Orl�ans, Louis Philippe Joseph, Duc d', also called Philippe �galit� 1747-93
French Bourbon prince

Born in Saint-Cloud, the cousin of Louis XVI, he succeeded to the title on his father's death (1785). His hostility to Marie Antoinette caused him to live away from court. He visited London frequently, and became a close friend of the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. In 1787 he showed his liberalism against the king, and was sent by a lettre-de-cachet to his ch�teau of Villers-Cotterets; as the Estates General drew near he circulated throughout France books and papers by Emmanuel Siey�s and other liberals. During the Revolution he was a forceful supporter of the Third Estate against the privileged orders, and in June 1789 he led the 47 nobles who seceded from their own order to join it. Although he joined the radical Jacobin Club (1791), he gradually lost influence and in 1792 renounced his title and adopted the name of Philippe �galit�. A member of the Convention, he voted for the death of Louis XVI. When his eldest son (afterwards King Louis Philippe) rode with Charles Dumouriez, his commander, into the Austrian camp, �galit� was arrested with all the Bourbons still in France, and was found guilty of conspiracy and guillotined.

Bibliography: E S Scudder, Prince of the Blood (1938)