AHC restore the French monarchy (constitutional figurehead only)

The Ultra-legitimist monarchists have more or less merged with the Carlists in Spain, as the current "Duc de Anjou" is a Spanish Bourbon.

The Bonapartists I know the least about, but I do know they live in Corsica, and one pretender ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Ajaccio a few years ago.

It's a bit more complex than that. Charles Napoléon (Napoleon VII) did stand for mayor, sat in the City Council and became deputy mayor of Ajaccio.

However, because he went republican his father's will actually bypassed him and went direct to his son Jean-Christophe (Napoleon VIII). There's a minor feud in the supporters, but not the family itself and lives in Switzerland I think.

Interestingly enough, he's also a descendent of both Louis XV and Louis Philippe.
 
heres a question, whatd happen if a legitimate heir of the Orleanist house and the Bonaparte house married?..like in the future as wont happen atm....

would this strengthen both their ties to a renewed monarchy in France or cause more division between the two pretending parties?
 
heres a question, whatd happen if a legitimate heir of the Orleanist house and the Bonaparte house married?..like in the future as wont happen atm....

would this strengthen both their ties to a renewed monarchy in France or cause more division between the two pretending parties?

Umm... I don't think France is ready for a gay royal couple. Salic law means women can't inherit, so both heirs have to be male.
 
I agree 100%. Before WWII, many Frenchmen may have thought that the Orleans were decent people, although not worthy of being King. Vichy and the far-right in the 1930s totally destroyed that sentiment. Nowadays, they come across as too close to being collaborators, fascist apologists, and are derided by most people, especially when the previous pretender's estate problems were publicized.
Ah. Didn't know they were associated with Vichy. Yep. That'd kill their chances right there.
 
Ah. Didn't know they were associated with Vichy. Yep. That'd kill their chances right there.

I'm not sure if they personally were (Henri 'VI' was in the Foreign Legion during WWII, but I'm not sure if he went Vichy or Free). The main Orleanist and Unionist factions were pretty ultra-right and were highly involved with Vichy, though.
 
I'm not sure if they personally were (Henri 'VI' was in the Foreign Legion during WWII, but I'm not sure if he went Vichy or Free). The main Orleanist and Unionist factions were pretty ultra-right and were highly involved with Vichy, though.

This is accurate. The Orleans were never supporters of Vichy publicly, but guilt by association with plenty of monarchists being the types who ended up joining the Milice and such made monarchism a socially unacceptable political ideology after WWII.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
I'm not sure if they personally were (Henri 'VI' was in the Foreign Legion during WWII, but I'm not sure if he went Vichy or Free). The main Orleanist and Unionist factions were pretty ultra-right and were highly involved with Vichy, though.
A big issue is that many of the more vocal pre-War monarchists became collaborators due to their fundamental agreement with the Vichy regime's conservatism. So even though the Royals were largely silent, the poor decisions of some of their more notable followers tainted them by association.
 
I do wonder how a Carlist restoration might work, just for the nuttiness of it. For part of the period in question, it would mean personal union with Spain. It seems like France would have to be in very dire straits to have such a thing (French Carlism places you to the right of Louis XIV).

Internet searches indicate that the current Carlist pretender is quite popular, if only because he's quite handsome.
 
I do wonder how a Carlist restoration might work, just for the nuttiness of it. For part of the period in question, it would mean personal union with Spain. It seems like France would have to be in very dire straits to have such a thing (French Carlism places you to the right of Louis XIV).

Internet searches indicate that the current Carlist pretender is quite popular, if only because he's quite handsome.

It would be extremely hard to pull off. The Orleanists/Unionists called the Ultra-legitimist faction "Blancs d'Espagne", meaning that they were more Spanish than Frenchmen.

I could easily see the Carlist claimant being overthrow in a coup just because of the disdain for a "foreign" ruler.
 
I have an idea of the Comte de Chambord and all the Orleans clan gathering together in a show of unity after the monarchy is restored. Then, a republican bomb kills all of them, unleashing a wave of monarchist sympathy and anti-republican sentiment. I think that, even then, people might be more keen on recalling the young Prince Imperial than to get the Count of Montizon.
 
Umm... I don't think France is ready for a gay royal couple. Salic law means women can't inherit, so both heirs have to be male.

why i said in the future....laws change and although most royal families hate change, they usually do accept being dragged kicking and screaming into it...eventually...besides if they want the throne badly enough again, if its ever offered to them, theyll change...plus..whats wrong with having two guys on a throne?
 
I have an idea of the Comte de Chambord and all the Orleans clan gathering together in a show of unity after the monarchy is restored. Then, a republican bomb kills all of them, unleashing a wave of monarchist sympathy and anti-republican sentiment. I think that, even then, people might be more keen on recalling the young Prince Imperial than to get the Count of Montizon.

That's crazy enough to might work. But I agree, many Anti-Republicans would probably give the Bonapartes another shot than farm out the throne to a Spaniard, most at this point have come to terms with the Treaty of Utrecht.
 
That's crazy enough to might work. But I agree, many Anti-Republicans would probably give the Bonapartes another shot than farm out the throne to a Spaniard, most at this point have come to terms with the Treaty of Utrecht.

The other issue being that Montizon was also the pretender to Spain, which might strain relations somewhat, and he was living with a Protestant Englishwoman who he had several kids with. Hardly the sort that the psycho ultra-Catholic right, who would otherwise form his natural base, would want.
 

Archibald

Banned
My opinion is, a restauration of the french monarchy past 1883 and Chambord death is very much like an american second civil war, or a successful operation sea mammal (you know).

As for the bourbons - it all boils down to Louis XIV.
His brother gave us the Orleans (still alive and well, in Paris)
his two grandsons resulted in
a) the Louis XV lineage, that went extinct with Chambord, in 1883
b) the spanish bourbons that were installed there in 1700 (Philip V) and are still alive and well.
an amusing (and totally ASB) TL would be a franco-spanish war over a french restauration of the monarchy... where the spanish Bourbons would be the best pretenders (because they are the last direct great grandsons of Louix XIV, better than the Orleans, which stopped at Louis XIII)
Kind of modern-day war of succession as happened frequently in the middle ages and renaissance...
 
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