Monarchism in France is the advocacy of restoring the monarchy (mostly constitutional monarchy) in France, which was abolished after the 1870 defeat by Prussia, arguably before that in 1848 with the establishment of the French Second Republic. The French monarchist movements are roughly divided today in three groups:
In France, Louis-Philippe abdicated on February 24, 1848, opening the way to the Second Republic (1848–52), which lasted until Napoleon III's December 2, 1851 coup d'état and the establishment of the Second Empire (1852–1870). The monarchist movement came back into force only after the 1870 defeat by Prussia and the crushing of the 1871 Paris Commune by Orleanist Adolphe Thiers. Legitimists and Orleanists controlled the majority of the Assemblies, and supported Patrice de Mac-Mahon, Duke of Magenta, as president of the Ordre moral government.
But the intransigeance of the comte de Chambord, who refused to abandon the white flag and its fleur-de-lys against the republican tricolore, and the May 16, 1877 crisis forced the legitimists to abandon the political arena, while some of the more liberal Orleanists "rallied" throughout the years to the Third Republic (1870–1945). However, since the monarchy and Catholicism were long entangled ("the alliance of the Throne and the Altar"), republican ideas were often tinged with anti-clericalism, which led to some turmoil during Radical Emile Combes' cabinet in the beginning of the 20th century.