Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale

Henri Eugène Philippe Louis d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale (January 16, 1822 - May 7, 1897) was the fifth, and second youngest, son of Louis-Philippe, King of the French and Duc d'Orléans and Marie Amalie of Bourbon-Sicilies. He took the title of Duc d'Aumale. He was a leader for the Orleanist cause of a constitutional monarchy in France.

While still young he inherited a large fortune, the lands and wealth of the Princes de Condé, the last Prince de Condé being his godfather, Louis Henry II. Brought up his parents with great simplicity, he was educated at the entered the army with the rank of a captain of infantry. He distinguished himself during the French invasion of Algeria, and in 1847, he became lieutenant-general and was appointed Governor-General of Algeria, a position he held from September 27, 1847 to February 24, 1848. In this capacity he received the submission of the emir Abdel Kadir, in December 1847. After the Revolution of 1848 he retired to England and busied himself with historical and military studies, replying in 1861 by a Letter upon History of France to the Emperor Napoleon's violent attacks upon the House of Orléans.

On the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War he volunteered for service in the French army, but his offer was declined. Elected deputy for the Oise département, he returned to France, and succeeded to the fauteuil of the comte Montalembert in the French Academy. In March 1872 he resumed his place in the army as general of division; and in 1873 presided over the court-martial which condemned Marshal Bazaine to death.

At this time, having been appointed commander of the VII army corps at Besançon, he retired from political life, and in 1879 became inspector-general of the army. The act of exception passed in 1883 deprived all members of families that had reigned in France of their military positions; consequently the duc d'Aumale was placed on the unemployed supernumerary list. Subsequently, in 1886, another law was promulgated which expelled from French territory the heads of former reigning families, and provided that henceforward all members of those families should be disqualified for any public position or function, and election to any public body. The duc d'Aumale protested energetically, but was nonetheless expelled.

By his will of the June 3, 1884, however, he had bequeathed to the Institute of France his Chantilly estate, including the Château de Chantilly, with all the art-collection he had collected there, to become a museum. This generosity led the government to withdraw the decree of exile, and the duke returned to France in 1889. He died in Zucco , Sicily, and was buried in Dreux, in the chapel of the Orléans.

Children

On November 25, 1844, he married Marie-Caroline-Auguste de Bourbon-Siciles , daughter of the prince of Salerno and Archduchess Marie Clementine of Austria , in Naples. They had four children, two of them reached adulthood:

• Louis Philippe Marie Léopold, Prince de Condé (1845–1866)
• François Louis d'Orléans, Duc de Guise (1854–1872)

External link and references

• Detailed biography (in French)