106 



CHAMBORD, COMTE DE. 



tralized administrative machinery, and two 

 years later destroyed the hopes of the royalists 

 by liimseif establishing an absolute monarchy, 

 and subsequently assuming the duty of defend- 

 ing the temporal power of the Pope. The 

 Comte de Chambord still expected that the 

 French people would fall at the feet of their 

 hereditary sovereign, and accept him uncondi- 

 tionally. 



His wavering conduct during this crisis dis- 

 gusted his adherents. Yet many still upheld 

 his pretensions as embodying the principles of 

 Legitimist!). In his comfortable retirement at 

 Frohsdorf, where he maintained a stately court 

 as a king in exile, he entertained courteously 

 all who came from France. He enjoyed sport, 

 following the hunt in a carriage, but occupied 

 his mind chiefly with ecclesiastical antiquities, 

 acquiring a remarkable acquaintance with the 

 shrines of all countries and the religious relics 

 they contained. The imperial court of France 

 always treated him with deep respect, as a 

 means of conciliating the old nobility, who 

 kept aloof from the Tuileries, and after a 

 while he seemed to be completely forgotten. 

 When he abandoned the hope of having chil- 

 dren', not only was the chief motive for estab- 

 lishing his claim to the throne taken away 

 from him, but a deterrent sentiment took its 

 place. Like all his family, Chambord hated 

 the house of Orleans. The fall of the empire 

 in 1870 drew him from his retirement at the 

 age of fifty to resume the active role of a pre- 

 tender. The crown was almost thrust upon 

 him by his energetic partisans, and the dangers 

 threatening the Church gave his cause a politi- 

 cal significance which was lacking in 1848-'52, 

 but he performed his part in a more reluctant, 

 vacillating, and half-hearted way than before. 

 After Sedan, he issued from Geneva a mani- 

 festo bewailing the fate of France, rather than 

 announcing his enndidacy. The royalists were 

 politically active in the midst of the war, and 

 the precipitate election of February, 1871, they 

 turned to their advantage. 



After the suppression of the Commune, the 

 Comte resided for a time in his castle at Cham- 

 bord. He wrote a series of letters disclaiming 

 any intention of abolishing the tricolor, or rep- 

 resentative government, or political equality, 

 or of reviving church tithes. After launch- 

 ing a second manifesto, he withdrew to Mari- 

 enbad. On 'the understanding that the Comte 

 de Chambord would accept the crown as a 

 constitutional monarch, and would appoint the 

 Comte de Paris his heir, the Legitimists pur- 

 sued their efforts to undermine the Thiers re- 

 public, and in the winter of 1872 they went to 

 Bruges to pay homage to the pretender. Thiers' 

 declared that he would prosecute the actors in 

 this demonstration, and have Chambord es- 

 corted across the frontier if he showed him- 

 self in France. On May 24, 1873, the royal- 

 ist cabal overthrew Thiers, and on the 5th of 

 August the C6mte de Paris went to Frohsdorf 

 in acknowledgment of the claims of the head 



of the family. In October the Comte de 

 Chambord was at Versailles, and everything 

 was ready for the coup de main which his 

 friends urged upon him. The royalist major- 

 ity in the Assembly would hail him King by 

 acclamation, if he would only enter the hall 

 and declare himself; while Marshal MacMah on 

 stood ready to uphold his rights with the 

 army. But he shrank from such a course, 

 perceiving that the French people were not 

 in sympathy with the restoration of the Bour- 

 bons. A deputation from the Right waited 

 upon him at Salzburg and made a formal offer 

 of the crown in the name of the parliamentary 

 majority. The Prince, racked by the old ques- 

 tions, wavered and vacillated as before. To 

 the delegates he replied that he accepted the 

 crown, arid would leave it to the National As- 

 sembly to frame a Constitution. His friends 

 supposed that all difficulties were removed, 

 and state carriages and decorations were ready 

 on the 25th of October for the solemn entry 

 of the King. Six da}s later his official organ, 

 I? Union, published a manifesto declaring that 

 he would never disown the white flag of Henri 

 IV, or consent to become "the King of the 

 Revolution." 



The Orleanists were indignant. The re- 

 publicans praised the Prince for his consist- 

 ency of character and firmness of principle. 

 The slender group of pure royalists clung still 

 closer to the Comte de Chambord. 



The Royal Succession. The legitimate suc- 

 cessor to the French throne is now the Comte 

 de Paris, chief of the Orleans branch, who 

 was formally accepted as such in the meeting 

 between the heads of the two houses at Frohs- 

 dorf in 1883. Still the question can be raised 

 by the dwindling party which adheres to the 

 principles of feudalism and absolutism, whether 

 the Spanish Bourbons, who are the eldest 

 branch by descent, do not come legally next 

 in the order of succession, since they are cut 

 off from the Spanish throne. 



The cadet branch of Orleans is almost as old 

 as the Bourbon dynasty, being sprung from 

 Philippe, Duke of Orleans, second son of Louis 

 XIII, who was the son and successor of Henri 

 IV, the first of the line. All the other living 

 Bourbons are descended from Louis XIV, the 

 elder son of Louis XIII. The appended genea- 

 logical table on page 107 exhibits the relation- 

 ship of the various branches of the Bourbon 

 family. 



The house of Orleans has many living mem- 

 bers, descended from Louis Philippe. His eld- 

 est son, who was accidentally killed, July 13, 

 1842, left two sons; the eldest, Louis Philippe, 

 Comte de Paris, born Aug. 28, 1838, has a son, 

 Louis Philippe Robert, born Feb. 6, 1869. His 

 brother, the Due de Chartres, has two sons. 

 His uncle, the Due de Nemours, has sons and 

 grandsons; and of his other uncles, the Prince 

 de Joinville, the Due de Montpensier, and the 

 Due d'Aumale, the two former have male 

 issue. 



