Robert d’Orléans, duc de Chartres

A carte-de-visite portrait of Robert d’Orléans, duc de Chartres (1840-1910).

Robert d’Orléans was born in Paris in 1840. His father was Ferdinand, duc d’Orleans, the eldest son of King Louis-Philippe. Along with the rest of his family, he spent the period of the Second Empire in exile in England, at Kingston and Twickenham. In 1863 he married his cousin, Françoise d’Orléans, by whom he had five children. Alongside his older brother, the comte de Paris, he fought in the American Civil War. In the Franco-Prussian War he served in the French army under the name Robert le Fort. After 1871 he fought in the Algerian wars, but he was exiled again in 1886. Owing to his brother's renunciation of his claims, from 1873 to 1883 the duc de Chartres was regarded by many Orléanists as the rightful pretender. He died at St. Fermin in 1910.

Photographed by Camille Silvy of London on 7 May 1861.