François d'Orléans, Prince of Joinville

François-Ferdinand-Philippe-Louis-Marie d'Orléans, prince de Joinville (14 August 1818 – 16 June 1900) was the third son of Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, afterwards king of the French and his wife Marie Amalie of Bourbon-Sicilies. He was an admiral of the French Navy.

Life
He was born at the Château de Neuilly, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Educated for the navy, he became lieutenant in 1836. His first conspicuous service was at the Bombardment of San Juan de Ulua, in November 1838, commanding the Créole, when he headed a landing party and took the Mexican general Mariano Arista prisoner with his own hand at Veracruz.

He was promoted to captain, and in 1840 was entrusted with bringing the remains of Napoleon from Saint Helena to France.

Marriage
He married on 1 May 1843 in Rio de Janeiro, Princess Francisca of Brazil, Princess de Bragança, sister of Pedro II of Brazil. They had a son Pierre duc de Penthièvre (1845–1919), also brought up to the navy, and who, for a time, attended the United States Naval Academy. The prince de Joinville visited the academy and asked for a frank estimation of his son's character, conduct, and appitude for naval service. It is unknown whether the son ever married or fathered any children, however, the few records about Pierre do suggest that he lived to be in his seventies and died in Paris. The couple also had a daughter, Françoise who married her cousin Robert, Duke of Chartres in 1863 and had issue. Through this union, François d'Orléans is an ancestor of the present day Orléans claimant to the French throne, Prince Henri, Count of Paris, Duke of France.

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, and by his hostility to the Guizot ministry, as well as by an affectation of ill-will towards the United Kingdom, he gained considerable popularity.

The Revolution of 1848 nevertheless swept him away with the other Orléans princes. He hastened to quit Algeria, where he was then serving, and took refuge at Claremont, in Surrey, with the rest of his family. In 1851, he announced his candidacy for the French presidential election to be held in 1852, hoping to pave the way for an eventual restoration. This attempt to become a second "Prince-President" was aborted by 2 December 1851 coup by which the first Prince-President, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, effected his own ascension to the throne. In 1861, upon the breaking out of the American Civil War, he proceeded to Washington, D.C., and placed the services of his son and two of his nephews at the disposal of the United States government.

Otherwise, he was little heard of until the overthrow of the Second French Empire in 1870, when he re-entered France, only to be promptly expelled by the government of national defence. Returning incognito, he joined the army of general Louis d'Aurelle de Paladines, under the assumed name of "Colonel Lutherod", fought bravely before Orléans, and afterwards, divulging his identity, formally sought permission to serve. Gambetta, however, arrested him and sent him back to England.

Later life
In the National Assembly, elected in February 1871, the prince was returned by two départements and elected to sit for the Haute-Marne. By an arrangement with Thiers, however, the prince did not take his seat until the latter had been chosen president of the provisional republic. His deafness prevented him from making any contribution in the Assembly, and he resigned his seat in 1876.

In 1886 the provisions of the law against pretenders to the throne deprived him of his rank as vice-admiral, but he continued to live in France, and died in Paris in June 1900.

Works
The prince de Joinville was the author of several essays and pamphlets on naval affairs and other matters of public interest, which were originally published for the most part either unsigned or pseudonymously, and subsequently republished under his own name after the fall of the Empire. They include Essais sur la marine française (1853); Études sur la marine (1859 and 1870); Guerre d'Amérique, campagne du Potomac (1862 and 1872); Encore un mot sur Sadowa (Brussels, 1868); and Vieux souvenirs (1894).

Children
Francois' son Pierre d'Orleans (1845-1919) entered the United States Naval Academy on October 15, 1861. He was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy on May 28, 1863 and was on a leave of absence from the Navy as of January 1, 1863 before returning to France in June of that year.