, c. 1780–1782)
Early life Louis Antoine was born at the
Palace of Versailles, as the eldest son of
Charles Philippe, Count of Artois, the youngest brother of King
Louis XVI. He was born one year after the death of his great-grandfather, King
Louis XV and 7 years after the death of his great-grandmother, Queen
Marie Leszczyńska. His mother was
Princess Maria Theresa of Savoy (known as
Marie Thérèse in France), daughter of
Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and
Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain. , c. 1781 From 1780 to 1789, Louis Antoine and his younger brother,
Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, were educated by their
gouverneur Armand-Louis, Marquis of Sérent in the
château de Beauregard, located away from Versailles. On the outbreak of the
French Revolution in 1789, the two young princes followed their father into exile first to
Turin, then the
Holy Roman Empire, and finally Britain. In 1792, Louis Antoine joined the
émigré army of his cousin, the
Prince of Condé. In June 1795, his uncle, the
comte de Provence, proclaimed himself King
Louis XVIII. Later that year, the 20-year-old Louis Antoine led an unsuccessful royalist uprising in the
Vendée. In early 1797, he joined his brother and uncle in the German
Duchy of Brunswick, hoping to join the Austrian Army. The defeat of Austria by France obliged them to flee, and they took refuge in
Mittau,
Courland, under the protection of
Tsar Paul I of Russia. There, on 10 June 1799, Louis Antoine married his first cousin,
Marie Thérèse of France, the eldest child of Louis XVI and
Marie Antoinette, and the only member of the immediate royal family to survive the French Revolution. Since her release from the
Temple Prison in 1795, she had been living at the Austrian court. They had one child, who died at birth in 1813.
Military service In April 1800, Louis Antoine took command of a regiment of cavalry in the
Bavarian army and took part in the
battle of Hohenlinden against the French, showing some ability. In early 1801, Tsar Paul made peace with
Napoleon Bonaparte, and the French court in exile fled to
Warsaw, then controlled by
Prussia. For the next ten years, Louis Antoine accompanied and advised his uncle, Louis XVIII. They returned to Russia when
Alexander I became Tsar, but in mid-1807
the treaty between Napoleon and Alexander forced them to take refuge in Britain. There, at
Hartwell House, King Louis reconstituted his court, and Louis-Antoine was granted an allowance of £300 a month. Twice (in 1807 and 1813) he attempted to return to Russia to join the fight against Napoleon, but was refused by the Tsar. Louis Antoine remained in Britain until 1814 when he sailed to
Bordeaux, which had declared for the King. His entry into the city on 12 March 1814 was regarded as the beginning of the
Bourbon Restoration in France. From there, Louis Antoine fought in the war to bring about Napoleon's overthrow. He led an eponymous campaign in the south of France and inflicted a number of defeats on the armies of Napoleon, but when he was overrun he was deserted by his generals and captured by imperial forces. He was later pardoned by Napoleon and was allowed to leave France via Spain.
Personal life In mid-1812, according to their doctor's reports, Louis-Antoine and Marie-Therese finally consummated their marriage, and it was confirmed later on December 19, Marie-Therese's thirty-fourth birthday, that she was pregnant. By the time Princess Charlotte of Wales noticed she was in high spirits, her doctor, Monsieur Lefebvre confirmed to Francois Hue, "At this moment, I am tending to a woman who lives above me and who is pregnant for the first time after more than thirteen years of marriage." He announced to his wife in a letter that the Duke of Angouleme would become a father in June. Madame Hue recorded, “Monsieur Hue and Monsieur Lefebvre designate Madame the Duchess of Angouleme, announcing her pregnancy.” On February 15. Louise de Conde wrote to her father about her shock and astonishment concerning the Duchess's pregnancy. Sometime between late February and June 1813, Marie-Therese gave birth to a stillborn child, almost certainly at Hartwell House. She travelled to Bath with her uncle to recover.
Flight to Britain and return . On display at the
Musée national de la Marine, Paris. Louis Antoine was, as chief of the royalist army in the southern
Rhône River valley, unable to prevent the return of Napoleon to Paris, and he was again forced to flee to Britain during the "
Hundred Days". He loyally served Louis XVIII after the final defeat of Napoleon at
Waterloo. In 1823, he commanded a French army sent into Spain to restore the Spanish King's
absolute powers, known as the
Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis. He was victorious in the
Battle of Trocadero, after which the reactionary power of King
Ferdinand VII of Spain was firmly restored. For this achievement, he was offered the title of
Prince of Trocadero. Upon Louis XVIII's death in 1824, his father became King
Charles X and Louis Antoine became
Dauphin, heir-apparent to the throne. He attended his
father's coronation in Reims in May 1825.
July Revolution In the
July Revolution of 1830, masses of angry demonstrators demanded the
abdication of Charles. He reluctantly signed the document of abdication on 2 August 1830. It is said that Louis Antoine, who relinquished his right to the throne, became king "Louis XIX" between his father's signature and his own, but in the abdication document he is only referred as "Louis Antoine". The document was signed in favour of his nephew
Henri, duke of Bordeaux. For the final time he left for exile, where he was known as the "count of
Marnes". near
Holyrood Palace where Charles X was staying.
Emperor Francis I of Austria offered the
Prague Castle in Prague to the royal entourage in 1832, so Louis-Antoine and Charles X moved there. Francis I, however, died in 1835, and his successor
Ferdinand I told the French royal family that he needed the palace for his
coronation in the summer of 1836. in
Görz, Austria on 21 October 1836. but this is not backed up by historical evidence. He never reigned over the country, but after his father's death in 1836, he was the
legitimist pretender as
Louis XIX. ==In fiction and film==