Prince Charles Philippe, Duke of Anjou

Marriage and issue

On 21 June 2008, Charles-Philippe married Diana Álvares Pereira de Melo, 11th Duchess of Cadaval. The ceremony took place in the Cathedral of Évora. Both husband and wife are Capetians, descending in unbroken male line from King Robert II of France (972-1031), Charles-Philippe through the elder son, King Henry I of France, via the cadet branch of the House of Bourbon-Orléans, and Diana from his younger son Robert I, Duke of Burgundy through the royal (though illegitimate) Portuguese branch of the House of Braganza. The couple are also fifth cousins once-removed through shared descent from King Francis I of the Two Sicilies.

Charles-Philippe's children by Diana will inherit the title Prince/Princess d'Orléans and the style of Royal Highness from their father. The couple's sons will, by tradition, also receive individual noble titles derived from the historical appanages of the French royal family. Their first child, Princess Isabelle d'Orléans, was born on 22 February 2012 in Lisbon, Portugal. Her godparents are Princess Dora Lowenstein and Felipe VI of Spain (then Prince of Asturias)

Politics

Charles-Philippe was an independent candidate in the 2012 French legislative election, standing in the Fifth constituency for French residents overseas, which covers Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Monaco. As a candidate, he described himself as "strongly attached to France's republican values", adding that he might subsequently join "a recomposed centre-right party". He finished seventh, with 3.05% of the vote. (Within the constituency, he finished fourth in Portugal, his country of residence, with 7.37%, and fourth also in Monaco, with 5.33%.)

Order of Saint Lazarus (statuted 1910)

In 2004, Prince Charles-Philippe was appointed Grand Master of the Orléans obedience of Order of Saint Lazarus (statuted 1910). Prince Charles-Philippe's acceptance of this role placed the order under the sanction of a dynastic prince of the House of Orléans, in what is said to be a continuation of a tradition established since the 13th century when the Order of Saint Lazarus came under the protection of King Philippe le Bel. This affiliation continued over the ensuing centuries, ending with the deposition of King Charles X of France when a decree of King Louis Philippe I revoked royal protection of the diminishing remnant of the order and made it illegal to wear the order's decorations.

Prince Charles-Philippe's designation as "Grand Master of the Order of Saint Lazarus" was disputed by those knights who remained loyal to his distant cousins, Francisco de Borbón y Escasany, Duke of Seville and, subsequently, to Don Carlos Gereda y de Borbón, Marquis de Almazàn, and the Melchite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III Laham as Protector of the order.

Charles-Philippe founded the Saint Lazare Foundation, which has been financed by the World Society, an international think tank whose mission, inspired by the Count of Paris, is to explore solutions to the planet's future needs for potable water.

In March 2010, Prince Charles-Phillippe decided to step down from his position as Grand Master for personal reasons, while maintaining his participation in the order's activities in the capacity of Grand Master Emeritus, Grand Prior of France and chairman of the order's governing council. He was replaced by Count Jan Dobrzenský z Dobrzenicz as Grand Master in the Orléans obedience.

Titles and styles

He is styled shortly as "HRH The Duke of Anjou".

Title controversy

On 8 December 2004, he received the title "Duke of Anjou" from his uncle Henri, Count of Paris and Duke of France, head of the House of Orléans. There is some controversy in the use of this title by an Orléans prince. It had traditionally been borne by or associated with the heads of different Spanish branches of the House of Bourbon that claimed the French throne as Legitimist pretenders since 1883, in rivalry to the claim asserted by the House of Orléans.

In that year Henri, comte de Chambord, last patrilineal descendant of Louis XV, died childless. The Legitimist legacy was claimed by the next senior branch of the Bourbons, descended from a younger grandson of Louis XIV, Philippe, Duke of Anjou. Although Philippe ceased use of the Anjou title upon becoming King Philip V of Spain in 1700, renouncing his succession rights to the French throne in exchange for retention of his Spanish crown, Legitimists maintained that this act was not binding. Therefore, they still uphold the senior agnatic descendant of Philippe d'Anjou as rightful claimant to the French crown.

In 1989 Louis Alphonse de Bourbon became the senior agnate of the House of Bourbon, claimed the Legitimist succession, as had his father, and was immediately accorded the title "Duke of Anjou" by Legitimists.

He does not claim that Duke of Anjou is an inherited legal title, since it was never officially conferred upon his ancestor Philippe d'Anjou; it was, in fact, subsequently given by French kings to other cadets of the dynasty domiciled in France. Rather, it is explicitly a title of pretense, associated historically, politically and symbolically with French Legitimism.

The House of Orléans never possessed or used the Anjou ducal title during the ancien régime, but its head claims the right de jure to dispose of it, as of all titles traditional in France's royal house. So, too does the Legitimist claimant. Thus, Charles-Philippe, Duke of Anjou and Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou are contemporaries and cousins — both reared in Spain, as it happens — but nominally represent different and competing rationales for restoration of the French monarchy.