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Marie Isabelle
Countess of Paris
Consort of the Orléanist pretender to the French throne
Pretendence	30 May 1864 – 5 August 1873
Consort of the Unionist pretender to the French throne
Pretendence	24 August 1883 – 8 September 1894
Born	(1848-09-21)21 September 1848 Royal Alcázars of Seville, Seville, Spain
Died	23 April 1919(1919-04-23) (aged 70) Palacio de Orléans, Villamanrique de la Condesa, Spain
Spouse	Prince Philippe, Count of Paris ​ ​(m. 1864; died 1894)​
Issue	Amélie, Queen of Portugal Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans Princess Hélène, Duchess of Aosta Princess Isabelle, Duchess of Guise Louise, Infanta Carlos of Spain Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Montpensier
Names French: Marie Isabelle Françoise d’Asis Antoinette Louise Ferdinande Christine Amélie Philippine Adélaïde Joséphine Hélène Henriette Caroline Justine Rufine Gasparine Melchiore Baltassare Mâté d’Orléans Spanish: María Isabel Francisca de Asís Antonia Luisa Fernanda Cristina Amelia Felipa Adelaida Josefa Elena Enriqueta Carolina Justina Rufina Gasparina Melchora Baltasara Matea
House	Orléans
Father	Prince Antoine, Duke of Montpensier
Mother	Infanta Luisa Fernanda of Spain

Princess Marie Isabelle of Orléans (María Isabel de Orleans y Borbón; 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.

Biography

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 Naples and Sicily. Infanta Luisa was the daughter of Ferdinand VII of Spain and his 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 at St. Raphael's Church in Kingston upon Thames, England, when she was only fifteen, Isabelle 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 of 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.

As the French royal family had been in exile since their grandfather King Louis Philippe abdicated in 1848, Marie Isabelle and her husband first lived at York House, Twickenham. In 1871 the family was allowed to return to France, where they lived in the Hôtel Matignon in Paris and in the Château d'Eu in Normandy.

The Countess of Paris was known for her rather masculine habits of smoking cigars and participating in field sports, especially shooting, yet could surprise people with her elegance on formal occasions.

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 Château de Randan in France, and died in 1919 at her palace in Villamanrique de la Condesa, near Seville.

Ancestry

References

1. "Esta noche ha dado á luz con toda felicidad S.A.R. la Serma. Sra. Infanta Doña María Luisa Fernanda una princesa" (PDF). Gaceta de Madrid. September 25, 1848.
2. Hanson, The Wandering Princess, 30, 32

• Généalogie des rois et des princes by Jean-Charles Volkmann Edit. Jean-Paul Gisserot (1998)
• "The Wandering Princess: Princess Hélène of France, Duchess of Aosta (1871-1951), by Edward Hanson. Fonthill, 2017.

External links

• Le château d'Eu musée Louis-Philippe The museum in the château d'Eu

v t e Princesses of Orléans by marriage
1st generation	Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Princess Francisca of Brazil Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies Infanta Luisa Fernanda of Spain
2nd generation	Princess Marie Isabelle of Orléans* Princess Françoise of Orléans* Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria Infanta Eulalia of Spain
3rd generation	Archduchess Maria Dorothea of Austria Princess Isabelle of Orléans* Princess Henriette of Belgium Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Marie Constance Say**
4th generation	Isabelle, Countess of Paris
5th generation	Duchess Marie-Thérèse of Württemberg Micaela Cousiño**
6th generation	Philomena de Tornos Steinhart** Diana Álvares Pereira de Melo, 11th Duchess of Cadaval
* also a princess of Orléans in her own right ** did not belong by birth to a dynastic or titled noble family

• 1848 births
• 1919 deaths
• Spanish infantas
• Princesses of France (Orléans)
• Countesses of Paris
• House of Orléans-Galliera
• People from Seville
• Burials at the Chapelle royale de Dreux
• Dames of the Order of Saint Isabel