Louis Philippe was king of the French from 1830 to 1848.
Background
Born on October 6, 1773, in the Palais Royal, the residence of the Orléans family in Paris, to Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres (who would become Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, upon the death of his father Louis Philippe I), and Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was a Prince of the Blood, which entitled him the use of the style "Serene Highness". His mother was an extremely wealthy heiress who was descended from Louis XIV of France through a legitimized line.
Louis Philippe was the eldest of three sons and a daughter, a family that was to have erratic fortunes from the beginning of the French Revolution to the Bourbon Restoration.
Education
Louis Philippe was tutored by the Countess of Genlis, beginning in 1782. She instilled in him a fondness for liberal thought; it is probably during this period that Louis Philippe picked up his slightly Voltairean[clarification needed] brand of Catholicism. When Louis Philippe's grandfather died in 1785, his father succeeded him as Duke of Orléans and Louis Philippe succeeded his father as Duke of Chartres.
Career
Although his authoritarian regime was overthrown by the February Revolution, his reign was marked by domestic prosperity, stability, and intellectual fecundity. From 1785 until his father's execution (Nov. 6, 1793), he was known as the Duc de Chartres, thereafter as the Duc d'Orléans and the leader of the cadet branch of the Bourbon family. In 1790 the duke joined the Jacobin Club and after 1792 posed as a republican. A lieutenant general at 18, he fought at Valmy, Jemappes, and Neerwinden. But, alienated by the Terror, he joined Charles François Dumouriez in a plot to overthrow the Republic. The army, however, refused to follow them, and on April 5, 1793, they deserted. For the next 2 decades the duke sojourned in Switzerland, America, England, and Malta before repairing in 1809 to Sicily, where he remained until Napoleon's abdication. Meanwhile, the juste milieu (middle course) became the maxim which guided his political actions: he cautiously refrained from committing himself to Dumouriez's intrigues; and he remained apart from the émigrés while he and his cousin Louis XVIII became reconciled. When Louis Philippe returned to France in 1814, Louis XVIII elevated him to the peerage, appointed him colonel general of Hussars, and restored to him all of the family's sequestered estates that had not been sold-a restitution which made him rich. But his attacks upon the ultraroyalists led in 1815 to a 2-year exile in England. After his return, he cultivated popularity by making the Palais-Royal the foyer of liberals, dressing en bourgeois (wearing long trousers instead of knee breeches), and sending his sons to a public school. He even strolled the streets of the working-class sections of Paris and stopped frequently to chat with workers. Thus, when the Revolution of 1830 overthrew Charles X, both classes were willing to raise the duke to the vacant throne. On August 7 the rump Chamber of Deputies proclaimed him "King of the French. " While the "citizen king" consolidated his position, he liberalized the Charter of 1814 and increased the electorate from 90, 000 to 170, 000. But for all Louis Philippe's astuteness, he loved personal power as much as the Bourbons had; he wanted to rule as well as reign and would not compromise to meet the needs of a changing society. In September 1835 he muzzled the press and refused to broaden the suffrage. Liberals and nationalists alike were also dissatisfied with his noninterventionist foreign policy. After 1840, moreover, the King and his conservative premier, François Guizot, resorted to corruption to defeat mounting opposition in the Chambers. But it was Louis Philippe's stubborn refusal to sponsor electoral reforms that precipitated the February Revolution. Paris rose against him on February 22, 1848, and 2 days later drove him again into English exile. He lived at Claremont until his death on August 26, 1850.
Achievements
Membership
He was a member of the cadet branch of the Royal House of France and a member of the reigning House of Bourbon.
Connections
In 1796, Louis Philippe supposedly fathered a child with Beata Caisa Wahlborn (1766-1830) named Erik Kolstrøm (1796-1879).
In 1808, Louis Philippe proposed to Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George III of the United Kingdom. His Catholicism and the opposition of her mother Queen Charlotte meant the Princess reluctantly declined the offer.
In 1809, Louis Philippe married Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, daughter of King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Maria Carolina of Austria. They had ten children.
Spouse :
Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily
Father :
Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
mother :
Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon
Daughter:
Marie, Duchess Alexander of Württemberg
Daughter:
Louise, Queen of the Belgians
Daughter:
Clémentine, Princess August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
6 October 1773 – 18 November 1785 His Serene Highness The Duke of Valois, 18 November 1785 – 6 November 1793 His Serene Highness The Duke of Chartres, 6 November 1793 – 21 September 1824 His Serene Highness The Duke of Orléans, 21 September 1824 – 9 August 1830 His Royal Highness The Duke of Orléans, 9 August 1830 – 24 February 1848 His Majesty The King of the French, 24 February 1848 – 26 August 1850 His Majesty King Louis Philippe