Philippe Égalité

Philippe Égalité: see Orléans, Louis Philippe Joseph, duc d'.

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Orléans, Louis-Philippe-Joseph, duke d'

 known as Philippe Égalité

(born April 13, 1747, Saint-Cloud, France—died Nov. 6, 1793, Paris) French Bourbon prince who supported popular democracy in the French Revolution. A cousin of Louis XVI, he disapproved of Marie-Antoinette and lived away from the royal court at Versailles. In 1787 he was exiled to his estates for challenging the king's authority. In 1789 he was elected to the Estates General and soon joined the Third Estate. After joining the Jacobin Club (1791), he renounced his title of nobility (1792) and accepted the name Philippe Égalité from the Paris Commune. In the National Convention, he supported the radicals, but, after his son Louis-Philippe defected to the Austrians, he was accused of conspiracy, arrested, and guillotined.

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Philippe Égalité 

(also Louis Philippe Joseph d’Orléans). Born Apr. 13, 1747, in St. Cloud; died Nov. 6, 1793, in Paris. French political figure.

Philippe Egalité, duke of Orléans, was a representative of the younger branch of the Bourbons. During the French Revolution, he was elected to the Estates General of 1789, where he sided with the deputies of the Third Estate. He made wide use of various demagogic means in an effort to gain popularity. In 1791 he joined the Jacobin Club and in 1792 relinquished his title and adopted the surname Egalité (“equality”). He was elected to the Convention and voted for the execution of Louis XVI. His son Louis Philippe was involved in the treasonous plot of General Dumouriez; soon after the treason was uncovered, Philippe Egalité was guillotined.