Françoise de Guise (1902-1953)

Françoise Isabelle Louise Marie d'Orléans (25 December 1902, Paris - 25 February 1953, Paris), "Fille de France" and then by her marriage princess of Greece and Denmark, was a member of the House of Orleans and the Greek royal family. She was a descendent of Louis-Philippe of France.

Family, marriage and issue

Françoise d'Orléans was the second daughter of Jean d'Orléans, duc de Guise (an Orléanist pretender to the throne of France under the name Jean II) and his wife, the French princess Isabelle d'Orléans (1878-1961). Françoise was also the sister of another French pretender, Henri d'Orléans (1908-1999), "comte de Paris" and (to the Orleanists) "de jure" "king" under the name "Henri VI".

In Palermo on 11 February 1929, she married Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark (1889-1940). This was Christophe's second marriage - he was the younger son of king George I of Greece (1845-1913) and his wife grand-duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia (1851-1926). Via his father, he was thus grandson of king Christian IX of Denmark (1818-1906), nicknamed "the father-in-law of Europe" due to his being nephew or cousin of most monarchs of Northern Europe. This was rare for a royal marriage of this era in that a Catholic was marrying a non-Catholic (he was Greek Orthodox, whilst she was Roman Catholic) [Michel de Grèce, "Mémoires insolites", Pocket, Paris, 2004, p. 15.] . They had only one child, the writer Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark (born 1939), who married the Greek artist Marina Karella (born 1940) - that marriage did not conform to the laws of the royal house and thus deprived him of all right of succession to the Greek throne.

Life

A Moroccan childhood

Widowhood and exile

Bibliography

* Christopher of Greece, "Memoirs of HRH Prince Christopher of Greece", The Right Book Club, London, 1938.
* Michael of Greece and Henri of Orléans, comte de Paris, "Mon album de famille", Perrin, 1996. ISBN 2262012377
* Michael of Greece, "Mémoires insolites", Xo, Paris, 2004 ISBN 2845631863
* Isabelle, countess of Paris, "Tout m'est bonheur", Éditions Robert Laffont, Coll. « Vécu », Paris, 1978. ISBN 2221001079
* Ricardo Mateos Sainz de Medrano, "La Familia de la Reina Sofίa, La Dinastίa griega, la Casa de Hannover y los reales primos de Europa", La Esfera de los Libros, Madrid, 2004 ISBN 8497341953

Notes