François d'Orléans,çoisdOrlé Prince de Joinville (14 August 1818 – 16 June 1900) was the third son of Louis Philippe, King of the French, and his wife Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. An admiral of the French Navy, François was famous for bringing the remains of Napoleon from Saint Helena to France, as well as a talented artist, with 35 known watercolours. He married Princess Francisca of Brazil, daughter of Emperor Pedro I and sister of Emperor Pedro II. The dowry received by François upon the marriage became the Brazilian city of Joinville.
François and Francisca's grandson Jean went on to become the Orléanist claimant to the extinct French throne, a claim passed on to his son, grandson and now great-grandson Jean, Count of Paris, current Orléanist claimant to the French crown.
Early life and military career
He was born François-Ferdinand-Philippe-Louis-Marie d'Orléans at the Château de Neuilly, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Educated for the navy, he was commissioned lieutenant in 1836. His first conspicuous service was at the Bombardment of San Juan de Ulúa, in November 1838, commanding the corvette , when he headed a landing party and took the Mexican general Mariano Arista prisoner at Veracruz.
The Prince was promoted to captain of the frigate La , and in 1840 was entrusted with bringing the remains of Napoleon from Saint Helena to France.
Marriage to Francisca of Brazil
In 1838, François had made his first trip to Brazil, where he had been warmly hosted by Emperor Pedro II, son of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil and Archduchess Leopoldina of Austria, a Habsburg. During his time in the Brazilian court, François met Princess Francisca, Pedro's younger sister, then 16 years old.
In 1840, François again stopped in Brazil for two weeks on his way back from St. Helena, where he had headed the expedition entrusted with bringing the remains of Napoleon from Saint Helena to France. Three years later, François headed once again to Rio de Janeiro, in order to marry Princess Francisca. They married in that city on 1 May 1843.
François received as dowry an area of over 580 km2 in the South of Brazil, in the state of Santa Catarina, until then called Colônia Dona Francisca after its owner, the newly-wed princess, sister to the emperor. The area, near the coast and devoid of any populational settlements, therefore became the Brazilian part of the lands of the Prince of Joinville.
Exile and sale of the lands of Joinville
In 1844 he conducted naval operations on the coast of Morocco, bombarding Tangier and occupying Mogador, and was rewarded with the rank of vice-admiral. In the following year he published in the Revue des deux mondes an article on the deficiencies of the French Navy which attracted considerable attention.
In 1848, François' father, King Louis Philippe, was deposed as the monarchy was abolished in France and the French Second Republic instaurated. Like his parents and siblings, François nominally lost all his properties and lands in France, including the French lands of the principality of Joinville, and hastily went with his wife and family to exile in England.
Having taken refuge with his family at Claremont, and with the Brazilian lands of Joinville as his only remaining property, François decided to make profits off those that were last remnants of his former principality. With the assistance of Hamburg Senator Christian Mathias Schroeder, with whom the gains were split, parts of the lands were sold to German-speaking immigrants, who started arriving in the Brazilian Joinville on 9 March 1851 and built the first facilities in the area, including a small royal palace. The titularity of the principality was negotiated with Heinrich Ferdinand Wiese, German-speaking noble-man from Schleswig-Holstein whose family was fleeing as the Danish troops invaded their territory during the First Schleswig War. It was agreed that the transferred title could only be used by Heinrich Ferdinand or his descendants after the passing of François and Francisca, who officially kept the titles of Prince and Princess of Joinville until their death.
Political career and service in the American Civil War
Being excluded from continuing a career in the Second Republic's navy, in 1851 François announced his candidacy for the French presidential election to be held in 1852, hoping to pave the way for an eventual restoration of the monarchy. François plan to become a second "Prince-President" was preempted by the 2 December 1851 coup by which the first "Prince-President", Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, effected his own ascension to the throne.
