Childhood '' by
Horace Vernet. Nemours shown with his brother
Orléans and the French commander
Étienne Maurice Gérard He was born at the
Palais Royal, in Paris. At twelve years of age, he was nominated colonel of the First Regiment of Chasseurs, and in 1830 entered the
Chambre des Pairs. As early as 1825, while revolutionaries were still engaged in the
Greek War of Independence, attempting to establish a
Kingdom of Greece (which transpired with the
London Conference of 1832), Louis' name was mentioned as a possible candidate as the first modern
King of Greece. In February 1831, five months before revolutionaries succeeded in the
Belgian Revolution, which established the Kingdom of
Belgium, Louis was nominated to be the first
King of the Belgians; international considerations deterred Louis-Philippe from accepting the honour for his son. Prince Louis did accompany the
French Armée du Nord that entered Belgium to support its separation from the
United Kingdom of the Netherlands; there he took part in the
Siege of Antwerp (1832). Louis accompanied the
Algerian expedition against the town of
Constantine in the autumn of 1836, and in a second expedition (1837) he was entrusted with the command of a brigade and with the direction of the siege operations at Constantine.
General Damrémont was killed at his side on 12 October, and Constantine was taken by assault on the 13th. He sailed a third time for Algeria in 1841, and served under
General Bugeaud, taking part in the expedition to get provisions to
Médéa on 29 April, and in sharp fighting near
Miliana on 3 to 5 May. In the expedition against the fortified town of Takdempt, Louis commanded the 1st Infantry Division. On his return to France, he became commandant of the camp of
Compiègne. Louis was also dispatched on missions of courtesy to England in 1835, in 1838 and in 1845, and to Berlin and
Vienna in 1836.
Marriage On 26 April 1840, he married
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha at the
Château de Saint-Cloud. The occasion of his marriage in 1840 with Victoria was marked by a check to Louis-Philippe's government in the form of a refusal to bestow the marriage dowry proposed by
Adolphe Thiers in the
Chamber of Deputies. The death of his elder brother,
Ferdinand, Duke of Orleans, in 1842 gave him a position of greater importance as the natural
regent in the case of the accession of his nephew, the young
Count of Paris. His reserve, and dislike of public functions, with a certain haughtiness of manner, however, made him unpopular. On the outbreak of the
revolution of 1848 he held the
Tuileries long enough to cover the king's retreat, but refrained from initiating active measures against the mob. He followed his sister-in-law,
Hélène, Duchesse d'Orléans, and her two sons to the chamber of deputies, but was separated from them by the rioters, and only escaped finally by disguising himself in the uniform of a national guard.
Exile and return to France He embarked for England, where he settled with his parents at
Claremont. His chief aim during his exile, especially after his father's death, was a reconciliation between the two branches of the
house of Bourbon, as indispensable to the re-establishment of the French monarchy in any form. These wishes were frustrated on the one hand by the attitude of the
comte de Chambord, and on the other by the determination of
the Duchess of Orleans to maintain the pretensions of
the Count of Paris. Nemours was prepared to go further than the other princes of his family in accepting the principles of the
legitimists. Lengthy negotiations ended in 1857 with a letter, written by Nemours, as he subsequently explained, at the dictation of his brother,
François, prince de Joinville, in which he insisted that Chambord should express his adherence to the
tricolour flag and to the principles of constitutional government. In 1871 the Orléans princes renewed their professions of allegiance to the senior branch of their house, but they were not consulted when the count of Chambord came to Paris in 1873, and their political differences remained until his death in 1883. Nemours lived at
Bushy House after the death in 1866 of
Queen Marie Amélie, widow of Louis Philippe. In 1871 the exile imposed on the French princes was withdrawn, but he only transferred his establishment to Paris after their disabilities were also removed. In March 1872 he was restored to his rank in the army as general of division, and placed in the first section of the general staff. After his retirement from the active list he continued to act as president of the
Red Cross Society until 1886, when new decrees against the princes of the blood led to his withdrawal from Parisian society. During the presidency of
Marshal MacMahon, he appeared from time to time at the
Elysée. He died at
Versailles on 26 June 1896 at the age of 81, the duchess having died at Claremont on 10 November 1857. He outlived all of his siblings apart from
Princess Clémentine,
the Duke of Aumale and
the Prince of Joinville. ==Issue==