Louis Philippe I

Biography

Louis Philippe was born at the Palais-Royal in Paris in 1773, the eldest son of the Duke of Orléans, later known as Philippe Égalité. Tutored by the Countess of Genlis, he welcomed the Revolution, joined the Jacobin Club and, as Duke of Chartres, fought at Valmy and Jemappes, becoming a lieutenant general at nineteen. Alienated by the execution of Louis XVI, he went over to the Austrians with General Dumouriez in April 1793; his father was guillotined later that year.

He then spent 21 years in exile. He taught at a boys' school in Reichenau in Switzerland under an assumed name, travelled in Scandinavia and the United States, and later lived in England. After Napoleon's fall he returned to France and reconciled with the restored Bourbons, though he resented their treatment of his family.

When the July Revolution of 1830 forced Charles X out, Louis Philippe was named lieutenant general of the kingdom and then proclaimed King of the French on 9 August 1830. His July Monarchy favoured wealthy industrialists and bankers, turned more conservative under François Guizot, sought friendship with Britain and pressed the conquest of Algeria. He survived several assassination attempts, including Fieschi's attack in 1835. Economic crisis brought the Revolution of 1848; he abdicated on 24 February 1848 and fled to England, where he died at Claremont in 1850.