L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e ~ D o s t o ï e v s k i

L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e  ~  D o s t o ï e v s k i



Sunday, October 16, 2016

The extended Orléans family gathered in England for the funeral of Marie-Amélie, former Queen of the French



"La nombreuse famille des Orléans réunie en Grande Bretagne lors des funérailles de l'ex-reine des français, SAR la princesse Marie-Amélie de Bourbon et des Deux Siciles."

Queen Marie-Amélie died at Claremont House in Surrey on 24 March 1866. She was eighty-three years old, having outlived her husband Louis Philippe by sixteen years, and having lived in exile for nearly twenty. Clarement House had been lent to the deposed royal couple by Queen Victoria, and in this photograph Marie-Amélie's surviving children, grandchildren, and other members of the extended Orléans family are to be seen gathered on the grounds there. After the funeral ceremonies, the Queen's coffin would rest in the cemetery chapel at nearby Weybridge along with that of her husband and other members of the family who had died in exile. It was not until ten years later that their remains were allowed to be returned to France, where they now reside in the Orléans mausoleum at Dreux.


Illustrations of the Queen's lying-in-state and her funeral procession.


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Click to see the full, unreduced panoramic image.



6 comments:

  1. She died before her great-granddaughter, Clementine of Belgium married Prince Victor Bonaparte.
    This is something that would have made this old lady very sick. Prince Victor was the grandson of Napoleon's youngest brother, Jerome and his wife Catherine, the daughter of the King of Wurttemberg. Not so "parvenu" after all :)

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    1. The union wasn't exactly popular with other parties, either; she wasn't able to marry until she was 38, after her father's death. : )

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  2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07m7xnv The picture was thorougly investigated and proven to be the Queens lost painting

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    1. Very interesting. I enjoyed the synopsis; too bad the program isn't available to watch.

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  3. I found a group photo of the family of the same day: https://www.rct.uk/collection/2810995/group-photographnbspof-the-french-orleansnbspfamily

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    1. Very interesting. Unlike the photograph I shared, this is clearly a composite image. One sees a lot of these during the third quarter of the nineteenth century. And they're fairly identifiable, since usually, as in the composite you directed me to, the lighting varies from figure to figure and doesn't match up as a whole. Funny, the caption on the royal collection's webpage doesn't seen aware of the fact.

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