Henry de Chambord

The birth of the Duke of Bordeaux was surrounded by exceptional circumstances. He was born almost eight months after the assassination of his father, the Duke Charles of Berry , nephew of Louis XVIII , the working Louvel . The childless Louis XVIII and his younger brother Count d'Artois, the future Charles X , were elderly widowers, the eldest son of the latter, the Duke of Angouleme , did not have children from his marriage with Maria Theresa , the “prisoner of the Temple”, daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette . The death of the last representative of the older Bourbons, who could bring male offspring (but so far only had one daughter, Louise), would mean that this line was suppressed and, according to the Salic law, the throne would inevitably pass in the future to a distant relative - the descendant of Louis XIII Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans . Louis-Philippe was in bad standing with the elder Bourbons, was known as a liberal, the role that he played in the revolution with his father, " citizen Egalite, " was in everyone's memory. Therefore, the news of the pregnancy of the Dowager Duchess (née Maria Carolina of Naples ) became a sensation. Louis-Philippe, annoyed by the prospect of losing his chances of the throne, sought the right (according to the old royal tradition) to attend the birth of the heir (if a girl was born, this would leave the inheritance order unchanged), but did not receive it. Nevertheless, he acknowledged the birth of the prince and signed with other members of the royal family his birth certificate.

To avoid rumors of a child being replaced, the Duchess of Berria did not allow the boy to cut the umbilical cord until a number of high-ranking courtiers, including Marshal Suchet , made sure that she had actually given birth to a male baby ^[1] . The newborn prince received the baptismal names of Henry (in honor of the founder of the French Bourbons, Henry IV ) and Dieudonne ( French Dieudonné - God-given). He was nicknamed the "child of a miracle." Odes Lamartine and young Victor Hugo wrote in his honor. The French people, by national subscription, bought from the previous owners and presented the Prince with Chambord Castle in the Loire Valley. The liberal publicist Paul-Louis Courier responded to these events with his Simple Discours de Paul-Louis etc. " ^[2] , which is regarded as one of his most brilliant pamphlets, and for which he was sentenced to imprisonment in Saint-Pelage for insulting public morality and the person of the king ^{[3] [4]} .

The education of the Duke of Bordeaux was led by Baron de Dam , Minister Charles X, who grew up in Russia and fought in the Russian army during the Napoleonic Wars; a significant role in the program was played by the religious and ideological component. One of the heir’s teachers was the geologist and paleontologist Joaken (Joachim) Barrand , who followed him into exile, who made himself famous in the Czech Republic and died in the same place as Chambord, a month after him.

The July Revolution of 1830 forced Charles X to abdicate in favor of a 10-year-old grandson whom the Legitimists proclaimed King Henry V on August 2 (the eldest son, the Duke of Angouleme, was alive, but also abdicated from his father; within 20 minutes he was formally King Louis XIX). Louis Philippe was appointed "Viceroy of the kingdom." He hid the conditions for Karl’s abdication and himself accepted the crown as Louis Philippe I ( August 9 ), and then published the pamphlet The Duke of Bordeaux - Bastard , where he argued that the child born in 1820 was not the grandson of Charles X (in his opinion, the duchess Berry was not pregnant at all). This version was in favor of the rights of the Duke of Orleans to the throne.

Henry grew up in exile in the Austrian Empire . In 1832, his mother (without the consent of her father-in-law and to his indignation) landed with a group of adherents in Marseille , and then in the famous royalist traditions of Vendee , declared herself regent and issued proclamations on behalf of her son, but was soon arrested, and the news that that she gave birth to a daughter from her new Italian husband, Count de Lucchesi-Palli, led to the fact that she was no longer taken seriously as the head of the party of monarchists.

The Duke of Bordeaux (who now preferred to be called the Count de Chambord, according to the castle presented to him by the people) grew up a staunch supporter of the orthodox legitimist monarchy and the white royal banner with lilies as its symbol. In exile, he was raised by his aunt Maria Theresa of France , daughter of Louis XVI, in whom the revolutionaries executed their parents and tortured their brother (little Louis XVII ). After the death of his grandfather in 1836 and uncle in 1844, Henry became the undisputed legitimist contender. In 1846 he married a relative - Maria-Teresa of Modena. This marriage was childless. In the circles of the monarchist opposition after the expulsion of Louis Philippe ( 1848 ), a new group of monarchists began to oppose him - the Orleans , who had ruled France until that year.

In 1873, the monarchical majority of the Chamber of Deputies, elected after the overthrow of Napoleon III and the Paris Commune , offered Count Chambord a crown. However, he (agreeing to constitutional principles) could not accept the three-color banner (even supplemented by a shield with lilies and a crown). Another rejected compromise option was the white banner as the king’s personal standard, and the tricolor as the national flag. “Henry V,” said the 53-year-old Earl, “cannot refuse the white flag of Henry IV. He fluttered over my cradle, and I want him to overshadow my grave as well ... ”The Chamber of Deputies unanimously adopted the law on the republican system; in 1875 the constitution of the Third Republic was adopted.

In recent years, the childless Chambord reconciled with the Orleans and received homage from their head, Count of Paris , the grandson of Louis Philippe I , as his heir. However, after the death of the count in 1883 (and the debate about the nature of the renunciation of Philip V of Spain to be in the line for the French throne has existed between the legitimists since 1700, however, only in 1883 this issue determined a new chapter) did the legitimists split into two parties. Some teamed up with the Orleans and recognized the Earl of Paris as the contender (who took the name not “Louis-Philippe II”, but more “historical” - “Philip VII”). Others, contrary to the refusal of the Spanish Bourbons (adhering to the ideology of the divine right of the kings, the inalienability of the crown and the invalidity of any denials), declared the head of the Spanish dynasty Juan, Count Montison , representative of the Carlist branch of the Spanish house ("John III"). Subsequently, the Carlist branch died out and the reigning Spanish branch inherited its rights, in which various French Legitimists also argue about the identity of its head. Two lines of applicants for leadership in the Bourbon house ("Legitimist-Orleanist" and "Legitimist-Spanish") continue to this day.

• Chambord, Heinrich Karl Ferdinand Maria Dieudonne // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.