Prince Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans
Encyclopedia
Ferdinand Philippe d'Orléans (3 September 1810 – 13 July 1842) was Prince Royal
of France. Born Ferdinand Philippe Louis Charles Henri Joseph d'Orléans in Palermo
, Italy, he was the eldest son of the future king Louis-Philippe of France
(1773–1850) and Princess Marie Amalie of Bourbon-Sicilies.
during his parents' exile, he was named Ferdinand (previously unused by the house of Orléans
), after his grandfather Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
. At his birth, he was given the title of Duke of Chartres
; within the family circle, he was always known as Chartres.
The young prince first visited France in 1814 during the First Restoration
and settled there in 1817. In 1819 his father put him in the care of a tutor, M. de Boismilon, then in the collège Henri-IV. He wished him to receive a liberal education on a foundation of complete equality with his fellow students. He was highly successful in his studies and took courses at the École polytechnique. After a trip to England and Scotland in 1819, he went to Lunéville
to join the 1er régiment de hussards, of which he was made colonel
by Charles X
(1824).
during the July Revolution
. He made his regiment wear the tricolor cockade and quickly led them to aid the uprising in Paris. He was temporarily stopped at Montrouge
and entered Paris on 3 August at the head of his regiment. When his father was offered the French throne by the Chamber of Deputies
, Ferdinand Philippe received the title of Duke of Orléans
and became Prince royal and heir to the throne. His father made him enter the Conseil; there his temper led him to criticise the time lost by ministers' prevarications and to have frequent skirmishes with the doctrinaires
, to whom he wished to interpret the sentiments of revolutionary youth. Casimir Perier, on being made president of the Conseil in March 1831, made Ferdinand Philippe's exclusion from the Conseil a condition of his taking the post.
In November 1831, Ferdinand Philippe and Nicolas Soult were sent to repress the Canut revolts
. He acquitted himself in this difficult task without violence and managed to rapidly appease opponents of the July Monarchy. He gained a certain popularity. During the cholera outbreak in 1831, he did not hesitate to take real risks in visiting the sickest cases in the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris
, accompanied by Casimir Perier (who caught the disease and died). In the eyes of the people and the press he passed for a generous prince, sincerely preoccupied with the plight of the poor, and he became a sort of icon for the dynastic opposition of Odilon Barrot
, who saw in him the only prince capable of reconciling modern France's democratic aspirations with the heritage of its monarchical past. On 2 March 1832 he was granted an annual income of 1 million francs under his father's new civil list
.
. When the princes entered Belgium in 1831, they eagerly visited the plain of Jemmapes, where their father had fought in 1792. The following year Ferdinand Philippe returned to Belgium in command of the vanguard brigade of the armée du Nord. On 20 November 1832 he was before the citadel of Antwerp, commanding the trenches during the night of 29/30 November. In the attack on the Saint-Laurent
lunette
, he launched himself onto the parapet amidst a hail of projectiles to lead the action and arouse his soldiers' courage.
In 1835, when Bertrand Clauzel
was sent to Algeria
as governor general, Ferdinand Philippe asked his father to allow him to go as well, so he could fight the emir Abd El-Kader. He participated with Clauzel's army in the battle of Habrah, where he was wounded, and in the capture of Mascara in December 1835. He then participated in the taking of Tlemcen in January 1836. He returned to Paris with an aura of military glory, before returning to Algeria in autumn 1839 to take possession of the country's interior (from Constantine
to Algiers
) for France alongside maréchal Valée
. He left Constantine on 16 October, three days after the second anniversary of the town's capture, and reached Algiers on 2 November via Sétif
and the Iron Gates
pass. Abd-el-Kader saw this as a violation of the treaty of Tafna
and unleashed jihad
upon the French. This led to an escalation in tension and finally Algeria's wholesale occupation by France. Ferdinand Philippe set out for Algeria a third time in March 1840, taking with him his young brother the Prince Henri, Duke of Aumale, tutoring him in his first military experience. Present at the battles of Affroun, Oued'Ger and bois des Oliviers, he was put in charge of directing the attackers in the capture of Teniah de Mouzaïa. After this campaign he was recalled to France for good.
This brilliant military career increased his popularity and prestige. He also devoted himself to the improvement of the troops' living conditions and morale. At Saint-Omer he organised the chasseurs de Vincennes
, who became the chasseurs d'Orléans in 1836, and re-formed the chasseurs de Vincennes à pied. He laid the foundations for a Histoire des Régiments, commissioned by order of the Minister for War, and began work writing the regimental histories of the two regiments he had commanded himself.
noted, in her Souvenirs, that if Ferdinand Philippe died young after having fathered a male heir, the July Monarchy would be faced with the prospect and political uncertainty of a regency – for her the wisest course consisted of first marrying off the king's third son, then the fourth, then the fifth, and thus guarantee him descendants, all the while leaving several men around the throne who could take over from him if he died suddenly.
At this time the July Monarchy was searching for new allies in Europe so they would not to have to depend solely on the United Kingdom. Talleyrand, fresh from renouncing his embassy to London and close to the United Kingdom's foreign secretary Palmerston, pointed in this direction. The king at first envisaged a rapprochement with Russia via Württemberg
. King William I of Württemberg
, widower of Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia, had two daughters of marriageable age, Princesses Marie (born 1816) and Sophie
(born 1818). William I's sister Catharina
had already made an inauspicious French marriage alliance to Jérôme Bonaparte
and so William declined the proposition as humiliating. He later to have to accept Marie's even more humiliating marriage to count Alfred Neipperg in 1840. Queen Louise wrote to her parents on Marie's marriage that "We see singular things. It was not at all probable that this daughter, who the king of Württemberg did not wish to give to Chartres for fear of his ending his days [in exile] in America, should end up marrying a miserable little Austrian officers without illustriousness and of very ordinary birth."
Louis-Philippe next envisaged an alliance with Austria via marrying his son to archduchess Maria Theresa (born 1816), daughter of Archduke Charles
. Queen Marie-Amélie
was highly favourable to such a match as she was herself a daughter of an Austrian archduchess (queen Maria Carolina of Austria
), and archduke Charles was not opposed to it. However, Charles faced determined opponents to it on two sides – Metternich
, who did not want to repeat his error in marrying Marie Louise
to Napoleon I, and archduchess Sophie, a Bavarian princess and sister-in-law of the new emperor Ferdinand I
, who dominated the Vienna court with her strong personality, who was awaiting her son Franz-Josef's ascent to the imperial throne. France's ambassador to Vienna, the comte de Sainte-Aulaire, who had been put in charge of preparing the ground for an Austrian match, felt the possibility was difficult if not completely impossible. The new president of the Conseil, Adolphe Thiers
, dreamed of concluding such a match and becoming a new Étienne François de Choiseul as the maker of a spectacular reversal in the alliances of Europe.
Ferdinand Philippe and his younger brother Louis d'Orléans (1814–1896) set out on a European tour on 2 May 1836. Louis-Philippe and Marie-Amélie got off to a bad start when Louis-Philippe refused to shave off the proud beard that had set a fashion among French youth. He wrote back to queen Louise complaining that "there was a lack of tact there and of sentiments of convenience that afflicted me. [...] I believe that Leopold [I of Belgium
] can say to him that a goatee beard on the face of a prince royal is contrary to all German manners. Here, [such a beard] is neither handsome nor fortunate, there it can be fatal." The two French princes were a great success in Berlin and Vienna, staying at the latter from 29 May to 11 June. However, the marquis de Sémonville commented that "everyone has shaken their hand, but no one was close to them". Even if the prince royal decidedly liked archduke Charles and his daughter, Metternich and the archduchess Sophie put up a major barrage of problems and news of Thiers (impatient to conclude the match) being on his way was enough to convince Louis-Philippe to make a marriage proposal. He was refused, though to play to French susceptibilities the official version was that the refusal was because of the "feelings" of archduchess Marie-Thérèse. Queen Louise wrote to her mother on 14 June 1836: "I am upset to see that you have thrown your all behind the cause of Austria [...] I have always thought that Chartres was of too high birth to marry she who seems to him the most minor princess in Germany; and I avow that I would better like to see him marry a princess from Lippe
or Waldeck
who was good and pretty and of robust health, rather than an archduchess of Austria who would bring us all sorts of evils in her dowry. [...] Napoleon, in this situation, was able to make sacrifices to ally himself with Austria; and we all saw what profit he got from it. But we are not upstarts, and have no need of ennobling ourselves by uniting with the house of Lorraine
".
The two young princes returned to France via Italy. At Trent
they were received by the former empress Marie Louise
, who could not refrain from tears at their similarity between the prince royal and the duc de Reichstadt. At Milan
they stayed with archduke Archduke Rainer Joseph of Austria, viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia, where they heard the news of Alibaud's assassination attempt on Louis-Philippe on 25 June. After the Austrians' refusal of the match, only two potential Catholic princesses remained (Louis-Philippe confided to one of his familiars "I would prefer her to be a Catholic. You believe it is nothing, the carlists believe it is everything; and I myself believe that it is neither here nor there"), and these were both very young for marriage (born in 1821): Princess Januaria of Brazil
, daughter of emperor Peter I of Brazil
, and the Infanta Isabella of Spain
, daughter of the infant Francisco de Paula
, younger brother of Ferdinand VII. The former was excluded by her remoteness, and the latter due to her family's unfortunate history (her mother Princess Luisa Carlotta of the Two Sicilies
, niece of queen Marie-Amélie, was monstrously obese) and her physical appearance (she was red and thin; Queen Louise wrote to Queen Marie-Amélie on 21 November 1836 that "I send you her portrait, that Leopold found hideous. Her hair especially is frightening in terms of the children she will have. If all her family are ginger, this will afflict them [too]".
(born 1817 to a cousin of the elector of Hesse and his wife, a Danish princess), whilst queen Louise suggested Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg
(born 1818 to the duke of Saxe-Altenburg and princess Amelia of Wurtemmberg, and who finally ended up marrying George V of Hanover
in 1843), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary (daughter of an elder brother of Leopold I of Belgium
; she married his brother the duc de Nemours in 1840). However, the negotiators' choice finally came to rest on Duchess Helena Luisa Elizabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (known as Hélène, 1814–1858), daughter of the late hereditary prince Frederick Louis, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
and his wife princess Caroline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (died 1816). For Ferdinand Philippe, it was a convenient alliance but one without much attraction; Metternich quipped that she was "petite but of a good house". She was the niece of Frederick William III of Prussia
, whose wife was born Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
(this did not avoid difficulties for the marriage in Berlin, which the French ambassador there, the comte Bresson, succeeded in resolving). Nicholas I of Russia
, for his part, affected disdain as to the marriage, proclaiming that such a minor marriage was not worth the trouble to prevent.
The duc de Broglie was sent to Germany as ambassador extraordinary with the aim of presenting the official marriage request and bringing the princess back to France. An anonymous but virulent libel against the house of Orléans
was published by a prince of the house of Mecklenburg
. That house avoided the marriage, so that Hélène was only accompanied to France by her father's third widow, Augusta of Hesse-Homburg. The marriage was celebrated on 30 May 1837 at the château de Fontainebleau
, since the archbishop of Paris
, Hyacinthe-Louis de Quélen
, had used the pretext of religious differences to forbid it from taking place in Notre Dame de Paris
. The civil ceremony occurred in the galerie Henri II
on 30 May 1837, presided over by baron Pasquier
, who the king rewarded on 27 May by making him chancellor of France. The Catholic ceremony was presided over by Romain-Frédéric Gallard, bishop of Meaux, in the chapel of Henri IV
, whilst the Lutheran one was celebrated by pastor Cuvier in the salon Louis-Philippe. As his witnesses Ferdinand Philippe had the four vice-presidents of the Chamber of Peers: baron Séguier, the comte Portalis, the duc de Broglie, and the comte de Bastard; the president and four vice presidents of the Chamber of Deputies: Dupin, Calmon, Delessert, Jacqueminot
, Cunin-Gridaine; three marshals: Soult, Mouton
, Gérard
; the prince de Talleyrand, the duc de Choiseul, and the comte Bresson, France's minister to Berlin.
The ceremony was well attended, but there was a notable lack of foreign ambassadors, except the baron de Werther (Prussia
), the comte Lehon
(Belgium), and the chargé d'affaires of Mecklembourg. The reception was brilliant; the duchesse de Maillé
observed:
The marriage was very happy and produced two children:
, Hispano-Moorish majolica
and ceramics, Chinese and Japanese porcelain, and furniture by Caffieri, Oeben
, Riesener, and Jacob
.
He was passionate about modern painters, buying several canvasses from Ary Scheffer
and Newton Fielding, both of whom had taught Ferdinand Philippe landscape painting from 1822 to 1830. He possessed works by Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix (The Prisoner of Chillon, The Assassination of the bishop of Liège, Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard), Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps
(The Defeat of the Cimbri), Eugène Lami
, Ernest Meissonnier, and Paul Delaroche. He loved landscapes by painters of the Barbizon school
, notably Camille Corot, Paul Huet
, and Théodore Rousseau
. He commissioned Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to paint Antiochus and Stratonice (1833), bought his Œdipus and the sphinx in 1839, and commissioned his portrait from him in 1840.
Talented as a draughtsman himself, Ferdinand Philippe made amateur engravings – twelve etching
s and lithographs by him are known, including a satire showing the sleeping Gulliver
with Lilliputians all round him on foot and on horseback and a sign referring to the alarmist proclamation of 11 July 1792 by the Legislative Assembly
that declared the fatherland to be in danger.
Returning from Plombières
, where he was going to his wife, the Duke was about to leave for Saint-Omer
to review part of the army on operations on the Marne
, of which he had been made the commander. He went to Neuilly-sur-Seine
on 13 July 1842 to say goodbye to his family. The horses of his carriage ran out of control at Sablonville in the Hauts-de-Seine
département; he jumped from the carriage and broke his head on the pavement. A few hours later he was dead at the age of 32. Alfred de Musset
evoked the accident in his poem Le Treize Juillet (in the collection Poésies nouvelles). His funeral service was held in Notre Dame and, when there was not enough black textile to cover the church, the architect Visconti had the idea of using black paper. He was interred in an elaborate tomb in the Chapelle Royale
, in Dreux
, Eure-et-Loir
.
Deprived of the popular support his eldest son had had, his father Louis-Philippe and his regime fell six years later. He, his family, and Ferdinand Philippe's widow Helene went into exile in the United Kingdom. There Helene died nearly 16 years after her husband, on 18 May 1858 in Richmond, Surrey
. Because Hélène was a Protestant, she could not be buried in the Catholic Chapelle Royale at Dreux
. Instead a room with a separate entrance was built attached to the chapel and a window was opened between her tomb and her husband's. The sculpture of the Protestant princess rests atop her tomb, depicting her reaching through the opening to the tomb of her beloved Catholic prince.
|-
Crown Prince
A crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
of France. Born Ferdinand Philippe Louis Charles Henri Joseph d'Orléans in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, Italy, he was the eldest son of the future king Louis-Philippe of France
Louis-Philippe of France
Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...
(1773–1850) and Princess Marie Amalie of Bourbon-Sicilies.
Early life
Born in PalermoPalermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
during his parents' exile, he was named Ferdinand (previously unused by the house of Orléans
House of Orleans
Orléans is the name used by several branches of the Royal House of France, all descended in the legitimate male line from the dynasty's founder, Hugh Capet. It became a tradition during France's ancien régime for the duchy of Orléans to be granted as an appanage to a younger son of the king...
), after his grandfather Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
Ferdinand I reigned variously over Naples, Sicily, and the Two Sicilies from 1759 until his death. He was the third son of King Charles III of Spain by his wife Maria Amalia of Saxony. On 10 August 1759, Charles succeeded his elder brother, Ferdinand VI, as King Charles III of Spain...
. At his birth, he was given the title of Duke of Chartres
Chartres
Chartres is a commune and capital of the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. It is located southwest of Paris.-Geography:Chartres is built on the left bank of the Eure River, on a hill crowned by its famous cathedral, the spires of which are a landmark in the surrounding country...
; within the family circle, he was always known as Chartres.
The young prince first visited France in 1814 during the First Restoration
First Restoration
The First Restoration, or Première Restauration in French, refers to Louis XVIII of France's accession to the throne after Napoleon's exile to Elba. It lasted from 6 April 1814 to 20 March 1815, on which day Napoleon arrived back in Paris....
and settled there in 1817. In 1819 his father put him in the care of a tutor, M. de Boismilon, then in the collège Henri-IV. He wished him to receive a liberal education on a foundation of complete equality with his fellow students. He was highly successful in his studies and took courses at the École polytechnique. After a trip to England and Scotland in 1819, he went to Lunéville
Lunéville
Lunéville is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department and lies on the Meurthe River.-History:...
to join the 1er régiment de hussards, of which he was made colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
by Charles X
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
(1824).
July Revolution
In 1830, he was on garrison duty at JoignyJoigny
Joigny is a commune in the Yonne department in Burgundy in north-central France.It is located on the banks of the Yonne River.-Notable people :...
during the July Revolution
July Revolution
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution or in French, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown...
. He made his regiment wear the tricolor cockade and quickly led them to aid the uprising in Paris. He was temporarily stopped at Montrouge
Montrouge
Montrouge is a commune in the southern Parisian suburbs, located from the center of Paris, France. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe...
and entered Paris on 3 August at the head of his regiment. When his father was offered the French throne by the Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of France
Chamber of Deputies was the name given to several parliamentary bodies in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries:* 1814–1848 during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy, the Chamber of Deputies was the Lower chamber of the French Parliament, elected by census suffrage.*...
, Ferdinand Philippe received the title of Duke of Orléans
Duc d'Orléans
Duke of Orléans was one of the highest ranking titles of the French peerage and dates back to the 14th century. Known as princes of the blood , the title of Duke of Orléans was exclusive to princes of the nearest collateral line of the royal family; thus they constituted a junior branch of the...
and became Prince royal and heir to the throne. His father made him enter the Conseil; there his temper led him to criticise the time lost by ministers' prevarications and to have frequent skirmishes with the doctrinaires
Doctrinaires
Doctrinaires was the name given during the Bourbon Restoration to the little group of French Royalists who hoped to reconcile the Monarchy with the Revolution, and power with liberty...
, to whom he wished to interpret the sentiments of revolutionary youth. Casimir Perier, on being made president of the Conseil in March 1831, made Ferdinand Philippe's exclusion from the Conseil a condition of his taking the post.
In November 1831, Ferdinand Philippe and Nicolas Soult were sent to repress the Canut revolts
Canut revolts
Three major revolts by silk workers in Lyon, France, called the Canut revolts took place during the first half of the 19th century. The first occurred in November 1831, and was the first clearly defined worker uprising of the Industrial Revolution....
. He acquitted himself in this difficult task without violence and managed to rapidly appease opponents of the July Monarchy. He gained a certain popularity. During the cholera outbreak in 1831, he did not hesitate to take real risks in visiting the sickest cases in the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris
Hôtel-Dieu de Paris
The Hôtel-Dieu de Paris is regarded as the oldest hospital in the city of Paris, France, and is the most central of the Assistance publique - hôpitaux de Paris hospitals. The hospital is linked to the Faculté de Médecine Paris-Descartes...
, accompanied by Casimir Perier (who caught the disease and died). In the eyes of the people and the press he passed for a generous prince, sincerely preoccupied with the plight of the poor, and he became a sort of icon for the dynastic opposition of Odilon Barrot
Odilon Barrot
Camille Hyacinthe Odilon Barrot was a French politician.-Early life:Barrot was born at Villefort Lozère. He belonged to a legal family, his father, an advocate of Toulouse, having been a member of the Convention who had voted against the death of Louis XVI. Odilon Barrot's earliest recollections...
, who saw in him the only prince capable of reconciling modern France's democratic aspirations with the heritage of its monarchical past. On 2 March 1832 he was granted an annual income of 1 million francs under his father's new civil list
Civil list of the July Monarchy
The civil list of the July Monarchy was a civil list set up by Louis Philippe of France under the July Monarchy by a law of 2 March 1832, on the model of the civil list in the United Kingdom. This law decreed that its amount be 12 million francs annually, along with 1 million annually for the...
.
Military career
In 1831 Ferdinand Philippe and his young brother Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours set out on their first campaign, under maréchal GérardÉtienne Maurice Gérard
Étienne Maurice Gérard, comte Gérard was a French general and statesman. He served under a succession of French governments including the ancien regime monarchy, the Revolutionary governments, the Restorations, the July Monarchy, the First and Second Republics, and the First Empire , becoming...
. When the princes entered Belgium in 1831, they eagerly visited the plain of Jemmapes, where their father had fought in 1792. The following year Ferdinand Philippe returned to Belgium in command of the vanguard brigade of the armée du Nord. On 20 November 1832 he was before the citadel of Antwerp, commanding the trenches during the night of 29/30 November. In the attack on the Saint-Laurent
Saint Lawrence
Lawrence of Rome was one of the seven deacons of ancient Rome who were martyred during the persecution of Valerian in 258.- Holy Chalice :...
lunette
Lunette (fortification)
In fortification a lunette was originally an outwork of half-moon shape; later it became a redan with short flanks, in trace somewhat resembling a bastion standing by itself without curtains on either side...
, he launched himself onto the parapet amidst a hail of projectiles to lead the action and arouse his soldiers' courage.
In 1835, when Bertrand Clauzel
Bertrand Clauzel
Bertrand, comte Clausel was a marshal of France.- Military career :Bertrand Clausel was born on 12 December 1772 at Mirepoix in the County of Foix, and served in the first campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars as one of the volunteers of 1791In June 1795, having distinguished himself...
was sent to Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
as governor general, Ferdinand Philippe asked his father to allow him to go as well, so he could fight the emir Abd El-Kader. He participated with Clauzel's army in the battle of Habrah, where he was wounded, and in the capture of Mascara in December 1835. He then participated in the taking of Tlemcen in January 1836. He returned to Paris with an aura of military glory, before returning to Algeria in autumn 1839 to take possession of the country's interior (from Constantine
Constantine, Algeria
Constantine is the capital of Constantine Province in north-eastern Algeria. It was the capital of the same-named French département until 1962. Slightly inland, it is about 80 kilometres from the Mediterranean coast, on the banks of Rhumel river...
to Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
) for France alongside maréchal Valée
Sylvain Charles Valée
Sylvain-Charles, comte Valée , born in Brienne-le-Château, was a Marshal of France.Upon the outbreak of the French Revolution, Valée enlisted in the French revolutionary army and was sent to serve in the Army of the Nord...
. He left Constantine on 16 October, three days after the second anniversary of the town's capture, and reached Algiers on 2 November via Sétif
Sétif
Sétif |Colonia]]) is a town in northeastern Algeria. It is the capital of Sétif Province and it has a population of 239,195 inhabitants as of the 1998 census. Setif is located to the east of Algiers and is the second most important Wilaya after the country's capital. It is 1,096 meters above sea...
and the Iron Gates
Iron Gates (Algeria)
The Iron Gates are a pass in the Bibans mountains in Algeria. An 1839 French expedition under the duc d'Orléans disregarded the clauses of the 1837 Treaty of Tafna with emir Abd El-Kader|Abd el-Kader by passing through them, reigniting the war between them....
pass. Abd-el-Kader saw this as a violation of the treaty of Tafna
Treaty of Tafna
The Treaty of Tafna was signed by both Abd-el-Kader and General Thomas Robert Bugeaud on May 30, 1837. This agreement was developed after French imperial forces sustained heavy losses and military reversals in Algeria. The terms of the treaty entailed Abd-el-Kader recognizing French imperial...
and unleashed jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
upon the French. This led to an escalation in tension and finally Algeria's wholesale occupation by France. Ferdinand Philippe set out for Algeria a third time in March 1840, taking with him his young brother the Prince Henri, Duke of Aumale, tutoring him in his first military experience. Present at the battles of Affroun, Oued'Ger and bois des Oliviers, he was put in charge of directing the attackers in the capture of Teniah de Mouzaïa. After this campaign he was recalled to France for good.
This brilliant military career increased his popularity and prestige. He also devoted himself to the improvement of the troops' living conditions and morale. At Saint-Omer he organised the chasseurs de Vincennes
Vincennes
Vincennes is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe.-History:...
, who became the chasseurs d'Orléans in 1836, and re-formed the chasseurs de Vincennes à pied. He laid the foundations for a Histoire des Régiments, commissioned by order of the Minister for War, and began work writing the regimental histories of the two regiments he had commanded himself.
Marriage negotiations
Ferdinand Philippe's marriage had long been one of the July Monarchy's major political affairs. Had it not been for the 1830 Revolution he would have married the sister of Henri, Count of Chambord, Mademoiselle (1819–1864). Her family scuttled the marriage plans when Ferdinand Philippe's branch of the family 'usurped' the throne. From 1835, after an assassination attempt by Giuseppe Fieschi and his co-conspirators, Ferdinand Philippe's father was obsessed with the marital prospects of his son, by then 25. Blanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'ArgenteuilBlanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil
Blanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil , by her second marriage duchess of Maillé, was a French lady of letters and memoir writer...
noted, in her Souvenirs, that if Ferdinand Philippe died young after having fathered a male heir, the July Monarchy would be faced with the prospect and political uncertainty of a regency – for her the wisest course consisted of first marrying off the king's third son, then the fourth, then the fifth, and thus guarantee him descendants, all the while leaving several men around the throne who could take over from him if he died suddenly.
At this time the July Monarchy was searching for new allies in Europe so they would not to have to depend solely on the United Kingdom. Talleyrand, fresh from renouncing his embassy to London and close to the United Kingdom's foreign secretary Palmerston, pointed in this direction. The king at first envisaged a rapprochement with Russia via Württemberg
Kingdom of Württemberg
The Kingdom of Württemberg was a state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located in present-day Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which came into existence in 1495...
. King William I of Württemberg
William I of Württemberg
William I was the second King of Württemberg from October 30, 1816 until his death.He was born in Lüben, the son of King Frederick I of Württemberg and his wife Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel .-First marriage:...
, widower of Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia, had two daughters of marriageable age, Princesses Marie (born 1816) and Sophie
Sophie of Württemberg
Princess Sophia Frederika Mathilde of Württemberg was Queen of the Netherlands as the first wife of King William III of the Netherlands.-Biography:...
(born 1818). William I's sister Catharina
Catharina of Württemberg
Princess Catharina Frederica of Württemberg was the second wife of Jérôme Bonaparte.-Family:Catharina was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia to the later King Frederick I of Württemberg and Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel...
had already made an inauspicious French marriage alliance to Jérôme Bonaparte
Jérôme Bonaparte
Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte, French Prince, King of Westphalia, 1st Prince of Montfort was the youngest brother of Napoleon, who made him king of Westphalia...
and so William declined the proposition as humiliating. He later to have to accept Marie's even more humiliating marriage to count Alfred Neipperg in 1840. Queen Louise wrote to her parents on Marie's marriage that "We see singular things. It was not at all probable that this daughter, who the king of Württemberg did not wish to give to Chartres for fear of his ending his days [in exile] in America, should end up marrying a miserable little Austrian officers without illustriousness and of very ordinary birth."
Louis-Philippe next envisaged an alliance with Austria via marrying his son to archduchess Maria Theresa (born 1816), daughter of Archduke Charles
Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen
Archduke Charles of Austria, Duke of Teschen was an Austrian field-marshal, the third son of emperor Leopold II and his wife Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain...
. Queen Marie-Amélie
Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies
Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily sometimes known as Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies was a Princess of Naples and Sicily and later the Queen of the French from 1830–1848, consort to Louis Philippe I....
was highly favourable to such a match as she was herself a daughter of an Austrian archduchess (queen Maria Carolina of Austria
Maria Carolina of Austria
Maria Carolina of Austria was Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand IV & III. As de facto ruler of her husband's kingdoms, Maria Carolina oversaw the promulgation of many reforms, including the revocation of the ban on Freemasonry, the enlargement of the navy under her...
), and archduke Charles was not opposed to it. However, Charles faced determined opponents to it on two sides – Metternich
Klemens Wenzel von Metternich
Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich was a German-born Austrian politician and statesman and was one of the most important diplomats of his era...
, who did not want to repeat his error in marrying Marie Louise
Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma
Marie Louise of Austria was the second wife of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French and later Duchess of Parma...
to Napoleon I, and archduchess Sophie, a Bavarian princess and sister-in-law of the new emperor Ferdinand I
Ferdinand I of Austria
Ferdinand I was Emperor of Austria, President of the German Confederation, King of Hungary and Bohemia , as well as associated dominions from the death of his father, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, until his abdication after the Revolutions of 1848.He married Maria Anna of Savoy, the sixth child...
, who dominated the Vienna court with her strong personality, who was awaiting her son Franz-Josef's ascent to the imperial throne. France's ambassador to Vienna, the comte de Sainte-Aulaire, who had been put in charge of preparing the ground for an Austrian match, felt the possibility was difficult if not completely impossible. The new president of the Conseil, Adolphe Thiers
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers was a French politician and historian. was a prime minister under King Louis-Philippe of France. Following the overthrow of the Second Empire he again came to prominence as the French leader who suppressed the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871...
, dreamed of concluding such a match and becoming a new Étienne François de Choiseul as the maker of a spectacular reversal in the alliances of Europe.
Ferdinand Philippe and his younger brother Louis d'Orléans (1814–1896) set out on a European tour on 2 May 1836. Louis-Philippe and Marie-Amélie got off to a bad start when Louis-Philippe refused to shave off the proud beard that had set a fashion among French youth. He wrote back to queen Louise complaining that "there was a lack of tact there and of sentiments of convenience that afflicted me. [...] I believe that Leopold [I of Belgium
Leopold I of Belgium
Leopold I was from 21 July 1831 the first King of the Belgians, following Belgium's independence from the Netherlands. He was the founder of the Belgian line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha...
] can say to him that a goatee beard on the face of a prince royal is contrary to all German manners. Here, [such a beard] is neither handsome nor fortunate, there it can be fatal." The two French princes were a great success in Berlin and Vienna, staying at the latter from 29 May to 11 June. However, the marquis de Sémonville commented that "everyone has shaken their hand, but no one was close to them". Even if the prince royal decidedly liked archduke Charles and his daughter, Metternich and the archduchess Sophie put up a major barrage of problems and news of Thiers (impatient to conclude the match) being on his way was enough to convince Louis-Philippe to make a marriage proposal. He was refused, though to play to French susceptibilities the official version was that the refusal was because of the "feelings" of archduchess Marie-Thérèse. Queen Louise wrote to her mother on 14 June 1836: "I am upset to see that you have thrown your all behind the cause of Austria [...] I have always thought that Chartres was of too high birth to marry she who seems to him the most minor princess in Germany; and I avow that I would better like to see him marry a princess from Lippe
Principality of Lippe
Lippe was a historical state in Germany. It was located between the Weser River and the southeast part of the Teutoburg forest.-History:...
or Waldeck
Waldeck (state)
Waldeck was a sovereign principality in the German Empire and German Confederation and, until 1929, a constituent state of the Weimar Republic. It comprised territories in present-day Hesse and Lower Saxony, ....
who was good and pretty and of robust health, rather than an archduchess of Austria who would bring us all sorts of evils in her dowry. [...] Napoleon, in this situation, was able to make sacrifices to ally himself with Austria; and we all saw what profit he got from it. But we are not upstarts, and have no need of ennobling ourselves by uniting with the house of Lorraine
House of Lorraine
The House of Lorraine, the main and now only remaining line known as Habsburg-Lorraine, is one of the most important and was one of the longest-reigning royal houses in the history of Europe...
".
Trento
Trento is an Italian city located in the Adige River valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. It is the capital of Trentino...
they were received by the former empress Marie Louise
Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma
Marie Louise of Austria was the second wife of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French and later Duchess of Parma...
, who could not refrain from tears at their similarity between the prince royal and the duc de Reichstadt. At Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
they stayed with archduke Archduke Rainer Joseph of Austria, viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia, where they heard the news of Alibaud's assassination attempt on Louis-Philippe on 25 June. After the Austrians' refusal of the match, only two potential Catholic princesses remained (Louis-Philippe confided to one of his familiars "I would prefer her to be a Catholic. You believe it is nothing, the carlists believe it is everything; and I myself believe that it is neither here nor there"), and these were both very young for marriage (born in 1821): Princess Januaria of Brazil
Januária, Princess Imperial of Brazil
Januária Maria of Braganza was a Brazilian princess and Portuguese infanta . She was the second daughter of Pedro I of Brazil and IV of Portugal and his wife Maria Leopoldina, Archduchess of Austria...
, daughter of emperor Peter I of Brazil
Peter I of Brazil
Dom Pedro I of Brazil , nicknamed "the Liberator" and "the Soldier-King", was the founder and first ruler of the Empire of Brazil and also King of Portugal as Pedro IV, having reigned for eight years in Brazil and two months in Portugal.-Birth:Pedro was born on 12 October 1798, around...
, and the Infanta Isabella of Spain
Princess Luisa Carlotta of the Two Sicilies
Luisa Carlotta of Naples and Sicily , Princess the Two Sicilies, Infanta of Spain, was a daughter of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies.-Family:...
, daughter of the infant Francisco de Paula
Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain
Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain was the youngest son of Charles IV of Spain and Maria Luisa of Parma.-Marriage and children:...
, younger brother of Ferdinand VII. The former was excluded by her remoteness, and the latter due to her family's unfortunate history (her mother Princess Luisa Carlotta of the Two Sicilies
Princess Luisa Carlotta of the Two Sicilies
Luisa Carlotta of Naples and Sicily , Princess the Two Sicilies, Infanta of Spain, was a daughter of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies.-Family:...
, niece of queen Marie-Amélie, was monstrously obese) and her physical appearance (she was red and thin; Queen Louise wrote to Queen Marie-Amélie on 21 November 1836 that "I send you her portrait, that Leopold found hideous. Her hair especially is frightening in terms of the children she will have. If all her family are ginger, this will afflict them [too]".
Marriage
Some possibilities were also seen among the Protestant German princesses. Via his great-niece the duchess of Dino, Talleyrand suggested Princess Louise of Hesse-KasselLouise of Hesse-Kassel
Louise of Hesse was a German Princess and the queen consort to King Christian IX of Denmark.-Early Life and Ancestry:...
(born 1817 to a cousin of the elector of Hesse and his wife, a Danish princess), whilst queen Louise suggested Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg
Marie of Saxe-Altenburg
Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg was Queen of Hanover and the consort of George V, a grandson of George III of the United Kingdom and Queen Charlotte.-Early life:Marie was born at Hildburghausen, as Princess Marie of...
(born 1818 to the duke of Saxe-Altenburg and princess Amelia of Wurtemmberg, and who finally ended up marrying George V of Hanover
George V of Hanover
George V was King of Hanover, the only child of Ernest Augustus I, and a grandchild of King George III of the United Kingdom. In the peerage of Great Britain, he was 2nd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, 2nd Earl of Armagh...
in 1843), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary (daughter of an elder brother of Leopold I of Belgium
Leopold I of Belgium
Leopold I was from 21 July 1831 the first King of the Belgians, following Belgium's independence from the Netherlands. He was the founder of the Belgian line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha...
; she married his brother the duc de Nemours in 1840). However, the negotiators' choice finally came to rest on Duchess Helena Luisa Elizabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (known as Hélène, 1814–1858), daughter of the late hereditary prince Frederick Louis, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Frederick Louis, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Frederick Louis of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a hereditary prince of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, one of the constituent states of the German Confederation...
and his wife princess Caroline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (died 1816). For Ferdinand Philippe, it was a convenient alliance but one without much attraction; Metternich quipped that she was "petite but of a good house". She was the niece of Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III was king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel .-Early life:...
, whose wife was born Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was Queen consort of Prussia as the wife of King Frederick William III...
(this did not avoid difficulties for the marriage in Berlin, which the French ambassador there, the comte Bresson, succeeded in resolving). Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
, for his part, affected disdain as to the marriage, proclaiming that such a minor marriage was not worth the trouble to prevent.
The duc de Broglie was sent to Germany as ambassador extraordinary with the aim of presenting the official marriage request and bringing the princess back to France. An anonymous but virulent libel against the house of Orléans
House of Orleans
Orléans is the name used by several branches of the Royal House of France, all descended in the legitimate male line from the dynasty's founder, Hugh Capet. It became a tradition during France's ancien régime for the duchy of Orléans to be granted as an appanage to a younger son of the king...
was published by a prince of the house of Mecklenburg
House of Mecklenburg
The House of Mecklenburg is a North German dynasty of West Slavic origin that ruled until 1918.- Origins :Niklot was a lord of the Wendish tribe of Obotrites. When the Holy Roman Empire expanded eastwards, notably to the coast of Baltic in 13th century, a portion of Obotrite lords allied with...
. That house avoided the marriage, so that Hélène was only accompanied to France by her father's third widow, Augusta of Hesse-Homburg. The marriage was celebrated on 30 May 1837 at the château de Fontainebleau
Château de Fontainebleau
The Palace of Fontainebleau, located 55 kilometres from the centre of Paris, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The palace as it is today is the work of many French monarchs, building on an early 16th century structure of Francis I. The building is arranged around a series of courtyards...
, since the archbishop of Paris
Archbishop of Paris
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris is one of twenty-three archdioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The original diocese is traditionally thought to have been created in the 3rd century by St. Denis and corresponded with the Civitas Parisiorum; it was elevated to an archdiocese on...
, Hyacinthe-Louis de Quélen
Hyacinthe-Louis De Quelen
Hyacinthe-Louis De Quelen was Archbishop of Paris.-Biography:Born in Paris, he was educated at the College of Navarre. Ordained in 1807, he served a year as Vicar-General of Saint-Brieuc and then became secretary to Cardinal Fesch. When the latter was sent back to his diocese, de Quelen exercised...
, had used the pretext of religious differences to forbid it from taking place in Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of...
. The civil ceremony occurred in the galerie Henri II
Henry II of France
Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.-Early years:Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany .His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by his sworn enemy,...
on 30 May 1837, presided over by baron Pasquier
Étienne-Denis Pasquier
Étienne-Denis, duc de Pasquier , Chancelier de France, , was a French statesman...
, who the king rewarded on 27 May by making him chancellor of France. The Catholic ceremony was presided over by Romain-Frédéric Gallard, bishop of Meaux, in the chapel of Henri IV
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
, whilst the Lutheran one was celebrated by pastor Cuvier in the salon Louis-Philippe. As his witnesses Ferdinand Philippe had the four vice-presidents of the Chamber of Peers: baron Séguier, the comte Portalis, the duc de Broglie, and the comte de Bastard; the president and four vice presidents of the Chamber of Deputies: Dupin, Calmon, Delessert, Jacqueminot
Jean-François Jacqueminot
Jean François Jacqueminot, viscount of Ham was a French general.He was born at Nancy, studied at the École Militaire, entered the army in 1803, and , distinguished himself at the battles of Austerlitz, Essling, Wagram, and the Beresina. In 1814 he was promoted colonel. When Napoleon returned from...
, Cunin-Gridaine; three marshals: Soult, Mouton
Georges Mouton
Georges Mouton, comte de Lobau was a French soldier and political figure who rose to the rank of Marshal of France.-Biography:Born in Phalsbourg, Lorraine, he enlisted in the French Revolutionary Army in 1792...
, Gérard
Étienne Maurice Gérard
Étienne Maurice Gérard, comte Gérard was a French general and statesman. He served under a succession of French governments including the ancien regime monarchy, the Revolutionary governments, the Restorations, the July Monarchy, the First and Second Republics, and the First Empire , becoming...
; the prince de Talleyrand, the duc de Choiseul, and the comte Bresson, France's minister to Berlin.
The ceremony was well attended, but there was a notable lack of foreign ambassadors, except the baron de Werther (Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
), the comte Lehon
Charles Le Hon
Count Charles Aimé Joseph Le Hon was a Belgian liberal politician.-Life:Originally a lawyer and industrialist, he served as mayor of Tournai and was elected a deputy in the House of Representatives of the Netherlands during the Dutch period, then to the National Congress of Belgium in 1830, having...
(Belgium), and the chargé d'affaires of Mecklembourg. The reception was brilliant; the duchesse de Maillé
Blanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil
Blanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil , by her second marriage duchess of Maillé, was a French lady of letters and memoir writer...
observed:
The marriage was very happy and produced two children:
- Philippe, Count of ParisPhilippe, Comte de ParisPhilippe d'Orléans, Count of Paris was the grandson of Louis Philippe I, King of the French. He was a claimant to the French throne from 1848 until his death.-Early life:...
(1838–1894), Prince Royal, who married Marie Isabelle of Orléans, Princess of Spain (1848–1919) - Robert, Duke of Chartres (1840–1910), married Françoise of Orléans (1844–1925)
Patron of the arts
Ferdinand Philippe loved literature, music, and the fine arts, and had a pronounced taste for collecting, "making his choice slowly, like a true lover [of the arts]". Each year he spent 100,000 to 150,000 francs from his civil list allowance on art purchases or cultural patronage. In his vast apartments in the palais des Tuileries he gathered medieval and Renaissance objects, ceramics by Bernard PalissyBernard Palissy
Bernard Palissy was a French Huguenot potter, hydraulics engineer and craftsman, famous for having struggled for sixteen years to imitate Chinese porcelain...
, Hispano-Moorish majolica
Maiolica
Maiolica is Italian tin-glazed pottery dating from the Renaissance. It is decorated in bright colours on a white background, frequently depicting historical and legendary scenes.-Name:...
and ceramics, Chinese and Japanese porcelain, and furniture by Caffieri, Oeben
Jean-François Oeben
Jean-François Oeben, or Johann Franz Oeben was a French cabinetmaker whose career was spent in Paris. He is the maternal grandfather of the painter Eugène Delacroix....
, Riesener, and Jacob
Georges Jacob
Georges Jacob was one of the two most prominent Parisian master menuisiers, producing carved, painted and gilded beds and seat furniture and upholstery work for the French royal châteaux, in the early Neoclassical style that is usually associated with Louis Seize.Jacob arrived in Paris in 1754 and...
.
Ary Scheffer
Ary Scheffer , French painter of Dutch and German extraction, was born in Dordrecht.-Life:After the early death of his father Johann Baptist, a poor painter, Ary's mother Cornelia, herself a painter and daughter of landscapist Arie Lamme, took him to Paris and placed him in the studio of...
and Newton Fielding, both of whom had taught Ferdinand Philippe landscape painting from 1822 to 1830. He possessed works by Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix (The Prisoner of Chillon, The Assassination of the bishop of Liège, Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard), Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps
Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps
]Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps was a French painter.He was born in Paris. In his youth he travelled in the East, and reproduced Oriental life and scenery with a bold fidelity to nature that puzzled conventional critics...
(The Defeat of the Cimbri), Eugène Lami
Eugène Lami
Eugène Louis Lami was a French painter and lithographer. He worked at the studio of Horace Vernet then studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris with Camille Roqueplan and Paul Delaroche under Antoine-Jean Gros...
, Ernest Meissonnier, and Paul Delaroche. He loved landscapes by painters of the Barbizon school
Barbizon school
The Barbizon school of painters were part of a movement towards realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870...
, notably Camille Corot, Paul Huet
Paul Huet
Paul Huet was a French painter and engraver.-Selected works:* The flood of Saint-Cloud* Normandy thatched cottage, Old Trouville...
, and Théodore Rousseau
Théodore Rousseau
Pierre Étienne Théodore Rousseau , French painter of the Barbizon school, was born in Paris, of a bourgeois family.-Youth:At first he received a business training, but soon displayed aptitude for painting...
. He commissioned Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to paint Antiochus and Stratonice (1833), bought his Œdipus and the sphinx in 1839, and commissioned his portrait from him in 1840.
Talented as a draughtsman himself, Ferdinand Philippe made amateur engravings – twelve etching
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
s and lithographs by him are known, including a satire showing the sleeping Gulliver
Gulliver's Travels
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known simply as Gulliver's Travels , is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of...
with Lilliputians all round him on foot and on horseback and a sign referring to the alarmist proclamation of 11 July 1792 by the Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly (France)
During the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from 1 October 1791 to September 1792. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention.The Legislative...
that declared the fatherland to be in danger.
Death
Plombières-les-Bains
Plombières-les-Bains is a commune in the Vosges department in Lorraine in northeastern France.Les bains refers to the hot springs in the area, whose properties were first discovered by the Romans...
, where he was going to his wife, the Duke was about to leave for Saint-Omer
Saint-Omer
Saint-Omer , a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais. The town is named after Saint Audomar, who brought Christianity to the area....
to review part of the army on operations on the Marne
Marne
Marne is a department in north-eastern France named after the river Marne which flows through the department. The prefecture of Marne is Châlons-en-Champagne...
, of which he had been made the commander. He went to Neuilly-sur-Seine
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Neuilly-sur-Seine is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Although Neuilly is technically a suburb of Paris, it is immediately adjacent to the city and directly extends it. The area is composed of mostly wealthy, select residential...
on 13 July 1842 to say goodbye to his family. The horses of his carriage ran out of control at Sablonville in the Hauts-de-Seine
Hauts-de-Seine
Hauts-de-Seine is designated number 92 of the 101 départements in France. It is part of the Île-de-France region, and covers the western inner suburbs of Paris...
département; he jumped from the carriage and broke his head on the pavement. A few hours later he was dead at the age of 32. Alfred de Musset
Alfred de Musset
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.Along with his poetry, he is known for writing La Confession d'un enfant du siècle from 1836.-Biography:Musset was born on 11 December 1810 in Paris...
evoked the accident in his poem Le Treize Juillet (in the collection Poésies nouvelles). His funeral service was held in Notre Dame and, when there was not enough black textile to cover the church, the architect Visconti had the idea of using black paper. He was interred in an elaborate tomb in the Chapelle Royale
Chapelle royale de Dreux
The Chapelle royale de Dreux, situated in Dreux, France, is a Chapel and burial site of the Royal House of Orléans. The House of Orléans was founded by Philippe de France, duc d'Orléans - the younger brother of Louis XIV of France...
, in Dreux
Dreux
Dreux is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France.-History:Dreux was known in ancient times as Durocassium, the capital of the Durocasses Celtic tribe. Despite the legend, its name was not related with Druids. The Romans established here a fortified camp known as Castrum...
, Eure-et-Loir
Eure-et-Loir
Eure-et-Loir is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers.-History:Eure-et-Loir is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790 pursuant to the Act of December 22, 1789...
.
Deprived of the popular support his eldest son had had, his father Louis-Philippe and his regime fell six years later. He, his family, and Ferdinand Philippe's widow Helene went into exile in the United Kingdom. There Helene died nearly 16 years after her husband, on 18 May 1858 in Richmond, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. Because Hélène was a Protestant, she could not be buried in the Catholic Chapelle Royale at Dreux
Dreux
Dreux is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France.-History:Dreux was known in ancient times as Durocassium, the capital of the Durocasses Celtic tribe. Despite the legend, its name was not related with Druids. The Romans established here a fortified camp known as Castrum...
. Instead a room with a separate entrance was built attached to the chapel and a window was opened between her tomb and her husband's. The sculpture of the Protestant princess rests atop her tomb, depicting her reaching through the opening to the tomb of her beloved Catholic prince.
Ancestry
In fiction
- Ferdinand-Philippe was used by Hanns Heinz EwersHanns Heinz EwersHanns Heinz Ewers was a German actor, poet, philosopher, and writer of short stories and novels. While he wrote on a wide range of subjects, he is now known mainly for his works of horror, particularly his trilogy of novels about the adventures of Frank Braun, a character modeled on himself...
as a character in his novella "Die Herzen der Könige" (The Hearts of the Kings).
Sources
Guy Antonetti, Louis-Philippe, Paris, Librairie Arthème Fayard, 2002 ISBN 2-213-59222-5 Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans, duc d'Orléans, Souvenirs 1810–1830, texte établi, annoté et présenté par Hervé Robert, Genève, Librairie Droz S.A., 1993 Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans, duc d'Orléans, Lettres 1825–1842, publiées par ses fils le comte de Paris et le duc de Chartres, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1889|-