Louis-Philippe was successively Duke of Valois (1773-1785), Duke of Chartres (1785-1793), Duke of Orléans (1793-1830) then King of the French (1830-1848).
As a child, he enjoyed an education nourished by liberal ideas. After joining the revolutionary party (like his father Louis-Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans) and the Jacobins club, he participated in the battles of Valmy and Jemmapes in 1792 under the aegis of Dumouriez (French general) with which he protests unsuccessfully against the Convention.
Forced to leave France, he took refuge in Switzerland, the United States, England and then Sicily where he married Marie-Amélie de Bourbon in 1809.
Returning to France during the Restoration, under the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, he prepared for his rise by collecting the remains of the family fortune and joining the opposition. Les Trois Glorieuses (July 27, 28, 29, 1830) mark his accession as Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom and then King of the French.
The Nation, shaken by profound changes, is weakened. He tries to pacify it thanks to the maintenance of the slightly modified Constitutional Charter of 1814; the July Monarchy therefore imposed itself on a reluctant Europe. Its policy favors the bourgeois classes to the detriment of the interests of the Republic. Thus the financial and economic crisis as well as the absence of necessary republican reforms led to his abdication during the 1848 revolution and his exile to England. The last king of the French died here in August 1850.
1773 - 1850
Status
King
Duke