«I have never stopped believing that the great revolution was about to break out...» The Count of Provence in 1755-1789
Bovykin Dmitry
The article is devoted to the brother of Louis XVI, Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, the Count of Provence, the future King Louis XVIII (1755-1824). The formation of his character and political views, his education and his attempts to find his own place in the political system of the French monarchy, the uneasy relationship with Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, an imaginary or real rivalry with his brother, his role as a patron of science and culture, his literary activities, the forms of representation, which he has chosen for himself, – the study of all these subjects allows the author to trace the path that brought the Prince of the blood and «the son of France» to cooperation with the revolutionaries and earned him the popularity among Parisians on the eve of and during the first months of the French Revolution.