Princess Françoise of Orléans

Princess Françoise d'Orléans (Françoise Isabelle Louise Marie; 25 December 1902 - 25 February 1953) was born an Orléans Princess of France and became a Princess of Greece and Denmark by marriage. She was thus a member of the Greek royal family and a descendant of the "Citizen-King" Louis Philippe I.

Life

Françoise d'Orléans was born in Paris, the second daughter of Jean d'Orléans, duc de Guise (an Orléanist pretender to the throne of France under the name Jean III) and his wife, the French Princess Isabelle of Orléans. Françoise's brother, Prince Henri, Count of Paris, succeeded their father as the Orleanist pretender, under the name Henri VI.

In Palermo on 11 February 1929, she married Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark (1888–1940). They had only one child, the writer Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark (1939–2024), whose marriage to the Greek artist Marina Karella (born 1940) did not conform to the laws of the royal house and thus deprived him of all right of succession to the Greek throne. She is grandmother of Princess Alexandra of Greece, an artist, art collector, arts patron, and child life specialist. Her other grand-daughter is Princess Olga of Greece, who married Prince Aimone of Savoy-Aosta, one of two claimants to be Head of the House of Savoy. In 1948, she decided to leave the city. The civil war in Greece was preventing her from entering, and the British government refused to grant her asylum. Françoise and her son Michael went to Paris, where they lived in the home of Princess Isabella and her second husband, Prince Pierre Murat. Françoise did not want to see anyone in their residence and rarely left her rooms. She eventually became depressed. She died on 25 February 1953 in Paris, aged 51. She is buried alongside her husband in Tatoi Royal Cemetery, Greece.

Ancestry