Pierre Philippe Jean Marie d'Orléans (4 November 1845 – 17 July 1919) was
Duke of Penthièvre and a grandson of French king
Louis Philippe I
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 ...
and of Brazilian Emperor
Pedro I. Declining a proposal to marry into the Brazilian royal family, he chose a naval career and fathered two children without marrying. Prince Pierre was an officer in the
Union and
French Navies and a global traveler.
Family
Prince Pierre d'Orléans was the son of
François d'Orléans, Prince of Joinville
François d'Orléans, Prince de Joinville (14 August 1818 – 16 June 1900) was the third son of Louis Philippe I, Louis Philippe, List of French monarchs, King of the French, and his wife Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. An admiral of t ...
and his wife,
Princess Francisca of Brazil
'' Dona'' Francisca (2 August 1824 – 27 March 1898) was a princess of the Empire of Brazil (as daughter of Emperor Dom Pedro I, who also reigned as King Dom Pedro IV of Portugal, and his first wife Maria Leopoldina of Habsburg), who becam ...
. On his father's side, he was the grandson of the French king
Louis Philippe I
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 ...
.
On his mother's side he was the grandson of
Pedro I & IV,
Emperor of Brazil
The monarchs of Brazil (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''monarcas do Brasil'') were the imperial head of state, heads of state and hereditary rulers of Brazil from the House of Braganza that reigned from the creation of the Brazilian monarchy ...
and
King of Portugal and the Algarves, after whom he was named.
Princess Françoise of Orléans (14 August 1844 – 28 October 1925), the older sister of Prince Pierre d'Orléans, is an ancestor of the three
Orléanist pretenders to the throne of France since 1926:
Jean III (her son),
Henri VI and
Henri VII. Pierre d'Orléans also had a younger sister who was stillborn (30 October 1849).
Although he never married, Prince Pierre d'Orléans had two children with Angélique Marie Augustine Lebesgue (d. 1881), a married woman:
* Jeanne Angelique Marie Lebesgue (24 December 1879 – after 1903), who in 1903 would marry the Marquis Jean de Gouy d'Arsy, son of Count Antonin de Gouy d'Arsy and Wilhelmine (Minna) de Löwenthal
* Pierre Fernand Eugène Lebesgue (12 July 1881 – 23 September 1962), who in 1941 would marry Yvonne Patrigean
Life
From France to exile
Born in the
Château de Saint-Cloud
The château de Saint-Cloud () was a château in France, built on a site overlooking the Seine at Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, about west of Paris. The gardens survive, and the estate is now known as the Parc de Saint-Cloud.
The château was ...
in 1845, Prince Pierre was expelled from France with his family when the
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...
overthrowing his grandfather, King Louis Philippe I, broke out in 1848. Prince Pierre had a happy childhood as a refugee in England with most of the other members of the House of Orléans, despite the uncertainty of life in exile. The education of Prince Pierre, his sister and cousins was overseen by his father in England and organized at first by a tutor. In 1859 Prince Pierre and his cousin,
Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Alençon
Ferdinand Philippe Marie d'Orléans, duc d'Alençon (12 July 1844 – 29 June 1910) was the son of Louis Charles Philippe Raphael d'Orléans, Duke of Nemours and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (a first cousin of Queen Victoria).
E ...
, left for Scotland to study at the prestigious
Royal High School in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
.
Brazilian marriage proposal
At the beginning of the 1860s the Emperor of Brazil,
Pedro II, sought to marry his daughters,
Princesses Isabel and
Leopoldina, to ensure his succession. Turning to his European relatives, the emperor asked his sister
Princess Francisca and her
husband
A husband is a man involved in a marital relationship, commonly referred to as a spouse. The specific rights, responsibilities, and societal status attributed to a husband can vary significantly across different cultures and historical perio ...
to advise him on young princes who could marry his daughters. From the names provided by the Joinvilles, he selected Prince Pierre and
Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders
Prince Philippe of Belgium, Count of Flanders (; 24 March 1837 – 17 November 1905), was the third born and second surviving son of King Leopold I of Belgium and Louise d'Orléans. He was the brother of Leopold II of Belgium and Empress Carlo ...
as potential husbands for his daughters. For the emperor the two men offered the benefit of belonging, respectively, to the
French and
Belgian royal families (each a dynasty with a reputation for liberalism). Prince Pierre was also a nephew of Pedro II; his mother was the emperor's elder sister and, through her, Pierre was linked to the Brazilian crown.
The prince, however, wanted a career in the Navy and declined his uncle's offer to marry into the Brazilian royal family. The Belgian Prince Philippe refused to leave Europe to settle in the Americas, and Emperor Pedro II chose
Prince Gaston d'Orléans and
Prince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as his future sons-in-law.
[
]
In the United States
Desiring to follow the successful navy career of his father (who would retire as a vice-admiral
Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral.
Australia
In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of vic ...
), Prince Pierre expressed his wishes to his family. Despite his young age—he was sixteen at the time—his father, the Prince de Joinville, began looking for a military academy willing to receive Prince Pierre as a cadet. Thanks to the intervention of U.S. President James Buchanan
James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...
, the prince was admitted to the United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as United States Secre ...
in Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...
.
Arriving in the United States with his father and two cousins (Prince Philippe, Count of Paris
Prince Philippe of Orléans, Count of Paris (Louis Philippe Albert; 24 August 1838 – 8 September 1894), was disputedly King of the French from 24 to 26 February 1848 as Louis Philippe II, although he was never officially proclaimed as such. ...
and his younger brother Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres
Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres (Robert Philippe Louis Eugène Ferdinand; 9 November 1840 – 5 December 1910), was the son of Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans, and thus, a grandson of King Louis-Philippe of France. He fought for the ...
), Prince Pierre began his studies at the Academy on 15 October 1861. Because Annapolis was close to the front lines, it was relocated to Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and nort ...
, in May 1861 for the duration of the war. Prince Pierre studied the Naval Academy's relocated facilities at the Atlantic House Hotel in Newport. His cousins Philippe and Robert were appointed assistant adjutants general, with the rank of captain, in the Union Army, and served as aides to Major General George McClellan
George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 24th governor of New Jersey and as Commanding General of the United States Army from November 1861 to March 186 ...
for a few months during the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
.
After graduation from the academy, Prince Pierre received an honorary appointment as an acting ensign in the Union Navy on 28 May 1863 and served on the corvette
A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...
, a training ship for midshipmen
A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afric ...
in Newport; he joined its crew while it was part of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, stationed off Morris Island
Morris Island is an 840-acre (3.4 km2) uninhabited island in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, accessible only by boat. The island lies in the outer reaches of the harbor and was thus a strategic location in the American Civil War. The i ...
inside Charleston Bar. Unlike his father and cousins, who left the country on 7 July 1862, he remained in the service of the United States. He was assigned as a lieutenant on the ''John Adams'', but was not promoted to that rank. He regretfully resigned his commission on 30 May 1864 when Franco-American relations cooled with the French intervention in Mexico. He returned to France the next month.[
]
Illness
Before resigning from the U.S. Navy Prince Pierre sailed with the ''John Adams'' to the Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...
, where he contracted malaria
Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...
. Severely affected by the disease, he was treated with heavy doses of quinine
Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to ''Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg ...
which irreversibly damaged his hearing.[While journalist Dominique Paoli attributed Prince Pierre's deafness to the quinine he received to treat his malaria (as deafness is a known side-effect of quinine), historian Olivier Defrance noted that several members of the Orléans family ( Princess Clémentine, Prince François, Prince Gaston, and ]Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders
Prince Philippe of Belgium, Count of Flanders (; 24 March 1837 – 17 November 1905), was the third born and second surviving son of King Leopold I of Belgium and Louise d'Orléans. He was the brother of Leopold II of Belgium and Empress Carlo ...
) suffered from similar ailments.
Prince Pierre's deafness triggered an episode of depression. After returning to Europe his studies became his true passion, and he became interested in chemistry, botany, astronomy and mechanical engineering.[
]
Travels
Since France remained closed to the Orléans family due to the post-revolution Exile Law of 28 May 1848, Prince Pierre obtained permission (with his father's help) to serve for two years as an officer of the watch on the ''Bartolomeu Dias'', a Portuguese naval ship on a mission in the Pacific. He later traveled extensively around the world. With his relative and childhood friend, Count Ludovic de Beauvoir and Albert-Auguste Fauvel, he embarked on a merchant ship for a tour of the Pacific from 1865 to 1867; the three traveled to Australia, Java, Siam, China, Japan and California.[Although Prince Pierre did not leave a testimony of this journey, Count Ludovic de Beauvoir would later recount their adventures together in a renowned travel book: ''Voyage autour du monde : Java, Siam et Canton'' (see ]bibliography
Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliograph ...
). Fauvel and de Beauvoir would each publish several books about their travels, and he later completed a number of other voyages.[
]
Return to France
With the fall of the Second French Empire
The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...
on 4 September 1870 Prince Pierre could return to France and become part of its Navy
A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...
, which was marginally active during the Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
(primarily fought on land). Upon his entry into service for France, he was appointed lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
aboard the newly built (1870) frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...
''L'Océan'' under the command of Admiral Renault.[
The prince began a romantic relationship with a young married woman, Angélique Lebesgue. He fathered two children with her: Jeanne and Pierre Lebesgue. Prince Pierre raised Jeanne and Pierre in his successive residences on Avenue d'Antin (today Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt) and ]Boulevard Haussmann
The Boulevard Haussmann (), long from the 8th to the 9th arrondissement, is one of the wide tree-lined boulevards created in Paris by Napoleon III, under the direction of his Prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann.
The Boulevard Haussmann is mo ...
in Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. Despite the scandal caused by his relationship with Lebesgue, Prince Pierre remained close to his family and regularly visited his sister, Princess Françoise. Fond of hunting, the prince also frequented the forest of Arc-en-Barrois (a wilderness area in the Chaumont Arrondissement owned by him and his family, with a large game population).
Later life
In 1883, a new French law concerning princes of former ruling houses obligated Prince Pierre to leave the Navy. Despite this, he offered his château
A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking re ...
at Arc-en-Barrois (inherited after his father's death in 1900) to the French army during World War I. The Château d'Arc-en-Barrois
Château d'Arc-en-Barrois is a château in Haute-Marne, France.
History
The present château was built on the site of a castle that was destroyed in 1793 during the French Revolution. The Arc-en-Barrois area belonged in 1622 to Nicolas de L'Hospit ...
was used as a military hospital for wounded soldiers, particularly those injured during the Verdun
Verdun ( , ; ; ; official name before 1970: Verdun-sur-Meuse) is a city in the Meuse (department), Meuse departments of France, department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department.
In 843, the Treaty of V ...
and Argonne campaigns.
The prince died a bachelor in 1919 and, with no legitimate heirs, passed the Château d'Arc-en-Barrois to his nephew Prince Jean, Duke of Guise
Jean d'Orléans (Jean Pierre Clément Marie; 4 September 1874 – 25 August 1940) was Orléanist pretender to the defunct French throne as Jean III. He used the courtesy title of Duke of Guise.
He was the third son and youngest child of Pr ...
(claimant king of France as Jean III).[ Prince Pierre is buried in the ]Royal Chapel
A royal chapel is a chapel associated with a monarch, a royal court, or in a royal palace.
A royal chapel may also be a body of clergy or musicians serving at a royal court or employed by a monarch.
Commonwealth countries
Both the United Kin ...
of Dreux
Dreux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in northern France.
Geography
Dreux lies on the small river Blaise (river), Blaise, a tributary of the Eure (river), Eure, about 35 km north of Cha ...
, France.[
]
Ancestry
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pierre, Prince, Duke of Penthievre
1845 births
1919 deaths
Princes of France (Orléans)
Burials at the Chapelle royale de Dreux
People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh
Union Navy officers
French Navy officers
Dukes of Penthièvre