After the French Revolution and the defeat of Napoleon, Louis XVI’s brothers returned to France. As Louis XVIII had never had children, he would be succeeded by his younger brother the Comte d’Artois (who became Charles X in 1824 when Louis died).
His elder son married his cousin, Marie-Thérèse, the daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. They were married in exile. With the returned monarchy under Charles X they were next in line to the throne. However, they never had children so the fate of the Bourbon monarchy depended on Charles X’s younger son, known as the Duke de Berri.
The Duke de Berri married Princess Marie-Caroline of Naples and Sicily after the re-establishment of the Bourbon monarchy in France.
Unfortunately the prospects for an heir from them were also not looking good when the Duchess’ first two babies died within days of their birth.
Their third child was a girl (who therefore could not inherit the throne). Five months after his daughter’s birth, the Duke de Berri was assassinated. It meant the end of the Bourbon dynasty – EXCEPT that the Duchess de Berri happened to be several weeks pregnant at the time.
The Bourbons awaited the birth with baited breath.
The “miracle child” was born in September 1820 and occupied this oak cradle with a veneer of ash, elm, walnut and amaranth and extensive gilded bronze trim. Silver braided white velvet lined the inside with two green silk curtains with a border of gold fleur de lys hanging from the top of the horn of abundance above two other gold fringed muslin curtains.
When Charles X was forced to abdicate in 1830, he convinced his reluctant elder son to abdicate at the same time. He made it known they were abdicating in favour of his grandson, who was then 9 years old.*
The Chambers did not agree and Louis-Philippe was named King of the French.
*This “miracle child” grew up to be known as the Comte de Chambord. He almost became king many years later when Napoleon III was defeated but his insistence that the French tricolour flag be replaced with a white fleur de lys flag was unacceptable and a Third Republic took over from the Second Empire.
It was the end of the Bourbon dynasty.
