Revolution
At the time of the French Revolution, Philippe Egalité, was the only person of royal blood to actively support the revolution.
He went so far as to vote for the execution of his cousin, King Louis XVI, an act which earned him popularity among the revolutionaries, and the undying hostility of many French monarchists. He remained in prison until October, the beginning of the Reign of Terror. He was shortlisted for a trial on October 3, and effectively tried and guillotined in the space of one day, on the orders of Maximilien Robespierre.
Most of the Orléans family were forced to flee. The new duc d'Orléans had fled to Austria several months previously, triggering the arrest of his father. His brother, the duc de Montpensier, would die in England, and his sister fled to Switzerland after being imprisoned for awhile. The youngest brother, Louis-Charles, Count of Beaujolais, was thrown into a prison in the south of France (Fort-Saint-Jean in Marseille) in 1793, but later escaped to the United States. He too died in exile. Of the Orléans, only the widow of Philippe Egalité was able to remain in France unhindered until, in 1797 she, too, was banished to Spain along with the few remaining Bourbons who still lived in France.
In 1814 during the Bourbon Restoration, the three remaining members of the family, the duc d'Orléans, his mother and sister, returned to Paris. The family's properties and titles were returned to them by Louis XVIII.
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Louis XIV and his younger brother Le Petit Monsieur
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Philippe II d'Orléans with his Protégée, Louis XV
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Louis XVI's execution. His cousin, Philippe Égalité voted for his infamous execution
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The arms of Le Roi des Français
Read more about this topic: House Of Orleans
Famous quotes containing the word revolution:
“It is as absurd to say that [due to motherhood] all women shall be denied the suffrage, as it would be to deny all men the suffrage, because some are liable, periodically, to inflammatory rheumatism, delirium tremens, or financial failure.”
—Anonymous, U.S. women’s magazine contributor. The Revolution (February 17, 1870)
““I suppose with the French Revolution for a father and the Russian Revolution for a mother, you can very well dispense with a family,” he observed.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
“The heritage of the American Revolution is forgotten, and the American government, for better and for worse, has entered into the heritage of Europe as though it were its patrimony—unaware, alas, of the fact that Europe’s declining power was preceded and accompanied by political bankruptcy, the bankruptcy of the nation-state and its concept of sovereignty.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)