Prince Philippe, Count of Paris
Prince of France (1838-1894)
Prince Philippe of Orléans, Count of Paris (Louis Philippe Albert; 24 August 1838 – 8 September 1894), was disputedly King of the French from 24 to 26 February 1848 as Louis Philippe II, although he was never officially proclaimed as such. He was the grandson of Louis Philippe I, King of the French. He was the Count of Paris as Orléanist claimant to the French throne from 1848 until his death. From 1883, when his cousin Henri, Count of Chambord died, he was often referred to by Orléanists and a large faction of Legitimists as Philippe VII.
Early life
Prince Philippe became the Prince Royal, heir apparent to the throne, when his father, Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans, died in a carriage accident in 1842. Although there was some effort during the day of the abdication of his grandfather in 1848 to put him on the throne under the name of Louis-Philippe II, with his mother (Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin) as Regent, this came to nothing. They fled, and the French Second Republic was proclaimed.
American Civil War
A historian, journalist and outspoken democrat, Philippe volunteered to serve as a Union Army officer in the American Civil War along with his younger brother, Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres. He was appointed as an assistant adjutant general with the rank of captain on 24 September 1861 and served under the name of Philippe d'Orléans, the Count of Paris. He served on the staff of the commander of the Army of the Potomac, Major General George B. McClellan, for nearly a year. He distinguished himself during the unsuccessful Peninsular Campaign.
“Prince Philippe, Count of Paris” enters the record as prince of France (1838-1894). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Prince, Philippe and Count can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q354477. VIAF identifies the subject as 204321352. The Library of Congress control number is n85178649. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1838, 1894, 1848 and 1883.
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This entry incorporates text from “Prince Philippe, Count of Paris” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.