statesman, revolutionary, and Minister of Police under First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, who later became a subordinate of Emperor Napoleon. H ...

Lazare Carnot Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Comte Carnot (; 13 May 1753 – 2 August 1823) was a French mathematician, physicist, military officer, politician and a leading member of the Committee of Public Safety during the French Revolution. His military refor ...

, and Cambacérès. The surviving "regicides" who had voted for the execution of Louis XVI in 1792 were exiled. The White Terror in the political sphere ended when Louis XVIII disbanded the ''Chambre introuvable'' in 1816, putting an end to the ultra-royalist excesses, as he feared it would provoke a new revolution.

Bourbon reprisals

''Chambre introuvable''

See also

References

Further reading