Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale

Henri Eugène Philippe Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale (16 January 1822 – 7 May 1897) was a leader of the Orleanists, a political faction in 19th-century France associated with constitutional monarchy. He was born in Paris, the fifth son of King Louis-Philippe I of the French and Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. He used the title Duke of Aumale. He retired from public life in 1883.

Henri d'Orléans
Duke of Aumale
Photographed by Alphonse Liébert
Born(1822-01-16)16 January 1822
Palais Royal, Paris
Died7 May 1897(1897-05-07) (aged 75)
Zucco, Sicily
Burial
Royal Chapel, Dreux, France
SpouseCarolina Augusta of the Two Sicilies
Issue
Among others...		Louis, Prince of Condé
François Louis, Duke of Guise
Full name
Henri Eugène Philippe Louis d'Orléans
HouseOrléans
FatherLouis Philippe I
MotherMaria Amalia of Naples and Sicily
ReligionRoman Catholicism
Signature

Early life
Henri (left) with his brother Antoine and his mother Queen Marie Amélie.
Portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

Born at the Palais Royal in Paris, he was brought up by his parents with great simplicity, he was educated at the college of Henri IV.

At the age of 8, Henri inherited a fortune of 66 million livres (approximately £200 million today), the lands and wealth of his godfather, Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, the last Prince of Condé. Henri also inherited the famous Château de Chantilly, domaines of Saint-Leu, Taverny, Enghien, Montmorency and Mortefontaine. He also gained the Château d'Écouen. At the age of seventeen he entered the army with the rank of a captain of infantry.

Marriage and children

On 25 November 1844, Henri married Princess Maria Carolina of the Two Sicilies, daughter of Leopold of the Two Sicilies, Prince of Salerno and Archduchess Maria Clementina of Austria, in Naples. The couple had several children, one of whom reached adulthood but nonetheless predeceased him.

  1. Louis Philippe Marie Léopold d'Orléans, Prince of Condé (15 November 1845 – 24 May 1866) died unmarried and childless.
  2. Henri Léopold Philippe Marie d'Orléans, Duke of Guise (11 September 1847 – 10 October 1847) died in infancy.
  3. Stillborn daughter (1849).
  4. François Paul d'Orléans, Duke of Guise (11 January 1852 – 15 April 1852) died in infancy.
  5. François Louis Philippe Marie d'Orléans, Duke of Guise (5 January 1854 – 25 July 1872) died unmarried.
  6. Stillborn son (15 June 1861).
  7. Stillborn son (June 1864).

Military

Henri 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 27 September 1847 to 24 February 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, responding in 1861 to Napoleon III's violent attacks upon the House of Orléans with a Letter upon History of France.

At 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 seat of the comte Montalembert in the Académie française. In March 1872, he resumed his place in the army as Général de 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 who 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.

The Duc d'Aumale capturing the Smalah of Abdelkader with his chasseurs d'Afrique (1843), by Horace Vernet

Bibliophile
The duc d'Aumale in his final years, portrait by Jean Baptiste Guth in Vanity Fair, 1891
The Château of Chantilly houses one of the finest art collections in France.
Royal styles of
Prince Henri, Duke of Aumale
Reference styleHis Royal Highness
Spoken styleYour Royal Highness
Alternative styleSir

Aumale was a notable collector of antique books and manuscripts and owned the important medieval Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. Most of his collection is still at Chantilly.[1]

Death

After the fire of the Bazar de la Charité, the duke wanted to send his condolences to the families of the victims, however, after writing 20 letters, he suffered a cardiac arrest and died. In his will, written on 3 June 1884, the duke had bequeathed his Chantilly estate to the Institute of France, including the Château de Chantilly where his extensive art collection was to be turned into a museum. This generosity led to the government withdrawing his decree of exile and the duke returned to France in 1889.

Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale, died in Lo Zucco, Sicily, and was buried in Dreux, in the chapel of the Orléans.

Honours

Heraldry

The duke of Aumale did not have a personal coat of arms. He used the traditional arms of the House of Orléans, consisting of:

  • Blazon : Azure, three fleurs de lys or, a label argent
  • Coronet : of a fils de France
  • Supporters : two angels
  • Personal motto (after 1871) : J'attendrai (I'll be waiting)

Ancestry

References
  1. Frédéric Vergne. La Bibliothèque du Prince; Château de Chantilly, Les Manuscrits. Editions Editerra (1995) ISBN 978-2-908597-10-3 (In French)
  2. H. Tarlier (1854). Almanach royal officiel, publié, exécution d'un arrête du roi (in French). 1. p. 37.
  3. "Caballeros de la insigne orden del toisón de oro". Guía Oficial de España (in Spanish). 1887. p. 146. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  4. Staatshandbücher für das Herzogtum Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (1884), "Herzogliche Sachsen-Ernestinischer Hausorden" p. 31
  5. Marquis de Flers, The Count of Paris, quoted in Moi Amélie, Last Queen of Portugal by Stéphane Bern, pp. 112-113
  6. Index biographique des membres et associés de l'Académie royale de Belgique (1769-2005). p 65
  7. http://www.icar.beniculturali.it/biblio/pdf/Almanacco/051capXIIIsezII_401_418partI.pdf
  8. https://www.beaussant-lefevre.com/lot/86924/8138236?

Sources
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