From the Tuileries to Twickenham: The Orléans, Exile and Anglo-French Liberalism, c.1848–1880

Abstract

Abstract Between the 1848 Revolution and the Franco-Prussian War, the Orléans dynasty relocated to the suburbs of London. For the Orléans as for the Bourbons and the Bonapartes, exile was a fundamental aspect of nineteenth-century royalism. Deprived of the French throne, Louis-Philippe’s heirs nonetheless remained highly engaged with the political culture of Victorian Britain and the British Empire. Studying the interactions between the Orléans and their British hosts challenges existing narratives about the stagnation and decline of the Orleanist cause after 1848 as well as the divergence between French and English variants of liberalism. Taking as its focus Henri, duc d’Aumale, and his nephew Philippe, comte de Paris, this article charts the family’s evolving ambitions, divided between building a new home in Britain, and keeping the prospects open for a possible restoration in Paris. The Orléans engagement with Britain is traced through several channels. Firstly, through their participation in British elite sociability, thanks to their devoted champion and neighbour in Twickenham, Frances, Countess Waldegrave. This London hostess played a central role in facilitating the family’s interests and favourable press coverage. Secondly, through the Orléans’ engagement with global politics in the mid-nineteenth century, in which British perspectives helped to reshape their own vision of France’s imperial future. Thirdly, through their exploration of British parliamentary debates and the problems of industrial society. Far from simply prolonging the vision of the July monarchy, this article suggests that the Orléans’ engagement with questions of mass politics was more dynamic and extensive than previously believed. Although the revised and vicarious vision of liberalism formulated by the Orléans during the London exile was never applied after the family returned to France in 1870–71, it continued to inform and constrain the subsequent development of French monarchist politics.