Henri VI second Comte de Paris and his 11 children

All I can find is that he died in Central Africa....

Wasn't the late Comte de la Marche involved in some kind of criminal activities when he lived in France?

Again From " Mon Album de Famille"
Christening of the twins, Morocco 1941
Henry, Comte de Paris giving arm to his mother Princess Isabelle, Duchess of Guise, and  Princess Isabelle, Comtesse de Paris his wife with their children.

I think the Orléans family has lots of interesting (and often sad) details to be told, especially in recent generations. I'd like to know what happened to Thibault, who died in Africa in 1983. I'd also like to know what "severely disabled" means exactly when talking about the present Comte de Paris' children Blanche and François (severely disabled, though François is still his father's heir). Was the late Comte de Paris, henri (1908-1999) at odds with ALL his children? I know he didn't get on with his son and heir and namesake Henri, and he disinherited two other sons for contracting unequal marriages. What about the daughters? Are all the children close? Can someone tell me about François Gaston's time in Africa, his death in 1960 etc.?

So many questions.
I will try to answer as possible:

1. Thibaut, comte de la Marche. I read he caught some illness while in Africa, (paludism ?).
His younger son Louis-Philippe had died previously of septycemia (sp.?)

2.François and Blanche are indeed severely disabled. During their pregnancies their mother contracted toxoplasmosis. I think it is a disease transmitted by cats. Not only they are unable to take care of themselves (they are interned in institutions) but I have seen pictures of them - as their mother very bravely tries to provide a life as normal as they can cope - and they look very strange.
In a politically incorrect way, one can say they are mentally retarded.

3.The late Count was at odds with most of his children.
His separation from the late Countess, and openly living with his secretary, the power she had over him, the fact that under her influence he "burnt" the huge inheritance he had received, and practically disinherited his children, the quarrelling with Henri when he got divorced and remarried Micaela Cousino, transferring his succession to Jean, his quarrelling with Michel and Thibaut whose marriages he declared unequal, etc, etc.
If you visit Dreux Royal Chapel, you will notice that the Count had built a chapel where he intended to be buried with his wife and 11 children (silly idea as many of his daughters married into royal families and will probably be buried in their in-laws pantheons).
When I visited Dreux (before the Count's death) I was amazed at the point of his bitterness.
In the main chapel you can see the tomb of François who died in Algiers when he was serving in the armed forces.
Thibault is/was buried in a lateral sombre chapel  .

4.About the daughters:
As a good hypocrit, he disaprooved divorce so you may imagine that Claude was not his favourite daughter.
He had a row with Chantal as she once made a speech concerning the monarchy and the french royal family role.
Since France abides to the salic Law he found it was not proper for a "mere" woman to take the stand and deliver such speech.
The other daughters lived too far and led very low-profile lifes (may be not Diane) so he didn't disaproove much of them.
But some of them confronted him when the inheritance problem arose.
There were even court cases that came to nothing.

5.I guess Henri (VII) tried to bring the family closer, recognizing their brother's marriages, and enobling some of his nephews - not very wisely on what concerned Charles-Philippe, but as you well know, Henri is a strange character, he lacks his father's charisma of the old days and I don't think he is much respected by the french people and probably ignored by his own family.
His sons kept a distance from him for many years, after his 2nd wedding.
I once read an interview where he complained that although living in Marie's neighborood - when she was still single - she never came to pay a visit.
And the late Count added fuel to the fire when he "jumped" over Henri and made Jean his successor, which the latter gladly accepted.
Maybe that's one of the reasons why Henri appointed François as the dauphin and Jean a mere Regent  .

  I'm amazed... please let us have more info José. And anyone, if you have photos, post them.  :-?

[Monsieur]

Wasn't the late Comte de la Marche involved in some kind of criminal activities when he lived in France?

Thibault (nowdays in France we write this name Thibaud) shared responsability in a robbery of antiques in South of France. He spent 14 months in a jail before he was sentenced to one year of imprisonnement. Afterwhat he went to Centrafrique and died here of illness - I do not remember what.

Henri d'Orléans "Count of Paris" (1908-1999) (I guess the title is not so regular, there are on the matter some problems I cannot explain) had a strange and tortuous attitude during WW2 (very complicated iter from Pétain to De Gaulle with a passage to the Légion étrangère and different politics aspirations... ). De Gaulle who was from a conservative/monarchic  french family, not disliked him but he is said to have said once to a prime minister: "Count of Paris to reign on France? And why not the Queen of tziganes?"

Henri d'Orléans was in Algeria also during the WW2, and his family was obliged to live in Spain and Portugal at this time. (Churchill denied them at this time the possibility to live in Morocco) So, at the end of the WW2, french government denied them the return in France (forbidden to the Orleans from 1868) and the family was obliged to return in the (wonderfull) family's estate at Larache in Spanish-Morocco !!! (The photographic picture with his mother on 1941 - christenning of twins - is from this "farm" (I visited).  Only Henri the son was allowed to study in Bordeaux (France).

Father of the Count and himself had VERY GOOD relationships with Sultan Moulay Youssef, with his son Sultan Mohammed V and also with the "french" pretender Sultan Ben Arafat. Count was a friend of King Hassan II.

Also the Orleans had in Belgium the Manoir d'Anjou. And estates in Spain and in Cintra (Portugal) On 1950 or 1951 the family was allowed to return in France were they mainly lived in the mansion of "Coeur Volant" not far from Paris. They also had a town house in Paris.  La Chapelle Royale de Dreux is only a grave in a consacrated church were they marry, christen, etc, the Mother of King Louis-Philippe builded on the ruins of a very old castle.  

I guess the new Henri (b. 1933) is a good man who tries to earn honestly some money after his father lost main part of Orléans'properties, and - with some members of the family - try to protect what can be redeemed from the Orléans artistics and intellectuals traditions inherited from his ancestors Philippe d'Orléans (Monsieur, brother of Louis XIV) and his straordinary son Philippe (Régent de France).

C-C

Yesterday two of the CoP's grand-sons got married:
Alexandre de Sambucy de Sorgue and Michael de Wurttemberg.
I know there are dozens of grand-children of the Counts of Paris, but they could have chosen different week-ends.
Madame, who never missed a wedding, wouldn't have "allowed" it...

[European Royal History Journal]

Wasn't the late Comte de la Marche involved in some kind of criminal activities when he lived in France?

Henri d'Orléans was in Algeria also during the WW2, and his family was obliged to live in Spain and Portugal at this time. (Churchill denied them at this time the possibility to live in Morocco) So, at the end of the WW2, french government denied them the return in France (forbidden to the Orleans from 1868) and the family was obliged to return in the (wonderfull) family's estate at Larache in Spanish-Morocco !!! (The photographic picture with his mother on 1941 - christenning of twins - is from this "farm" (I visited).  Only Henri the son was allowed to study in Bordeaux (France).

C-C

The French Royal Family were allowed to return to france after the debacle of the Second Empire in 1870-1871.  The Comte de Paris (1838-1894) lived in France until Republicans in government expelled the family once again in 1886 out of fear that the monarchists might try to restore the institution.

Between 1886-1950 the Head of the royal house of France and his direct heir were forced to live in exile.  Other members of the extended House of France lived in the country between those years.

Arturo Beéche

[Edme Patrice Maurice, comte de Mac-Mahon, duc de Magenta, prince de Solférino]

The French Royal Family were allowed to return to france after the debacle of the Second Empire in 1870-1871.  The Comte de Paris (1838-1894) lived in France until Republicans in government expelled the family once again in 1886 out of fear that the monarchists might try to restore the institution.

You are right, I was not precise enough...

after the defeat of Sedan (1870) there was a hudge politic will to rebuild a monarchy from the majority of the deputies. There were contacts on 1870-73 with Henri (it would be Henri V if....) who was not "Comte de Paris" but "Comte de Chambord" (the last french Bourbon) but Chambord destroyed any possibility of a new "restauration", failed on the question of the FRENCH FLAG :

Anything was ready (carosses, palaces, ... ) but at the last minute Chambord  refused the "tricolor flag" (accepted by former king LOUIS-PHILIPPE D'ORLEANS), demanding the royal  white flag (witch had been the flag of the nation only between 1815 and 1830 because France before revolution had NO FLAG AS A NATION, there were only flags of regiment and arms of coats of the king, families, cities and so on... ).

More important in fact was the question of the Title : "Roi des Français", accepted by Orléans' Louis-Philippe on 1830, was not possible for the eventually future king who demanded to be "Roi de France" but the question had not been discussed and, not last and not least, the question of a Constitution ("Charte" at this time) of difficult elaboration was still in the smoke and had to be discussed "after". There were no "after"...

Also Edme Patrice Maurice, comte de Mac-Mahon, duc de Magenta, prince de Solférino (second President of the french government from 1873 to 1879)  was a monarchist.  He wanted to wait for the death of Chambord, because the next pretender Louis-Philippe Albert d'Orléans (1838-1894) duc d'Orléans, duc de Valois, duc de Chartres, duc de Nemours, duc de Montpensier, dauphin d'Auvergne, prince de Joinville, sénéchal héréditaire de Champagne, marquis de Coucy, marquis de Folembray, comte de Soissons, comte de Dourdan, comte de Romorantin, baron de Beaujolais, called "Comte de Paris" and his son Louis-Philippe Robert d'Orléans (1869-1926) duc d'Orléans, duc de Valois, duc de Chartres, etc, who was called "Duc d'Orléans" would probably be more ables to accept the french proposal, but on 30th - 01 - 1875 french Parliament DECIDED TO REFOUND FRANCE AS A REPUBLIC (the 3rd one) with 1 vote of majority: from the fall of Napoléon III (1870) until 1875, strangely France was... NOTHING!! Government was only "governing the Nation", "administrating the State" etc, etc. (not 1 governative document with the word "République" on)!

1886 : in Parliament majority has changed... a Law  decides exile ONLY for HEADS OF THE 3 FAMILIES having reigned in France (Bourbon - Orléans - Bonaparte) AND THEIR ELDEST SON. NO MAN OF THESE FAMILIES CAN BE A SOLDIER IN FRENCH ARMY. (one poor Orléans tried and was sent in jail for 2 weeks). So Louis-Philippe Albert d'Orléans, etc, etc, went in England with his heir and tried to provoke a restauration with the help of french Général Boulanger, but failed.

Jean Pierre Clément Marie d'Orléans (1874-died 1940 in Larache) prince d'Orléans, duc d'Orléans, duc de Valois, etc, was called "Duc de Guise". Then comes the Henri called "Comte de Paris" we told about, and now Henri still living.  

A video from 1998 of the ninetieth birthday celebrations of the late Comte de Paris. Along with the French royals, Empress Farah of Iran and Grand Duchess Maria of Russia can be seen.

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/comte+de+paris/video/xvafu_90-ans-du-roi-henri-vi

Wonderful and interesting video. But I feel some diiiiiiistant relative missing there

Any other pictures? Wonderful, the one's I could actually see...for me one or two were missing!

It was rather a joke, because I meant the head of the Bonapartes, enemies from the past, but distant relatives

Thibault and Marian wrote a novel (1970's) called "A castle in Bavaria"...