WI: the Comte d'Artois remarries after the Duc de Berry's assassination?

[Urbanus VII]

The example of the Louvel's declarations during the process just wanted to emphasize that we do not have data available to say whether a possible second marriage "for necessity" of the Comte d'Artois would be fertile or not, and if the Count of Artois had thought at such a solution or not, having already widely told how he had already "fallback solution" with the Duke of Orléans...

When it was discussed a probable («"possibility" does not mean "credibility", a close relative of "reality"») marriage between the Duke of Bordeaux and a Russian Grand Duchess, Henri d'Artois was not a king, was not an heir, he was only a pretender to a throne which from 1832/35 until 1870 hardly anybody thought could recover; furthermore, it is not surprising that the Csar Nicholas I may have shown a great willingness to smooth out any obstacles to this proposal, given that his reports with Louis Philippe were only formally cordial [be talked the European courts about the marriage between a Russian Grand Duchess and a pretender deposed was used probably in order not make sleeping soundly to the king of the barricades... see here, here and here; concerning the eventually conversion of the Czar's niece, also Daniel de Montplaisir wrote that Nicolas has accepted an arrangement in which, after a first wedding ceremony in Orthodox rite, the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Michajlovna (the daugther of the Grand Duke Michail Pavlovič, and not one of his daughters... ) could have been converted to the Catholic faith; the Pope Gregory XVI supported this arrangement, but the Duchess of Angoulême was opposed because the Russian Imperial House was not a "worthy" family as Bourbon or Habsburg... (Daniel de Montplaisir, Le Comte de Chambord, dernier roi de France, Perrin, 2008)].

With a «several available Catholic Princesses in the 1820s», a candidate for a second wife of the Count of Artois should be sought between these more than elsewhere, precisely

 

[jb3]

Actually, from what I've found, its not. In The Comte de Chambord by Martin Brown Jr. (the only English bio I can find on Chambord) there was several attempts to marry the Comte to a Russian Grand Duchess, either Olga Nikolaevna or Elizabeth Mikhailovna. During the negotiations Tsar Nicholas I made remarkable concessions, only wanting an Orthodox wedding, with the understanding that the bride could convert after they were married.

So if a Russian marriage was to happen, clearly the Imperial Court was willing to allow their Grand Duchess to make the conversion to Catholicism that would be considered necessary by the Bourbons.

Chambord married to a Russian Grand Duchess would have been interesting if only because the Romanovs treated even minor prince (and the French Pretender - who actually had the blood of the Rurik dynasty in him -would not be one of them) like the Leutchenbergs and Oldenburgs to a style of living beyond compare in wealth and luxury to most established thrones in Europe. Chambord's pretenders "court" in Russia or outside might have made many real courts pale in comparison (especially the Orleans after 1848).

This is a really bad example. Maybe no one made a public objection, but the heir to the throne of France marrying an unimportant Protestant Princess from a minor German state was basically the ultimate humiliation, even if the Orléans tried to spin it differently. They acted like it was their choice to have the future Queen be a Protestant, but it was really because all the Royal houses that traditionally provided her said no.

If anything that marriage would have been another mark against the usurpers in many circles. Héléne wasn't popular at all among the French and I think her religion did have something to do with it.

The Orleans were in a similar situation as the House of Savoy when they were looking for a bride for VEIII. While their regime/rule was recognized as legitimate politically, other royal Catholic families really didn't want any part of it. Louis Phillipe, in particular, was regarded by other Bourbons as ambitious and untrustworthy (with reason).