TheSecond White Terror (French:Terreur blanche de 1815) occurred in France in 1815–1816,[1] following the defeat ofNapoleon at theBattle of Waterloo (18 June 1815) and the enthronement ofLouis XVIII as King of France after theHundred Days. Suspected sympathizers of theFrench Revolution (including formerJacobins), Republicans,Bonapartists and, to a minor degree,Protestants, suffered persecution.[1][2] Several hundred were killed by angry mobs or executed after a quick trial at adrumhead court-martial.[3]
HistorianJohn B. Wolf argues thatUltra-royalists — many of whom had just returned from exile — were staging acounter-revolution against theFrench Revolution and also against Napoleon's revolution.
The period is named after theFirst White Terror that occurred during theThermidorian Reaction in 1794–1795, when people identified as being associated withRobespierre'sReign of Terror (by means of distinction, also known as the "Red Terror") were harassed and killed.[1]
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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 theBourbon monarchy. About 70,000 officials were dismissed from their positions. The remnants of the Napoleonic army were disbanded after theBattle of Waterloo and its senior officerscashiered. MarshalMichel Ney was executed for treason, MarshalGuillaume Brune was murdered by a royalist mob inAvignon, and GeneralJean-Pierre Ramel was assassinated inToulouse. Approximately 6,000 individuals who had rallied to Napoleon were brought to trial. There were about 300 moblynchings in the south of France,[5] notably inMarseille, where at least eighteen of hisMamelukes were massacred in their barracks.[6]
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 theultra-royalists inthe August 1815 elections.[1][2] According toWinkler Prins (2002), the royalist electoral victory 'provided the Terror legality'.[1] Of 402 members, the first Chamber of Deputies of theRestoration was composed of 350 ultra-royalists; the king himself thus named it theChambre introuvable ("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, theChamber of Peers, whose members were appointed by the King and served at his pleasure, sentenced Marshal Michel Ney and the ComteCharles de la Bédoyère to death for treason, while 250 people were given prison sentences and some others exiled, includingJoseph Fouché,Lazare Carnot, andCambacérès. 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 theChambre introuvable in 1816, putting an end to the ultra-royalist excesses, as he feared it would provoke a new revolution.[1][2]
