For more than a century and a half, France has lived as a republic. Previously, and for nine centuries, princes of the Capetian House had reigned over it. After the revolution of 1830, the elder branch of the Bourbons was driven from the throne. Since then, dynastic legitimacy has continued to be embodied by a line of men, uncrowned kings. Of great sensitivity, probably misunderstood by his father, Prince Henri d’Orléans will embody the monarchical heritage for nearly 20 years, at the turn of the new millennium.
Henri d’Orléans was born in the manor of Anjou, in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, near Brussels, on June 14, 1933, because of the exile law which then affected the pretenders to the throne of France. He is the eldest of the sons of another Henry – Henry VI for his supporters, and of the Countess of Paris, born Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza. At birth, it was his grandfather, Jean Duc de Guise – Jean III – who was the head of the house of France. During the war, the family lived in Morocco, then in Spain and Portugal. In 1947, the young Henri was authorized to continue his studies in Bordeaux, by special decree of President Vincent Auriol, then in Paris, where he studied at Sciences Po.
His personal life will undergo many vicissitudes
His marriage in 1957 to Princess Marie-Thérèse of Württemberg is seen by some as an illustration of Franco-German reconciliation. Titled Count of Clermont, the prince fought in Algeria, where he was decorated with the Cross of Military Valor with bronze star and the Combatant’s Cross for feats of arms. In 1959, he was assigned to the National Defense Secretariat, at the request of General de Gaulle. He continued his military career until 1968, with the 5th Hussar in Germany, then with the Foreign Legion. He then turned to the banking sector, at Crédit Lyonnais, before devoting himself entirely to his task as dauphin and then head of the Maison de France. But also to cultivate his artistic talents, in particular watercolor, even if the money begins to run out Alas, his personal life will undergo many vicissitudes.
Father of five children, two of them are severely mentally disabled due to toxoplasmosis from which their mother suffered during pregnancy. In 1984, the Count of Clermont finally divorced to remarry civilly, with Micaela Cousiño Quinones de Leon, with whom he had already been living for several years. The latter, daughter of Luis Maximiliano Cousiño and Antonia Quiñones de León, 4th Marchioness of San Carlos, introduced him to the world of art and Parisian galleries. Henri then indulges his passion for painting, he composes perfumes, designs clothes, recharges his batteries in Majorca or Morocco. He also entered Freemasonry and for a time assumed the position of venerable master of the “Lys de France” lodge n°1297, within the National Grand Lodge of France, in “a spiritual quest and mystical research”.
Furious at his civil remarriage, his father “demoted” him with the title of “Count of Mortain” – which the person concerned would never use. At the height of their estrangement, in 1987, “Henri VI” even threatened to dismiss him from his inheritance prerogatives – in defiance of Capetian dynastic rules – in favor of his son Jean. The two men will however end up being reconciled in October 1990. As a sign of appeasement, Micaela is then titled “princess of Joinville”.
He died on the anniversary of the execution of Louis XVI
Taking up the title of Count of Paris, now attached to the head of the family, to which he added that of “Duke of France” inspired by the ancestors of Hugues Capet, “Henri VII” inaugurated his “reign” in 1999, in the midst of family dissension and inheritance disputes. Of the immense fortune of Orleans, his late father would have left, it is said, only “crumbs”… yet with a total value of several tens of millions of euros. Often weak-willed, “Henri VII” will strive to maintain a network of friendships through his Institute of the Royal House of France, while making occasional trips to the provinces and publishing a few works of reflection, such as The legacy of history at Tallandier editions, or The Kingship of Man, at the Presses du Châtelet. In 2013, he revived “the former royal and sovereign order of the Star and of Our Lady of Mount Carmel”, in the form of an association under the law of 1901 declared to the sub-prefecture of Sens. Richard Finell, titled by the Prince Count of Auxois, is the current “grand master for life” of this chivalrous order.
The Roman Court of Sainte-Rote having found, in 2008, the nullity of the prince’s first union after 33 years of proceedings, he will thus be able to conclude a second religious marriage with Princess Micaela, on September 26, 2009, in the Saint-Jean-Baptiste de l’Uhabia church in Arcangues, in the Basque country. On June 23, 2018, during the inauguration of a statue representing Saint Louis as a child, in the Parisian church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois — the former parish of the Louvre — he declared France to be officially consecrated to the Sacred Coeur and announces its decision to modify the arms of France by striking them, en abyme, with the image of the Sacred Heart, giving rise to certain debates in royalist circles.
Strangely, this prince, keen on esotericism and spirituality, died on January 21, 2019, 226 years to the day, and almost hour for hour, after the execution of Louis XVI, when he was preparing to leave. his apartment in the rue de Miromesnil, in Paris, to attend the commemorative mass of the martyr king. His funeral will take place at the Royal Chapel of Dreux, in the presence of several members of Gotha, such as Queen Emeritus Sophie of Spain, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Crown Prince Moulay Hassan of Morocco or the former Empress of Iran. Farah Pahlavi.