Prince Henri, Duke of Aumale

Henri Eugène Philippe Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale (16 January 1822 – 7 May 1897) was a leader of the Orleanists, a political faction in 19th-century France associated with constitutional monarchy.

He was born in Paris, the fifth son of King Louis-Philippe I of the French and Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily and used the title Duke of Aumale.

After the Revolution of 1848, he retired to England and busied himself with historical and military studies, responding in 1861 to Napoleon III's violent attacks upon the House of Orléans with a Letter upon History of France.

In the search for a king, the French put forward the name of Aumale, while other contenders included Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the Prince of Leiningen, and Archduke Maximilian of Austria.

Eventually, the choice fell on Prince William of Denmark, aged only seventeen, and the Greek National Assembly elected him as the new King of the Hellenes in March 1863.

[1] Aumale was a notable collector of antique books and manuscripts and owned the important medieval Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.

After the fire of the Bazar de la Charité on 4 May 1897, which killed 126 people, mostly aristocratic women, he wanted to send his condolences to the families of the victims.

Henri (left) with his brother Antoine and his mother Queen Marie Amélie .
The duc d'Aumale in his final years, portrait by Jean Baptiste Guth in Vanity Fair , 1891
The Château of Chantilly houses one of the finest art collections in France.