No, John, I assure you, I'm very aware of what my podcast needs to grow, and it's more episodes on a consistent schedule. A me problem, not a you problem.

It's July 14, Bastille Day. But you wouldn't want to be caught waving a tricolor flag in France's Bourbon Restoration (1814-1830) — it was banned, and people went to jail after being caught with illicit tricolors. Find out more on The Siècle: thesiecle.com/supplemental8/

Political divisions in France's July Monarchy can often come down to what people thought 1830's "July Revolution" actually was. Find out more in Episode 50 of The Siècle: thesiecle.com/episode50/

Do any French speakers know if there's a pun here that I'm missing, as Jacques Laffitte — son of a carpenter, father of a princess — calls himself a "prince du rabot"? Literally rabot refers to a carpenter's plane, but is this a play on words?

Never change, French savants.

Featuring arguably too much Jacques Laffitte — or, as wags called him during his personal and political struggles in 1831, "Jacques Lafaillite" — Jacques the Bankrupt.

Episode 50 chugging along!

Laurence Constant's French-language biography of Felix Le Peletier didn't cover the Granville incident, but it did include a family tree that would have saved me a lot of headaches. That said, I had a reason for not reading this earlier — it required either ILL or really high shipping costs.

Not that I found, other than this one. But I'm certainly not confident that doesn't mean there's none there. Gallica's search can be unreliable.

@rlspang.bsky.social Can you recommend someone at IU who might be able to photograph/scan a couple pages of this book for me? I'm looking for just a particular entry, for Amédée Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau; Google Books says he's on pages 59-60 (might be digital pages, not print numbering).

Time for a night of light musical theatre! This should have a happy ending, right?

What a great opportunity for content I can put on thesiecle.com.

In 1830, France's king and his ministers suspended the constitution. But the people of Paris resisted and overthrew the regime. Now crowds are chanting "Death to the ministers." The ex-ministers are on trial — but so is France's new regime. NEW EPISODE: thesiecle.com/episode49/

NEW EPISODE: The July Revolution is done, but Paris isn't sure if it's done with revolution. Protests and riots, treason trials and lynch mobs, suspicious deaths and epic betrayals — it's all here in Episode 49: The Trial. thesiecle.com/episode49/

I get a lot of spam on my podcast email, usually people offering to SEO my YouTube videos or whatever. But the ~weirdest~ spam is this Italian pergola manufacturer, whose mailing list I have been unable to get off of for YEARS.

My favorite example of this *so far* was Charles Fabvier in Episode 30 (and guess who makes a cameo again in the upcoming Episode 49??): thesiecle.com/episode30/

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28/ But while France's opposition politicians were slow to act, they were not, in the end, TOO slow. Before events on the ground completely passed them by, the politicians asserted themselves and arranged for Charles to be replaced by his more liberal cousin, Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans.

26/ And so, as the night ended with no response to the opposition leaders' demands, many of them radicalized. Led by Jacques Laffitte, the banker-politician who had once declared, "Given my wealth, I am clearly interested in order," they began pursuing a change of dynasty.

21/ But Marmont, though he was obeying orders to suppress the rebellion, was no Ultra. He was a moderate caught in the middle, and he declined Polignac's suggestion to arrest the delegation. Instead, he heard them out.

16/ Charles rejected any such off-ramps. The time for compromise was over, he felt. And so on July 25, 1830, Charles signed the "Four Ordinances" — a royal coup that dissolved parliament, unilaterally re-wrote election law to help ultraroyalist candidates, and imposed strict press censorship.

15/ Other opposition leaders, concerned at escalating tensions, tried to strike a deal. They offered to bring back Charles's old prime minister, Joseph de Villèle — who the opposition had chased out of office just 3 years before. Villèle was an Ultra, but he was seen as less crazy than Polignac.

11/ So in August 1829, Charles appointed a new ministry led by his close friend, Jules de Polignac — one of the most uncompromising Ultras. Just making Polignac a minister was a declaration of war, and from August 1829 the opposition nervously waited for Charles & Polignac to make their attack.

9/ Charles X was the younger brother of Louis XVI. He said: "The first concession that my unhappy brother made was the signal for his fall… [his opponents] also made protestations of love and fidelity, all they asked for the was the dismissal of his ministers, he gave in, and all was lost."

2/ Opposition politicians in the Bourbon Restoration were a diverse lot, but in general, these were not radical guys. The Restoration had a high wealth requirement for elected deputies, so they were all rich. "Given my wealth, I am clearly interested in order," one opposition leader once declared.

Henri V of France, the sole legitimate heir to France’s Bourbon dynasty, will return in Avengers: Doomsday (but he’s got some stipulations about the logo).

Throwing this out for anyone who might be able to help! I am trying to track down the woman mentioned in these documents, the memoirs of the Comte de Semallé (1772-1863), and in this 1829 report on former colonists from Saint-Domingue/Haiti. Claims made about her in these sources (cont):

A teaser trailer for the next episode of The Siècle (featuring guest narration from @lafayettepodcast.com!):

Very grateful, when browsing the French history section at my local bookstore, to find a book that doesn’t make me read the back cover or inside flap to decide if I should buy it.

It's remarkable how many amazing resources there are for 19th Century French history, freely available online. (And one day, perhaps, a vintage copy on my shelves...)