Second White Terror

The Second White Terror occurred in France in 1815. Following the return of Louis XVIII to power, people suspected of having ties with the governments of the French Revolution or of Napoleon suffered arrest and execution.

Marshal Brune was killed in Avignon, and General Jean-Pierre Ramel was assassinated in Toulouse. These actions struck fear in the population, persuading liberal and moderate electors (48,000 of 72,000 total permitted by the census suffrage) to vote for the ultra-royalists. Of 402 members, the first Chamber of the Restoration was composed of 350 ultra-royalists; the king himself thus named it the Chambre 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. The Chamber voted, sentencing Marshal Ney and the Comte de la Bédoyère to death for treason, while 250 people were given prison sentences and some others exiled, including Joseph Fouché, Lazare Carnot, and Cambacérès.