AHC Switch the fates of the House of Orléans and (French) Bourbon

My challenge is to have a French royal family - descended from Louis XV/*Louis XVI in the male line - survive to the present day (France does not necessarily have to remain a monarchy, bonus points if it does), by switching the fates of the house of Orléans and the main line of Bourbons. The earliest POD is no later than the execution of LXVI, and you can do really anything (as long as it's believable) to allow the survival and fecundity of such a royal family (oh, and if Condé and/or Conti survive, it's equally okay).

*Not a necessity in the male line, but grandchildren for Louis & Antoinette are a definite plus
 
Well the easiest would be for the Dauphin Louis-Charles live. Either by escaping or living through Napoleon's fall.
 
What would switching their fates entail? As far as I know it wasn't that one of them did well and the other collapsed. Both lost power and where replaced first by the Bonapartes and second by a republic.
 
What would switching their fates entail? As far as I know it wasn't that one of them did well and the other collapsed. Both lost power and where replaced first by the Bonapartes and second by a republic.

It's more a question of the main line of the Bourbons surviving, than for them to actually stay in power. The Bourbons seem to have been the less fertile end of the stick (Henri V was called Dieudonné for a reason), while the house of Orléans of LP (the last man standing of his house) married Marie Amelie and boom! he got ten kids out the deal - including five boys who survived to adulthood.

And within fifty/sixty years the Orléans kids were married in Portugal, Brazil, Spain, attempts at England and Russia, Austria, and your smaller German Catholic houses like a plague of locusts, while the Comte de Chambord, the last of his line (the male descent from Louis XV) languished alone in exile.
 
It's more a question of the main line of the Bourbons surviving, than for them to actually stay in power. The Bourbons seem to have been the less fertile end of the stick (Henri V was called Dieudonné for a reason), while the house of Orléans of LP (the last man standing of his house) married Marie Amelie and boom! he got ten kids out the deal - including five boys who survived to adulthood.

And within fifty/sixty years the Orléans kids were married in Portugal, Brazil, Spain, attempts at England and Russia, Austria, and your smaller German Catholic houses like a plague of locusts, while the Comte de Chambord, the last of his line (the male descent from Louis XV) languished alone in exile.

Okay. Still don't really see the difference. I mean they're basically the same family anyway. Just cousins. I mean Orleans only took over once and managed to mismanage it to the point that the Bonapartes got a second chance which had it not been for the Franco-Prussian wars would have been the real winners of this.
 
Okay. Still don't really see the difference. I mean they're basically the same family anyway. Just cousins. I mean Orleans only took over once and managed to mismanage it to the point that the Bonapartes got a second chance which had it not been for the Franco-Prussian wars would have been the real winners of this.

If you can get the Bourbons to last longer than they did on the throne - not impossible with a few tweaks to the lineup (for instance the d'Angoulêmes producing an heir during the exile or early in the Restauration) then more power to you. If we go the route of Louis Charles surviving and having kids and he is more pragmatic about things on the Restauration (LXVIII was, yes, but Charles X undid it and spent the rest of his life in exile with his son and grandkids as a result), then we might see a Bourbon dynasty (if not a French monarchy) survive to the present day.

And the Bourbons lost out on getting their throne back after the Franco-German war because (I'm sure amongst other things) Chambord wouldn't compromise on the flag. An earlier offer had been to let him be educated by Talleyrand in the "liberal" manner which his mother, the duchesse de Berri approved of (however, she was banned from seeing her kids due to her remarriage), so Charles X and Madame Royale supervised a Jesuit-instructed education.
 
Okay. Still don't really see the difference. I mean they're basically the same family anyway. Just cousins. I mean Orleans only took over once and managed to mismanage it to the point that the Bonapartes got a second chance which had it not been for the Franco-Prussian wars would have been the real winners of this.

Not even close. The two branches couldn't be more different. The Bourbon dynasty was the LEGITIMATE royal line, the Orleans were nothing more then usurpers. And they had different supporters for one. The Bourbons had the support of the Church, the old nobility and occasionally the rural peasants. The Orleans' mainly came from the cities and the bourgeoisie. The d'Orleans were also more liberal, ie their power came from popular sovereignty. Look at their title "King of the French" versus the Bourbon's "King of France and Navarre." The Bourbons represented tradition and the old order, while the d'Orleans tried to form a middle ground between their cousins and the Bonapartes, which ended up failing.

As to the challenge, here's a relatively easy idea. When Louis-Philippe III d'Orleans (the future Louis-Philippe I of France) got married, he was the only surviving male of the House of d'Orleans. Just have this marriage be barren or have him die before fathering a son. That way the Orleans line slowly go extinct. For the Bourbons, have a double POD. Have the Duc et Duchesse d'Angouleme have a son in her 1813 pregnancy (which OTL ended in a miscarriage). Then have the Duc de Berri not be assassinated. He had fathered three (with a fourth in the oven) children at the time of his death, so he could reasonably father more kids. There you go, the Bourbon line continues and the d'Orleans go extinct.
 
As to the challenge, here's a relatively easy idea. When Louis-Philippe III d'Orleans (the future Louis-Philippe I of France) got married, he was the only surviving male of the House of d'Orleans. Just have this marriage be barren or have him die before fathering a son. That way the Orleans line slowly go extinct. For the Bourbons, have a double POD. Have the Duc et Duchesse d'Angouleme have a son in her 1813 pregnancy (which OTL ended in a miscarriage). Then have the Duc de Berri not be assassinated. He had fathered three (with a fourth in the oven) children at the time of his death, so he could reasonably father more kids. There you go, the Bourbon line continues and the d'Orleans go extinct.

An interesting idea is by marrying Maria Amelia - OTL Queen of the French - to Louis XVII Charles (as their mothers originally planned to do), and thereby deprive LP of his numerous progeny. He [LP] can still marry someone else - but who?
 
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