Henri VI (Nouvion-en-Thiérarche, Aisne, 5 July 1908 - Luxemburg, 19 June 1999) was
King of the French from 25 August 1940 to 29 May 1968, succeeding his father Jean III of the House of Orléans and until he abandoned his throne during the Situationist Revolution.
Henri, from his birth until the Third Restoration in 1925, went from fourth-in-line for the Orléanist claim to Dauphin of France, just aged 17. Even as he spent the Great European War and the Syndicalist War in his family’s compound in Morocco, Henri became convinced that the divine right of kings was made for him, as events had conspired to make France a kingdom again and for the House of Orléans to represent the hope of a humiliated nation against the Syndicalist Ogre. The Dauphin became very invested in politics, throwing his support behind Maurras’ Action Française, even if he finally decided against joining Deloncle’s Pyrist movement, knowing that he would only further distabilize the kingdom. The Dauphin also took notice of the disdain other nations showed to the French-government-in-exile : as his sister managed to marry the King of Montenegro, he himself had no suitable bride behind other European nations, having to marry his cousin Isabelle d’Orléans-Bragance, hailing from the deposed Brazilian Imperial House ; this marriage proved fruitful, as 11 children were born of the union.
When Henri succeeded his father on 25 August 1940, mainland France was under the oppressive yoke of Syndicalist dictator Jacques Doriot ; the French government-in-exile in Algiers had no true army, was torn apart by a far-right uprising in Dakar, claiming to be the Regency for the Kingdom ; Tuaregs, Eburnians and soon the Muslim Brotherhood in Algeria were in open revolt towards the settlers. The situation looked dire, but Henri saw it as a heavenly call for greatness, to cement his role for restablishing the Kingdom of Saint Louis ; he took the regnal name of Henri VI, even as no King had never reigned over France as Henri V, as the number was claimed by the Count of Chambord, the Legitimist grandson of Charles X who refused to return to his throne, wishing for the white flag to fly over France. In placing itself in the continuity of this intransigeant claimant, the new King of the French proclaimed his resolve for his birthright.
The discovery of oil in Sahara turned French treasury for the better and in giving the Presidency of Council to the military in 1942, Henri VI pushed towards a steady repression of independentist movements in exiled France : Algerians were crushed in 1944, Tuaregs in 1943. The outbreak of the World War also helped considerably, as the Algeirs government welcomed the retreating German armies in Africa, allowing for a greater foreign recognition. Under the patronage of the King, the Funchal Agreements in 1946 allowed to reconciliation between the Action Française and the Regency, under the one goal of reconquest of mainland France. The Battle of Morocco, the Allied landings in Andalucia and Pas-de-Calais turned the tables during the World War and on 11 September 1948, a military-civilian committee led by Edmond Michelet formally proclaimed the restablishment of the Kingdom of France in Compiègne, in Mainland France. On 19 September 1949, the Confederation of Workers’ Republic capitulated and self-dissolved ; the following day, as all Allied countries were celebrating Victory Day, King Henri VI landed in Marseille, and would enter Paris as the rightful monarch two days later.
France was exhausted by two great wars, a decade of Doriotism, his population decimated by the concentrated fire of the entire world, the country being partially occupied by the Allies ; the restablishment of a monarchy, far entrenched in Integralism and coming from the other side of the Mediterrean, looked like an anachronism, a century after the fall of Louis-Philippe and after 80 years of republicanism, including 30 of Syndicalism. Nevertheless, under Edmond Michelet’s Restauration Nationale (stemming from the old Action Française and Deloncle’s Francistes), the White Terror made the monarchy stand in the French’s mind.
Henri VI, now seating in the Elysée Palace in Paris, was not that happy. The 1950 Constitution defined his role as a constitutional monarch, even if he retained a right to veto and the power to dissolve both Houses of Parliament ; France was still deprived of Alsace and Lorraine, while the British annexed the Channel Islands and occupied Normandy, Flanders and Wallonia annexed parts of northern France, Italy annexed Corsica and Savoy, Catalonia annexed Roussillon, the Basque Country became independent, Germany occupied Burgundy, Britanny soon became independent in 1955 (even if Occitania and Normandy voted otherwise) and Paris was completely destroyed by the World War and being rebuilt according to Le Corbusier’s modernist plans.
Henri VI was officially deprived of powers, but the King made very clear that he threw his supporter behind Restauration Nationale and even privately funded royalist paramilitary groups during the 1950s, in order to track down Syndicalist insurgents. He repeatedly threw his support behind military coups that reacted to leftist victories in elections, such as Philippe de Hautecloque’s (1955) and Honoré d’Estienne d’Orves’ (1958), the latter of which he particulary approved of, throwing his support behind the Moral Order policies, and threw his support behind the military during the Second Algerian Uprising (even as his second son, Prince François, died in Kabylia in 1960). The soft power of the King was also seen in finding royal matches for his offspring : his son the Dauphin would marry into the Royal House of Württemberg, while his daughters married the heirs of England, Bulgaria, Finland and even the German Kronprinz. Henri VI also encouraged French participation to the European Community and the Reichspakt ; the King was popular abroad, but he was not much seen during the 1954 and 1956 hungers and during the massive race riots against Algerian immigrants in France. As President of Council François Miterrand, who ruled from 1963 to 1968 as a member of the Restauration Nationale, summarized it: “We used to say in France that you don’t need to be more royalist than the King ; with Henri, it has become logically impossible”. On 7 May 1964, evidences of tax evasion by the King were published by L’Express magazine, further breaking the image of Henri VI, who was seen as a distant despot ; the rift was furthered when in response to a general strike in March 1966, the King personally asked the German government to reinforce its military presence in Burgundy.
Henri VI saw the 1968 legislative elections as a mere formality : the war had been won since almost twenty years, Mitterrand had had managed to rule a stable right-wing government for five consecutive years, the regime was blessed by the victory in Algeria, he had established himself as a true leader of the new Europe… The future looked bright. He was blind to the fact that the French Left had managed to find rebuild itself under Marseille’s deputy Gaston Defferre, who had managed to keep in check the most radical elements. The Réconciliation Socialiste Party won the 1968 elections in a landslide on March 12 and according to the Constitution, Henri VI had to form a government under Defferre. On April 27, the King violated the Constitution by dismissing Defferre and appointing Mitterrand in his stead, ordering the military to block all access to the Chamber of Deputies. All political parties condemned the King’s actions and demonstrations were soon taken over by Situationists and Neo-Syndicalist, resulting in massive urban riots and a full-scale civil war.
On the night of 28 to 29 May 1968, King Henri VI and the Royal Family fled incognito to Württemberg, fearing for their lives, without giving notice to the Mitterrand government. What was called the “Second Flight of Varennes” was seen as King Henri VI as a diplomatic voyage, in order to secure German support if the civil conflict escalated, thinking that his absence would convince the political class to call for his return. The King was always blind : the Germans had their own issues to deal with, and the absence of the King was seen as an abdication, resulting in a power vaccum that convinced Christian-Democrat President of the Senate Antoine Pinay to proclaim a Republic on 12 June.
After the French Civil War was over and the Fifth Republic became official, King Henri VI was in Stuttgart, expecting to return and wanted by no one.
The former King, who first tried to no avail to form his own government-in-exile, like in the days in Algiers, was soon given a small palace in Luxemburg, as the government of Württemberg wanted to spend no money for an exiled monarch, despised by all. Henri was extremely wealthy but he dilapitated his fortune in lavish banquets for his few supporters and in funding the Fidélité Royale party, formed to reunite monarchists during the French Fifth Republic. Separating from his wife in 1976, the former King also enacted terrible control over his family, disowning his sons Michel and Thibaut, the former for his poor marriage and the latter for his support for Neo-Syndicalist causes and his association with the Milieu ; he also impeded his heir, the Dauphin Henri, from trying to restore the monarchy as a political candidate, forbidding him to run in a Republic that had overthrown him.
Henri VI was persuaded that he was the providential man for France, that he would one day return from his exile to return her once more to grandeur ; he died after 31 years of exile, his wealth gone, forgotten by all, the day of the wedding of his grandson Eudes, on 19 June 1999, in a German Grand-Duchy. As a courtesy to the former Kings of France, Flanders authorized the burial of the King in Rijsel, the former French city of Lille, so that the former King would close to his homeland.
