Ferdinand Philippe Marie d'Orléans, duc d'Alençon (12 July 1844 – 29 June 1910) was the son of Louis Charles Philippe Raphael d'Orléans, Duke of Nemours and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (a first cousin of the UK's Queen Victoria).

[2] Among his siblings was older brother Prince Gaston of Orleans, Count of Eu, the Imperial consort of Brazil (through his marriage to Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil), and younger sister Princess Marguerite Adélaïde of Orléans, wife of Prince Władysław Czartoryski.

[3] His maternal grandparents were Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Maria Antonia Koháry.

[3] On 28 September 1868, he married Sophie Charlotte Augustine, Duchess in Bavaria (1847–1897) at Possenhofen Castle, near Starnberg.

[5] The year after their marriage, the ducal couple moved into Bushy House in the Teddington area of Southwest London.