French Monarch. Born at the Palais Royal in Paris, the son of Louise Marie Adelaide de Bourbon and Louis-Philippe Joseph, duc d'Orléans. Before the age of twenty, he was named Duc de Valois and Duc de Chartres. In 1791, took his position as a colonel of dragoons in the French army. At the outbreak of the French Revolution, he aligned himself with the moderate factions. In 1792, he was promoted to the command a cavalry brigade in the Army of the North. Eventually, he found the direction of the Revolution disturbing. With the onset of the Reign of Terror, and after a brief effort to rouse his troops into overthrowing the National Convention and restoring the 1791 constitutional monarchy, left France, only to be denounced by his fervently revolutionary father. He took refuge with his sister in Switzerland, where he taught at the college of Reichenau. The following year, his father fell to the guillotine, and he inherited the title of duc d'Orléans. In order to distance himself from Orleanist plots, in 1796, he traveled to the United States. He toured the country and declared himself impressed with the young republic. He returned to Europe in 1800, and settled outside London. In 1808, he traveled to Malta, and in 1809, he married Princess Maria Amelia of Sicily. With the fall of Napoleon, he returned to France where he was received by Louis XVIII, and was named colonel-general of hussars. Charles X succeeded to the throne in 1824, his reign leading to general unrest. In 1830, Charles abdicated in favor of his grandson, appointing Louis Philippe regent. The government, however, opposed a traditional monarchy and wanted "a prince devoted to the principles of the Revolution" who would be a "citizen king." On 9 August 1830, Louis Philippe was named “King of the French, by the grace of God and the will of the people,” the only monarch to hold that title. His reign was an attempt to reconcile the traditional monarchy with the revolution; to maintain a balance with royalists, republicans and imperialists in his realm, an impossible task that made no one happy. In February 1848, Paris rebelled against him, and he and the queen were forced to flee. They were smuggled out of the country by the British consul at Havre as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, arriving in Britain with little more than the clothes they wore. They settled there, as the count and countess of Neuilly. He was described by Queen Victoria as very intelligent, knowledgeable, gregarious, but tended to tricks and over-reaching, and “took a pleasure in being cleverer and more cunning than others.” He died in exile at the age of 76.