Charles-Philippe d'Orléans (4 April 1905 – 10 March 1970) was a member of the

House of Orléans The 4th House of Orléans (), sometimes called the House of Bourbon-Orléans () to distinguish it, is the fourth holder of a surname previously used by several branches of the House of France, Royal House of France, all descended in the legitimat ...

, who bore the courtesy title of

Duke of Nemours Duke of Nemours was a title in the Peerage of France. The name refers to Nemours in the Île-de-France region of north-central France. History In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Lordship of Nemours, in the Gâtinais, France, was a possession of th ...

. He was descended from

Louis-Philippe Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, and the last French monarch to bear the title "King". He abdicated from his throne ...

's second son,

Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours Prince Louis of Orléans, Duke of Nemours (Louis Charles Philippe Raphaël d'Orléans; 25 October 1814 – 26 June 1896) was the second son of King Louis-Philippe I of France, and his wife Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. Life Childho ...

Family

Charles-Philippe d'Orléans was the last child and only son of Emmanuel d'Orléans (1872-1931),

Duke of Vendôme Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they a ...

, and his wife

Princess Henriette of Belgium Princess Henriette of Belgium (30 November 1870 – 28 March 1948), was the daughter of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders, and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern. She was the younger twin sister of Princess Joséphine Marie of Belgium, who died at th ...

(1870-1948), Duchess of Saxony. Through his mother, daughter of

Prince Philippe of Belgium A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The fema ...

(1837-1905),

Count of Flanders The count of Flanders was the ruler or sub-ruler of the county of Flanders, beginning in the 9th century. Later, the title would be held for a time, by the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain. During the French Revolution, in 1790, the c ...

, he is affiliated to the Belgian dynasty of

Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (), or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha ( ), was an Ernestine duchy in Thuringia ruled by a branch of the House of Wettin, consisting of territories in the present-day states of Thuringia and Bavaria in Germany. It lasted from 1826 to ...

: Charles-Philippe is the great-grandson of King Leopold I and the nephew of

Albert I of Belgium Albert I (8 April 1875 – 17 February 1934) was King of the Belgians from 23 December 1909 until his death in 1934. He is popularly referred to as the Knight King (, ) or Soldier King (, ) in Belgium in reference to his role during World War I ...

. On his father's side, the prince belongs to the youngest line of the

, descended from the Duke of Nemours, considered by the Orleanists to be the branch of the princes of the blood, heir to the eldest branch in the event of extinction, according to French monarchical traditions. On September 24, 1928, Prince Charles-Philippe d'Orléans married Marguerite Watson (1899-1993), an American whom he had met during a trip to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

; from their union, which was not recognized by the Duc de Guise (then the Orleanist pretender to the throne of France and head of the family), no children were born.

Biography

Charles-Philippe d'Orléans was born on 4 April 1905 at the family home, a private mansion on the rue Borghèse in Neuilly-sur-Seine; he was nicknamed "Chappy" in the family context. Prince Charles-Philippe was educated as a child by a tutor who was at one time coveted by the Duchess of Guise for the Count of Paris. He was Grand Master of the

Order of Saint Lazarus The Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, also known as the Leper Brothers of Jerusalem or simply as Lazarists, was a Catholic military order founded by Crusaders during the 1130s at a leper hospital in Jerusalem, Kingdom of Jerusalem, whose car ...

from 1967 to 1969, with Prince Michel d'Orléans (born in 1940) as coadjutor. In 1967, Prince Charles-Philippe was the only member of the Orléans family to attend the wedding of Prince Michel d'Orléans with Béatrice Pasquier de Franclieu. The Count of Paris, Prince Michel's father, disapproved of this union and had forbidden members of his family to attend. To thank him for this support, Prince Michel asked the Duke of Nemours to be the godfather of his first child, Princess Clotilde (born on December 28, 1968, in Casablanca), and named his first son Charles-Philippe. The Duke of Nemours wanted his title to pass to Prince Michel after his death. However, on December 10, 1976, six years after the death of Prince Charles-Philippe, Prince Michel would be named Count of Évreux by his father, the Count of Paris.

Titles

The titles worn by the members of the House of Orleans born after the end of the

July Monarchy The July Monarchy (), officially the ''Kingdom of France'' (), was a liberalism, liberal constitutional monarchy in France under , starting on 9 August 1830, after the revolutionary victory of the July Revolution of 1830, and ending 26 Februar ...

have no legal existence in France and are considered as courtesy titles. They are attributed by the eldest of the Orleans, the Orleanist pretender to the throne of France: * 4 April 1905 – 10 March 1970: ''His Royal Highness'' the Duke of Nemours Son of the Duke of Vendôme, Charles-Philippe received at his birth from the head of the family, the Duke of Orleans, the titles of Prince of Orleans and Duke of Nemours, as well as the predicate of royal highness as a member of the house of Orleans. Charles-Philippe d'Orleans was also, since 1926, a prince of the royal blood of France since he belongs to the first cadet branch of the House of Orleans. On the death of his father, the Duke of Vendôme, on 1 February 1931, the Prince became the eldest of the younger branch of the royal house of France and the first prince of the royal blood of France.

Ancestry

References

__FORCETOC__ {{Authority control Princes of France (Orléans) House of Orléans 1905 births 1970 deaths Dukes of Nemours Burials at the Chapelle royale de Dreux