Robert, Duke of Orleans, who, in 1894, became the head of the royal family of France, married, in 1896, the Arch duchess Marie Dorothea. daughter of the Archduke Joseph, cousin of the Em peror of Austria. His mother was the Spanish Infanta Louise of Montpensier, and he has one brother and four sisters; the eldest of the latter, Princess Amelie, married the King of Portugal (she died in 1908), and the second, Helena, mar ried the Duke of Aosta, nephew of the King of Italy.
The only uncle of the Duke of Orleans was the Duke de Chartres, born in 1840, who married a daughter of the Prince de Joinville. He died in 1910. A son and a daughter were the issue of this marriage, Princess Marguerite, who in 1896 married the Duke of Magenta, and Prince Jean, Duke de Guise (born in 1874), who married, in 1899, Isabelle, Princess de France. The issue were three daughters and a son. The latter, Prince Henry, was born in 1908.
The granduncles of the Duke of Or leans were: Francis, Prince de Join ville (1818-1900), who married a daugh ter of Pedro I., Emperor of Brazil, by whom he had a daughter, Francoise (1844-1910), and a son, Pierre, Duke of Penthievre (1845-1919) ; Henry, Duke of Aumale (1824-1897) ; Anthony, Duke of Montpensier (1824-1890), married, in 1846, a sister of Queen Isabella of Spain, and had a daughter, the wife of the Count of Paris, and a son, Prince An thony, born in 1866, who married his cousin, the Infanta Eulalie of Spain, in 1886; Louis, Duke of Nemours, born in 1814, died in 1896. He was the father
of two daughters and two sons, the eld est son being the Count of Eu, born in 1842, married to a daughter of Pedro II. of Brazil, and, having three children, and the second son being the Duke of Alencon, born in 1844, died 1910, and married to a Bavarian princess (who was burned in the Paris bazaar fire in 1897), and having two children.
By the death of the Count of Cham bord, in 1883, the elder line of the Bour bons of France became extinct, and the right of succession merged in the Count of Paris, grandson of King Louis Phi lippe, representative of the younger, or Orleans, line.