The French monarchy and WW2

Thande

Donor
Had a thought earlier...what did the various rival claimants to the French throne do during the occupation in the Second World War?

The Armenian Genocide informs me that:

The Legitimist claimant was Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia, second son of Alfonso XIII of Spain. He was deaf-mute and renounced his claim to the throne of Spain because of this, but in 1941 proclaimed his claim to the throne of France as Henri V - though doing nothing about it.

The Orleanist claimant was Henri, Comte de Paris, who was refused entry to the French and British Armies in 1939 so joined the French Foreign Legion.

The Bonapartist claimant was Louis, Prince Napoléon, who claimed to be Napoleon VI. He also was refused entry to the French Army so joined the Foreign Legion, then the French Resistance and was briefly captured by the Nazis.


Note that at the time France had a law which exiled all members of the royal families, which was not repealed until 1950.

Now, two questions: one, could any of these men played a significant enough role to lead to the restoration of the French monarchy after WW2 (unlikely at this stage, I know) or two, could any of them have turned traitor if the Nazis and Petain had made Vichy France a kingdom and offered its throne up?

In the first aspect I think the most likely candidate is Louis, who seemed to get on reasonably well with de Gaulle and certainly fought hard both in North Africa and under the Occupation. For the second, probably Jaime, given Franco.

Thoughts?
 
Hrmm. It's a fun thought, but I can't see it. By the 1930s monarchism was mostly dead in France, with the only question being what shape could the Republic take.

I could see Louis ending up as the President, though.
 
Fun is that a good deal of Petain's ministers were Monarchists :D including the influential Education Minister.

Quite strange if a traditionalist, catholic and pro-monarchy government was forced to order the execution of a claimant ... !
 
Louis Bonaparte probably had the best chance, but only if de Gaulle restored the monarchy rather than create the Fifth Republic in the late fifties.

The Axis, with one exception (Croatia), never installed monarchs in their puppet states, even if said countries had perfectly logical candidates. I think there was some talk of putting Grand Duke Vladimir in charge of a Russian puppet state, but I don't think it went anywhere.
 
This is an interesting idea, actually. There is little doubt that all three candidates will try to exploit the fragile Vichy state and try to gain some power there, although which one of the three candidates and at what point in history is pretty uncertain though. An american invasion in Morroco of '42 and subsequent collapse of the Vichy Regime might offer some boost to this idea and either candidate's claim to the Vichy throne, as Germany was more in search of loyal vassals than of direct annexation of french land.

Should either of the three claimants get to the Vichy Throne, they would also be likely to remain as neutral as possible in the war. Should they join the Allies following the invasion of Normandy (joining the Axis in mid-1944 would mean :( for the survival of the vichy state), France would probably be split into two separate nations after the war's end; a nothern republic and a southern (vichy) monarchy.
 

Xen

Banned
I doubt the Bonapartist or Orleanist claimant would get a shot during a Vichy France era, the legitimist might get one if say the Nazi's win and when Petain dies, sort of like the situation with Franco in Spain. This could also happen if say Petain saw the writing on the wall and attacked the Nazi's and earning the support of the United States and Great Britain.

If the allies win, then it is a very long shot. I don't see how anybody can claim one has a better shot than the other, that's based on wishful thinking and not any real evidence. Monarchists had just collaborated with the enemy, and both the Orleanists and the Bonapartists were part of the French Foreign Legion and the Resistance, but that did not do enough to gain them any support in OTL.

The only way I can see this happening is if say de Gaulle is shot by a Nazi Sympathizer, and many of the other leaders of the Free French are somehow discredited or likewise murdered. The people of France needing a hero hears of the exploits of one of the pretenders and embraces him, this works out even better if say the pretender leads a band of American supplied volunteers to liberate Paris. Then maybe, just maybe the monarchy might sneak back in there.
 
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