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| Henri d'Orléans | |
|---|---|
| Count of Paris, Duke of France | |
 Henri in 2014 | |
| Orléanist pretender to the French throne | |
| Pretence | 19 June 1999 – 21 January 2019 |
| Predecessor | Henri, Count of Paris |
| Successor | Jean, Count of Paris |
| Born | Henri Philippe Pierre Marie d'Orléans (1933-06-14)14 June 1933 Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Belgium |
| Died | 21 January 2019(2019-01-21) (aged 85) Paris, France |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | |
| Issue |
|
| House | Orléans |
| Father | Henri, Count of Paris |
| Mother | Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
| Signature |  |
Henri Philippe Pierre Marie d'Orléans (14 June 1933 – 21 January 2019)[1] was theOrléanist pretender to the defunct French throne asHenry VII. He used the style ofCount of Paris.
He was head of theHouse of Orléans as senior in male-line descent from KingLouis Philippe I, who reigned from 1830 to 1848. Henri was a retired military officer as well as an author and painter.
He was the first son ofHenri, Count of Paris (1908–1999), and his wifePrincess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza, and was born inWoluwe-Saint-Pierre, Belgium,[2] a law in 1886 having permanentlyexiled from France the heads of its formerly reigning dynasties and their eldest sons.[3]
Despite the ban, while living in Belgium Henri occasionally accompanied his mother on brief visits to France and, later, to his mother's relatives in Brazil.[3] In August 1940 as World War II escalated, the family relocated to property they owned inLarache in theFrench protectorate of Morocco. While his father sought to play a role in theFrench resistance, Henri, in 1940 a child of 7, remained at Larache with his mother, siblings, grandmother and father's sisters' families during the Nazi occupation of France, sharing a small desert home that lacked electricity.[3] Advised byHenri Giraud's Moroccan command that the Orléans had become unwelcome in the protectorate following the assassination ofVichy regime collaboraterFrançois Darlan by the monarchistFernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, the family relocated toPamplona in Spain until 1947, when they took up residence at theQuinta do Anjinho, an estate nearSintra, on thePortuguese Riviera.[3] During that year, PresidentVincent Auriol allowed Henri and his brother François to visit France, and in 1948 he was allowed to enroll in alycée inBordeaux.[3]
The law of exile wasabrogated in 1950, allowing Henri to repatriate with his parents.[4] Later that year, his parents purchased an estate near Paris, theManoir du Cœur-Volant inLouveciennes, which became Henri's first home in France.[3] He was one of the over 100 European royal personages who took part in a cruise organized by KingPaul of Greece andQueen Frederica in 1954, which became known as the "Cruise of the Kings".
Henri studied at theInstitut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), obtaining hisbac in 1957, and on 30 June of that year, his father conferred upon him, as theheir apparent of his house, the title of "Count of Clermont",[3] by which he was generally known during his father's lifetime.[citation needed]
From October 1959 to April 1962, Henri worked at theSecretariat-General for National Defence and Security as a member of theFrench Foreign Legion.[5] Transferred from there to a garrison in Germany, he took up a new assignment as military instructor atBonifacio inCorsica, where his wife and children joined him early in 1963.[5]
Returning to civilian life in 1967, Henri and his family briefly occupied theBlanche Neige pavilion on the grounds of his father'sCœur-Volant estate before renting an apartment of their own in the15th arrondissement of Paris.[5] In the early 1970s Clermont managed public relations for theGeneva office of a Swiss investment firm while dwelling inCorly.[5]
Henri wrote several books, including:
Henri was also a painter and launched his own brand of perfume. His political career included unsuccessfully contesting the2004 European elections for theAlliance Royale, a monarchist party.[7]
Henri metDuchess Marie Therese of Württemberg (born 1934), like himself a descendant of King Louis-Philippe, at a ball given by theThurn and Taxis family inMunich.[3] They were married on 5 July 1957 at theRoyal Chapel of Dreux, on which occasion PresidentCharles de Gaulle publicly offered congratulations, calling the wedding a great national event and observing that the dynasty and couple's future were bound to the hopes of France.[3] Five children were born from this union:[3]
In 1984, Henri and Marie-Thérèse were divorced. On 31 October 1984 Henri entered acivil marriage with Micaëla Anna María Cousiño y Quiñones de León (1938–2022), daughter of Luis Cousiño y Sebire and his wife, Antonia Maria Quiñones de Léon y Bañuelos, 4thMarquesa de San Carlos,[2] and who had previously been divorced from Jean-Robert Bœuf. For remarrying without consent, Henri's father initially declared him disinherited,[2] substituting thenon-dynastic titleComte de Mortain for his son'sClermont countship (the latter once held inappanage by a son ofLouis IX of France, who became ancestor of the Bourbon-Orléans line). Henri, though, refused all mail addressed to him as "Mortain". On 27 February 1984 Marie-Thérèse, the former Countess of Clermont, was granted the titleDuchess of Montpensier by her father-in-law.[2]
On 11 February 1989 Henri was informed, by a hand-delivered letter written by his former wife, of the engagement of their eldest childMarie, to Prince Gundakar ofLiechtenstein, a cousin of the ruler of that principality, the wedding date being set for 29 July 1989. Although Henri acknowledged, in a 12 May 1989Point de Vue interview, that it had been three years since he had seen Marie, he and his second wife, Micaëla Cousiño, had been welcomed for the first time to the home of his mother, the Countess of Paris, that day: Henri further acknowledged to the press that, Marie having written to invite him to her wedding, he looked forward to conducting her to the altar, rumours to the contrary notwithstanding.[5] At the engagement party held the next day at thePalais Pallavicini, theVienna home of the fiancé's parents, photographs were taken, and would later be published, showing Henri speaking cordially with his daughter, sons, former wife and future son-in-law.[5]
However, it was on this occasion that Henri learned that he would not be escorting Marie to her bridegroom during the wedding.[5] Meanwhile, Marie-Thérèse had sent out invitations to the wedding in her name alone,[5] omitting not only mention of Marie's father, but also of her grandfather,Monseigneur the Count of Paris who, until then, had largely sided with the Duchess of Montpensier in family matters and had consented to his granddaughter's choice of a spouse. This prompted father and son to join in calling for a familial boycott of the nuptials.[5][9] Henri and his father refused to attend the wedding but Marie proceeded to marry civilly atDreux's city hall on 22 July 1989, and religiously at the castle of her mother's brother in Germany, on 29 July 1989. All but two of Henri's eight siblings also boycotted the ceremonies, but his sisterDiane (wife of Montpensier's brother) hosted, and Henri's mother,Madame the Countess of Paris, was a guest at the religious wedding.[5]
Tensions lessened after several years, and on 7 March 1991 Henri's father reinstated him asheir apparent and Count of Clermont, simultaneously giving Micaëla the title "Princesse de Joinville".[5]
In 1980, Henri joined theGrand Orient de France where he becameGrand Master of the regularMasonic Lodge "Lys de France" No 1297. In 2001, he left Freemasonry to become the head of the House d'Orléans.[10] In the first half of the 2000s, he covered also the charge of Great Official of the Grande Loge de Marque de France.[11]
Until he succeeded his father as royal claimant, Henri and his second wife occupied an apartment in Paris.[12] On 19 June 1999, Henri's father died and he became the new head of the House of Orléans. He took the traditional title,Count of Paris, adding an ancient one,Duke of France,[2] not borne by his Orléans or Bourbon forebears, but used a thousand years ago by his ancestors, beforeHugh Capet took the title of king. His wife assumed the title "Duchess of France", deferring to the continued use of "Countess of Paris" by Henri's widowed mother until her death on 5 July 2003, whereupon Micaela assumed that title.[citation needed]
After his father's death, Henri annulled his father's decision to deprive his brothers Michel (Count of Évreux) and Thibaut (the lateCount of La Marche) oftheir succession rights because Michel married a French noblewoman without permission and because Thibaut married a commoner.[2] He also bestowed titles upon the sons of his brother Prince Jacques, Duke of Orléans: Prince Charles-Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Chartres (born 1972), and Prince Foulques d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale and Count of Eu (born 1974).[citation needed]
Henri recognised his disabled eldest son François as his dynastic heir-apparent, with the titleCount of Clermont, declaring that François would exercise his prerogatives as head of the dynasty under the "regency" of his younger brotherPrince Jean, Duke of Vendôme. However, with François' death on 30 December 2017, Vendôme became the Orléanist heir-apparent.[citation needed]
In 2009, Henri obtained anannulment of his marriage to Marie-Thérèse of Württemberg from theHoly See. He remarried his second wife, Micaëla Ana Cousiño (1938-2022), in the Catholic Church in September of that year.[13]
As Count of Paris, Henri took part in some European royal events attending, for instance, the 2011 marriage ofAlbert II of Monaco.[14]
Prior to succeeding his father as royal claimant, Henri launched an unsuccessful court case (1987–1989) in which he challenged the right of his rival paternal 10th cousinLouis-Alphonse, Duke of Anjou, to use the undifferencedroyal arms of France and the Anjou title. The French courts dismissed the case on the grounds that Henri failed to prove that he had demonstrated a right to thehereditaments in questions, noting also that the court lacked jurisdiction in a dispute overdynastic claims of France's former royal family.[15]
After his father's death, a court-appointed lawyer searched through the late count's effects on behalf of his nine living children, to reclaim what remained of the family's dissipated fortune. Jewels, art-work, and an exceptional medieval illustrated manuscript were found. These were auctioned off, raising approximately US$14 million.[citation needed]
In 2000 bailiffs pursued Henri for US$143,000 back rent after he fled the Villa Boileau, a 17th-century Paris house he had occupied.[12]
| Ancestors of Henri, Count of Paris (born 1933) |
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{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Henri, Count of Paris (born 1933) Cadet branch of theHouse of Bourbon Born: 14 June 1933 | ||
| French nobility | ||
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| Preceded by | Duke of France Count of Paris 19 June 1999 – 21 January 2019 | Succeeded by |
| Titles in pretence | ||
| Preceded by | — TITULAR — King of France Orléanist pretender 19 June 1999 – 21 January 2019 Reason for succession failure: Orléans monarchy deposed in 1848 | Succeeded by |
| — TITULAR — Dauphin of France 25 August 1940 – 19 June 1999 | Succeeded by | |
| Capetian pretenders (1792–present)  |
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| Bonaparte pretenders (1814–present)  |
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1 Actually reigned twice: first from 1814–1815, second from 1815–1824 2 Actually reigned from 1824–1830 3 Reigned in pretense asLouis Philippe II from 1848–1873 4 Briefly restored and then deposed in 1815 5 Actually reigned from 1852–1870 6 Pretense disputed until 1891 7 Pretense currently disputed | |||||
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^never styled Prince of Orléans | ||
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