HOUSE OF ORLéANS

Also known as the "House of Bourbon-Orléans", for many centuries, the 'House of Orléans' was one of the most important families in France, with the Duc d'Orléans traditionally being very close to the king. They held the status of the leading and highest ranking of the "Princes of the Blood". This category of Royal blood belonged to those who were in direct male decent from the Royal House of Bourbon, but were cadet branches, being decended from younger brothers of earlier reigning Bourbon and Valois monarchs. The Dukes of Orléans outranked all other members of the Royal Court, save for the King and his immediate family. The current "House of Orléans" is decended from Prince Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, who was the second son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was thus younger brother of King Louis XIV, known as the "Sun King" and the builder of Versailles. The Dukes of Orléans were referred to at court as "Monsieur", and their wives as "Madame" from the first Duke onwards. Previously, the title of "Monsieur" and the title of "Madame" for his wife were reserved solely for the King's second son.
At the time of the French Revolution, the then Duke of Orléans, Louis Philippe Joseph, duc d'Orléans, known as "Egalité", earned special notoriety for being the only person of Royal blood to actively support the revolution. He went so far as to vote for the execution of his cousin, King Louis XVI, and thus erned the undying hostility for himself and his desendents of a large portion of French monarchists. He himself would later be executed by the revolutionaries as an aristocrat at the order of Maximilien Robespierre.

In 1830, following the French July Revolution, the House of Orléans became the ruling house when the elder line restored Bourbon monarch Charles X was replaced by Louis Philippe, son of Louis Philippe Joseph, duc d'Orléans. Louis Philippe ruled as a constitutional monarch, and was called "King of the French," not "of France." His reign lasted until the 1848 revolution, when he abdicated and fled to England. He was the only Orléanist king of France.
Even after his ouster, an Orléanist faction remained active, supporting a return of the House of Orléans to power. Legitimist monarchists however continued to uphold the rights of the elder line of Bourbons who came close to regaining the throne after the fall of the Third Republic. Following the death of the Legitimist heir of the old elder line of French Bourbons, Henri, Comte de Chambord, many legitimists decided to finally recognize the House of Orléans as the heirs to the throne of France since the late Comte de Chambord had died without heirs, and he had voiced his opinion that the next in line should be the Orléans princes. However, a portion of the Legitimists, still resentful of the revolutionary credentials of the House of Orléans, transferred their loyalties to the Carlist (male line) heirs of the Bourbons of Spain, even though the Spanish Bourbons had renounced their claims to the French throne centuries earlier.
Thus to their supporters, not only are the House of Orléans the heirs to the constitutionalist title of "King of the French", but also to the Legitimist title of "King of France and Navarre" as well. Todays head of the house is Henri, comte de Paris, duc de France.