Louis
Antoine Philippe
d'Orléans, duc de Montpensier (3 July 1775, Palais-Royal,
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
- 18 May 1807, Salthill,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) was a son of
Louis Philippe d'Orléans (1747–1793)Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans , was a member of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, the ruling dynasty of France...
and his duchess
Louise Marie Adélaïde de BourbonLouise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans, , wife of the so-called "royal regicide" Philippe Égalité, was the mother of France's last king, Louis-Philippe, King of the French. Her father was Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre and her mother was Princess Maria Theresa...
. This made him the younger brother of
Louis-PhilippeLouis-Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. He was the last king to rule France, although Napoleon III, styled as an emperor, would serve as its last monarch....
, later king of the French—Antoine had a deep affection for him, and they were only ever separated during the
Reign of TerrorThe Reign of Terror , also known as the The Terror was a period of violence that occurred four years and two months after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the...
and the events that followed, between 1793 and 1797.
In 1791, Antoine Philippe was made sous-lieutenant as aide-de-campe in his brother's regiment.
Louis
Antoine Philippe
d'Orléans, duc de Montpensier (3 July 1775, Palais-Royal,
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
- 18 May 1807, Salthill,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) was a son of
Louis Philippe d'Orléans (1747–1793)Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans , was a member of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, the ruling dynasty of France...
and his duchess
Louise Marie Adélaïde de BourbonLouise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans, , wife of the so-called "royal regicide" Philippe Égalité, was the mother of France's last king, Louis-Philippe, King of the French. Her father was Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre and her mother was Princess Maria Theresa...
. This made him the younger brother of
Louis-PhilippeLouis-Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. He was the last king to rule France, although Napoleon III, styled as an emperor, would serve as its last monarch....
, later king of the French—Antoine had a deep affection for him, and they were only ever separated during the
Reign of TerrorThe Reign of Terror , also known as the The Terror was a period of violence that occurred four years and two months after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the...
and the events that followed, between 1793 and 1797.
Life
In 1791, Antoine Philippe was made sous-lieutenant as aide-de-campe in his brother's regiment. (His brother was then the duke of Chartres and known as "Général Égalité.") He was made adjutant-general before the battle of Jemmapes, at which he and his brother fought. In Paris at the time of the trial of
Louis XVILouis XVI of France ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792. Suspended and arrested during the Insurrection of 10 August 1792, he was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed by guillotine on 21...
, he unsuccessfully persuaded his father not to vote for the king's death.
Whilst adjutant-general in the
armée du VarThe Army of the Var was one of the French Revolutionary armies. It was established along the River Var, the frontier between France and Piedmont, and charged with protecting Provence from invasion.In reality its name was not official...
, he was arrested at the same time as all the other Bourbons in April 1793 and imprisoned in
fort Saint-JeanFort Saint-Jean is a fortification in Marseille, built in 1660 by Louis XIV at the entrance to the Old Port. Fort Saint-Nicolas was constructed at the same time on the opposite side of the harbour. Commenting on their construction, Louis XIV said, "We noticed that the inhabitants of Marseille were...
at
MarseilleMarseille , formerly known as Massalia , is the 2nd most populous French city as well as the oldest city in France...
.
During his imprisonment, he contracted the
tuberculosisTuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria...
that eventually killed him, but also had an illegitimate child with
Françoise BarbarouxFrançoise Barbaroux was the child of Francis Barbaroux and his wife, Francisca Bablion. Her father, Francis was the chamberlain to Louis XVIII of France and her mother, Francisca was a mistress to King George III of Great Britain, who adored her greatly...
—a son called
Jean-Antoine-Philippe Dentend (b. 7 July 1797–d. 5 March 1858)—who became notary to the house of Orléans and in that role oversaw the Louis Philippe's donation of his
personal goodsUnder the Ancien Régime, the goods of the House of Orléans comprised two distinct parts : the apanage and the "biens patrimoniaux".-The "apanage d'Orléans":...
in 1830 before his accession-. Antoine never saw his child; on 13 fructidor year IV (30 August 1796), the
French DirectoryThe Executive Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...
decided to exile him to Philadelphia, where the French Republic's charge-d'-affaires in the United States of America granted him an annual pension of 15,000 francs. He set out on 5 November 1796, accompanied by his brother comte de Beaujolais, and in February 1797 met Louis-Philippe in Philadelphia. For two years they travelled around
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
, in the
Great LakesThe Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth. They are sometimes referred to as the "Third...
and
MississippiThe Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
area.
Returning to Europe in 1800, they set up in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
at
TwickenhamTwickenham is a town and suburb in the south west of London, England: being the principal town by population and administrative centre of the Borough of Richmond upon Thames.-Pre-Norman:...
(Highshot House, Crown Road, building demolished in 1927). In 1807 Antoine Philippe's pulmonary tuberculosis worsened. His elder brother the duc d'Orléans wanted to take him to
DevonDevon is a large county in England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, although that is an unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county itself and often indicating a traditional or historical context. The county shares borders with Cornwall to the west and Dorset and Somerset to...
to benefit from the fresh air but, twelve miles out of Twickenham, they had to stop at an inn at Salthill (near
WindsorWindsor is a suburban town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is best known as the site of Windsor Castle....
). Having a respiratory crisis, Antoine Philippe refused the
etherEther is a class of organic compounds that contain an ether group — an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups — of general formula R–O–R. A typical example is the solvent and anesthetic diethyl ether, commonly referred to simply as "ether"...
Louis-Philippe wanted to administer and, murmuring to him "Give me your hand, I thought I was dying" ("Donne-moi ta main, j'ai cru que je mourais"), expired.
Louis-Philippe had a funeral service held at the Catholic chapel on King Street in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, at which
MonsieurCharles X ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. His short rule of almost six years came to an end when he instituted his July Ordinances in July 1830, suspending most of the liberties granted in the Charter of 1814...
assisted and, thanks to the duke of Kent, gained permission to bury his brother in
Westminster AbbeyThe Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster...
.
Works
- Relation de la captivité de S. A. S. Monsignor le duc de Montpensier, pendant les années 1793, 1794, 1795 et 1796, écrite par lui-même, Twickenham, Imprimerie de G. White, 1816
- Mémoires de S. A. S. Louis-Antoine-Philippe d'Orléans, duc de Montpensier, Paris, Baudouin frères, 1824 – text on www.gallica.fr
Ancestors