Philippe d'Orléans

Portrait of Philippe d'Orléans in the Royal Chateau d'Amboise

It is simply not possible to gaze on this portrait and not bow down to the god of Irony.

Philippe d'Orléans was a main player in ridding France of the monarchy. Just thirty-seven years after his triumph, by a never imagined quirk of Fate, his son became King of France.

Philippe, a hero of the Revolutionaries who stormed the Bastille in 1789, was executed by Revolutionaries.

He voted for the death penalty for Louis XVI in January 1793, although he was himself in direct line to the throne. The king was his cousin.

Philippe founded the Anti-Versailles Group to get the monarchy abolished and used his main residence, the Palais-Royal, as the recruitment centre and rallying point.

As a member of parliament during the Revolution not only did he vote for the death penalty in the trial of Louis XVI, he opposed taking a vote on the Amendment which could have saved the King’s life. So eager was he to see Louis die, he attended the public execution.

In 1789, Orléans joined the Third Estate. The clergy was the First Estate, the nobles, 1% of the population, were the Second Estate. The Third Estate was made up of everyone else, from peasant farmers to the bourgeoisie (business class). Although it was 96% of the population, it had none of the rights or privileges of the other two Estates. To show solidarity with the mob, Orléans renounced his royal title and accepted the name Philippe Égalité (Equal) from the Paris Commune.

His son, the Duke of Chartres (future Louis-Philippe) a lieutenant-general in the Army, who was not hostile to the aims of the Revolution, appalled by the road it took, defected to the enemy, Austria.

Philippe d'Orléans was, so to speak, tarred with the same brush. The paranoid Powers That Be suspected, wrongly, he was colluding with his son. Accused of being an accomplice he was guillotined.

Post by Pamela, photography by Mark.