Y OTRAS PERLITAS...
* DECEMBER 19, 2008
Prince Jean's Ready to Rule France, If the French Would Only Let Him
He Has a Rival, No Heir, but He Can Rise Above Other Problems; 'I Love Our Peasants'
JEAN D'ORLÉANS
By MAX COLCHESTER
<p align="justify">PARIS -- More than two centuries after the French cut off their king's head, a pretender to France's throne is planning a royal wedding.
Prince Jean d'Orléans, Duke of Vendôme, announced earlier this month that, at the age of 43, he will soon marry, with the hope of extending his royal line. His descendants would then be ready if the French monarchy -- which was toppled by the bloody Revolution of 1789 -- is ever brought back.
"Maybe one day the monarchy will be restored in France," said Prince Jean as he strolled around the gardens of the Palais Royal in central Paris. "The prince can't just sit back and wait. He must make his mark."
Europe has many families descended from old monarchies. But most are happy just to enjoy the social status their backgrounds confer.
Prince Jean's ambitions are unusual -- and perhaps far-fetched. France restored the monarchy in the 19th century as many as four times, depending on definitions, but has since chosen to stay a republic. Alliance Royale, a group that wants to choose a king by referendum, got just 0.031% of the vote in the 2004 European elections.
"The idea of going back 200 years is unthinkable," says Charles Napoléon, a politician descended from a brother of Napoléon Bonaparte.
Moreover, even if France decided it wanted its monarchy back, Prince Jean would have to battle a claim from a rival family -- the Bourbons, who share a family name with the executed king, Louis XVI. Meanwhile, his own dynasty is struggling to end years of decline.
Prince Jean does his best to live like a king.
He has no official status and little public recognition, and he has to work for a living. He has been a financial consultant, and he now works full time promoting French heritage.
But he still carries out a program of "royal" engagements, aided by a staff of 30. He tours France 10 times a year, meeting mayors and visiting factories, where he says people see him as a reminder of French history. He also makes an annual overseas visit. He has discussed foreign policy with Vatican officials, has performed a tribal dance with Houma Native Americans in Louisiana, and traveled to the North Pole to raise awareness of climate change.
In November, he wrote to Charles, Prince of Wales, to congratulate him on his 60th birthday, and received a thank-you letter in return from his secretary.
Prince Jean says he is a
modern royal, and he cultivates an appropriately
modest, varied lifestyle. He rides around Paris on a rusty bicycle, and his favorite movie is "Beverly Hills Cop II." In his spare time, he enjoys hunting, windsurfing and collecting ornamental knives. If aides address him as "Your Royal Highness," he tells them: "Just call me 'Prince Jean.'"
His main rivals call him a fraud.
The Bourbon family is directly descended from Louis XIV, who ruled France between 1643 and 1715. The Orléans are related to Louis Philippe I, who ruled France between 1830 and 1848 and was related to Louis XIV's younger brother.
Rival Claim
The current Bourbon pretender to the French throne is Prince Louis Alphonse Duke of Anjou, who lives in Venezuela. His adviser, Jacques De Bauffremont-Courtenay, Duke of Bauffremont, declined requests for an interview with Prince Louis, but said that this lineage gave his man the best claim to the French throne.
He said that in addition to the Orléans' less-direct lineage, they had helped trigger the French Revolution by hoarding a shipment of grain sent from the U.S. in 1788. The grain was intended to relieve a famine, and a year later the starving peasants revolted.
"They are criminals....It would be a disaster if they came to power," said the 86-year-old duke. "They have betrayed us at every turn."
[Prince Jean]
Jean d'Orléans
Prince Jean says the
modern-day Bourbons have one fatal flaw: They are Spanish.
Though originally French, Prince Louis's ancestors ended up ruling Spain, and he is a distant cousin of the current Spanish king. That, according to the Orléans, disqualifies him from being king because of an old tradition banning foreigners from the French throne.
"Why doesn't Prince Louis start by ruling Spain?" says Prince Jean.
Relations between the families soured in the late 1980s when Prince Jean's father took the Bourbons to court. He demanded they be banned from using the title Duke of Anjou, which is what French monarchs often gave their children, as well as the royal insignia, called the fleur-de-lis. The court at first found in favor of the Bourbons but then threw the case out, saying that as a republican institution it should not be concerned with royal affairs.
Spendthrift Grandfather
Prince Jean's deeper problem is the decline of his own house. The Orléans were one of France's wealthiest families until the prince's grandfather spent a large part of the family fortune. The count entertained in Paris's Ritz hotel, and financed a royalty-theme monthly newsletter, which he had delivered free of charge to about 50,000 influential people. He also lost money through a series of bad investments.
Prince Jean's father, Henri, Count of Paris, tried to make money by launching an eau de toilette called "Royalissime," but it didn't take off. In October, the family auctioned off heirlooms including a lock of hair of executed Queen Marie Antoinette. The family seat, the vast Chateau d'Amboise, was taken over by a trust in the 1970s because inheritance law in the French republic does not allow all family wealth to go the eldest son. Prince Jean's land is limited to a tract of forest in northern France.
Reality TV
In 2006, one of Prince Jean's cousins appeared on a reality TV show called "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here," in which minor celebrities are dumped in a jungle and eat insects.
Prince Jean hopes hard work will help re-establish his family's legitimacy and allow him to serve France and its people. "I love our cathedrals, I love our wines," he explains. "And I love our peasants."
He says that if he reigned, he would by dint of his steady presence help make France's government and economy more efficient. However, he is careful to tread a neutral political line: "I am neither left-wing nor right-wing. I am above."
While Prince Jean recognizes that he himself may never grace the throne, he remains confident that he is laying the foundations for future French kings.
For his wedding in May to a Viennese woman named Doña Philomena de Tornos y Steinhart, he plans to invite representatives from most of Europe's monarchies, including Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Afterward, he plans to start the serious business of creating heirs.
"My actions sow ideas. But the man who sows ideas doesn't necessarily see them flower."</p>
