Prince François, Duke of Guise

François Louis Marie Philippe d'Orléans (5 January 1854 – 25 July 1872) was a member of the House of Orléans who used the courtesy title of Duke of Guise. He was the last surviving child of Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale and Princess Maria Carolina Augusta of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

Life

Family François Louis Marie Philippe d'Orléans was the fourth son of Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale and of his wife Princess Maria Carolina Augusta of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

Through his father, he was the grandson of Louis Philippe I, King of the French and Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily while through his mother he was a grandson of Leopold, Prince of Salerno and Archduchess Clementina of Austria, daughter of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily.

Exile in England François, with his mother Maria Carolina and his brother Louis, by William Charles Ross . François was born on 5 January 1854 at Orleans House in Twickenham, London. His parents had been in England in exile since 24 February 1848 because of the February 1848 Revolution where they settled in Orleans House upon the death of Louis Philippe I in 1850.

François received the title of Duke of Guise from birth. He had the same name and title as his brother, who died at three months old in April 1852.

François was baptised at the chapel of Saint-Raphael in Kingston Upon Thames and his godparents were his uncle and aunt Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

After the outbreak of the revolution, the formal royal family had gone into exile in England to Queen Victoria where the family later bought Orleans House. He had only one surviving brother, Louis d'Orléans, Prince of Condé, who died in Australia on 24 May 1866. Three years later, his mother, Maria Carolina, died of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 47 in Twickenham. A year before her death, she said about the future of François "my poor Guise, so intelligent and so good, should not be brought up in mourning and sadness. This whole generation around us is counting on me."

Return to France In September 1870, his father learned of the French loss at the Battle of Sedan and so along with his brother, François d'Orléans, Prince of Joinville offered to fight but they were later escorted back by ship. In February 1871, his father was elected Member of the Chamber of Deputies for Oise and that July the laws of exile of Napoleon III were repealed.

In July 1871, he joined his father and returned to France. Although his health had been fragile for a long period of time, he intended to devote himself to hunting, something that he had requested a permit for from the French authorities. In his religious life, he maintained a close friendship with Abbé Nicolas Auguste Guelle (1799-1881), who had followed the family to the United Kingdom and returned with him to France. He was educated at Lycée Condorcet and prepared for a baccalaureate in science at Sorbonne.

François was the last surviving child of his parents and his father had outlived all of his children. The media speculated that he would retire from politics and the military because of his mourning for François, which he did not.

Ancestry