Princess Marie Isabelle of Orléans

Marie Isabelle de Orléans y de Borbón (María Isabel Francisca de Asís Antonia Luisa Fernanda Cristina Amelia Felipa Adelaida Josefa Elena Enriqueta Carolina Justina Rufina Gasparina Melchora Baltasara Matea; 21 September 1848 – 23 April 1919) was born an infanta of Spain and a Princess of Orléans and became the Countess of Paris by marriage.

She was born in Seville to Prince Antoine, Duke of Montpensier and Infanta Luisa Fernanda of Spain. Antoine was the youngest son of Louis-Philippe I, the last King of France, and Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies. Infanta Luisa was the daughter of Ferdinand VII of Spain and her grandfather's fourth wife Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies. All four of her grandparents and seven of her eight great-grandparents were members of the French Royal House of Bourbon.

Marriage and issue

On 30 May 1864, she married her cousin Philippe d'Orléans, claimant to the French throne as Philippe VII. They had eight children:

• Princess Amélie d'Orléans (1865–1951). She married Carlos I of Portugal in 1886.
• Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans (1869–1926). Married Archduchess Maria Dorothea of Austria daughter of Archduke Joseph Karl of Austria in 1896,
• Princess Hélène d'Orléans (1871–1951). She married Emmanuel Philibert, 2nd Duke of Aosta in 1895.
• Prince Charles d'Orléans (1875–1875).
• Princess Isabelle d'Orléans (1878–1961). She married Prince Jean, Duke of Guise in 1899.
• Prince Jacques d'Orléans (1880–1881).
• Princess Louise d'Orléans (1882–1958). She married Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain in 1907. Through her daughter Maria Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, she was the great-grandmother of King Felipe VI of Spain.
• Ferdinand d'Orléans, Duke of Montpensier (1884–1924). He married Marie Isabelle Gonzales de Olañeta et Ibaretta, Marquesa de Valdeterrazo in 1921.

Forced to leave France, Marie Isabelle and her husband first lived in England, where her father Louis-Philippe I had lived after his abdication in 1848. In 1871 they were allowed to return to France, where they lived in the Hôtel Matignon in Paris and in the château d'Eu in Normandy.

In 1886, they were forced to leave France for a second time. In 1894, her husband died in exile at Stowe House in Buckinghamshire. Marie Isabelle lived in the Randan château in France, and died in 1919 at her palace in Villamanrique de la Condesa, near Seville.

Titles and styles

France

• 21 September 1848 – 30 May 1864: Her Royal Highness Princess Isabelle of Orléans, Infanta of Spain
• 30 May 1864 – 8 September 1894: Her Royal Highness The Countess of Paris
• 8 September 1894 – 23 April 1919: Her Royal Highness The Dowager Countess of Paris

Spain