WI King Philippe Egalite

John Fredrick Parker

Donor
What if, following a successful flight by Louis XVI and his family,* the National Constituent Assembly had declared that the King and all those who had fled the country had effectively abdicated their throne,** and, rather than declaring a republic, they had declared that the new monarch was now the Duke of Orleans, Louis Philippe II? (I recall that @TheYoungPretender had thoughts on this man.)

How would this be received in France and in Europe? What would King Philippe's reign be like, and how is the course of the Revolution affected? And if war still breaks out with Austria and others, how does said conflict compare with OTL's War of the First Coalition? And given all of this, how is history altered?

*to be clear, I am aware the likelihood of this being the result of a successful Flight to Varennes as the PoD is debated
**the King and the Dauphin having escaped to the Austrian Netherlands, while the Count of Provence escapes as OTL, and their brother, the Count or Artois, has been outside of France for sometime now

CONSOLIDATE: Possible places to start -- how could the elections (just over two months after the PoD) be affected? Alternatively, does this affect the Revolution in Haiti? What about the neutrality policy of the Washington Administration?

Also, I realized I’ve brought up this PoD before with @GauchoBadger and @Cornelis:
John Fredrick Parker said:
I expect it'd be far less full blown than OTL -- even if the war with Austria and Prussia breaks out a few months earlier, the rest of Europe won't be exactly eager to jump in without the execution of the Bourbon king, who TTL has already hightailed it out of there.
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To expand - without Louis being executed, I imagine Naples, Spain, and Portugal won’t be declaring war in early 1793; the Dutch Republic won’t be jumping in either, but depending on French ambitions in the Lowlands, that might not save them; and as to the British, the lack of regicide plus a potentially different policy re the Dutch could make the difference there as well. All told, even if civil war comes to France, with Austria, Prussia, and Sardinia intervening on the side of the Bourbons, the “Orleanist” French could still prevail, and sooner than the French Republic did against the First Republic OTL.
 
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isabella

Prince de Pringondani said:
Would Louis XUI lead the Emigre's or his Brothers?
As soon as the Revolution begins to eat her children Louis Egalite will end at the scaffold
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Well Egalite as King can very well preventing the full political rise of Robespierre and butterfly the Terror as the constitutional monarchy here will stay alive unless Louis XVI can conquer again France
 

John Fredrick Parker

Donor
American Warrior said:
As for the OP, I can see a race between the new French King and the extremists in France to see who can out-radical the other.
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Louis Phillipe II did have a long history of supporting some of the more radical thinkers of the Enlightenment and the Revolution, so it's entirely possible this could happen; that said, it should be remembered that the Jacobins didn't actually do as well as the constitutional monarchists [in the 1791 elections], who TTL are propping up a king significantly to their left. So I'd say it's more a case of radicals taking the opportunity to shift the overton window like nobody's business...
 
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