Antoine Philippe, Duke of Montpensier

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The duc de Montpensier, in the uniform of a lieutenant-colonel, as adjutant general - portrait by Amédée Faure (Versailles, Musée national des Châteaux et Trianons)

Louis Antoine Philippe d'Orléans, duc de Montpensier (3 July 1775, Palais-Royal, Paris - 18 May 1807, Salthill, England) was a son of Louis Philippe d'Orléans (1747-1793) and his duchess Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon. This made him the younger brother of Louis-Philippe, later king of the French - Antoine had a deep affection for him, and they were only ever separated during the Reign of Terror and the events that followed, between 1793 and 1797.

[edit] Life

In 1791, Antoine Philippe was made sous-lieutenant as aide-de-campe in his brother's regiment (his brother was then the duke of Chartres and known as "Général Égalité"). He was made adjutant-general before the battle of Jemmapes, at which he and his brother fought. In Paris at the time of the trial of Louis XVI, he unsuccesfully tried to convince his father not to vote for the king's death.

Whilst adjutant-general in the armée du Var, he was arrested at the same time as all the other Bourbons in April 1793 and imprisoned in fort Saint-Jean at Marseille. During his imprisonment, he contracted the tuberculosis that eventually killed him, and had an illegtimate son called Dentend (who became notary to the house of Orléans and in that role oversaw the Louis-Philippe's donation of his personal goods in 1830 before his accession). On 13 fructidor year IV (30 August 1796), the French Directory decided to exile him to Philadelphia, where the French Republic's charge-d'-affaires in the United States of America granted him an annual pension of 15,000 francs. He set out on 5 November 1796, accompanied by his brother comte de Beaujolais, and in February 1797 met Louis-Philippe in Philadelphia. For two years they travelled around New England, in the Great Lakes and Mississippi area.

Effigy set up by Adélaïde d'Orléans (1777-1847) on the Domaine royal de Randan

Returning to Europe in 1800, they set up in England at Twickenham (Highshot House, Crown Road, building demolished in 1927). In 1807 Antoine Philippe's pulmonary tuberculosis worsened. His elder brother the duc d'Orléans wanted to take him to Devon to benefit from the fresh air but, twelve miles out of Twickenham, they had to stop at an inn at Salthill (near Windsor). Having a respiratory crisis, Antoine Philippe refused the ether Louis-Philippe wanted to administer and, murmuring to him "Give me your hand, I thought I was dying" ("Donne-moi ta main, j'ai cru que je mourais"), expired.

Louis-Philippe had a funeral service held at the Catholic chapel on King Street in London, at which Monsieur assisted and, thanks to the duke of Kent, gained permission to bury his brother in Westminster Abbey.

[edit] Works

• Relation de la captivité de S. A. S. Monsignor le duc de Montpensier, pendant les années 1793, 1794, 1795 et 1796, écrite par lui-même, Twickenham, Imprimerie de G. White, 1816
• Mémoires de S. A. S. Louis-Antoine-Philippe d'Orléans, duc de Montpensier, Paris, Baudouin frères, 1824 – text on www.gallica.fr