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Chamber of Deputies, Charles Ferdinand, Charles Philippe, Count of Artois, Dauphin, Duchess of Angoulême, Duke of Angoulême, Duke of Berry, Duke of Orleans, July Revolution, King Charles X of France, King of the French, Louis Antoine, Louis Philippe, Madame Dauphine, Madame Royale, Marie Therése de Bourbon of France
On February 13, 1820, tragedy struck when Prince Charles Philippe, Count of Artois’ younger son, Prince Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, was assassinated by the anti-Bourbon and Bonapartist sympathiser Louis Pierre Louvel, a saddler.
Soon after, the royal family was cheered when it was learned that Princess Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Two Siciles, Duchess of Berry was pregnant at the time of her husband’s death. On September 29, 1820, she gave birth to a son, Prince Henri, Duke of Bordeaux, the so-called “Miracle child”, who later, as the Bourbon pretender to the French throne, assumed the title of Count of Chambord.
Madame la Dauphine
King Louis XVIII died on September 16, 1824, and was succeeded by his younger brother, the Count of Artois, as King Charles X of France and Navarre. Princess Marie-Thérèse’s husband, Prince Louis Antoine, was now heir to the throne, and she was addressed as Madame la Dauphine. She is the only Dauphine whose father was a former King of France. However, anti-monarchist feeling was on the rise again. King Charles X’s ultra-royalist sympathies alienated many members of the working and middle classes.
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution (French: révolution de Juillet), Second French Revolution, or Trois Glorieuses (“Three Glorious Days”), was a second French Revolution after the first in 1789. It led to the overthrow of King Charles X.
On August 2, 1830, after Les Trois Glorieuses, the Revolution of July 1830
King Charles X abdicated, bypassing his son the Dauphin in favor of his grandson Prince Henri, Duke of Bordeaux, who was not yet ten years old. At first, the Duke of Angoulême (the Dauphin) refused to countersign the document renouncing his rights to the throne of France.
According to the Duchess of Maillé, “there was a strong altercation between the father and the son. We could hear their voices in the next room.” Finally, after twenty minutes, the Duke of Angoulême reluctantly countersigned his father’s declaration:
“My cousin, I am too deeply pained by the ills that afflict or could threaten my people, not to seek means of avoiding them. Therefore, I have made the resolution to abdicate the crown in favor of my grandson, the Duke of Bordeaux. The Dauphin, who shares my feelings, also renounces his rights in favor of his nephew.”
It will thus fall to you, in your capacity as Lieutenant General of the Kingdom, to proclaim the accession of the Duke of Bordeaux (King Henri V) to the throne. Furthermore, you will take all pertinent measures to regulate the forms of government during the new king’s minority. Here, I limit myself to stating these arrangements, as a means of avoiding further evils. You will communicate my intentions to the diplomatic corps, and you will let me know as soon as possible the proclamation by which my grandson will be recognized as king under the name of King Henri V.”
For this twenty minute period the Dauphin is considered to have been King Louis XIX of France and Navarre.
King Charles X named Prince Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, ascLieutenant général du royaume, and charged him to announce his desire to have his grandson succeed him to the popularly elected Chamber of Deputies.
Prince Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, did not do this, in order to increase his own chances of succession. As a consequence, because the chamber was aware of his liberal policies and of his popularity with the masses, they proclaimed Prince Louis Philippe as the new French king, displacing the senior branch of the House of Bourbon. For the prior eleven days Prince Louis Philippe had been acting as the regent for the young King Henri V.
Charles X and his family, including his grandson, went into exile in the United Kingdom. The young ex-king, the Duke of Bordeaux, in exile took the title of Comte de Chambord. Later he became the pretender to the throne of France and was supported by the Légitimists.
On August 4, in a long cortège, Marie-Thérèse left Rambouillet for a new exile with her uncle, her husband, her young nephew, as well as his mother, the Duchess of Berry, and his sister Louise Marie Thérèse d’Artois. On August 16, the family had reached the port of Cherbourg where they boarded a ship for Britain. King Louis-Philippe had taken care of the arrangements for the departure and sailing of his cousins.
June 1832, two years after the overthrow of Charles X, an unsuccessful royalist insurrection in the Vendée was led by Princess Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Two Siciles, widow of Charles Ferdinand, in an attempt to restore their son Henri, Comte de Chambord to the French throne.