Jean d'Orléans
Count of Paris
Orléanist pretender to the French throne
as Jean IV
Tenure21 January 2019 – present
PredecessorHenri VII
Heir apparentGaston, Dauphin of France
Born (1965-05-19) 19 May 1965
Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Spouse
​
​
(m. 2009)​
Issue
  • Prince Gaston, Count of Clermont
  • Princess Antoinette
  • Princess Louise-Marguerite
  • Prince Joseph
  • Princess Jacinthe
  • Prince Alphonse
Names
Jean Carl Pierre Marie[1]
HouseOrléans
FatherPrince Henri, Count of Paris
MotherDuchess Marie Therese of Württemberg
ReligionRoman Catholic

Jean Carl Pierre Marie d'Orléans (born 19 May 1965) is the current head of the House of Orléans. Jean is the senior male descendant by primogeniture in the male-line of Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, and thus, according to the Orléanists, the legitimate claimant to the throne of France as Jean IV.[2] Of France's three monarchist movements, Orléanism, Legitimism and Bonapartism, most royalists are Orléanists.[3] Jean is the second son of the late Henri, Count of Paris (1933–2019) and his former wife Duchess Marie-Thérèse of Württemberg (b. 1934). With the death of his father, he has been using the style of Count of Paris since 2019.[4]

Biography

Early life and education

Jean d'Orléans was born on 19 May 1965 in Boulogne-Billancourt, the son of Henri of Orleans and Maria Theresa of Württemberg. He was baptized in the Catholic Church on 14 June 1965 in the Royal Chapel of Dreux. He received as godfather, his maternal uncle, Carl of Württemberg, and as godmother, his paternal aunt, Princess Chantal of Orleans.[5]

After attending the Passy-Saint-Nicolas-Buzenval, a private Catholic secondary school, he attended the Sorbonne, where he obtained a master's degree in philosophy in 1989. In 1992, he earned a master's degree in law from the Free Faculty of Law, Economics and Management of Paris. In 1994, he earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles, California.[5]

Jean completed his national service as an officer, first taking four months of classes at the École de cavalerie in Saumur. He was assigned as an officer aspirant, and then as a second lieutenant, and has been a reserve colonel of the French Army since January 2015.[6]

After finishing his military duties, he began to work as a consultant at Lazard, then as a financial consultant at Deloitte, followed by working as a project manager at the Groupe Banque Populaire.

Jean is multilingual, speaking French, English, and German.[7]

First engagement

Prince Jean was due to marry Duchess Tatjana of Oldenburg (b. 1974) in 2001. Duchess Tatjana is the youngest daughter of Duke Johann of Oldenburg (b. 1940) and his wife, Countess Ilka of Ortenburg (b. 1942).[8] Her elder sister Eilika married Archduke Georg of Austria in 1997. However, the wedding was cancelled at the last moment because of a dispute over religious denomination: Jean's father, Henri, feared the Orléans claim to the throne would be compromised if there were to be a Protestant heir.[9]

Second engagement and marriage

On 29 November 2008, Henri, then Count of Paris, announced the engagement of Jean, the then Duke of Vendôme, to Maria Magdalena Philomena Juliana Johanna de Tornos y Steinhart, born in Vienna on 19 June 1977. The pair are distantly related, as both are descendants of Count Jaroslav Bořita of Martinice and his first wife, Eusebia von Sternberg (1584–1634).[10] The civil wedding, conducted by Mayor Rachida Dati, took place on 19 March 2009 in Paris. The religious wedding was held on 2 May 2009 at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame at Senlis, with a reception at the Château de Chantilly.[11] The bride wore a gown by Christian Lacroix and a jacket embroidered by Maison Lesage.[12]

Lawsuit

In 2021, Jean filed a lawsuit against the Saint-Louis foundation, demanding €1 million in damages and the return of five properties, including the Château d'Amboise. In 1886, the château was bequeathed to the Institute of France by Jean's ancestor Henri d’Orléans, with the caveat that the property would never be altered by the institute. The Saint-Louis foundation was later founded by Jean's grandfather, Henri VI, Count of Paris, in 1974. Jean's lawsuit alleges that the Institute violated their contract to never alter the property, after they announced plans to transform the Pavillon d’Enghien into a €760-a-night luxury hotel, containing a spa and gastronomic restaurant.[13] Jean had previously lived in the château from 2001 to September 2021 rent-free, but was forcefully evicted by the institute after they began to demand he pay rent, which Jean viewed as a violation of their contract.[14]

Family

Jean and his wife Philomena have six children:

  • Prince Gaston Louis Antoine Marie d'Orléans, Count of Clermont, Dauphin of France (born 19 November 2009 in Paris).
  • Princess Antoinette Léopoldine Jeanne Marie d'Orléans (born 28 January 2012 in Vienna).
  • Princess Louise-Marguerite Eléonore Marie d'Orléans (born 30 July 2014 in Poissy).
  • Prince Joseph Gabriel David Marie d'Orléans (born 2 June 2016).
  • Princess Jacinthe Élisabeth-Charlotte Marie d'Orléans (born 9 October 2018 in Dreux).[15]
  • Prince Alphonse Charles François Marie d'Orléans (born 31 December 2023 in Carcassonne).[16]

Politics

Jean believes that the people of France are "monarchist at heart" and argues that they long for a non-partisan figurehead.[17] He has spoken in support of the Yellow vests protests in France.[18] Jean has also expressed his opposition to same-sex marriage, having participated in the La Manif pour tous protests, as well as abortion.[19][20]

In May 2019, Jean met with French President Emmanuel Macron, Brigitte Macron, and Italian President Sergio Mattarella in his then-home in the Château d'Amboise.[21]

Titles, styles and honours

Titles in pretense

  • 19 May 1965 – 27 September 1987: His Royal Highness Prince Jean d'Orléans, fils de France[22]
  • 27 September 1987 – 21 January 2019: His Royal Highness Prince Jean d'Orléans, fils de France, Duke of Vendôme[22]
  • 21 January 2019 – present: Monseigneur The Count of Paris[23]

He was created Duke of Vendôme (French: Duc de Vendôme) by his paternal grandfather, on 27 September 1987.[22]

Following the death of his father, it was initially thought that Prince Jean would not assume the title of Count of Paris for several months after his father's death, and possibly not for as much as one year.[24]

Honours

National

Dynastic

Ancestry

Jean is a direct male-line descendant of Louis Philippe I, the last French king, who in turn was a descendant of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, the younger brother of Louis XIV of France. Jean is also descended from Charles X of France, brother of Louis XVI; and the Bourbons of Spain, the Two Sicilies and Parma.

References

  1. ↑ "Portrait du prince Jean". gensdefrance.com (in French).
  2. ↑ "Henri d'Orléans, pretender to French throne, dies". RFI. 22 January 2019. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  3. ↑ O'Reilly, Edward (24 January 2019). "Did You Know? The Tale of the three Frenchmen who still lay claim to the throne". The Local. Stockholm. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  4. ↑ Le Prince - website Le Comte de Paris
  5. 1 2 Philippe de Montjouvent. Le comte de Paris et sa descendance, éditions du Chaney. p. 215.
  6. ↑ Gotha Almanac, John James, Earl of Tara, 2019
  7. ↑ "The Prince".
  8. ↑ "Tatjana, Herzogin von Oldenburg : Genealogics".
  9. ↑ Schofield, Hugh (12 June 2001). "Royal wedding plans suffer a hitch". BBC News. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012.
  10. ↑ "Naissance du prince Joseph d'Orléans". 2 June 2016.
  11. ↑ "Jean d'Orlean and Philomena de Tornos to have secind". Hellomagazine.com. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  12. ↑ "Fashion Scoops: The Next Halston?… Something Lacroix…". wwd.com. 4 May 2009. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  13. ↑ Thackray, Lucy (7 December 2021). "French aristocrat demands return of family château destined to become hotel". The Independent.
  14. ↑ Cope, Rebecca (9 February 2021). "Pretender to the French throne, Jean d'Orleans, wants his châteaux (plural) back". Tatler.
  15. ↑ "Une nouvelle princesse est née à Dreux" [A new princess was born in Dreux]. L'Écho Républicain (in French). 12 October 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  16. ↑ Monarchies et Dynasties du monde [@Monarchies2000] (31 December 2023). "The birth of Prince Alphonse is announced by his family" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  17. ↑ Chazan, David (3 February 2019). "Two 'princes' locked in battle to succeed Henri d'Orleans as 'official' pretender to French throne". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020.
  18. ↑ Jean d'Orléans (13 December 2018). "Le Prince Jean de France: "Gilets Jaunes : Bâtir un projet commun"". Archived from the original on 17 April 2019.
  19. ↑ Bellerive, Pierre de (21 March 2013). "Le Prince Jean de France à la Manif Pour Tous". Archived from the original on 21 September 2020.
  20. ↑ Jean d'Orléans. Un Prince français. p. 111.
  21. ↑ Jean, Count of Paris [@PJComtedeParis] (2 May 2019). "Le prince Gaston salue le Président de la République dans la cour du château royal d'#Amboise" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 11 July 2021 – via Twitter.
  22. 1 2 3 4 de Montjouvent, Philippe (1998). Le Comte de Paris et sa Descendance (in French). Charenton, France: Editions du Chaney. pp. 13–14, 214, 217, 391–392, 396–398, 473–474. ISBN 2-913211-00-3..
  23. ↑ Official website
  24. ↑ "Disparition - Le Comte de Paris s'éteint et laisse la maison de France au prince Jean". lechorepublicain.fr (in French). 21 January 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  25. ↑ James, John, ed. (1 January 2019). Almanach de Gotha. ISBN 9780993372582.
  26. ↑ "Heir to the French Throne and former French Minister invested into the Order - Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George". Constantuinian.org.uk. 25 June 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
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