Orléanist

{{Short description|French monarchist faction in support of the House of Orléans}} {{about|the faction that arose during the Bourbon Restoration|the faction that evolved into the Armagnac party in 1407|Armagnac (party)}} [[File:Coat of Arms of the July Monarchy (1830-31).svg|thumb|right|Coat of arms of the House of Orléans at the start of the July Monarchy]]

'''Orléanist''' ({{langx|fr|Orléaniste}}) was a 19th-century French political label originally used by those who supported a constitutional monarchy expressed by the House of Orléans.<ref>{{cite web|language=fr|url=https://www.herodote.net/legitimiste_orleaniste-mot-402.php|title=Le dictionnaire de l'Histoire - Légitimiste, orléaniste|website=Herodote.net}}</ref> Due to the radical political changes that occurred during that century in France, four different phases of Orléanism can be identified: * The "pure" Orléanism: constituted by those who supported the constitutional reign of Louis Philippe I (1830{{ndash}}1848) after the 1830 July Revolution, and who showed liberal and moderate ideas.{{sfnm|1a1=Broglie|1y=2011|1p=464}} * The "fusionist" (or "unionist") Orléanism: the movement formed by pure Orléanists and by those Legitimists who after the childless death of Henri, Count of Chambord in 1883 endorsed Philippe, Count of Paris, grandson of Louis Philippe, as his successor.<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Poisson|first=Georges|title=Le comte de Chambord: Henri V|editor=Pygmalion|date=2009|page=316}}</ref> The fusion drove the Orleanist movement to more conservative stances, emphasising French nationality (rejecting claims to France of the Spanish Bourbons on account of their "foreignness") and Catholicism.{{sfnm|1a1=Robert|1y=1992|1pp=39–40}} * The "progressive" Orléanism: the majority of "fusionists" who, after the decline of monarchist sentiment in the 1890s, joined into moderate republicans, who showed progressive and secular-minded goals,{{sfnm|1a1=Rémond|1y=1966|1pp=163–169}} or into Catholic rally, like the Liberal Action.{{Sfnmp|Rémond|1966|p=182}} * Contemporary Orléanism. The party Action Française embraced and still does advocate for its own variant of Orléanism which rejects the economic liberal policies of "pure" Orléanism and supports Integralism.<ref>Rémond, René (1966). The Right Wing in France: From 1815 to de Gaulle. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.</ref>

Orleanism was opposed by the two other monarchist trends: the more conservative Legitimism that was loyal to the eldest branch of the House of Bourbon after 1830, and the Bonapartism that supported Napoleon's legacy and heirs.

==Under the July Monarchy== [[File:Louis-Philippe de Bourbon-resized.jpg|245px|thumb|Louis Philippe portrait by Winterhalter]]

{{main|July Monarchy}} On 26 July 1830, the revolution of the so-called Three Glorious Days (or July Revolution) erupted due to the authoritarian and anti-Gallican tendencies showed by Charles X and his Prime Minister Jules de Polignac, expressed by the recently approved Saint-Cloud Ordinances.<ref>{{Citation|last=Brown|first=Bradford C.|chapter=France, 1830 Revolution|date=2009|pages=1–8|publisher=American Cancer Society|language=en|doi=10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0573|isbn=9781405198073|title=The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Europe 1789 to 1914 : encyclopedia of the age of industry and empire|date=2006|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|others=Merriman, John M., Winter, J. M.|isbn=978-0684314969|location=Detroit, Mich.|oclc=76769541}}</ref> Despite the abdication of Charles X and the Dauphin Louis in favor to Charles X's grandson Henri, Duke of Bordeaux, on 2 August 1830, only seven days later Louis Philippe I, still Duke of Orléans, was elected by the Chamber of Deputies as new "King of the French".<ref>{{cite web|title=Louis-Philippe Biography|url=http://www.biography.com/people/louis-philippe-9387069|publisher=The Biography.com Website|access-date=13 May 2014}}</ref> The enthronement of Louis Philippe was strongly wanted by ''Doctrinaires'', the liberal opposition to Charles X's ministries, under the concept "nationalize the monarchy and royalize France".<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Doctrinaires|volume=8|page=367}}</ref> On 14 August 1830, the Chamber approved a new Constitution, which became the ''de 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 the centre-left of Adolphe Thiers<ref>{{cite book |last1=Agulhon |first1=Maurice |title=The Republican Experiment, 1848–1852 |date=1983 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=135}}</ref> and the centre-right of François Guizot.{{sfnm|1a1=Passmore|1y=2013|1pp=25–26}} 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,<ref>{{cite news|language=fr|last=Demeester|first=Emma|title=François Guizot, du libéralisme au conservatisme|magazine=La Nouvelle Revue d'histoire, n.89|date=2016|pages=32–34}}</ref> gaining the epithet of "''Roi bourgeois''".<ref>{{cite news|language=fr|last=Bienfait|first=Bérangère|url=http://www.pointdevue.fr/histoire/louis-philippe-un-roi-bourgeois-batisseur-et_7478.html|title=Louis-Philippe, un roi bourgeois, bâtisseur et entrepreneur|magazine=Point de Vue|date=October 30, 2018|access-date=April 25, 2019|archive-date=November 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105141830/http://www.pointdevue.fr/histoire/louis-philippe-un-roi-bourgeois-batisseur-et_7478.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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 writer Victor Hugo to describe him as "a man with many little qualities".<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Hugo|first=Victor|title=Choses vues 1847–1848|editor=Gallimard|date=1972|page=248}}</ref> The Orléanist regime finally fell in 1848, when a revolution erupted and on 24 February Louis Philippe abdicated in favor to his grandson Philippe, Count of Paris, under regency of his mother Helene, 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.{{Sfnmp|Poisson|1999|p=286}}

After 18 years of reign, Louis Philippe left the Orléanist base well-defined inside the magistrature, the press, universities and academies, especially the ''Académie française''.{{Sfnmp|Rémond|1966|pp=81–100}} However, also some great aristocratic families joined the court, like the Dukes of Broglie,<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Lancien|first=Didier|title=Anciennes et nouvelles aristocraties: De 1880 à nos jours|editor=Maison des Sciences de l'Homme|date=2007|pages=100–101}}</ref> as well former Bonapartist officers like the Marshal Soult and Édouard Mortier. This establishment constituted the majority of the Party of Order, led by Thiers, who represented the conservatives and monarchists under the Second Republic.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/divers/parti_de_l_Ordre/136253|title=Parti de l'Ordre|website=Larousse}}</ref>

==Under the Third Republic== ===Fusion and restoration project=== <div style="float:right;"> {|class=wikitable |- ! colspan=6 | Electoral results |- ! Year ! No. of overall votes ! % of overall vote ! No. of overall seats won |- | colspan=6 | National Assembly |- ! 1871 | Unknown (1st) | 33.5% | {{composition bar|214|638|hex={{party color|Orléanist}}}} |- | colspan=6 | Chamber of Deputies |- ! 1876 | 554,117 (6th) | 7.5% | {{composition bar|40|533|hex={{party color|Orléanist}}}} |- ! 1877 | 169,834 (5th) | 2.1% | {{composition bar|11|521|hex={{party color|Orléanist}}}} |- ! 1881 | 552,971 (5th) | 7.7% | {{composition bar|42|545|hex={{party color|Orléanist}}}} |- ! 1885 | 991,188 (4th) | 12.2% | {{composition bar|73|584|hex={{party color|Orléanist}}}} |- ! 1889 | 994,173 (4th) | 12.5% | {{composition bar|72|576|hex={{party color|Orléanist}}}} |- ! 1893 | 816,789 (3rd) | 10.5% | {{composition bar|63|574|hex={{party color|Orléanist}}}} |- ! 1898 | 607,960 (5th) | 7.5% | {{composition bar|44|585|hex={{party color|Orléanist}}}} |} </div> [[File:DukeOrleans.jpg|thumb|250px|The Duke of Orléans, son of the Count of Paris, espoused conservative stances, also reviving the Order of the Holy Spirit to support his claim.<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Pinoteau|first=Hervé|title=Etat de l'Ordre du Saint-Esprit en 1830; et, La survivance des ordres du roi|editor=Nouvelles Editions Latines|date=1983}}</ref>]] [[File:Le cas de ces MM. d'Orléans. Quand on les met à la porte. (BM 1871,0708.230).jpg|thumb|left|Satirical cartoon of 1871: Orléanists stand on the ruined December Empire and attempt to enter the "Défense Nationale" building, while Adolphe Thiers looks on.]] Orléanism revived after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 which caused the fall of the Second Empire which had succeeded to the Second Republic under Emperor Napoleon III, the former president of France who had been enthroned after the coup d'état of 1851.{{Sfnmp|Rémond|1966|pp=106–110}} The Second Empire was succeeded itself officially in 1871 by the Third Republic. A National Assembly, composed by 638 on 778 seats, was formed and new elections were called for the 8 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".<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Lejeune|first=Dominique|title=La France des débuts de la IIIe République, 1870–1896|editor=Armand Colin|date=1994|page=10}}</ref> Initially divided about the dynastic issue, the Orléanists found a compromise with the Legitimists, supporting the rights of Henri, Count of Chambord (former Duke of Bordeaux, currently childless) in return of the recognition of the Count of Paris as his heir, echoing an 1862 statement of Chambord.<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=La Besge|first=Émile de|title=Souvenir et récits de chasse|editor=Perrin|date=1971}}</ref> Although Chambord never mentioned the Count of Paris as his heir, probably fearing the defection of his ultraconservative supporters,<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Dreux-Brézé|first=Henri de|title=Notes et Souvenirs pour servir à l'histoire du parti royaliste|editor=Perrin|date=1899|pages=227–234}}</ref> the informal agreement sanctioned the "fusion" of Legitimists and Orléanists, who quite easily formed a conservative coalition. The monarchist majority, led by the Duke of Aumale (son of Louis Philippe), and the centre-left endorsed the centre-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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mayeur|first=Jean-Marie|title=La Vie politique sous la IIIe République|editor=Seuil|date=1984|page=44}}</ref>

Due to Chambord's dislike of Aumale,{{Sfnmp|Montplaisir|2008|pp=457–58}} the "fusionists" rapidly passed under the leadership of the Duke of Broglie, who in 1873 successfully managed the election of President Patrice 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.<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Broglie|first=Albert de|title=Mémoires, IIIe partie, l'avènement de la République (II)|editor=La Revue des Deux Mondes|volume=LIV|date=1929|page=594}}</ref> Broglie was shortly after awarded with the premiership by MacMahon, supported by monarchists and the centre-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 the French Tricolour, used since 1830, preferring instead the return of the royal white flag, symbol of the Ancien Régime.{{Sfnmp|Montplaisir|2008|p=479}} 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,{{Sfnmp|Montplaisir|2008|p=496}}. 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 the Duke 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.<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Broglie|first=Gabriel|title=MacMahon|editor=Perrin|date=2000|pages=247–251}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dale|first=Steven D.|title=The Monarchy According to the King: The Ideological Content of the 'Drapeau Blanc,' 1871–1873|work=French History|volume=II|date=1988|pages=399–426}}</ref>

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 the Paris Commune, whose political and social innovations were viewed as morally degenerate by large conservative segments of the French population.<ref>{{cite book|last=Brogan|first=D.W. | author-link = D. W. Brogan|title=France Under the Republic: The Development of Modern France (1870–1939)|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.155584|editor=Greenwood Press|date=1940|pages=106–13}}</ref> In February 1875, a series of parliamentary acts established the constitutional laws of the new republic. At its head was a President of the Republic. A two-chamber parliament consisting of a directly elected Chamber of Deputies and an indirectly-elected Senate 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 the election of March, President MacMahon made one last desperate attempt to salvage the monarchical cause by dismissing the "conservative republican" prime minister Jules 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:<ref>Brogan (1940) pp. 127–43.</ref> 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 of Jules Grévy, leader of the Republican Left.<ref>{{cite journal |title=François Paul Jules Grévy is Born|url=http://www.masonrytoday.com/index.php?new_month=8&new_day=15&new_year=2016|journal=Masonry Today|date = 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Jules Grevy|url=http://www.worldpresidentsdb.com/Jules-Grevy/|journal=World Presidents DB|date = 2017}}</ref>

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 their ''bourgeoise'' core base, accepted the republic even since the 1870s, like Thiers and press baron Émile de Girardin. In 1892, after Pope Leo XIII's approval to the Third Republic, breaking the historical alliance between Church and Crown,<ref>{{cite book|author=Pope Leo XIII|title=Inter Sollicitudines|date=February 16, 1892}}</ref> some monarchists led by Orléanist Jacques Piou and Legitimist Albert de Mun formed the group of the "''ralliés''" ("supporters"), that in 1901 constituted the base of the first Christian Democratic party in France, the Liberal Action,<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Piou|first=Jacques|title=Le comte Albert de Mun|editor=Hachette|date=1914|page=206}}</ref> while many other royalists were still attached to the Crown.

===Association with the far-right=== 220px|thumb|Charles Maurras in 1937 {{Conservatism in France|Ideologies}} The elections of 1898 confirmed the exclusion of the monarchists from any possible government. However, 4 years earlier, the Dreyfus affair shook public opinion, dividing the republican camp: socialists, radicals and liberals defended the innocence of Dreyfus,<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Jaurès|first=Jean|title=Études socialistes II, 1897–1901|editor=Rieder|date=1933|pages=189–218}}</ref> while other republicans joined the nationalists and monarchists against Dreyfus.<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Bredin|first=Jean-Denis|title=L'Affaire|editor=France Loisirs|date=1983|page=475}}</ref> The election also introduced 10 overtly anti-Semitic representatives, led by Édouard Drumont.<ref>{{cite book|last=Levy|first=Richard S.|title=Antisemitism: A historical encyclopedia of prejudice and persecution|editor=ABC-CLIO|date=2005|page=191}}</ref> The following year, on 20 June 1899, the academic Henri Vaugeois and journalist Maurice Pujo founded the nationalist association ''Action française'', initially absent of any specific ideology.{{Sfnmp|Rémond|1966|p=170}} However, the ''Action'' was joined by many Catholics and monarchists who were anti-Dreyfus, contributing to the move of the association toward the right. Particularly, the adhesion of Charles Maurras, considered a "pragmatic" anti-Dreyfusard rather than a true anti-Semite,<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Giocanti|first=Stéphane|title=Charles Maurras: le chaos et l'ordre|editor=Flammarion|date=2006|page=167}}</ref> contributed to the creation of the ideology of the ''Action'', 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 a positivist one, stating that a monarchy would grant more order and stability than a parliamentary republic.{{Sfnmp|Rémond|1966|p=172}} 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 son Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who was also supported by the ''Action''.{{Sfnmp|Rémond|1966|p=171}} However, monarchism inside the ''Action'' was always integrated secondary to its semi-official ideology of "integral nationalism" theorized by Maurras,<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Rouvillois|first=Frédéric|title=Droit constitutionnel: Fondements et pratiques|editor=Flammarion|date=2005|page=191}}</ref> and many ''Action'' activists were still republicans, like the founder Vaugeois.{{Sfnmp|Rémond|1966|p=172}} The movement grew to be one of the largest organizations in France, but in 1926 a condemnation from Pope Pius XI against the ''Action'' 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,<ref>{{cite book|last=Latourette|first=Kenneth|title=Christianity in a Revolutionary Age|editor=Zondervan|date=1969|pages=37–38}}</ref> and the ''Action Française'' never recovered from the condemnation.<ref>{{cite book|last=Weber|first=Weber|title=Action Française: Royalism and Reaction in Twentieth-Century France|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y4CaAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA249|year=1962|publisher=Stanford U.P.|page=249|isbn=9780804701341|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505193117/https://books.google.com/books?id=y4CaAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA249|archive-date=5 May 2016|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

By 1934, the ''Action'' was still a considerable force, with over 60,000 members across France.<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|last=Schor|first=Ralph|title=L'antisémitisme en France dans l'entre-deux-guerres: prélude à Vichy|editor=Complexe|date=2005|page=29}}</ref> In that year, they joined other far-right leagues on 6 February demonstrations against political corruption and the Parliament, causing the resignation of Prime Minister Édouard Daladier the day after and provoking fear of a nationalist coup d'état.<ref>{{cite book|last=Colton|first=Joel|title=From the Ancien Regime to the Popular Front|editor=Warner|date=1969|page=183}}</ref> The papal condemnation, the aggressive tactics, and Maurras's disrespectful attitude toward constitutional monarchists finally ended the organization as a major power. The Orléanist pretender Jean, Duke of Guise, who in 1937 broken ties with the ''Action'', also lost many supporters. From this moment, Orléanism ceased to be associated with the ''Action'' or the far-right.{{Sfnmp|Poisson|1999|pp=352–54}} Instead, the Duke of Guise's son and heir Henri, Count of Paris, launched his own magazine ''Courier Royale'' and secretly dealt with anti-fascist conservative General La Rocque, leader of the French Social Party, about the possibility of a restoration.<ref>{{cite news|language=fr|author=J. F.|title=Comment j'ai été "kidnappé" par le comte de Paris|newspaper=Le Populaire|date=October 22, 1938}}</ref>

==Hope during the Fourth Republic== {{main|French Fourth Republic}} [[File:Courrier 50 numero 28.jpg|220px|thumb|Front page of Courier 50 announcing the end of the exile of Orléans]] In 1946, the Count of Paris (who succeeded his father in 1940) moved to Portugal due to the ban on former royals still present in France. As a result of the unstable situation of the Fourth 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 Democratic Popular Republican Movement (MPR), and formed a kind of political committee composed of the academics Bertrand de Jouvenel, Gustave Thibon and Michel de Saint Pierre,{{Sfnmp|Montplaisir|2011|p=364}} publishing on 5 February 1948 the manifesto ''Esquisse d'une constitution monarchique et démocratique'', that promoted the idea of a constitutional monarchy.{{Sfnmp|Montplaisir|2011|p=365}} Thanks to the MPR deputy Paul Hutin-Desgrées (co-founder of ''Ouest-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 President Vincent Auriol.{{Sfnmp|Montplaisir|2011|p=366}} The count and his family made their home in the Parisian suburbs of Louveciennes, and quickly became media darlings. Orléans frequently went to parties and meetings which were attended by prominent French politicians of the Fourth Republic, such as Antoine Pinay, Jacques Soustelle, Pierre Mendès France and Maurice Schumann.{{Sfnmp|Montplaisir|2011|p=367}} Through his newsletter ''Courier 50'', the Count of Paris expressed support for the policies of Mendès France, like the peace in Indochina, the refusal of a US-controlled European Defence Community (EDC) and decolonization of French Africa.{{Sfnmp|Montplaisir|2011|p=367}}

Orléans' relationship with Charles de Gaulle was also promising, as the general and the pretender had similar political views and were both devout Roman Catholics.{{Sfnmp|Montplaisir|2011|p=367}} 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-day Fifth 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 the election of 1965, instead supporting the candidacy of the pretender that would promote a campaign to transform the republic into a constitutional monarchy.<ref>{{cite web|language=fr|last=Natal|first=Frederic|url=https://www.la-couronne.org/histoire/charles-de-gaulle-la-monarchie/|title=Le général Charles de Gaulle a-t-il voulu restaurer la monarchie?|editor=La couronne|date=October 1, 2016}}</ref> However, in 1963 De Gaulle confided to his minister Alain 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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Peyrefitte|first=Alain|title=C'était de Gaulle|volume=II|editor=Fayard|date=1997|pages=531–533}}</ref> 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.

== Principles of succession == {{main|Line of succession to the French throne (Orléanist)}} Orléanist pretenders from 1883 to the present follow these principles: * The Crown passes by primogeniture to males born in the male line of Hugh Capet. * Only children born of legal marriages conforming with the canon law of the Catholic Church are dynasts. * The Sovereign or Head of the House can neither abdicate nor alter the line of succession. The Princes of the blood likewise cannot personally renounce their succession rights. Those rights can however be permanently lost under specific circumstances (see below). * The throne is never vacant; upon the death of the Sovereign or Head of the House, the first in line automatically succeeds, regardless of any coronation or whether actually reigning. * The Sovereign or Head of the House must be Catholic. * The Sovereign or Head of the House must be both French and born of an unbroken line of French dynasts descending from Hugh Capet. Any prince of the blood that leaves France to claim a foreign throne or a position subject to which permanently loses his rights of succession, as do his descendants.<ref>If however, the prince receives certain letters patent from the king or head of house prior to their departure (the purpose of which is to preserve the French nationality of the prince in question, as well as granting it to his male descendants despite their potential births abroad) they maintain their position in the line of succession. These documents can however be revoked if parliament deem necessary, at which point the prince in question and his branch of the house irrevocably lose their nationality, and by extension their rights of succession.</ref> It is this rule that separates the Orléanist rule from the Legitimist one.

== List of claimants to the French throne since 1848 == {|style="text-align:center; width:100%" class="wikitable" !width=22%|Claimant !! width=105px|Portrait !! Birth !! width=25%|Marriages !! width=19%|Death |- |'''Philippe, Count of Paris''' '''(Louis Philippe II)''' 1848–1873 Orléanist pretender '''(Philippe VII)''' 1883–1894 Unionist pretender||100px || 24 August 1838 Paris Son of Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans and Duchess 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 || 100px || 24 August 1869 York House, Twickenham Son of Philippe, Count of Paris and Princess 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 || 100px || 4 September 1874 France Son of Robert, Duke of Chartres and Marie-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 || 138x138px|| 5 July 1908 Chateau de Nouvion-en-Thiérache, Aisne, France Son of Jean, Duke of Guise and Isabelle 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 || 100px || June 14, 1933 Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Belgium Son of Henri, Count of Paris and Isabelle 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|| 100px || May 19, 1965 Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France Son of Henri, Count of Paris and Marie-Thérèse of Württemberg||Philomena de Tornos Steinhart 19 March 2009 5 children || |- |}

==Orléanist political parties== * Doctrinaires (1815–48) * Resistance Party (1832–48) * Movement Party (1831–48) * Party of Order (1848–52) * Action Française (1899–present)

==Legacy== {{More citations needed section|date=January 2024}} {{French Royal Family (Orléanist)}} The Orléanist party, despite the different regimes, maintained its ''bourgeois'' platform, constituted by those academics, journalists and financiers who backed Louis Philippe during his reign, and was intended as the liberal centre of politics, far from reactionary Legitimists and revolutionary republicans.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Craiutu|first1=Aurelian|title=Liberalism under Siege: The Political Thought of the French Doctrinaires |date=2003|publisher=Lexington Books|page=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Takeda|first1=Chinatsu|title=Mme de Staël and Political Liberalism in France |date=2018|publisher=Springer|pages=226–227}}</ref> 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 the Second French Republic in 1848 and the division inside right-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.{{Sfnmp|Rémond|1966|p=183}} French historian René Rémond included the presidency of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as part of the Orléanist tradition, due to his liberal views and equidistance from the nationalist right (descending from Bonapartism) and the conservative right (from Legitimism).<ref>{{cite book|last=Slama|first=Alain-Gérard Slama|title=Vous avez dit bonapartiste?|work=L'Histoire n. 313|date=2006|pages=60–63}}</ref> The term "Orléanist parliamentarism" was also used by jurist and sociologist Maurice Duverger to define the form of government of the Fifth Republic, which presents a parliamentary system with a powerful head of state.<ref>{{cite news|last=Duverger|first=Maurice|title=Les institutions de la Ve République|magazine=Revue française de science politique, n. 1|date=1959}}</ref>

In 1974, before the presidential election, the New Royal Action (NAR), born by a moderate faction spilled from the ''Action française'', endorsed Bertrand 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%).

==See also== {{stack|{{portal|France|Monarchy}}}} * Succession to the former French throne (Orléanist) * Succession to the French throne * French dynastic disputes * Alliance Royale * New Royalist Action * French Action

==Bibliography== * {{EB1911|wstitle=Orleanists}} * {{cite book|last=Aston|first=Nigel|title=Orleanism, 1780–1830|work=History Today|volume=38|date=1988}} * {{cite book|language=fr|last=Broglie|first=Gabriel de|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PcV2DwAAQBAJ|title=L'Orléanisme: La ressource libérale de la France|date=1981|publisher=Perrin (réédition numérique FeniXX) |isbn=9782262054014 }} * {{cite book|language=fr|last=Broglie|first=Gabriel de|title=La Monarchie de Juillet|editor=Fayard|date=2011}} * {{cite book|language=fr|last=Robert|first=Hervé|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jqCODwAAQBAJ|title=L'orléanisme|editor=PUF|date=1992|publisher=Presses universitaires de France réédition numérique FeniXX |isbn=9782705928605 }} * {{cite book|last=Beik|first=Paul|title=Louis Philippe and the July Monarchy|publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold|date=1965}} * {{cite book|last=Collingham|first=H. A. C.|title=The July Monarchy: A Political History of France, 1830–1848|publisher=Longman|date=1988}} * {{cite book|last=Howarth|first=T. E. B.|title=Citizen-King: The Life of Louis Philippe, King of the French|url=https://archive.org/details/citizenkinglifeo0000howa|url-access=registration|date=1962}} * {{cite book|language=fr|last=Poisson|first=Georges|title=Les Orléans, Une famille en quête d'un trône|publisher=Perrin|date=1999}} * {{cite book|last1=Newman|first1=Edgar|last2=Simpson|first2=Robert|url=https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=15387751|title=Historical Dictionary of France from the 1815 Restoration to the Second Empire|location=Westport, Connecticut|publisher=Greenwood Press|date=1987|access-date=2017-09-07|archive-date=2011-06-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628212816/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=15387751|url-status=dead}} * {{cite book|last=Rémond|first=René|title=The Right Wing in France: From 1815 to de Gaulle|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|date=1966|location=Philadelphia}} * {{cite book|last1=Passmore|first1=Kevin |title=The Right in France from the Third Republic to Vichy|date=2013|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=25–26}} * {{cite book|language=fr|last=Montplaisir|first=Daniel de|title=Le Comte de Chambord, dernier roi de France|editor=Perrin|date=2008}} * {{cite book|language=fr|last=Montplaisir|first=Daniel de|title=Louis XX, petit-fils du roi Soleil|publisher=Jacob-Duvernet|date=2011}}

==References== {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links== * [https://frenchunionist.org/ The French Unionist Project] (representing fusionist Orléanism) {{Pretenders to the French throne}} {{Conservatism navbox}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orleanist}} Category:Orléanists Category:1830 establishments in France Category:1898 disestablishments in France Category:Eponymous political ideologies Category:House of Orléans Category:July Monarchy Category:Conservative liberalism Category:Classical liberalism Category:Conservatism in France Category:Conservative parties in France Category:Liberal parties in France Category:Monarchism in France Category:Political history of France Category:Political parties disestablished in 1898 Category:Political parties established in 1830 Category:Political terminology in France