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Orléanist (French:Orléaniste) was a 19th-century French political label originally used by those who supported aconstitutional monarchy expressed by theHouse of Orléans.[1] Due to the radical political changes that occurred duringthat century in France, three different phases of Orléanism can be identified:
Orleanism was opposed by the two other monarchist trends: the more conservativeLegitimism that was loyal to the eldest branch of theHouse of Bourbon after 1830, and theBonapartism that supportedNapoleon’s legacy and heirs.
On 26 July 1830, the revolution of the so-calledThree Glorious Days (or July Revolution) erupted due to the authoritarian and anti-Gallican tendencies showed byCharles X and his Prime MinisterJules de Polignac, expressed by the recently approvedSaint-Cloud Ordinances.[7][8] Despite the abdication of Charles X and the DauphinLouis in favor to Charles X's grandsonHenri, Duke of Bordeaux, on 2 August 1830, only seven days laterLouis Philippe I, stillDuke of Orléans, was elected by theChamber of Deputies as new "King of the French".[9] The enthronement of Louis Philippe was strongly wanted byDoctrinaires, the liberal opposition to Charles X's ministries, under the concept "nationalize the monarchy and royalize France".[10] On 14 August 1830, the Chamber approved anew Constitution, which became thede facto political manifesto for the Orléanists, containing the basis for a constitutional monarchy with a central Parliament. The Orléanism, became the dominant tendency within political life, easily divided inside the Chamber of Deputies between thecentre-left ofAdolphe Thiers[11] and thecentre-right ofFrançois Guizot.[12] Louis Philippe showed himself more aligned with Guizot, entrusted to the higher offices of government, and rapidly became associated with the rising "new men" of the banks, industries and finance,[13] gaining the epithet of "Roi bourgeois".[14] In the early 1840s, Louis Philippe's popularity decreased, due to his strong connection to upper classes and repression against workers' strikes, and showed few concerns for his weakened position, leading the writerVictor Hugo to describe him as "a man with many little qualities".[15] The Orléanist regime finally fell in 1848, when arevolution erupted and on 24 February Louis Philippe abdicated in favor to his grandsonPhilippe, Count of Paris, under regency of his motherHelene, Duchess of Orléans, who was quickly ousted out from the Chamber of Deputies during the regency's formalization, who was interrupted by republican deputies who instead proclaimed the Second Republic.[16]
After 18 years of reign, Louis Philippe left the Orléanist base well-defined inside the magistrature, the press, universities and academies, especially theAcadémie française.[6] However, also some great aristocratic families joined the court, like theDukes of Broglie,[17] as well former Bonapartist officers like theMarshal Soult andÉdouard Mortier. This establishment constituted the majority of theParty of Order, led by Thiers, who represented the conservatives and monarchists under the Second Republic.[18]
| Electoral results | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | No. of overall votes | % of overall vote | No. of overall seats won | ||
| National Assembly | |||||
| 1871 | Unknown (1st) | 33.5% | 214 / 638 | ||
| Chamber of Deputies | |||||
| 1876 | 554,117 (6th) | 7.5% | 40 / 533 | ||
| 1877 | 169,834 (5th) | 2.1% | 11 / 521 | ||
| 1881 | 552,971 (5th) | 7.7% | 42 / 545 | ||
| 1885 | 991,188 (4th) | 12.2% | 73 / 584 | ||
| 1889 | 994,173 (4th) | 12.5% | 72 / 576 | ||
| 1893 | 816,789 (3rd) | 10.5% | 63 / 574 | ||
| 1898 | 607,960 (5th) | 7.5% | 44 / 585 | ||
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Orléanism revived after the French defeat in theFranco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 which caused the fall of theSecond Empire which had succeeded to the Second Republic under EmperorNapoleon III, the formerpresident of France who had been enthroned after thecoup d'état of 1851.[6] The Second Empire was succeeded itself officially in 1871 by theThird Republic. ANational Assembly, composed by 638 on 778 seats, was formed and new elections were called for the8 February of the same year, which resulted in a victory for the monarchist right: 396 seats won, divided to 214 Orléanists and 182 Legitimists, nicknamed "cavalrymen".[20] Initially divided about the dynastic issue, the Orléanists found a compromise with the Legitimists, supporting the rights ofHenri, Count of Chambord (former Duke of Bordeaux, currently childless) in return of the recognition of theCount of Paris as his heir, echoing an 1862 statement of Chambord.[21] Although Chambord never mentioned the Count of Paris as his heir, probably fearing the defection of his ultraconservative supporters,[22] the informal agreement sanctioned the "fusion" of Legitimists and Orléanists, who quite easily formed a conservative coalition.The monarchist majority, led by theDuke of Aumale (son of Louis Philippe), and thecentre-left endorsed thecentre-right candidate Thiers as president of the Republic, but due to the continued arguments between Legitimists and Orléanists and the memory of the dynastic divisions of the past 40 years, Thiers moved to support a "conservative republic" instead of a divided monarchy.[23]
Due to Chambord's dislike of Aumale,[24] the "fusionists" rapidly passed under the leadership of theDuke of Broglie, who in 1873 successfully managed the election of PresidentPatrice de MacMahon, former general and national hero who showed Legitimist sympathies, considering him as a kind of "lieutenant-general of the kingdom" before the fully restoration of Chambord on the throne.[25] Broglie was shortly after awarded with the premiership by MacMahon, supported by monarchists and thecentre-right. Restoration appeared imminent when a parliamentary commission was established in October 1873 to adopt a monarchist constitution. But in the same month the majority was weakened by the refusal of Chambord to accept theFrench Tricolour, used since 1830, preferring instead the return of the royal white flag, symbol of theAncien Régime.[24] The question was apparently resolved with a compromise between Broglie and Chambord: the last will accept the tricolour flag while a future agreement about a new flag will be considered. In October the majority was shocked when the centre-right representative Charles Savary rashly misinformed the press of Chambord's full acceptance of the tricolour flag,[24]. The pretender had to harshly clarify his position, causing the left of the centre-right, Orléanists disappointment and the dissolution of the "restoration" commission on 31 October 1873. A last attempt by Chambord was made on 12 November, when he asked President MacMahon via theDuke of Blacas to join with him into the National Assembly and spoke toward the representatives, hoping to convince them to restore the monarchy, but MacMahon refused due to his institutional position, toward he was formally even if not ideologically attached, causing the project's failure.[26] Due to the impossibility to restore the monarchy in a short time, the Orléanists waited the death of the sickly Chambord, occurred in 1883, but by that time, enthusiasm for a monarchy had faded, and as a result the Count of Paris was never offered the French throne.[27]
The monarchists, however, still controlled the National Assembly, and under MacMahon's partisan presidency they launched the so-called "moral order government", in reference to theParis Commune, whose political and social innovations were viewed as morally degenerate by large conservative segments of the French population.[28]In February 1875, a series of parliamentary acts established theconstitutional laws of the new republic. At its head was a President of the Republic. A two-chamber parliament consisting of a directly electedChamber of Deputies and an indirectly-electedSenate was created, along with a ministry under the President of the council (prime minister), who was nominally answerable to both the President of the Republic and the legislature. Throughout the 1870s, the issue of whether a monarchy should replace the republic dominated public debate.On 16 May 1877, with public opinion swinging heavily in favour of a republic after theelection of March, President MacMahon made one last desperate attempt to salvage the monarchical cause by dismissing the "conservative republican" prime ministerJules Simon and appointing the Duke of Broglie to office. He then dissolved parliament and called a general election for the following October. If his hope had been to halt the move towards republicanism, it backfired spectacularly, with the president being accused of having staged a constitutional coup d'état known as "16 May Crisis" after the date on which it happened. Republicans returned triumphantly after the October elections for the Chamber of Deputies. The crisis ultimately sealed the defeat of the royalist movement, and was instrumental in creating the conditions of the longevity of the Third Republic:[29] in January 1879 the Republicans gained control of the Senate, formerly monopolized by monarchists. MacMahon himself resigned on 30 January 1879, leaving a seriously weakened presidency in the hands ofJules Grévy, leader of theRepublican Left.[30][31]
The end of the presidency of MacMahon and the Senate's loss caused the end of the monarchist bloc. Although there were Orléanist deputies in the Chamber for all the 19th century, they were only a minority. At the end, many monarchists accepted the republic, moving toward the centre. Some Orléanists, especially from theirbourgeoise core base, accepted the republic even since the 1870s, like Thiers and press baronÉmile de Girardin. In 1892, afterPope Leo XIII's approval to the Third Republic, breaking the historical alliance between Church and Crown,[32] some monarchists led by OrléanistJacques Piou and LegitimistAlbert de Mun formed the group of the "ralliés" ("supporters"), that in 1901 constituted the base of the firstChristian Democratic party in France, theLiberal Action,[33] while many other royalists were still attached to the Crown.
Theelections of 1898 confirmed the exclusion of the monarchists from any possible government. However, 4 years earlier, theDreyfus affair shook public opinion, dividing the republican camp:socialists,radicals andliberals defended the innocence of Dreyfus,[34] while other republicans joined thenationalists and monarchists against Dreyfus.[35] The election also introduced 10 overtlyanti-Semitic representatives, led byÉdouard Drumont.[36] The following year, on 20 June 1899, the academicHenri Vaugeois and journalistMaurice Pujo founded the nationalist associationAction française, initially absent of any specific ideology.[6] However, theAction was joined by many Catholics and monarchists who were anti-Dreyfus, contributing to the move of the association toward the right. Particularly, the adhesion ofCharles Maurras, considered a "pragmatic" anti-Dreyfusard rather than a true anti-Semite,[37] contributed to the creation of the ideology of theAction, which rapidly became the main monarchist group. Maurras, despite becoming the movement's ideologist, supported not a classical monarchy on religious term (divine right) but apositivist one, stating that a monarchy would grant more order and stability than a parliamentary republic.[6] The largest group of French monarchists, after the death of Chambord in 1883, endorsed the Count of Paris until his death in 1894, recognizing the claim of his sonPhilippe, Duke of Orléans, who was also supported by theAction.[6] However, monarchism inside theAction was always integrated secondary to its semi-official ideology of "integral nationalism" theorized by Maurras,[38] and manyAction activists were still republicans, like the founder Vaugeois.[6] The movement grew to be one of the largest organizations in France, but in 1926 a condemnation fromPope Pius XI against theAction caused the defection of many Catholic sympathizers. The Pope judged that it was folly for the French Church to continue to tie its fortunes to the unlikely dream of a monarchist restoration, and distrusted the movement's tendency to defend the Catholic religion in merely utilitarian and nationalistic terms,[39] and theAction Française never recovered from the condemnation.[40]
By 1934, theAction was still a considerable force, with over 60,000 members across France.[41] In that year, they joined otherfar-right leagues on6 February demonstrations against political corruption and theParliament, causing the resignation of Prime MinisterÉdouard Daladier the day after and provoking fear of a nationalistcoup d'état.[42] The papal condemnation, the aggressive tactics, and Maurras's disrespectful attitude toward constitutional monarchists finally ended the organization as a major power. The Orléanist pretenderJean, Duke of Guise, who in 1937 broken ties with theAction, also lost many supporters. From this moment, Orléanism ceased to be associated with theAction or the far-right.[16] Instead, the Duke of Guise's son and heirHenri, Count of Paris, launched his own magazineCourier Royale and secretly dealt with anti-fascist conservativeGeneral La Rocque, leader of theFrench Social Party, about the possibility of a restoration.[43]
In 1946, the Count of Paris (who succeeded his father in 1940) moved toPortugal due to the ban on former royals still present in France. As a result of the unstable situation of theFourth Republic, characterized like its predecessor by short governments and a high number of political parties, the Count of Paris made a serious attempt to restore the French monarchy. He endorsed the Christian DemocraticPopular Republican Movement (MPR), and formed a kind of political committee composed of the academicsBertrand de Jouvenel,Gustave Thibon and Michel de Saint Pierre,[44] publishing on 5 February 1948 the manifestoEsquisse d'une constitution monarchique et démocratique, that promoted the idea of a constitutional monarchy.[44]Thanks to the MPR deputyPaul Hutin-Desgrées (co-founder ofOuest-France), the exile law was abrogated on 24 June 1950, permitting the return of the Count of Paris to the capital, where he met with PresidentVincent Auriol.[44]The count and his family made their home in the Parisian suburbs ofLouveciennes, and quickly became media darlings. Orléans frequently went to parties and meetings which were attended by prominent French politicians of the Fourth Republic, such asAntoine Pinay,Jacques Soustelle,Pierre Mendès France andMaurice Schumann.[44] Through his newsletterCourier 50, the Count of Paris expressed support for the policies of Mendès France, like the peace inIndochina, the refusal of a US-controlledEuropean Defence Community (EDC) anddecolonization of French Africa.[44]
Orléans' relationship withCharles de Gaulle was also promising, as the general and the pretender had similar political views and were both devout Roman Catholics.[44] When De Gaulle became prime minister in 1958, it was expected by the Count of Paris that the general would move to restore the French monarchy, but instead De Gaulle preferred to strengthen the republican institutions, eventually becoming the driving force behind the establishment of the present-dayFifth Republic. De Gaulle was elected president of the new government in 1959, and seems to have promised the Count of Paris that he wouldn't run again in theelection of 1965, instead supporting the candidacy of the pretender that would promote a campaign to transform the republic into a constitutional monarchy.[45] However, in 1963 De Gaulle confided to his ministerAlain Peyrefitte that, despite his respect and esteem for the Count of Paris, he never considered him to be his successor as the head of state, stating that the idea of a monarchy was incompatible with the modern world.[46] Disappointed by the false hopes and unfulfilled promises, the Count of Paris retired from French political life in 1967, ending also the publications of his newsletter.
Orléanist pretenders from 1883 to the present follow these principles:
| Claimant | Portrait | Birth | Marriages | Death |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philippe, Count of Paris (Louis Philippe II) 1848–1873 Orléanist pretender (Philippe VII) 1883–1894 Unionist pretender |  | 24 August 1838 Paris Son ofPrince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans andDuchess Helen of Mecklenburg-Schwerin | Princess Marie Isabelle of Orléans 30 May 1864 8 children | 8 September 1894 Stowe House Aged 56 |
| Philippe, Duke of Orléans (Philippe VIII) 1894–1926 |  | 24 August 1869 York House, Twickenham Son ofPhilippe, Count of Paris andPrincess Marie Isabelle of Orléans | Archduchess Maria Dorothea of Austria 5 November 1896 No children | 28 March 1926 Palermo Aged 56 |
| Jean, Duke of Guise (Jean III) 1926–1940 | .jpg) | 4 September 1874 France Son ofRobert, Duke of Chartres andMarie-Françoise of Orléans | Isabelle of Orléans 30 October 1899 4 children | 25 August 1940 Larache, Spanish Morocco Aged 65 |
| Henri, Count of Paris (Henri VI) 1940–1999 | _in_1987.jpg) | 5 July 1908 Chateau de Nouvion-en-Thiérache,Aisne, France Son ofJean, Duke of Guise andIsabelle of Orléans | Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza 8 April 1931 11 children | 19 June 1999 Chérisy Aged 90 |
| Henri d'Orléans, Count of Paris (Henri VII) 1999–2019 |  | June 14, 1933 Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Belgium Son ofHenri, Count of Paris andIsabelle of Orléans-Braganza | Marie Thérèse, Duchess of Montpensier 5 July 1957 5 children Micaëla Cousiño Quiñones de León 31 October 1984 (Civil) 26 September 2009 (Religious) | 21 January 2019 Paris Aged 85 |
| Jean, Count of Paris (Jean IV) 2019–present |  | May 19, 1965 Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France Son ofHenri, Count of Paris andMarie-Thérèse of Württemberg | Philomena de Tornos Steinhart 19 March 2009 5 children |
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| French royal family Orléanist |
|---|
 |
|
Extended royal family
The Duke of Orléans
The Count of Évreux
Princess Béatrice The Dowager Countess of La Marche
The Countess of Schönborn-Buchheim Princess Hélène, Countess of Limburg Stirum The Dowager Duchess of Calabria The Dowager Duchess of Württemberg Princess Claude, Mrs. Gandolfi Princess Chantal, Baroness of Sambucy de Sorgue |
The Orléanist party, despite the different regimes, maintained itsbourgeois platform, constituted by those academics, journalists and financiers who backed Louis Philippe during his reign, and was intended as the liberalcentre of politics, far from reactionary Legitimists and revolutionary republicans.[48][49] However, for all the span of Louis Philippe's reign, the Orléanists were not a homogeneous party, but simply the majority who supported the constitutional system. It was only after the establishment of theSecond French Republic in 1848 and the division insideright-wing factions over the monarchy that the Orléanist party found unity, supporting a parliamentary system instead of an executive one.
In the early 20th century, the majority of Orléanists accepted the republican institutions, approving the parliamentary system and pro-business policy realized by the republican majority, who reflected the historical Orléanist purposes.[6] French historianRené Rémond included the presidency ofValéry Giscard d'Estaing as part of the Orléanist tradition, due to his liberal views and equidistance from the nationalist right (descending fromBonapartism) and the conservative right (from Legitimism).[50] The term "Orléanist parliamentarism" was also used by jurist and sociologistMaurice Duverger to define the form of government of theFifth Republic, which presents a parliamentary system with a powerful head of state.[51]
In 1974, before thepresidential election, theNew Royal Action (NAR), born by a moderate faction spilled from theAction française, endorsedBertrand Renouvin for the presidency, with the purpose of restoring a constitutional monarchy led by Orléans, followed by centrist and liberal positions on other issues. Renouvin gained only 43,722 votes (0.17%).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Orleanists".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Doctrinaires".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 367.{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)| Capetian pretenders (1792–present)  |
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1 Actually reign twice: first from 1814-1815, second from 1815-1824 2 Actually reigned from 1824-1830 3 Orléanist pretender from 1848-1873 as Louis Philippe II 4 Reigned as King of Spain from 1886-1931 as Alfonso XIII 5 Briefly restored and then deposed in 1815 6 Actually reigned from 1852-1870 | |||||||
