**CHAMBORD, HENRI-CHARLES-FERDIN d'Artois, duke of Bordeaux, count of. – Head of the senior branch of the House of Bourbon and claimant to the throne of France, born in Paris on 29 September 1820, died at Frohsdorf on 24 August 1883. His father, the duke of Berry, heir to the throne of France, had been assassinated in February 1820, and therefore the young Henri was called the “son of the miracle.” He exchanged the title of duke of Bordeaux for that of count of C. in 1821, when he was given the castle of that name. After the abdication of his grandfather Charles X as a result of the revolution of 2 August 1830, Louis Philippe, duke d'Orléans, son of Philippe “Egalité,” refused to have him recognized as king by the people in revolt in Paris, and thus the child too had to depart for that exile in England and Austria from which he never returned.
By order of Charles X, he was educated according to a strictly conservative and absolutist tradition, and soon became the focus of attraction for all the legitimist currents of Europe, until he became their most authoritative representative. After Charles X’s death, and once the disputes with the supporters of his uncle Louis, count d'Angoulême, had been overcome, he was recognized by all French legitimists under the name of Henri V, in opposition to the Orleanist party. On 7 November 1846 Henri of C. married the archduchess Maria-Teresa of Austria-Este, by whom he had no children. The uprisings of 1848 and the related political events increasingly alienated the count from the principles of liberty and popular sovereignty; and the uncompromising circular drafted at Wiesbaden on 30 August 1850, intended to reject the idea of a restoration by plebiscite, deprived him of any likelihood of returning to the throne. He urged his followers to abstain from any collaboration in public life during the Second Empire, showing himself, as early as 1856, together with the duke of Nemours, opposed even to the possible acceptance of the tricolour flag. Deeply devoted to the Pontiff and the Holy See, a supporter and defender of temporal power (1866), he sympathized with those who flocked to enlist in the papal ranks, first among them the heroic de Charette, with whom he was also related. Indeed, in 1871 he did not hesitate to declare that, as soon as he had ascended the throne again, he would without question vindicate the temporal rights of Pius IX. At that time a restoration of the monarchy in France appeared almost imminent. After Napoleon III had fallen, Henri of C. was able to set foot again on his native soil (1 July 1871), but he refused to bend to replacing the white flag bearing fleurs-de-lis with the tricolour, although in August 1873 he eventually succeeded in reconciling himself with the Orleanists, in the sense that Henri V would once again be king of France, and Philippe II d'Orléans, count of Paris, his heir to the throne. The reaffirmation of the principles and the rejection of every compromise concerning the flag once the restoration had taken place (letter of 27 October 1873 addressed from Salzburg to Chesnelong) caused every possibility of a monarchic restoration to founder. Further negotiations held at Versailles with Mac Mahon likewise failed, again because of C.’s intransigence: the National Assembly thus definitively proclaimed the Republic on 25 February 1875. Henri of C. had no choice then but to withdraw permanently to Frohsdorf in Austria, where he died, leaving the memory of a deeply religious, generous, and upright man.