Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans (; 6 February 1869 – 28 March 1926) was the Orléanist pretender to the throne of France from 1894 to 1926 as Philippe VIII.

Early life

Philippe was born at York House, Twickenham, near London, the son of Philippe, Count of Paris, by his wife (and first cousin), Princess Isabelle of Orléans. He was baptised with the names Louis-Philippe-Robert, and was called Philippe. His family lived in the United Kingdom from the abdication and banishment of his great-grandfather Louis Philippe I, King of the French, in 1848, and returned to France in 1871 following the fall of the Second French Empire. However, they again took refuge in England in 1886, when the French Republic exiled them following the wedding in Paris of Philippe's sister Amélie of Orléans to Crown Prince Carlos of Portugal.

Returning therefore to France in 1871 with his parents, Philippe was educated at home at the Château d'Eu and at the Collège Stanislas de Paris. Growing up to be tall and blond, he later grew a beard. He was a better athlete than scholar and learned to love mountain-climbing from Captain Morhain, a former soldier from Saint-Cyr who had become his father's accountant. On his 21st birthday in February 1890 he left Switzerland by train with his friend Honoré d'Albert, 10th duc de Luynes, and entered Paris in violation of the law of exile of 1886. but the engagement was cancelled when Philippe's involvement with the Australian opera singer Nellie Melba was revealed. Melba was still married to Charles Nesbitt Armstrong, although they had lived apart for some years. Armstrong filed for divorce from Melba on the grounds of adultery, naming Philippe as co-respondent; the case was eventually dropped.

In September 1890, Philippe accompanied his father on a two-month trip to the United States and Canada. They visited the battlefields of the American Civil War, in which his father had fought, as well as Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania; Washington, D.C.; Richmond, Virginia; Manhattan, New York, New York County, New York; and Quebec, Canada.

On 12 November 1890, while in Philadelphia, Philippe joined the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS) - a military society composed of officers who had served the Union in the American Civil War and their descendants - by right of his father's service in the Union Army. He joined as a companion of the 2nd class - a membership category for the eldest sons of companions of the 1st class who were veteran officers and was assigned MOLLUS insignia number 8262. Upon his father's death on 8 September 1894, he became a hereditary companion of the 1st class.

In December 1890, Philippe applied unsuccessfully to serve in the Russian Army. In March 1893, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

In March 1894, Philippe went to Egypt and Palestine with his sister Hélène, Duchess of Aosta. Then he went lion shooting in Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia). In May 1894, he was attached to the Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars, a yeomanry regiment.

Claimant to the defunct throne

thumb|150px|[[Archduchess Maria Dorothea of Austria]]

Upon the death of his father on 8 September 1894, Philippe became the Orléanist claimant to the defunct French throne.

Unlike his great grandfather, Louis Philippe I, Philippe claimed grand mastership of the Order of the Holy Spirit as intrinsic to his dynastic claim to the throne, and sometimes wore the breast star of the order.

On 5 November 1896, in Vienna, Philippe married Archduchess Maria Dorothea of Austria (1867–1932), a daughter of Archduke Joseph Karl of Austria, Palatine of Hungary, and granddaughter of Princess Clémentine of Orléans, as well as a niece of Marie Henriette of Austria, Queen Consort of the Belgians. There were no children from this marriage. The couple were poorly matched and after several years they lived apart.

He made a short film, Jaripeo y fiestas en Jalapa ("Jaripeo and Festivals in Jalapa"), during a trip to Mexico in 1910.

Philippe continued to reside in the United Kingdom until 1912, when he moved his primary residence to Belgium. In 1914, Philippe and his wife Maria Dorothea were legally separated. She subsequently lived in Hungary.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Philippe again tried unsuccessfully to join the French army. He was also refused permission to serve in the Belgian army and instead returned to the United Kingdom. A plan to join the Italian army was prevented by a serious accident in which he was knocked down by a bus.

In 1926, Philippe died of pneumonia at the Palais d'Orléans in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. Having no legitimate issue, he was succeeded as pretender to the defunct throne of France by his cousin and brother in law, Jean, Duke of Guise.

Publications

Philippe wrote a number of works based on his many travels:

  • Une expédition de chasse au Népal ("A hunting trip to Nepal"), Paris: C. Lévy, 1892.
  • Une croisière au Spitzberg, yacht Maroussia, 1904, Paris: Imprimerie de Chaix, 1904
  • Croisière océanographique: accomplie à bord de la Belgica dans la Mer du Grönland, 1905, Brussels: C. Bulens, 1907
  • La revanche de la banquise: un été de dérive dans la mer de Kara, juin-septembre 1907, Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1909
  • Campagne Arctique de 1907, Brussels: C. Bulens, 1910–1912
  • Hunters and Hunting in the Arctic, London: David Nutt, 1911 (published in French as Chasses et chasseurs arctiques, Paris: Librairie Plon, 1929)

He also published a collection of the papers of his father and of the Henri, comte de Chambord:

  • La monarchie française: lettres et documents politiques (1844–1907), Paris: Librairie nationale, 1907

Honours

  • Duke of Orleans Land in NE Greenland was named after him.