Succession to the former French throne (Orléanist)

[1] Prior to the Treaty of Utrecht, rules of succession to the crown of France were deemed to have evolved historically and additively, rather than to have been legislated or amended, constituting part of the fundamental laws of the nation.

It had been opposed by some members of the Parlement of Paris because, in order to prohibit (on threat of resuming Continental war) the union by inheritance of the kingdoms of France and Spain, it required the exclusion of the Spanish Bourbons from the French throne, which potentially conflicted with the principles of indisposability of the crown and male primogeniture.

Letters patent issued by Louis XIV in 1700 authorising his grandson Philip to leave France to reign as king over Spain while retaining his French nationality and dynastic rights, were officially revoked.

For monarchists who considered the Treaty of Utrecht valid, the departure of Philip to Spain in order to assume that kingdom's crown, and the retention by his heirs of that throne over the next 300 years, intruded the vice de pérégrinité ("flaw of foreignness") in his dynastic claim to France, excluding himself and his descendants forever from the succession.

Finally, Philip's renunciation meant, they believed, that with the death in 1883 of Henri, Count of Chambord, the House of Orléans had become heirs to the Capetian dynasty's claim to the crown of France.

[12][13] The fundamental laws of the ancien regime had not, however, provided for the exclusion from the succession to the crown of dynasts who married without kingly authorization and their descendants, nor of the mentally ill.

It has been argued, however, that since Michel had "seen the day" after his twin brother Jacques, and French primogeniture historically considered the last child to emerge from the womb as senior in the order of birth to other siblings born following a single confinement, this ruling may have been compliant with the tradition of the ancien régime.

Despite the fact that some Orléanists considered that the severe disabilities of Prince François should exclude him from the line of succession,[14] and his younger brother Vendôme was appointed his permanent legal guardian,[15] their father recognized his eldest son as the "Dauphin".