Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Louis-Philippe

LOUIS-PHILIPPE, king of the French, was born at the Palais Pioyal, Paris, on October 6, 1773. His father was Louis-Philippe-Joseph, duke of Orleans, a descendant of the younger brother of Louis XIV., and by his mother he derived his origin from the Comte de Toulouse, the legitimized son of Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan. At his birth he received the title of duke of Valois; and after 1785, when his father succeeded to the Orleans title, he himself bore that of duke of Chartres. In 1781 Madame de Genlis was appointed his “gouverneur.” From 1789 onwards he manifested sincere sympathy with the new ideas then gaining currency, and in June 1791 he joined at Vendôme the regiment of dragoons of which he had been colonel since 1785. In 1792 he took part in the battles of Valmy and Jemmapes, holding high military rank under Kellermann and Dumouriez; in the following year he was present at the bombardment of Venloo and of Maestricht, and showed remarkable courage at Neerwinden. Proscribed along with Dumouriez, he entered upon a period of twenty-one years of exile from France, spent partly in Switzerland and other European countries, partly in the United States and in the Spanish American colonies. By the execution of his father he became duke of Orleans in 1793; and he was married to Marie Amelie, daughter of Ferdinand IV. of Naples, at Palermo, on November 25, 1809. In April 1814 he returned to Paris, where his old military rank and the property of his father were restored to him; the “Hundred Days” in 1815 condemned him to a renewed but much briefer exile; during the reign of Louis XVIII. he was regarded with some jealousy by the court on account of his liberal opinions, but enjoyed greater favour under Charles X.; immediately after the three days of July 1830 he was called to exercise the functions of “lieutenant-general of the kingdom,” and on August 9 he accepted the title of king of the French. For his reign see France (vol. ix. p. 620-622). Escaping in disguise from Paris at the Revolution of 1848, he on March 3 reached England, where Claremont was his home until his death on August 26, 1850.