April 13, 1747: Birth of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans

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Charles Philippe, Count of Artois, Duke of Orleans, French Revolution, House of Bourbon, House of Orléans, July Revolution, King Louis Philippe of the French, Louis Philippe II, Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre, Philippe Égalité, Reign of Terror

Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (April 13, 1747 – November 6, 1793), was a major French noble who supported the French Revolution.

Louis Philippe II was born at the Château de Saint-Cloud to Louis Philippe I, Duke of Chartres, and Louise Henriette de Bourbon. He was titled Duke of Montpensier at birth. Louis Philippe was a member of the House of Orléans, a cadet branch of the French royal family. His mother came from the House of Bourbon-Condé.

Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans

When his grandfather Louis, Duke of Orléans, died in 1752, his father became the new Duke of Orléans and Louis Philippe II became Duke of Chartres. When his father died in 1785, he became Duke of Orléans and First Prince of the Blood. He was styled as Serene Highness. This put him in line for the succession to the throne immediately after Charles Philippe, Count of Artois, the youngest brother of Louis XVI.

On June 6, 1769, Louis Philippe married Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans (1753 –1821), was the daughter of his cousin Louis Jean de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre and Princess Maria Teresa d’Este, a Princess of Modena. Her father the The were wed at the chapel of the Palace of Versailles. Her father was one of the richest men in France.

Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre

Since it was certain that his wife would become the richest woman in France upon the death of her father, Louis Philippe was able to play a political role in court equal to that of his great-grandfather Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who had been the Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV.

Unlike her husband, Louise Marie Adélaïde the Duchess of Orléans did not support the Revolution. She was a devout Catholic who supported keeping the monarchy in France, as well as following the orders of Pope Pius VI. This was the causes of one of the rifts of the couple, as their first son, Louis Philippe, the future “King of the French”, followed his father’s footsteps and joined the Jacobin faction.

During the first few months of their marriage, the couple appeared devoted to each other, but the Duke went back to the life of libertinage he had led before his marriage. The Duke was a well-known womanizer and, like several of his ancestors, such as Louis XIV and Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, had several illegitimate children.

In 1792, during the Revolution, Louis Philippe II changed his name to Philippe Égalité. He was a cousin of King Louis XVI. He actively supported the Revolution of 1789, and was a strong advocate for the elimination of the present absolute monarchy in favor of a constitutional monarchy.

Louis Philippe voted for the death of Louis XVI. The King was especially shocked by the news, stating:

“It really pains me to see that Monsieur d’Orléans, my kinsman, voted for my death.”

Death

On April 1, 1793, a decree was voted for within the Convention, including Égalité’s vote, that condemned anyone with “strong presumptions of complicity with the enemies of Liberty.”

At the time, Philippe Égalité’s son, Louis Philippe, who was a general in the French army, joined General Dumouriez in a plot to visit the Austrians, who were an enemy of France.

Although there was no evidence that convicted Égalité himself of treason, the simple relationship that his son had with Dumouriez, a traitor in the eyes of the Convention, was enough to get him and Louis Charles, Count of Beaujolais (son of Philippe Égalité and the younger brother of King Louis-Philippe I of the French) arrested on April 4, 1793, and the other members of the Bourbon family still in France on the days after.

Philippe Égalité spent several months incarcerated at Fort Saint-Jean in Marseille until he was sent back to Paris. On November 2, 1793, he was imprisoned at the Conciergerie. Tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal on November 6, he was sentenced to death, and guillotined the same day.

His son, Louis Philippe, became King of the French after the July Revolution of 1830. After Louis Philippe II, the term Orléanist came to be attached to the movement in France that favored a constitutional monarchy.

August 4, 1703: Birth of Louis, Duke of Orléans. Part II.

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House of Orléans, Johanna of Baden-Baden, Louis, Louis Armand II of Conti, Louis d'Orléans, Louis of Orleans, Louis-Philippe d'Orléans, Louise-Henriette de Bourbon

Part II

Marriage

The fifth child and only son out of eight children, Orléans was still not married at the death of his father. In 1721, the ambassador of France to Russia suggested a marriage between Orléans and one of the two unmarried daughters of Peter I of Russia: the Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna (known for her fluency in French) or her younger sister, Grand Duchess Yelizaveta Petrovna.

But the idea of a marriage with a Russian Grand Duchess had to be abandoned as there soon arose difficulties relative to religion and order of precedence. Orléans was “only” a great-grandson of the King of France and as such was only entitled to the style of Serene Highness. A Russian grand duchess, however, as a daughter of the tsar, was entitled to the style of Imperial Highness. Anna Petrovna later married the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp.

Louis, Duke of Orléans

Another possible bride who was considered for him was his first cousin Élisabeth-Alexandrine de Bourbon. She was the youngest daughter of his mother’s older sister, Louise-Françoise de Bourbon. Élisabeth-Alexandrine was also, however, the younger sister of his main rival, the Duke of Bourbon.

In 1723, a German princess was suggested. She was Johanna of Baden-Baden (1704–1726), the daughter of Ludwig-Wilhelm, Margrave of Baden-Baden and his wife Sibylle-Auguste of Saxe-Lauenburg. The marriage was agreed upon by his mother, and the bride’s small dowry set at 80,000 livres. The marriage by proxy took place on June 18, 1724 at Rastatt, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, then on July 13, in the town of Sarry (Marne), in France. It was at Sarry that the couple first met. They fell in love at first sight. At the French court, the new Duchess of Orléans was known as Jeanne de Bade.

Johanna of Baden-Baden

The ducal couple had two children, but only one survived infancy.
Later life

On September 5, 1725, the court celebrated the marriage of Louis XV to the Polish princess, Marie Leszczyńska at Fontainebleau. Earlier, Orléans had represented Louis XV at the proxy marriage ceremony, which had taken place the previous August 15, at Strasbourg. The young queen would later have a lot of sympathy for the quiet and pious Duke.

The following year, on August 8, 1726, the duke’s young wife died three days after the birth of her second child, Louise-Marie, at the Palais-Royal in Paris. After the early death of his wife, and until his own death in 1752, Louis lived by strict rules.

His son, Louis-Philippe would liked to have married Madame Henriette, the second daughter of Louis XV, but Louis XV refused. The king did not want the House of Orléans to be as powerful as it had been during the regency of Orléans’ father. In 1737 he, along with his aunt the Dowager Duchess of Bourbon, were asked to be godparents of the king’s son, Louis de France, Dauphin of France (1729–1765).

On December 17, 1743, Orléans’ son married Louise-Henriette de Bourbon, the daughter of Louis-Armand II, Prince of Conti and his wife, Louise-Élisabeth de Bourbon. The Condé and Orléans families had been at odds since the Orléans had assumed the rank of First Prince of the Blood in 1709, and it was hoped that the marriage would settle their mésentente. Although passionate at first, the marriage soon proved unhappy because of the young bride’s débaucherie.

Louise-Henriette de Bourbon

Louis-Philippe d’Orléans would see the birth of his grandchildren Louis-Philippe (1747–1793) and Bathilde (1750–1822) who, during the French Revolution of 1789, would be known respectively as Philippe-Égalité and Citoyenne Vérité. Because of the scandalous behaviour of their mother, he refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of his grandchildren.

In 1749, his mother died.

He died in 1752, at the age of forty-eight, at the Abbaye de Sainte Geneviève, having lost most of his sanity. On his deathbed, on suspicion of Jansenist views, he was refused communion by the Abbé Bouettin of the Saint-Étienne-du-Mont church, but was given the last rites by his own chaplain. Louis d’Orléans had outlived all his siblings apart from Charlotte-Aglaé, the Duchess of Modena and Reggio.

He was buried at the Val-de-Grâce in Paris.

March 21, 1804: Execution of His Serene Highness Prince Louis Antoine de Bourbon, The Duke of Enghien

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Emperor of the French, House of Bourbon, House of Orléans, Louis XIV of France, Louis-Philippe of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, Philippe Égalité, Prince Louis Antoine de Bourbon, Prince of Conde, The Duke of Enghien

His Serene Highness Prince Louis Antoine de Bourbon, The Duke of Enghien (Louis Antoine Henri; August 2, 1772 – March 21, 1804) was a member of the House of Bourbon of France. More famous for his death than for his life, he was executed on charges of aiding Britain and plotting against France.

The Duke of Enghien was the only son of Louis Henri de Bourbon and Bathilde d’Orléans. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was a prince du sang (Prince of the Blood). He was born at the Château de Chantilly, the country residence of the Princes of Condé – a title he was born to inherit. He was given the title Duke of Enghien from birth, his father already being the Duke of Bourbon and the heir to the title the Prince of Condé, the Duke of Bourbon being the Heir apparent of Condé.

His mother’s full name was Louise Marie Thérèse Bathilde d’Orléans; she was the only surviving daughter of Louis Philippe d’Orléans (grandson of the Regent Philippe d’Orléans) and Louise Henriette de Bourbon. His uncle was the future Philippe Égalité and he was thus a first cousin of the future Louis-Philippe I, King of the French. He was also doubly descended from Louis XIV through his legitimated daughters, Françoise Marie de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Blois and Louise Françoise de Bourbon, Duchess of Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Nantes.

He was educated privately by the Abbé Millot, and in military matters by Commodore de Vinieux. He early on showed the warlike spirit of the House of Condé, and began his military career in 1788. In 1792, at the outbreak of French Revolutionary Wars, he held a command in the corps of émigrés organized and commanded by his grandfather, Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé? The Army of Condé shared in Charles Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg’s unsuccessful invasion of France.

The Duke of Enghien privately married Princess Charlotte de Rohan, niece of the Cardinal de Rohan, and took up his residence at Ettenheim in Baden, near the Rhine. Princess Charlotte de Rohan was born in Paris. Her father was Charles Jules, Prince de Rochefort, a member of the House of Rohan, which held princely rank in France prior to the revolution, although they were not prince du sang. Her mother was Marie-Henriette d’Orléans-Rothelin, a descendant of Joan of Arc’s ally the Bastard of Orléans, whose legitimate heirs, the Orléans-Longueville dukes, died out in 1694 leaving only the Rothelin branch, prominent in the kingdom despite a bar sinister, which in Heraldry is the usual mark used to identify illegitimate descendants of royalty.

Early in 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of France, heard news which seemed to connect the young duke with the Cadoudal Affair, a conspiracy which was being tracked by the French police at the time. It involved royalists Jean-Charles Pichegru and Georges Cadoudal who wished to overthrow Bonaparte’s regime and reinstate the monarchy. The news ran that the duke was in company with Charles François Dumouriez and had made secret journeys into France. This was false; there is no evidence that the duke had dealings with either Cadoudal or Pichegru.

Bonaparte, First Consul, by Ingres. Posing the hand inside the waistcoat was often used in portraits of rulers to indicate calm and stable leadership.

On March 15, 1804, upon orders from Napoleon, French dragoons crossed the Rhine secretly, surrounded his house and brought him to Strasbourg and thence to the Château de Vincennes, near Paris, where a military commission of French colonels presided over by General Hulin was hastily convened to try him. The duke was charged chiefly with bearing arms against France in the late war, and with intending to take part in the new coalition then proposed against France.

The military commission, drew up the act of condemnation, being incited thereto by orders from Anne Jean Marie René Savary, who had come charged with instructions to kill the duke. Savary prevented any chance of an interview between the condemned and the First Consul, and, on March 21, the duke was executed, shot in the moat of the castle, near a grave which had already been prepared. A platoon of the Gendarmes d’élite was in charge of the execution. In 1816, his remains were exhumed and placed in the Holy Chapel of the Château de Vincennes.

The execution of The duc d’Enghien

Royalty and the aristocracy across Europe were shocked and dismayed at the Duke’s death, many who still remembered the bloodletting of the Revolution. Emperor Alexander I of Russia was especially alarmed, and decided to curb Napoleon’s power.

The duc d’Enghien was the last descendant of the House of Condé; his grandfather and father survived him, but died without producing further heirs. It is now known that Napoleon’s wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais and Claire Élisabeth de Vergennes, Madame de Rémusat had begged Bonaparte to spare the Duke; but nothing would bend his will.

Conversely, in France the execution appeared to quiet domestic resistance to Napoleon, who soon crowned himself Emperor of the French. Cadoudal, dismayed at the news of Napoleon’s proclamation, reputedly exclaimed, “We wanted to make a king, but we made an emperor”.

French Dynastic Disputes: Part V (a)

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Dynastic Disputes, Fundamental Laws of Succession to the French Crown, House of Bourbon, House of Orléans, King Louis Philippe of the French, Louis Alphonse de Bourbon, Louis Philippe

One of the most interesting French Dynastic Disputes is the battle for the vacant or non existent throne of France. The argument rests on the legality of the renunciation of rights to the French throne by King Felipe V of Spain (1700-1746) and his descendents at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714. Felipe V (Philippe Duc d’Anjou) was born a French prince and a grandson of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre (1643-1715) and also a great-grandson of King Felipe III of Spain (1598-1621) from whose descent he was appointed successor to the childless King Carlos II of Spain (1665-1700).

Prince Louis Alphonse of Bourbon, Duke of Anjou

Today there are two claimants from different lines of the House of Bourbon: Prince Louis Alphonse of Bourbon, Duke of Anjou is the senior male heir of Hugh Capet, King of France (987-996). Louis Alphonse is also the senior descendant of King Louis XIV of France through his grandson King Felipe V of Spain. By the Legitimist faction of French royalists he is recognized as the rightful claimant to the French crown.

Prince Jean of Orléans, Comte de Paris and Duc de France.

The other claimant to the French crown is Prince Jean of Orléans, Comte de Paris and Duc de France. Prince Jean is a descendant of King Louis Philippe (1830-1848), the last King of France and he is the current head of the Orléans line of the Bourbon dynasty.

The issues are complicated so I will attempt to give a basic readers digest version of how the two rival claims arouse. Succession to the thrones of all monarchies are governed by laws. There are two basic fundamental laws that governed the succession to the French throne. The First is the Salic Law which states that the succession is via male only primogeniture and that women could neither inherit the throne for themselves nor pass on succession rights to their sons. The other relevant law is that a French prince could not renounce their rights to the throne.

In 1830 King Charles X of France (1824-1830) was deposed in a revolution. He unsuccessfully tried to abdicate the throne in favor of his eldest son, Louis Antoine, Duc d’Angoulême whom the Legitimist faction call King Louis XIX of France and Navarre. His tenure on the French throne was brief and never recognized for 30 minutes later Louis XIX abdicated his claim to the throne to his nephew Henri of Artois, Count of Chambord. The Count of Chambord claimed the throne of France as Henri V until the Chamber of Deputies proclaimed his distant cousin, Louis Philippe, Duc d’Orléans as King of the French on August 9, 1830. The Legitimist faction view Louis-Philippe as a usurper to the French throne.

Technically he was a usurper. The National Assembly named Louis Philippe Lieutenant général du royaume, and gave him the responsibility to proclaim to the Chamber of Deputies his desire to have his cousin, Henri V, Count of Chambord mount the French throne. Louis Philippe failed to do this in an attempt to seize the throne for himself. This hesitation gave the Chamber of Deputies time to consider Louis Philippe in the role of king due to his liberal policies and his popularity with the general public. Despite Louis Philippe being regent for Henri V the Chamber of Deputies proclaimed Louis Philippe as the new French king, displacing the senior branch of the House of Bourbon which was in direct violation of the Fundamental Laws of Succession to the French Crown.

This concludes part I. Tomorrow Part II will show the rise of the rival claims in the aftermath of the reign of Louis Philippe.

On this date in History: August 9, 1830. Accession of Louis Philippe as King of the French.

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Duke of Orleans, House of Bourbon, House of Orléans, July Monarchy, July Revolution, King Charles X of France, King of France, King of the French, Louis Philippe, Louis XVIII

King Louis XVIII’s health had been worsening since the beginning of 1824. Suffering from both dry and wet gangrene in his legs and spine, he died on September 16, of that year, aged almost 69. Louis XVIII died without any issue making his younger brother, Charles Philippe, Count of Artois, now in his 67th year, the successor to the throne as King Charles X of France and Navarre. In his first act as king, Charles attempted to unify the House of Bourbon by granting the style of Royal Highness to his cousins of the House of Orléans, who had been deprived of this style by Louis XVIII because of the former Duke of Orléans’ role in the death of Louis XVI.

Charles X, King of France and Navarre.

The almost six year reign of King Charles X proved to be deeply unpopular from the moment of his coronation in 1825, in which he tried to revive the practice of the royal touch. The governments appointed under his reign reimbursed former landowners for the abolition of feudalism at the expense of bondholders, increased the power of the Catholic Church, and reimposed capital punishment for sacrilege, leading to conflict with the liberal-majority Chamber of Deputies. Charles X also initiated the French conquest of Algeria as a way to distract his citizens from domestic problems. He eventually appointed a conservative government under the premiership of Prince Jules de Polignac, who was defeated in the 1830 French legislative election. He responded with the July Ordinances disbanding the Chamber of Deputies, limiting franchise, and reimposing press censorship. Within a week France faced urban riots.

Masses of angry demonstrators demanded the abdication of Charles X and of his descendants. They sent a delegation to the Tuileries Palace to force his compliance. Charles X reluctantly signed the document of abdication on August 2, 1830. The next in line to inherit the throne was Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême (August 6, 1775 – June 3, 1844) the elder son of Charles X of France and the last Dauphin of France from 1824 to 1830. Louis Antoine was equally reluctant to sign the Instrument of Abdication.

It is said that Louis Antoine spent this time listening to the entreaties of his wife not to sign, while the former Charles X sat weeping. After 20 minutes, he also abdicated for himself in favour of his 10 year old nephew, Prince Henri, the Duke of Bordeaux. Louis-Antoine was technically King of France and Navarre for 20 minutes before he himself abdicated. After the death of Charles X in 1836, he was the legitimist pretender as Louis XIX.

Within days the legitimate king, Prince Henri, the Duke of Bordeaux (King Henri V of France and Navarre to the Legitimists) was supplanted by Louis Philippe III, Duke of Orléans, a scion of the House of Orléans.

The Rise of Louis Philippe III, Duke of Orléans as King of the French.

The 4th House of Orléans, sometimes called the House of Bourbon-Orléans to distinguish it from several branches of the Royal House of France that held that name. They were all descended in the legitimate male line from the dynasty’s founder, Hugh Capet. The incarnation of the 4th House of Orléans was founded by Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger son of Louis XIII and younger brother of Louis XIV, the “Sun King,” (1648-1715).

Louis Philippe III (October 6, 1773 – August 26, 1850) was born in the Palais Royal, the residence of the Orléans family in Paris, to Louis Philippe II, Duke of Chartres (Duke of Orléans, upon the death of his father Louis Philippe I), and Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was a Prince of the Blood, which entitled him the use of the style “Serene Highness”. His mother was an extremely wealthy heiress who was descended from Louis XIV of France through a legitimized line.

To explain the rise of Louis Philippe (III), Duke d’Orléans, to the French throne, I would like to briefly examine the fall from grace of the House of Bourbon and it begins with the fall of his father, Louis Philippe II d’Orléans.

Louis Philippe, King of the French

Louis Philippe II d’Orléans (13 April 1747 – 6 November 1793), most commonly known as Philippe, was born at the Château de Saint-Cloud. He was the son of Louis Philippe I Duke d’Orléans, Duke of Chartres, and Louise Henriette de Bourbon. Philippe was a member of the House of Orléans, a cadet branch of the French royal family. His mother came from the House of Bourbon-Condé. He inherited the title of Duke of Orléans at the death of his father, Louis Philippe I d’Orléans, in 1785 and also became the Premier prince du sang, title attributed to the Prince of the Blood closest to the throne after the Sons and Grandsons of France. He was addressed as Son Altesse Sérénissime (S.A.S.).

In 1792, during the French Revolution, he changed his name to Philippe Égalité. Louis Philippe II d’Orléans was a cousin of Louis XVI and one of the wealthiest men in France. He actively supported the Revolution of 1789, and was a strong advocate for the elimination of the present absolute monarchy in favor of a constitutional monarchy. He voted for the death of king Louis XVI; however, he was himself guillotined in November 1793 during the Reign of Terror. After his death, the term Orléanist came to be attached to the movement in France that favored a constitutional monarchy.

After the abdication of Napoleon, Louis Philippe III, Duke of Orléans, returned to France during the reign of his cousin Louis XVIII, at the time of the Bourbon Restoration. Louis Philippe III had reconciled the Orléans family with Louis XVIII in exile, and was once more to be found in the elaborate royal court. However, his resentment at the treatment of his family, the cadet branch of the House of Bourbon under the Ancien Régime, caused friction between him and Louis XVIII, and he openly sided with the liberal opposition.

Louis Philippe III was on far friendlier terms with Louis XVIII’s brother and successor Charles X and with whom he socialized. However, his opposition to the policies of Villèle and later of Jules de Polignac caused him to be viewed as a constant threat to the stability of Charles’ government. This soon proved to be to his advantage.

In 1830, the July Revolution overthrew Charles X, who abdicated in favour of his son Louis Antoine who in turn abdicated his right to his 10-year-old nephew, Henri, Duke of Bordeaux, and, naming Louis Philippe III Lieutenant général du royaume, charged him to announce to the popularly elected Chamber of Deputies his desire to have his grandson succeed him.

Louis Philippe III did not announce to the Chamber of Deputies that Prince Henri, the Duke of Bordeaux was now king. His refusal to do so was motivated to increase his own chances of succession. As a consequence, because the chamber was aware of Louis Philippe’s liberal policies and of his popularity with the masses, they proclaimed him King Louis Philippe I. Despite having been acting as the regent for his young cousin, as the new French king, his proclamation was a usurpation displacing the senior branch of the House of Bourbon.

Louis Philippe, King of the French

Charles X and his family, including his grandson, went into exile in Britain. The young ex-king, the Duke of Bordeaux, who, in exile, took the title of comte de Chambord, later became the pretender to the throne of France and was supported by the Legitimists.

Upon his accession to the throne, Louis Philippe assumed the title of King of the French – a title already adopted by Louis XVI in the short-lived Constitution of 1791. Linking the monarchy to a people instead of a territory (as the previous designation King of France and of Navarre) was aimed at undercutting the legitimist claims of Charles X and his family.

By an ordinance he signed on August 13, 1830, the new king defined the manner in which his children, as well as his “beloved” sister, would continue to bear the surname “d’Orléans” and the arms of Orléans, declared that his eldest son, as Prince Royal (not Dauphin), would bear the title Duke of Orléans, that the younger sons would continue to have their previous titles, and that his sister and daughters would only be styled Princesses of Orléans, not of France.

His ascension to the title of King of the French was seen as a betrayal by Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and it ended their friendship.

HRH Prince Henri d’Orléans, The Count of Paris, Duke of France, pretender to the throne of France has died at the age of 85.

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French pretenders, Henri Count of Paris, House of Orléans, King of France, Louis-Philippe of France

HRH Prince Henri d’Orléans, The Count of Paris, Duke of France (Henri Philippe Pierre Marie d’Orléans; June 14, 1933 – January 21, 2019), was head of the House of Orléans as the Orléanist pretender to the defunct French throne as King Henri VII of France.

Prince Henri was descendant in the male-line of France’s “Citizen-King” Louis-Philippe I (ruled 1830–1848), he was also recognized as the legitimate claimant to the throne by those French royalists, called Unionists, who regard him as the rightful heir of Prince Henri de Bourbon, Count of Chambord, the last patrilineal descendant of King Louis XV. Henri was a retired military officer as well as an author and painter.

He was the first son of Henri, Count of Paris (1908–1999), and his wife Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza, and was born in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre. From October 1959 to April 1962, Prince Henri worked at the Secretariat-General for National Defence and Security as a member of the French Foreign Legion. He transferred from there to a garrison in Germany, he took up a new assignment as military instructor at Bonifacio in Corsica, where his wife and children joined him early in 1963.

HRH Prince Henri d’Orléans, The Count of Paris, Duke of France

Returning to civilian life in 1967, Prince Henri and his family briefly occupied the Blanche Neige pavilion on his father’s Manoir du Coeur-Volant estate at Louveciennes before renting an apartment of their own in the XVe arrondissement. In the early 1970s Prince Henri managed public relations for the Geneva office of a Swiss investment firm while dwelling in Corly.

Marriages and children

On July 5, 1957, Henri married Duchess Marie Therese of Württemberg (born 1934). Marie Therese was the fifth child and fourth daughter of Philipp Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg, and his second wife, Archduchess Rosa of Austria, Princess of Tuscany. She was born at Altshausen Castle, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Five children were born from this union:

1. Princess Marie Isabelle Marguerite Anne Geneviève d’Orléans of France (born 3 January 1959 in Boulogne-sur-Seine)
2. Prince François, Count of Clermont (7 February 1961 in Boulogne-sur-Seine – December 30, 2017)
3. Princess Blanche Elisabeth Rose Marie d’Orléans of France (born 10 September 1963 in Ravensburg).
4. Prince Jean Charles Pierre Marie d’Orléans of France, (born 19 May 1965, Boulogne-sur-Seine), Duke of Vendôme.
5. Prince Eudes Thibaut Joseph Marie d’Orléans of France (born 18 March 1968, Paris), Duke of Angoulême.

In 1984, Prince Henri and Princess Marie-Thérèse were divorced. On October 31, 1984 Prince Henri entered a civil marriage with Micaëla Anna María Cousiño y Quiñones de León (born on 30 April 1938), daughter of Luis Cousiño y Sebire and his wife Antonia Maria Quiñones de Léon y Bañuelos, 4th Marquesa de San Carlos. For remarrying without consent Henri’s father initially declared him disinherited.

Tensions lessened over the years and on March 7, 1991 the Count of Paris reinstated Henri as heir apparent and Count of Clermont, simultaneously giving Micaëla the title “Princesse de Joinville”.

Head of house

Until he succeeded his father as royal claimant, Prince Henri and his second wife occupied an apartment in Paris. On June 19, 1999, Prince Henri’s father died and Henri became the new head of the House of Orléans. He took the traditional title, Count of Paris, adding an ancient one, Duke of France, which had not borne by his Orléans or Bourbon forebears, but used a thousand years ago by his ancestors before Hugh Capet took the title of King of France. His wife assumed the title “Duchess of France”, deferring to the continued use of “Countess of Paris” by Henri’s widowed mother until her death on July 5, 2003, whereupon Micaela started to use the title Countess of Paris.

Prince Henri recognised his disabled eldest son François as heir, with the title Count of Clermont. He was the Dauphin of France in Orleanist reckoning. However, his mother had been infected with toxoplasmosis during her second and third pregnancies, and the pre-natal exposure left both Prince François and his younger sister, Princess Blanche, developmentally disabled.

HRH Prince Jean, Duke of Vendôme

Prince Henri maintained that his eldest son would exercise his prerogatives as head of the dynasty under a “regency” of his middle son, Prince Jean, Duke of Vendôme. However, with François’ death on December 30, 2017, Prince Jean became the Dauphin of France within the family’s claim to the throne. Prince Jean succeeds to the claim of King of France and Monarchists recognize him as King Jean IV of France.

Happy Birthday….

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French Monarchy, House of Orléans, HRH Prince Pierre d'Orléans of France, Kingdom of France

The European Royal History blog wishes a Happy Birthday to

HRH Prince Pierre d’Orléans of France, born 2003.