Louis-Philippe d'Orléans

Eldest son of Louis-Philippe-Joseph duc de Chartres (duc d'Orléans 1785-1792, Philippe Égalité 1792-1793) and Louise-Marie-Adélaïde de Bourbon; was privately tutored; named colonel of dragoons (1785) at the age of 12; supported the Revolution and became a member of the Jacobin club (1790); joined the Army of the North; promoted to maréchal de camp (7 May 1792), lieutenant general (11 Sep 1792); followed General Dumouriez, who deserted to the Austrians (4 Apr 1793); living in Switzerland, taught at a college; immigrated to the United States (1796-1800); moved to England (1800-1809); married a daughter of the king of Sicily Ferdinando III and moved to Palermo (1809); returned to France during the First Restoration (1814); fled to England on the return of Napoléon I (1815); again took possession of the Orléans estates during the Second Restoration (1815); gradually assumed the leadership of liberal opposition; accepted the title of lieutenant general of the Kingdom (31 Jul 1830) to act as a temporary chief executive during the revolt against King Charles X; accepted the throne of France and was proclaimed King of the French (9 Apr 1830); was restricted in governing by the provisions of the revised Charte constitutionelle (published 14 Aug 1830); relied on the support of the upper bourgeoisie presented in the Chambre des députés (Chamber of Deputies) by two factions led by François Guizot and Adolphe Thiers; faced a number of uprisings, threatening to overthrow the Orléanist monarchy, including legitimist plots, workers' revolt in Lyon (1831) and attempts of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte to stage a coup (1836, 1840); achieved relative stability and reconciliation of revolutionary ideas with traditional social order, but failed to unite the society in face of socialist agitation and demands for universal suffrage; was forced to abdicate (24 Feb 1848) as a result of popular insurrection in Paris; spent last two years of his life in England.