DUKE OF ORLEANS DEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19289, 30 March 1926, Page 11

DUKE OF ORLEANS DEAD.

SUCCUMBS TO PNEUMONIA. LONG EXILE FROM FRANCE. END COMES AT PALERMO. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z.-Sun. LONDON, March 28. Ihe death has occurred of Louis Philippe Robert, Duke of Orleans, aged 57. A message from Paris says the duke died at Palermo from s pneumonia: He had been ill for several days. The succession to the Orleanists' claim to the throne of France devolves upon the Duke of Guise. Louis Philippe Robert, Duke of Orleans, was the head of the BourbonOrleans family and eldest son of the lato Comte de Paris. He. was born on February 6, 1869, at York House, Twickenham, England. The law of exile against tho French princes having been abrogated in 1871 he returned with his parents to France. He was first educated by a private tutor and then followed the courses of the Municipal College at Eu. On tho death of the Comte de Chambord tho Comte de Paris became head of the Bourbons. In 1806 he and his son were exiled from France. Queen Victoria appointed the Duke of Orleans a supernumerary cadet at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. After passing his examinations he received a commission in the 4th Battalion of the 60th Rifles, then stationed in India. In 1888 he went to India. There he joined his regiment at Chakrata. After seeing service the duke ceased his connection with the Indian Army in February, 1889, and returned to England. On. attaining his majority, in February, 1890, he entered Paris and expressed his desire, as a Frenchman, to perform his military service. This act caused great excitement and he was arrested in conformity with the law of 1886. which forbade the soil of France to the direct heirs of the families which had reigned there. He was tried and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, but he was liberated by President Carnot after a few months' nominal incarceration and conducted to the Swiss frontier. This escapade won for the duke the title of "Le Premier Conscrit de France." After the death of his father in September, 1894, the duke received his adherents in London and then removed to Brussels as being nearer to France. On November 5, 1896, the duke married the Archduchess Maria Dorothea Amalia of Austria at Vienna. It was alleged that some of his followers were implicated in conspiracies against the French Republic in 1899. A letter which the duke wrote in 1900, approving an artist whose caricatures were grossly insulting to Queen Victoria, excited great indignation both in England and in many French circles and estranged the duke from numerous people with whom he had been friendly. After the death of Queen Victoria, however, it was allowed to become known that the affair had been forgotten and forgiven by the British Royal Family. The duke made several long exploring journeys and was particularly interested in polar discoveries. He wrote two books concerning his travels. In August, 1925, a pathetic letter was written by the duke to the Duke of Luynes in Paris. The latter had defended him in the Eclair against a charge of being reconciled to his exile. In the course of his letter the Duke ol Orleans said that, so far from being contented, his heart bled everlastingly. He added: "During the nearly 40 years I have been exiled how often have I made long expeditions in order to try, in doing my best for France, to escape from the desperate thought of that closed frontier. And if I devote myself to my collections, and live;' so to. speak, in my museums, it is that there I feel myself a little nearer to France, for whom all these collections are intended. Thanks to the amnesty I have seein common law convicts, shirkers of military service and deserters allowed to return to France. I, who would so gladly have served my country and have not been able to have either that honour or that joy—l remain banished! I grow old in the cruel melancholy of a long exile. God grant that before I die I may have the supreme consolation of seeing my country again."