Princess Clémentine of Orléans, Europe’s Cleverest Princess, Bulgaria’s Kingmaker

A portrait of Princess Clementine of Orleans by Winterhalter, c1846.

Marie Clémentine Léopoldine Caroline Clotilde was born at the Château de Neuilly, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France on March 6, 1817, the sixth child and the youngest daughter of Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, and his wife Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies. Styled Mademoiselle de Beaujolais after her birth, she acquired the title Princess of Orléans following her father’s ascension to the French throne in 1830.

Early Life 

Princess Clémentine possessed “great beauty and accomplishments” as a young woman. One of her teachers was radical French historian Jules Michelet, who would unremittingly venerate French Revolution in front of his students.

Considering her looks and wealth, it was believed that Clémentine would marry her cousin, Ferdinand II of Bourbon-Sicily, when the period of his widowhood expired. However, the marriage did not materialize. King Leopold I of Belgium later arranged for his nephew, Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, to marry the princess. While the groom-to-be had no prospects of becoming a ruler, he was nevertheless well-connected and closely related to the royal families of Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Brazil. August and Clementine’s marriage contract was signed in Vienna on February 24, 1843 by the French Ambassador Charles Joseph, Comte de Flahaut, representing Clémentine and the Belgian Ambassador Baron O'Sullivan, representing August.

Marriage and Family

Prince August and Princess Clementine of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha c1850s. Image from Wikimedia Commons

Before the wedding, it was the decided that the couple should reside in Vienna, where August’s family owned the impressive Palais Coburg. An application was submitted to Prince Metternich to know how Prince August was to be received at the Court of Vienna. While Princess Clémentine would be received as Princess of the Royal Family of the Bourbons, the Austrian Court, however, refused to recognize August as a Royal Highness. August decided to quit the Austrian service, enter that of France, and that he and Clementine would settle in France.

Princess Clémentine married Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha at the Château de Saint-Cloud in Paris, France on April 20, 1843 as per the arrangement of King Leopold I of Belgium. The union produced five children. Among those in attendance, aside from the French Royal Family, were King and Queen of Belgians, Duke Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, other European royalsand members of the diplomatic corps. Their wedding produced five children: Philipp (1844-1921), who married Princess Louise of Belgium; Ludwig August (1845-1907), who married Princess Leopoldina of Brazil;  Clotilde (1846-1927), married Archduke Joseph Karl of Austria, Palatine of Hungary, ancestress of the Hungarian branch of the House of Hungary; Amalie (1848-1894), later Duchess Maxiliam in Bavaria; and Ferdinand (1861-1948), later Prince and Tsar of Bulgaria.

August’s humiliation by the Austrian court was later reversed in 1881 when Emperor Franz Josef bestowed upon August and his descendants the style of Hoheit ("Highness"), eight days before Princess Stéphanie of Belgium (younger sister of August's daughter-in-law Louise) married Crown Prince Rudolf. It was only fitting, Franz Josef reasoned out, that his son's in-laws should have a higher rank at the Austrian court.

Character

Princess Clementine of Orleans. Image from Wikimedia Commons

Described as "a woman of formidable character and ambition” who was “married no more than a wealthy but undistinguished prince”, Princess Clémentine had power over her husband and supervised in raising their children.

The Revolutions of 1848 ended Louis Philip’s reign, forcing Clémentine and her family to leave France.  Clémentine and August, after making sure that their children were safely sent away, joined the crowd on the Place de la Concorde before leisurely travelling to Versailles by train. She then joined her father to the French Embassy in London before heading to Coburg, and then onto Vienna, where her resumed his post in the Austro-Hungarian army.

Fortune

Palais Coburg in Vienna. Image from Wikimedia Commons

Princess Clémentine and her family left France during the 1848 Revolution, which saw the dethronement of her father. She worked hard to reclaim her family’s assets that were forcibly taken away from them, refusing the offer of 200,000 francs from Emperor Napoleon III and demanded that their father’s heritage be returned to them.

Although already wealthy in her own right, Clementine and August’s fortunes grew even more considerable after he inherited his mother’s extensive landholdings in Hungary. August eventually became one of the largest landowners in the country.

Bulgaria’s Kingmaker 

Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria. Image from Wikimedia Commons

Fully aware of the fact that she would never become queen, she made sure her youngest and favorite son Ferdinand was cultured well-educated. She believed these would be his ticket for to becoming a sovereign one day.  By then already in advanced age, Clementine was described as a "domineering seventy-year-old lady with a sharp mind and an iron will.” After Clementine found out that three Bulgarian emissaries were to Vienna to look for a possible sovereign, she wasted no time and a meeting "by chance" was arranged between Ferdinand and the Bulgarians. At the Vienna opera, during intermission, Ferdinand immediately declared his intention to become Prince of Bulgaria.

Initially, all European powers declared their opposition to Ferdinand's candidacy. Czar Alexander II of Russia told his foreign minister, Giers, that "the candidature is as ridiculous as the individual." Queen Victoria was furious and sent a telegram to her prime minister, Lord Salisbury, calling Ferdinand "unfit-delicate, eccentric and effeminate." Despite her close relationship with Clementine, the queen openly told her of her disapproval of Ferdinand’s candidacy. Still, Ferdinand pressed on and Clementine stood by her son, goading and  mobilizing all her relatives and friends who might help.

Despite the disapproval of the Great Powers, Bulgaria's Grand National Sobranie unanimously proclaimed Ferdinand as the ruling prince. Clementine followed her son to Bulgaria, where she became as significant and popular as Ferdinand himself. She gave huge donations to numerous charitable causes. She remarkably shelled out four million francs for a railway project that linked Bulgaria to Europe. She also helped establish the Bulgarian Red Cross.

Princess Clementine gained some sort of notoriety for her supposed haughtiness and distaste towards non-royals. Princess Catherine Radziwill  observed that during state dinners, she "smiled at the small incongruities committed during these meals by the uncouth Bulgarian notabilities of those days, and she contrived somehow by her tact, and without ever wounding any one among them, to teach them that peas are not to be eaten with one's knife, and that it is not altogether the thing to drink from the finger-bowl." However, Clementine was praised for her "shrewd mind and a remarkable understanding of European politics and diplomacy," earning her the recognition as “one of the cleverest royal ladies in Europe.”

Clementine arranged Prince Ferdinand to be married to Princess Maria Louisa of Bourbon-Parma, who died after giving birth to their fourth child. In 1896, Clementine and Ferdinand’s relationship was strained after he decided that his son, Boris, should be baptized in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.  They reconciled later that year after Ferdinand was finally recognized as head of state during an official visit to Paris. She saw this as one of the significant milestones of her life, recalling how her father abdicated and forced out of his throne in 1848.

 Always a distant father, Clémentine took charge of the education of Ferdinad’s children. This, however, never stopped her from intervening in the government.  Following the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903,which resulted to the growing influx of refugees, Clémentine actively sought donations from throughout Europe, including 2,000 Francs from Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Later Life  and Death

Prince and Princess August of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha with their children, 1863. Image from Wikimedia Commons

As she reached her 80s , Clémentine grew increasingly deaf, people had to raise their voices when talking to her and she had to use a huge ear trumpet. It became an occupational hazard of the Bulgarian court to be caught in long, loud conversations with Clémentine that she was reluctant to end. In fact, Clementine and Duke Robert of Parma fell on shouting matches while discussing Ferdinand and Maria Louisa’s marital prospects because of Clementine’s condition. Despite her old age, she insisted on frequenting Paris to keep herself abreast of the latest fashion trends.

Princess Clementine died on February 16, 1907 after a battle with influenza. She was 89 years old. Princess Clémentine was laid to rest in Coburg, Germany. In her memorial,  an inscription composed by Ferdinand following his installation as tsar in 1908, readi "King's daughter, no Queen herself, yet King's mother."