Princess Françoise of Orléans (1902–1953)


Princess Françoise d'Orléans was born an Orléans Princess of France and became a Princess of Greece and Denmark by marriage. She was thus a member of the Greek royal family and a descendant of the "Citizen-King" Louis-Philippe.

Family

Françoise d'Orléans was born in Paris, the second daughter of Jean d'Orléans, duc de Guise and his wife, the French Princess Isabelle of Orléans. Françoise's brother, Prince Henri, Count of Paris, succeeded their father as the Orleanist pretender, under the name Henri VI.
In Palermo on 11 February 1929, she married Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark. This was Christopher's second marriage - he was the youngest son of King George I of Greece and his wife, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia. Through his father, he was thus a grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark, nicknamed "the father-in-law of Europe" due to his six children all marrying into other royal families.
This royal marriage was unusual in that era, with a Catholic marrying a non-Catholic. They had only one child, the writer Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark, whose marriage to the Greek artist Marina Karella did not conform to the laws of the royal house and thus deprived him of all right of succession to the Greek throne.

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