Doctrinals Doctrinaires | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Pierre Paul Royer-Collard François Guizot Duke of Broglie |
| Monarch that supported them: | Louis XVIII[1][2][3][4][5] |
| Founded | 8 July 1815; 210 years ago (1815-07-08) |
| Dissolved | 1848; 177 years ago (1848) |
| Preceded by | Liberal Party (1817) |
| Succeeded by | Movement Party Resistance Party |
| Newspaper | Le Censeur |
| Ideology | Chartism Classical liberalism[6][7] Conservative liberalism[8] Orléanism (minority) |
| Political position | Centre-left tocentre-right[A] |
| Colours | Celeste |
^ A: The Docrinaires was one of the major monarchist parties during theBourbon Restoration period. The Docrinaires were right-leaning compared to the more progressive centre-leftLiberal Party, but were more moderate compared to the further right-wing Ultra-royalists. Additionally, most liberals during its existence were considered to belong closer to the political left. | |
During theBourbon Restoration (1814–1830) and theJuly Monarchy (1830–1848), theDoctrinals (French:Doctrinaires) were a group ofFrench royalists who hoped to reconcile themonarchy with theFrench Revolution andpower withliberty. Headed byRoyer-Collard, theseliberal royalists were in favor of aconstitutional monarchy, but with a heavily restrictedcensus suffrage—Louis XVIII, who had been restored to the throne, had granted aCharter to the French with aChamber of Peers and a Chamber of Deputies elected under tight electoral laws (only around 100,000 Frenchmen had at the time the right to vote). The Doctrinaires were acentrist,[9][10] as well as aconservative-liberal group,[8] but at that time,liberal was considered to be the mainstreampolitical left, so the group was considered acentre-left group.[11][12]
During the July Monarchy, they were an intellectual and political group within theResistance Party. Led bythe Duke of Broglie andFrançois Guizot, the Doctrinaires held powerful posts throughout the reign ofLouis-Philippe. Broglie (1835–1836) and Guizot (1847–1848) were bothPrime Ministers of France, although Guizot and the Doctrinaires dominated the political scenery during the premiership of MarshalJean-de-Dieu Soult (1840–1847).[13]
The Doctrinaires first obtained in 1816 the co-operation ofLouis XVIII, who had been frightened by the violence of theUltra-royalists in theChambre introuvable of 1815.[14] However, the Ultras quickly came back to government, headed by thecomte de Villèle. The Doctrinaires were then in the opposition, although they remained quite close to the government, especially toDecazes who assumed some governmental offices. The Doctrinaires were opposed on their left by republicans and liberals, and on their right by the Ultras.
Finally, the Doctrinaires were destroyed byCharles X, thereactionary successor of his brother Louis XVIII. Charles took the ultraprince de Polignac as his minister. This nomination in part caused the1830 July Revolution, during which the Doctrinaires became absorbed in theOrléanists, from whom they had never been separated on any ground of principle.[14] According toRené Rémond's famous classification of the various right-wing families in France, the Orléanists became the second right-wing tradition to emerge after theLegitimists, a term used to refer to the Ultras after the July Revolution.[citation needed]
As has often been the case with party designations, the name was at first given in derision and by an enemy. In 1816, theNain jaune réfugié, a French paper, published atBrussels byBonapartist and liberal exiles, began to speak ofRoyer-Collard as the doctrinaire and also asle Pierre Royer-Collard de la doctrine chrétienne, a name which came from Royer-Collard's studies under thePrêtres de la doctrine chrétienne, a French religious order founded in 1592 byCésar de Bus and popularly known as the doctrinaires.[14]
The choice of a nickname for Royer-Collard does credit to the journalistic insight of the contributors to theNain jaune réfugié, for he was emphatically a man who made it his business to preach adoctrine and anorthodoxy. The term quickly became popular and was extended to Royer-Collard's colleagues, who came from different horizons. Theduc de Richelieu andHercule de Serre had been royalistémigrés during the revolutionary and imperial epoch.[14]
Royer-Collard himself,Jean Maximilien Lamarque andMaine de Biran had sat in the revolutionary Assemblies.Pasquier, thecomte de Beugnot, thebaron de Barante,Georges Cuvier,Mounier,Guizot andDecazes had been imperial officials, but they were closely united by political principle and also by a certain similarity of method. Some of them, notably Guizot and Maine de Biran, were theorists and commentators on the principles of government. The baron de Barante was an eminent man of letters. All were noted for the doctrinal coherence of their principles and thedialectical rigidity of their arguments. The object of the party as defined by the future duc Decazes was to "nationalize the monarchy and to royalize France".[14] The king, who had been king of France during theAncien Régime, ultimately became king of the French under the July Monarchy. This illustrated the change from thedivine right of kings tonational sovereignty as sovereignty was not derived from God anymore, but from the people.[citation needed]
The means by which they hoped to attain this end were a loyal application of theCharter granted byLouis XVIII and the steady co-operation of the king with themselves to defeat theUltra-royalists, a group ofcounterrevolutionaries who aimed at the complete undoing of the political and social work of theFrench Revolution. The Doctrinaires were ready to allow the king a large discretion in the choice of his ministers and the direction of national policy. They refused the principle ofparliamentary responsibility, that is to allow that ministers should be removed in obedience to a hostile vote in the chamber.[14]
Their ideal in fact was a combination of a king who frankly accepted the results of the Revolution and who governed in a liberal spirit, with the advice of a chamber elected by a very limited constituency in which men of property and education formed, if not the wholes at least the very great majority of the voters. This king was not to be found untilLouis-Philippe's reign during theJuly Monarchy. Guizot set forth the Doctrinaires' ideology in his 1816 treatiseDu gouvernement représentatif et de l'état actuel de la France. The chief organs of the party in the press were theIndépendant (renamed theConstitutionnel in 1817) and theJournal des Débats. The Doctrinaires were chiefly supported by ex officials of the empire who believed in the necessity for monarchical government, but had a lively memory ofNapoleon's authoritative rule and a no less lively hatred of the Ancien Régime — merchants, manufacturers and members of the liberal professions, particularly the lawyers.[14]
The worddoctrinaire has become naturalized in English terminology as applied in a slightly contemptuous sense to a theorist as distinguished from a practical man of affairs.[14]
| Chamber of Deputies | ||||||
| Election year | No. of overall votes | % of overall vote | No. of overall seats won | +/– | Leader | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1815 | 5,200 (2nd) | 12.5 | 50 / 400 | New | ||
| 1816 | 49,820 (1st) | 52.7 | 136 / 258 |  86 | ||
| 1820 | 42,300 (1st) | 44.7 | 194 / 434 | 58 | ||
| 1824 | 3,760 (2nd) | 4.0 | 17 / 430 |  177 | ||
| 1827 | 37,600 (2nd) | 39.5 | 170 / 430 | 163 | ||
| 1830 | 46,060 (2nd) | 49.3 | 274 / 378 | 204 | ||
| 1831 | 76,805 (1st) | 61.4 | 282 / 459 | 8 | ||
Post-revolutionary French liberals (Thermidorians and doctrinaires) devised the theory of the dichotomy between ancient liberty and modern liberty as a reaction against eighteenth-century republican ideology and its devastating consequences.
... The conservative liberal Doctrinaires argued that the classe moyenne (their preferred term) was the representative part of the nation, and could legitimately govern on behalf of all. All this placed the idea of class at the centre of ...
... After 1835 even some of the right-liberal 'doctrinaires,' e.g. Rémusat, moved from resistance to movement, a development which ...
... different but no less authoritarian (and metaphysical) form of Cartesian rationalism was invoked by the Doctrinaires, a collection of thinkers who shaped the conservative liberal politics of the July Monarchy between 1830 and 1848. ...
... the chief theorist of the left, which included La Fayette and Manuel, known in the Chamber of Deputies as the Independants. The new generation of liberals on the centre left, the Doctrinaires, who now gathered around Madamede Staël, ...
The effort was a success, bringing the Doctrinaires to power, a center-left party that tried to reconcile a constitutional monarchy with the gains of the Revolution.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Doctrinaires".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 367.