Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême

Louis XIX
Louis XIX
Duke of Angoulême; Count of Marnes
Legitimist pretender to the French throne; as Louis XIX
Pretence	6 November 1836 – 3 June 1844
Predecessor	Charles X
Successor	Henry V
Born	6 August 1775; Palace of Versailles, Kingdom of France
Died	3 June 1844 (aged 68); Gorizia, Austrian Empire
Burial	Kostanjevica Monastery, Nova Gorica, Slovenia
Spouse	Marie-Thérèse of France (m. 1799)
Roman Catholicism
Signature

Louis Antoine of France, Duke of Angoulême (6 August 1775 – 3 June 1844) was the elder son of Charles X and the last Dauphin of France from 1824 to 1830. He is identified by the Guinness World Records as the shortest-reigning monarch, reigning for less than 20 minutes during the July Revolution,^[1] but this is not backed up by historical evidence.^[2] He never reigned over the country, but after his father's death in 1836, he was the legitimist pretender as Louis XIX.

He was a

Dauphin de France, and his surname changed to de France, following the royal custom for princes with such rank.^[3]

Biography

Early life

Louis Antoine was born at Versailles, as the eldest son of

Maria Antonia of Spain

.

From 1780 to 1789, Louis Antoine and his younger brother,

Prince of Condé

.

In June 1795, his uncle, the comte de Provence, proclaimed himself King

Duchy of Brunswick, hoping to join the Austrian Army. The defeat of Austria by France obliged them to flee, and they took refuge in Mittau, Courland, under the protection of Tsar Paul I of Russia

.

There, on 10 June 1799, Louis Antoine married his first cousin,

Temple Prison

in 1795, she had been living at the Austrian court. They had no children.

Military service

In April 1800, Louis Antoine took command of a regiment of cavalry in the

battle of Hohenlinden

against the French, showing some ability.

In early 1801, Tsar Paul made peace with

Napoleon Bonaparte, and the French court in exile fled to Warsaw, then controlled by Prussia. For the next ten years, Louis Antoine accompanied and advised his uncle, Louis XVIII. They returned to Russia when Alexander I became Tsar, but in mid-1807 the treaty between Napoleon and Alexander forced them to take refuge in Britain. There, at Hartwell House, King Louis reconstituted his court, and Louis-Antoine was granted an allowance of £300 a month. Twice (in 1807 and 1813) he attempted to return to Russia to join the fight against Napoleon, but was refused by the Tsar. He remained in Britain until 1814 when he sailed to Bordeaux, which had declared for the King. His entry into the city on 12 March 1814 was regarded as the beginning of the Bourbon restoration. From there, Louis Antoine fought alongside the Duke of Wellington

to bring about Napoleon's overthrow.

Flight to Britain and return

Louis Antoine was, as chief of the royalist army in the southern

Ferdinand VII of Spain was firmly restored. For this achievement, he was offered the title of Prince of Trocadero.^[5]

Upon the Louis XVIII's death in 1824, his father became King

father's coronation in Reims

in May 1825.

July Revolution

In the July Revolution of 1830, masses of angry demonstrators demanded the abdication of Charles. He reluctantly signed the document of abdication on 2 August 1830. It is said that Louis Antoine, who relinquished his right to the throne, became king "Louis XIX" between his father's signature and his own,^[6] but in the abdication document he is only referred as "Louis Antoine". The document was signed in favour of his nephew Henri, duke of Bordeaux. For the final time he left for exile, where he was known as the "count of Marnes".^[2]

Louis Antoine and his wife travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland, in November 1830 and took up residence in a house at 21 (now 22) Regent Terrace^[7]^[8] near Holyrood Palace where Charles X was staying.^[9]

Emperor Francis I of Austria offered the Prague Castle in Prague to the royal entourage in 1832, so Louis-Antoine and Charles X moved there. Francis I, however, died in 1835, and his successor Ferdinand I told the French royal family that he needed the palace for his coronation in the summer of 1836.^[9] The exiled French kings and their entourage therefore left and eventually arrived at the palace of Grafenberg^[10] in Görz, Austria on 21 October 1836.^[9]

Many

Franciscan monastery of Kostanjevica in Nova Gorica, Slovenia

. Upon his death, his nephew the Duke of Bordeaux became head of the Bourbon royal family of France under the regnal name Henry V, although he used the title of Count of Chambord in exile.