Ferdinand of Orleans (1844-1910)
Ferdinand Philippe Marie of Orleans, duke of Alençon , was born the July 12th 1844 and is deceased the June 29th 1910. It is downward of the king of the French Louis-Philippe Ier.
Family
Grandson of the king of the French Louis-Philippe Ier, the duke of Alençon is the second wire of Louis of Orleans (1814-1896), duke of Nemours, and his wife the princess Victoire of Saxony-Cobourg-Kohary (1822-1857). He is fore-mentioned Ferdinand-Philippe in homage to his uncle, the Prince Royal, accidentally deceased two years before his birth.
By his father, the prince is thus the grandson of the king of the French Louis-Philippe Ier (1773-1850) and of the queen Marie-Amélie de Bourbon (1782-1866), born princess of Deux-Siciles, while, by his mother, it descends from Ferdinand of Saxony-Cobourg-Saalfeld (1785-1851) and Antoinette de Kohary.
By his mother, the prince is also combined to the royal families of Great Britain, Belgium and the Portugal and, later, of Bulgaria, Prussia, Hesse, Russia, Sweden, Norway and Spain.
Let us add that the duke of Alençon is the brother-in-law of the princess heiress of the Brésil, Isabelle de Bragance (1846-1921).
September 28th, 1868, he marries with Possenhofen the princess Sophie-Charlotte de Wittelsbach (1847-1897), last girl of the duke Maximilien in Bavaria (1808-1888) and of his wife the princess Ludovica of Bavaria (1808-1892), itself girl of the king Maximilien Ier of Bavaria (1756-1825).
The princess Sophie-Charlotte is, inter alia, the sister of the Impératrice Elisabeth of Austria, more known under the name of Sissi, and of the queen Marie of Deux-Siciles, the heroin of Gaête.
The duke and the duchess of Alençon have two children:
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Louise of Orleans (1869-1952) which links with the prince Alphonse of Bavaria (1862-1933), infant of Spain.
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Emmanuel of Orleans (1872-1931), “duke of Vendôme”, which marries the princess Henriette of Belgium (1870-1948), sister of the king Albert Ier of Belgium.
Biography
In February 1848, Ferdinand of Orleans, then 4 years old, flees France and the revolutionists with his family. His/her parents, the duke and the duchess of Nemours, settle in England near the ex-king of the French Louis-Philippe I {{er}} and it is in this country that the young boy is high.
The childhood of the prince is very austere. His/her mother, the Victoire duchess, dies in 1857, whereas it is hardly 13 years old, and his/her father, Louis of Orleans, testify to him little to tenderness and raises with hard, thus thinking of aguerrir it. Despite everything, the duke of Alençon remains very close to his father and this one enjoys all its life a great influence on him. His/her grandmother, the queen Marie-Amélie occupies with many tenderness education sound “ small sonnet ” and her brother and sisters.
After two years of public school with Edinburgh, “Alençon” studies soldiering at the military academy of Segovia then, being interdict of stay in France like all the members of its family, it engages as an officer in the Spanish army (of which his/her uncle, the duke of Montpensier, fact part). It takes part then in a task force charged to repress an insurrection with the Filipino . Its bravery is worth the rank of captain to him but the deposition of the queen Isabelle II of Spain obliges it to resign of the Army. The new Spanish government thinks of him to succeed sovereign but, by honesty towards the latter but also not to oppose the ambitions of his/her uncle, the duke of Montpensier, Ferdinand the proposal declines. Meanwhile, his/her grandmother died in England in 1866 at the 84 years age.
In 1868, the prince marries the duchess Sophie-Charlotte de Wittelsbach, sister of the empress of Austria. The young girl had been before promised in marriage to her cousin the king Louis II of Bavaria but their engagement had been broken, leaving the young girl in the embarrassment. The desilvered couple settles in England, in the residence of the duke of Nemours.
When bursts the Franco-German Guerre of 1870, the duke of Alençon informs the government of Napoleon III which it ardently wishes to take part in the engagements, even as a soldier of second class. But the French Army rejects the request of the prince (like those of all his/her Orleans parents), as orders it the government of Napoleon III.
The young Alençon couple saw happy, in Sicily then in Rome, at the king of Deux-Siciles, to look after the health of the duchess, strongly weakened by a first childbirth. Suspected wrongly of preparing with the two ex-sovereigns the re-establishment of the Bourbons on the throne of Deux-Siciles, the “duke and the duchess of Alençon”, not to cause embarrassment with their parents, leave the Italy and settle with Méran and Mentelberg, in the Austrian Tyrol (currently in Italy). The duchess gives the day to it to her second and last child, Emmanuel, whereas the duke is in Paris with his father preparing the arrival of his family in his fatherland.
Returned to France after the fall of the Second Empire, Ferdinand of Orleans can finally become officer in the army of this country which he venerates without really knowing it since he left it at the 4 years age. The couple settles with Vincennes with his/her two children.
Appreciated its soldiers, but abused by some of its hierarchically superiors because of his royal birth, Ferdinand of Orleans is however again isolated of the military life by the Loi of exile of 1886, which excludes the Orleans and the Bonaparte from the army and condemns the applicants to the French throne with a new exile. Ferdinand however chooses not to accompany his/her cousin, the count de Paris, in exile and remains food in the French capital by patriotism.
Like his wife, become tertiary Dominican in 1876, the duke of Alençon becomes member of the third-order franciscain and devotes a good part of its time to good works.
After tragic death in 1886 of his promised in marriage first, Louis II of Bavaria, the duchess of Alençon takes refuge compulsivement in a hybrid history of love. Ferdinand then makes it look after in a private clinic, close to its family in Austria, under the benevolent guard of his/her brother-in-law the duke Charles-Theodore in Bavaria, soldier become doctor then famous ophtalmologist.
In 1891, his/her Louise daughter marries a German cousin, prince Alphonse of Bavaria. Five years later, the duke of Vendôme marries the princess Henriette of Belgium. If " Bavière" must have patience of long years before having laur first child, very quickly the " Vendôme" return Ferdinand grandfather.
In 1897, the duchess of Alençon perishes heroically in the fire of the Bazar of Charity. The duke, broken and now sexagenerian, seek thereafter to take the dress. This desire is however not exaucé and this in spite of a recourse near the pope Pie X. Misleading his trouble, the prince then starts to traverse Europe, using his family relations to defend posted them political France while carrying out a evangelic life moreover more .
The “duke of Alençon” dies out in 1910. Its body and that of his wife are today joined together in the royal vault of Orleans, in Dreux.
Internal bonds
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