Marie-Amélie of Bourbon, Queen of the French

Portrait of Marie-Amélie of Bourbon and her cadet sons, 1836 Hersent*

This portrait of Queen Marie-Amélie in the Royal Château d’Amboise is similar to the one of her in the Palace of Versailles. She is shown in the park of Château Neuilly, the family home near Paris, with her two youngest sons, Henri, duke of Aumale, fourteen, in the uniform of the light infantry and Antoine, duke of Montpensier, twelve, in an artillery man's uniform. Henri was born in the Palais Royal, Paris. Antoine was born at Neuilly.

On Marie-Amélie’s belt is a chatelaine to hang useful or decorative items. It was later used by housekeepers of large houses, not as a fashion statement, but for keys.

Huge formal portraits (seven feet high) like this were painted to be viewed from below which is why the figures are out of proportion. No sitter had legs that long.

The Music Room, Château Royal d'Amboise

Marie-Amélie, born near Naples, was the tenth of eighteen children. It was intended she would marry the future king of France, her first cousin the Dauphin Louis Joseph, son of her mother’s sister, Marie Antoinette, but he died of tuberculosis age seven.

How strange that Fate meant she did in fact marry a future king of France.

When her aunt Marie-Antoinette and her uncle Louis, the King and Queen of France, were executed during The Terror, Marie-Amélie’s family left Naples for Sicily. The exiled Louis-Philippe joined them, met and married Marie-Amélie.

It was a bizarre match. The bride was the niece of Marie Antoinette. The groom’s father, the duke of Orleans, was party to her execution and voted yes to execute her husband.

Marie-Amélie went to France with her husband to make a home for her growing family, but on Napoleon's brief return, they left for England. When they were allowed back into France, they settled in the Palais-Royal.

The tragic, much maligned Marie-Antoinette, was not the last queen to live in Versailles. That dubious honour goes to her niece, Marie-Amélie.

Even aficionados of French royalty, who know a great deal about her husband, might be hard pressed to tell you much about Marie-Amélie, which is exactly as she would like it. Far from being tickled pink with being Queen, this reserved, private woman was positively horrified.

When a delegation arrived at their home in Neuilly to offer Louis-Philippe the crown, he wasn’t there but Marie-Amélie refused on his behalf saying they were insulted by the gesture. Several visitors followed urging Louis-Philippe to accept. Marie-Amélie told them it was not possible for him to be king because he was honest.

When The Chamber of Deputies called Louis-Philippe to Paris to formally present him with their offer. Marie-Amélie said it was a catastrophe. It would destroy their peaceful family life. She called it The Crown of Thorns. She wept, begging him not to accept but although he loved her, although theirs was a happy, harmonious marriage, he did.

And so it was she found herself living in The Grand Trianon, Versailles where her guillotined aunt lived. Sad, bad, memories. Whenever she could she retreated to their much loved family chateau in Neuilly*** where three of her children, Clémentine, François and Antoine were born.

When Louis-Philippe was forced to abdicate in 1848 they returned to England where they were welcomed by Queen Victoria, who gave them Claremont House in Surrey for life.

Louis Philippe died two years later. Marie-Amélie died in 1866, aged 83.

The elder boy in the portrait, Prince Henri, Duke of Aumale, inherited a fortune from his godfather. He left his vast Chantilly estate to the Institute of France which turned his Chateau into a museum to display his impressive art collection. As lieutenant-general, Governor-General of Algeria, he accepted the submission of the emir Abdel Kader****.

His younger brother in the portrait, Prince Antoine, Duke of Montpensier, married Princess Louise-Fernande, heir apparent to her sister, Queen Isabelle II of Spain expecting to be King of Spain. In 1868 a revolution, funded by the duke, overthrew Isabelle. The new government exiled the duke who is the ancestor of all Spanish monarchs since Juan Carlos I.

His daughter Marie-Isabelle married her first cousin Philippe d'Orléans, count of Paris, pretender to the throne of France under the name of Philippe VII.

* Louis Hersent, a pupil of Jacques-Louis David, was appointed professor of painting at the Paris School of Fine Arts. His wife, Louise, also a painter, founded an art school for women.

** Marie-Amélie’s daughter, Marie d'Orléans, was married there.

*** In 1848 when the Royal family left for exile in England, revolutionaries destroyed their Château at Neuilly.

**** Click here to read about Abdel Kader

Post by Pamela, photography by Mark.