| | The position of the Orléans brothers improved in America; it was safe for them to live under their own names, and the French ''émigré'' communities there, being a mix of royalists, moderate republicans, and radicals, were too diverse to shun them entirely.<ref>Childs, Frances Sergeant. French Refugee Life in the United States: 1790-1800, an American Chapter of the French Revolution. Philadelphia: Porcupine, 1978. Print.</ref> Louis Philippe traveled during this time to [[New York City]] and [[Boston]], among other places, and met a number of prominent American statesmen, including [[George Washington]], [[Alexander Hamilton]], and [[John Jay]]. In late 1797, however, the Directory decided to expel his mother to Spain; now that she was no longer its potential hostage, Louis Philippe and his brothers made plans to return to Europe. After lengthy detours through Spanish Louisiana and [[Cuba]], they arrived in Great Britain in January 1800. Befriending Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, a son of [[George III]], Louis Philippe obtained a pension from the British government, and taught math and geography at the Great Ealing School outside [[London]] for the next eight years. | | The position of the Orléans brothers improved in America; it was safe for them to live under their own names, and the French ''émigré'' communities there, being a mix of royalists, moderate republicans, and radicals, were too diverse to shun them entirely.<ref>Childs, Frances Sergeant. French Refugee Life in the United States: 1790-1800, an American Chapter of the French Revolution. Philadelphia: Porcupine, 1978. Print.</ref> Louis Philippe traveled during this time to [[New York City]] and [[Boston]], among other places, and met a number of prominent American statesmen, including [[George Washington]], [[Alexander Hamilton]], and [[John Jay]]. In late 1797, however, the Directory decided to expel his mother to Spain; now that she was no longer its potential hostage, Louis Philippe and his brothers made plans to return to Europe. After lengthy detours through Spanish Louisiana and [[Cuba]], they arrived in Great Britain in January 1800. Befriending Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, a son of [[George III]], Louis Philippe obtained a pension from the British government, and taught math and geography at the Great Ealing School outside [[London]] for the next eight years. |
| − | During this period of exile in Britain, the Orléans family also reconciled with its Bourbon cousins. Louis XVI's younger brothers, the Count of Provence--now King [[Louis XVIII]]--and the Count of Artois--the future King Charles X. Though Louis XVIII, as official head of the Bourbon family, was deeply resentful and suspicious of the House of Orléans, and shared the belief that they were partly to blame for his brother's death, the two families agreed to set aside their differences, at least publicly, for the sake of presenting a united front in the campaign to restore the French monarchy. | + | During this period of exile in Britain, the Orléans family also reconciled with its Bourbon cousins. Louis XVI's younger brothers, the Count of Provence--now King [[Louis XVIII]]--and the Count of Artois--the future King Charles X. Though Louis XVIII, as official head of the Bourbon family, was deeply resentful and suspicious of the House of Orléans, and shared the belief that they were partly to blame for his brother's death, the two families agreed to set aside their differences, at least publicly, for the sake of presenting a united front in the campaign to restore the French monarchy. |
| | + | As head of the Orléans family, Louis Philippe was expected to marry and produce heirs (the more so as his two younger brothers died in 1807 and 1808 without issue). After his suit for the hand of Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of King George III, was rejected on account of his Catholicism, the duke turned to a distant Bourbon cousin: Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, the daughter of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and a niece of [[Marie Antoinette]]. Given the stain on the Orléans name due to the execution of Louis XVI (and by extension, it was felt, his queen), there were some objections to the match from Maria Amalia's mother, but these were overcome, and the 36-year-old duke and the 27-year-old princess were wed in the Sicilian city of [[Palermo]] on November 25, 1809. |
| | + | Shortly afterward, Louis Philippe attempted to travel to Spain to take part in the [[Peninsular War]] the British and Portuguese were waging against Napoleon's armies. The British rejected this, however, as the political implications of a man with a potential claim to the French throne being actively engaged in the conflict were too uncertain. Thereafter, the duke and his new wife settled in Palermo and remained there until 1814. During this time, they did indeed begin producing heirs, ultimately having ten children in all, of whom eight (five boys and three girls) survived to adulthood. |
| | + | Early on, Louis Philippe was joined in Palermo by his sister, Adélaïde, who like him had been on the move a great deal since their previous departure in Switzerland. Intelligent and of strong character, Adélaïde now chose to move into her brother's household rather than seek marriage herself, and would remain by his side for the rest of her life, becoming close to Maria Amalia and the children as well. As time went on, she became especially important to Louis Philippe as a confidante and political adviser, and frequently was regarded as the real driving force within the House of Orléans. Historian Mike Duncan has said of the relationship between the siblings: "It eventually became impossible to tell where his thoughts ended and hers began."<ref>[https://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/3/3/a/33a909914d20610b/6.06-_The_Duc_dOrleans_Master.mp3?c_id=14924118&cs_id=14924118&expiration=1641682709&hwt=0ae52d82939cc1df1d6d2463d83f9af0 Revolutions Podcast Episode 6.06: The Duc d'Orleans]. 16 April 2017.</ref> |