Henri Chambord, Count of Chambord was disputedly King of France from 2 to 9 August 1830 as Henry V.
Background
Henri Chambord was born in Paris on the 29th of September 1820. His father was the due de Berry, the elder son of the comte d'Artois (afterwards Charles X. ); his mother was the princess Caroline Ferdinande Louise of Naples. Born seven months after the assassination of his father, he was hailed as the " enfant du miracle, " and was made the subject of one of Lamartine's most famous poems. He was created due de Bordeaux, and in 1821, as the result of a subscription organized by the government, received the chateau of Chambord.
Education
Henri Chambord was educated by tutors inspired by detestation of the French Revolution and its principles, and from the due de Damas in particular imbibed those ideas of divine right and of devotion to the Church to which he always remained true.
Career
In 1841, during an extensive tour through Europe, Henri Chambord broke his leg-an accident that resulted in permanent lameness.
Though he continued to hold an informal court, both on his travels and at his castle of Frohsdorf, near Vienna, yet he allowed the revolution of 1848 and the coup d'itat of 1851 to pass without any decisive assertion of his claims.
He declared himself ready " to pay with his blood for the triumph of a cause which was that of France, the Church, and God himself. "
Making common cause with the Church, the Royalists now began an active campaign against the Empire.
Again, on the 4th of September 1870, after the fall of the Empire, he invited Frenchmen to accept a government " whose basis was right and whose principle was honesty, " and promised to drive the enemy from French soil.
Yet fortune favoured him.
He again quitted France, and answered the attempts to make him renounce his claims in favour of the comte de Paris by the declaration (January 25, 1872) that he would never abdicate.
In the following month he held a great gathering of his adherents at Antwerp, which was the cause of serious disturbances.
A constitutional programme, signed by some 280 members of the National Assembly, was presented for his acceptance, but without result.
The fall of Thiers in May 1873, however, offered an opportunity to the Royalists by which they hastened to profit.
The Royalists were united, the premier (the due de Broglie) an open adherent, the president (MacMahon) a benevolent neutral.
MM.
Lucien Brun and Chesnelong were sent to interview the comte de Chambord at Salzburg, and obtain the definite assurances that alone were wanting.
They returned with the news that he accepted the principles of the French Revolution and the tricolour flag.
But a letter to Chesnelong, dated Salzburg, 27th of October, declared that he had been misunderstood: he would give no guarantees; he would not inaugurate his reign by an act of weakness, nor become " le roi legitime de la Revolution. " "
Je suis le pilote necessaire, " he added, " le seul capable de conduire le navire au port, parce que j'ai mission et autorite pour cela. "
A last effort was made in the National Assembly in June 1874 by the ducdela Rochefoucauld- Bisaccia, who formally moved the restoration of the.
monarchy.
The comte de Chambord on the 2nd of July issued a fresh manifesto, which added nothing to his former declarations.
The motion was rejected by 272 to 79, and on the 25th of February 1875 the Assembly definitely adopted the Republic as the national form of government.
Achievements
From 2 August to 9 August 1830 Henri Chambord formally considered the king, but the crown was passed on to his Regent Louis Philippe.
Politics
The elections placed the Republican party in a minority in the National Assembly; the abrogation of the law of exile against the royal family permitted him to return to his castle of Chambord; and it was thence that on the 5th of July 1871 he issued a proclamation, in which for the first time he publicly posed as king, and declared that he would never abandon the white standard of the Bourbons, " the flag of Henry IV, Francis I, and Joan of Arc, " for the tricolour of the Revolution.
Connections
In November 1846, the comte de Chambord married his second cousin Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, daughter of Duke Francis IV of Modena and Princess Maria Beatrice of Savoy. The couple had no children.
