Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
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| Louis Philippe Joseph of Orléans, Duke of Orléans | |
|---|---|
| Duke of Orléans | |
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| Spouse | Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre |
| Issue | |
| Louis Philippe of Orléans, King ofthe French Louis Antoine Philippe of Orléans Louise Marie Adélaïde Eugénie of Orléans Louis Charles of Orléans |
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| Titles and styles | |
| Monsieur le Prince HSH the Duke of Orléans HSH the Duke of Chartres HSH the Duke of Montpensier |
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| Father | Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans |
| Mother | Louise Henriette de Bourbon-Conti |
| Born | 13 April 1747 Château de Saint Cloud, Saint-Cloud, France |
| Died | 6 November 1793 (aged 46) Paris, France |
Louis Philippe Joseph of Orléans, Duke of Orléans (Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orléans, duc d'Orléans) (13 April 1747 at Château de Saint Cloud, Saint-Cloud, France – 6 November 1793 in Paris, France) was a member of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, the dynasty then ruling France. He actively supported the French Revolution and adopted the name Philippe Égalité, but was nonetheless guillotined during the Reign of Terror.
His son Louis-Philippe became King in the July Revolution of 1830. Following his career, the term Orléanist came to be attached to the movement in France that favoured constitutional monarchy.
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[edit] Duke of Montpensier
Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orléans was the son of Louis Philip I, Duke of Orléans and Louise Henriette de Bourbon-Conti. At birth he received the title Duke of Montpensier due to his grandfather, Louis, Duke of Orléans was still alive. He was born at the famous Château de Saint Cloud outside Paris which was the country seat of the House of Orléans.
Louis Philippe Joseph, known as Philippe, was a descendant of Louis XIV; by his mother who was a granddaughter of Louise-Françoise de Bourbon (Louis XIV's eldest illegitimate daughter with Madame de Montespan); by his father who was a grandson of Françoise-Marie de Bourbon.
[edit] Duke of Chartres
At his grandfather's death in 1752, he became Duke of Chartres and in 1769 married Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre (1753–1821), daughter and heiress of his cousin the, Duke of Penthiêvre, a grand Admiral of France and the richest man in the country at the time.
Since it was certain that his wife would become the richest woman in France upon the death of her father, Louis Philippe was determined to play a political role at court equal to that of his great-grandfather Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who had been the Regent of France during the minority of King Louis XV.[1]
As Duke of Chartres he opposed the plans of René de Maupeou in 1771, when Maupeou successfully upheld royal interests in a confrontation with the Parlement de Paris, and was promptly exiled to his country estate of Villers-Côtterets (Aisne). When Louis XVI came to the throne in 1774, Louis Philippe was still a suspect in the eyes of the court; Marie Antoinette hated him for what she viewed as treachery, hypocrisy and selfishness, and he, in turn, scorned her.
[edit] Marriage
On June 6, 1769, Louis Philippe married Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre at the Chapel of the Palace of Versailles. Louise Marie Adélaïde brought to the already vastly wealthy House of Orléans a considerable dowry of six million livres[2], an annual income of 240,000 livres (later inceased to 400,000 livres), as well as lands, titles, residences and furniture. Their children included:
[edit] Children
- X of Orléans (stillborn daughter)
- Louis-Philippe III (1773-1850), who became King between 1830 and 1848
- Louis Antoine Philippe of Orléans (1775-1807), who died in exile
- Louise Marie Adélaïde Eugénie of Orléans (1777-1847)
- X of Orléans (twin sister of Adélaïde) (1777-1782)
- Louis Charles of Orléans (1779-1808), who died in exile
The Duke was a well known womaniser and, like his ancestors Louis XIV of France and Philippe II, Duke of Orléans had many illegitimate children. The children he did recognise were that of:
with Madame de Genlis
with Marguerite Françoise Bouvier de la Mothe de Cépoy
- Victor Leclerc de Buffon (September 6, 1792-April 20, 1812)
- known as the chevalier de Saint-Paul and chevalier d'Orléans; son of the Countess of Buffon
[edit] The Countess of Genlis
During the first few months of their marriage the couple appeared devoted to each other, but the marriage did not remain happy. The duke soon took as his Mistress, Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de St-Albin, one of his wife's ladies-in-waiting and the niece of his father's morganatic wife, Madame de Montesson. Despite the duchess' opposition, the countess was made the governess of the couple's children. Due to the countess' machinations, the duchess soon was alienated from her own children, prompting her to suffer from depression.
Louise Marie Adélaïde was forced into contact with her children's governess on a daily basis, since the countess was housed by her lover in the couple's Paris home, the Palais-Royal. The duchess also inadvertently met another of her husband's mistresses, the Scottish courtesan, Grace Elliott, because her husband insisted on housing her too at the Palais Royal.
It is alleged that Lady Edward FitzGerald was a natural daughter of the Duke of Orléans and the Countess of Genlis.
[edit] Military service
In 1778, he served in the squadron of the Count of Orvilliers and was present in the naval battle of Ushant on July 27, 1778. He then was removed from the navy due in part to the queen's hatred of him, but also due to his own incompetence and cowardice. As compensation, he was given the honorary post of colonel-general of hussars.
[edit] Liberalism
After his disgrace, Louis Philippe retreated to a life of luxury. He often visited the Britain, and became an intimate of the Prince of Wales. In France, he made anglomanie fashionable, with an admiration for anything British, from liberalism to jockeys. He was also the Grand Master of the Masonic Grand Orient de France from 1771-1793, though he did not attend a meeting of the Grand Orient until 1777, and he later distanced himself from Freemasonry in a letter dated Jan. 5, 1793, and the Grand Orient vacated his position on December 13, 1793.[3] He also made himself very popular in Paris by his large gifts to the poor during times of famine. To appear egalitarian, he opened up the gardens of the Palais Royal to the public and allowed shops in the palace's arcades.
[edit] Duke of Orléans
In 1785 he succeeded his father as Duke of Orléans who died at his private castle outside the capital aged 60. Along with becoming the Duke of Orléans, Philippe was now head of the vastly wealthy House of Orléans; was the Premier Prince du Sang - which meant that should the main Bourbon line die out, (then headed by Louis XVI) the Orléans family would claim the throne as their own; along with that rank it meant he had a personal household of over 200 staff ranging from barbers, gardeners footmen etc and the personal address of Monsieur le Prince along with further ducal titles of:
- Duke of Anjou
- Duke of Nemours
- prince de Joinville
At the Assembly of Notables in 1787 he showed his liberal ideas in a bold manner, leading to suspicions that he was plotting to displace the King. In November, he again showed his liberalism during the lit de justice, which Étienne de Brienne had made the king hold. For this transgression, he was again exiled to Villers-Côtterets.
The approaching convocation of the Estates-General made his friends very active on his behalf; he circulated in every bailliage the pamphlets which Abbé Sieyès had drawn up at his request. He was elected in three districts, by the nobility of Paris, Villers-Côtterets and Crépy-en-Valois. In the Second Estate he headed the liberal minority under the guidance of Adrien Duport, and led the minority of forty-seven noblemen who seceded from their own estate (June 1789) and joined the Third Estate.
[edit] Political Campaign
One of the greatest impacts Louis Philippe left on the revolution was that of the way he spread his political ideologies. As a man of great wealth, he used his money to spread his liberal ideas across the nation. His administration invented a form of political advertisement that people today may take for granted. He also surrounded himself with people to assist in the writing and spreading of the pamphlets, as well as hiring representatives to sit in for him at assemblies across France.
He hired people, such as the marquis Ducrest, whose family took over control of Louis Philippe's political advisory service. Once Louis Philippe gave control to the people around him, his movement lost some of his original intentions. initially started to spread the word of anti-Bourbon liberalism, the movement began to see people looking to gain personal profit and political power, which was something of little interest to the rich, quiet man.[citation needed] The movement, though somewhat altered by differing motives, still retained some of Louis Philippe's original beliefs. This became apparent when the Instructions and Deliberations were released by his administration. Though not written by Louis Philippe himself, the writings held values that were very close to his heart; the closest being that of the freedom to travel when and where he pleased.
Louis Philippe's political impact forever changed the way republican societies view government. Almost all politicians in countries with a democratic republic treat the time leading up to an election as he did. In today’s politics, most campaigns require a great deal of financial backing, as well as propaganda and advertising. Though his political activities may seem trivial to people today, Louis Philippe had a great influence on today’s politics.
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[edit] Revolution
The part he played during the summer of 1789 is one of the most debated points in the history of the French Revolution. The royal court accused him of being at the bottom of every popular movement, and saw the "gold of Orléans" as the cause of the Reveillon riot and the storming of the Bastille (mirroring the subsequent belief held by the Jacobins that everything opposing them relied on the "gold of Pitt the Younger"). His hatred of Marie Antoinette, his previous disgrace at court, and his liberalism (alongside his friendship with Duport and Choderlos de Laclos), all seem to point towards his involvement.
Grace Elliott, who was one of Louis Philippe's lovers at the time, attested to the fact that during the riot of July 12[4], the duke was on a fishing excursion, and that he was rudely treated by the king the next day when the duke went to offer his cousin his services. Supposedly, the duke was so disgusted by the accusation that he was seeking the crown, that he wanted to go to the United States. His favorite lover, the Countess of Buffon, however, would not go with him, so he decided to remain in Paris. He was later accused of having caused the march of a hungry mob on Versailles on October 5 by hoarding grain and blaming the lack of bread in Paris on the king and queen. Eyewitnesses claim to have seen him circulating among the rowdy crowd earlier in the day and of having directed the attack upon the queen's bedchamber later that evening in an attempt to have his nemesis, Marie Antoinette, murdered by the frenzied peasants.
The marquis de la Fayette, apparently jealous of Louis Philippe's popularity, persuaded the king to send the duke to Britain on a mission, and he accordingly remained in England from October 1789 to July 1790. On July 7, he took his seat in the National Assembly, which two day later reformed as the National Constituent Assembly. On October 2, both he and Honoré Mirabeau were declared by the Assembly entirely free of any complicity in the events of October.
[edit] Citoyen Égalité
He subsequently tried to keep himself distant from the political world, but he was still suspect to the court and subject to pressures from his partisans to replace Louis XVI. His lack of political aspirations could be proven by noting that he did not attempt to obtain any leading position after the King's flight to Varennes (in June 1791). In fact, Louis Philippe attempted to reconcile with the court in January 1792, but was rejected - and refused to aid the King any further.
In the summer of 1792, he was present for a short time with the Army of the North, together with his two sons, the future King and the Duke of Montpensier, but had returned to Paris before the insurrection of August 10.
During the Republic, he underwent personal risk in saving fugitives - in particular, he saved the life of Louis René Quentin de Richebourg de Champcenetz, the governor of the Tuileries Palace, who was his personal enemy, at the request of Grace Elliott. He accepted the name of citoyen Égalité conferred on him by the Commune. His popularity is also attested by had hundreds with Philippe's figure framed by the title Père du Peuple (Father of the People) were minted and seen in the streets. He was elected twentieth and last deputy for Paris to the National Convention, where he again had no notable contribution other than voting in the king's trial - he voted in favour of the death sentence for Louis.
This compliance to republican rules did not save him from suspicion, which was especially aroused by the friendship of his eldest son, the Duke of Chartres, with Charles François Dumouriez. When the news of the desertion of Chartres and Dumouriez became known in Paris, all the Bourbons left in France, including Louis Philippe, were ordered to be arrested on 5 April. He remained in prison at Fort Saint-Jean until October, and the beginning of the Reign of Terror.
[edit] Ancestors
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
[edit] See also
[edit] Titles
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Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Cadet branch of the House of Bourbon
Born: April 13 1747 Died: November 6 1793 |
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| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Louis Philippe I |
Duke of Montpensier 1747–1752 |
Succeeded by Louis Philippe III |
| Preceded by Louis Philippe I |
Duke of Chartres 1752–1785 |
Succeeded by Louis Philippe III |
| Preceded by Louis Philippe I |
Duke of Orléans 1785–1793 |
Succeeded by Louis Philippe III |
| Preceded by Louis Philippe I |
Duke of Anjou 1785–1793 |
Succeeded by Louis Philippe III |
| Preceded by Louis Philippe I |
Duke of Nemours 1785–1793 |
Succeeded by Louis Philippe III |
| Preceded by Louis Philippe I |
Prince de Joinville 1785–1793 |
Succeeded by Louis Philippe III |
| Royal titles | ||
| Preceded by Louis Philippe I |
First Prince of the Blood 1785–1793 |
Succeeded by Louis Philippe III |
