The duc d’Aumale – Henri Eugène Philippe Louis d’Orléans was born 16 janvier 1822 in Paris France. When he was eight he inherited the Domaine de Chantilly in 1830, from his godfather Louis-Henri-Joseph de Bourbon, the last Prince of Conde, thus becoming one of the most significant landowners in France.
The portrait below is of the Duc Henri (left) with his brother Antoine and his mother Queen Marie Amélie
After the Revolution of 1848 the monarchy was abolished, again, and the Duke and his wife, Marie Caroline de Bourbon, were forced to flee to Twickenham, near London, where he collected art, paintings and books awaiting his return to France. Alas the wait was longer than he expected and his wife, and two sons had both died before he returned to the Grand Chateau
In 1884, widowed and having lost both his sons, the duc d’Aumale bequeathed Chantilly to the Institut de France with the condition that his art collection and library be made accessible to the public, and that their presentation remain intact at Chantilly, never to be sold nor loaned out. This gesture allowed him to return permanently to France and the chateau, but he died in Zucco, Sicily, while writing letters to the families of the victims from the great fire of the Bazar de la Charite. He was buried in the chapel of the Orleans.
Marc Jones gives no time for the Duc but the ascendant of 29 Leo seems to fit the known record of his life. This makes him a bucket with a Mars handle with a cardinal-mutable natural disposition, reflected in his collection of art, books and decorative ware, as well as his generosity in bequeathing the whole thing to the people of France — moon at 13 Scorpio on the fourth house cusp or the “Magi searching for the Star” in his poetical gift of understanding humanity through its belles artes and lettres and wanting to openly place all of it before the eyes of humankind.
