1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Orleans, Louis Philippe Robert, Duke of

ORLEANS, LOUIS PHILIPPE ROBERT, Duke of (1869–), eldest son of the comte de Paris, was born at York House, Twickenham, on the 6th of February 1869. The law of exile against the French princes having been abrogated in 1871, he returned with his parents to France. He was first educated by a private tutor, and then followed the courses of the municipal college at Eu. In 1882 he entered the Collège Stanislas, Paris, and took a first prize in a competitive Latin translation. On the death of the comte de Chambord, the comte de Paris became head of the Bourbons; and in 1886 he and his son were exiled from France. Queen Victoria appointed the duke of Orleans a supernumerary cadet at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. After passing his examinations he received a commission in the 4th battalion of the 60th Rifles, then quartered in India. In January 1888 the duke went out to India, accompanied by Colonel de Parseval as military governor and adviser. At Bombay he was received by the duke of Connaught and Lord Reay, and at Calcutta he became the guest of the viceroy, the marquess of Dufferin, who organized for the duke and his cousin, Prince Henry of Orleans, a grand tiger-shooting expedition in Nepaul. The duke now reported himself to the commander-in-chief afterwards Earl Roberts, and joined his regiment at Chakrata. After seeing service, the duke ceased his connexion with the Indian army in February 1889, and returned to England. On attaining his majority, he entered Paris (February 7, 1890), and proceeding to the mairie, expressed his desire, as a Frenchman, to perform his military service. This act caused great excitement, and he was arrested in conformity with the law of 1886, which forbade the soil of France to the direct heirs of the families which had reigned there. He was tried, and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment; but he was liberated by President Garnot after a few months’ nominal incarceration (June 4), and conducted to the Swiss frontier. This escapade won for him the title of “Le Premier Conscrit de France.” After the comte de Paris’s funeral (September 12, 1894) the duke received his adherents in London, and then removed to Brussels, as being nearer France. On the 5th of November 1896 the duke married the archduchess Maria Dorothea Amalia of Austria, the ceremony taking place at Vienna. It was alleged that some of his followers were implicated in the conspiracies against the French Republic in 1899. A letter which the duke wrote in 1900, approving the artist whose caricatures were grossly insulting to Queen Victoria, excited great indignation both in England and in many French circles, and estranged him from many with whom he had formerly been upon friendly terms; but after Queen Victoria’s death it was allowed to become known that this affair had been forgotten and forgiven by the British royal family. The duke of Orleans made several long exploring journeys, being particularly interested in polar discoveries. In 1905 he published Une croisière au Spitzberg, and, later, another account of his travels, under the title A traverse la Banquise.