| Charles Ferdinand | |
| Duke of Berry | |
| Birth Date: | 24 January 1778 |
| Birth Place: | Palace of Versailles, France |
| Death Place: | Paris, France |
| Full Name: | Charles Ferdinand de Bourbon |
| House: | Bourbon |
| Issue-Link: |
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| Issue: | Louise, Duchess of Parma Henri, Count of Chambord Charlotte, comtesse d'Issoudun (illegitimate) |
| Father: | Charles X |
| Mother: | Maria Theresa of Savoy |
| Signature: | Signature of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry.svg |
Charles Ferdinand d'Artois, Duke of Berry (24 January 1778 – 14 February 1820) was the third child and younger son of Charles X, King of France, (whom he predeceased) by his wife Maria Theresa of Savoy. In 1820 he was assassinated at the Paris Opera by Louis Pierre Louvel, a Bonapartist. In June 1832, two years after the overthrow of Charles X, an unsuccessful royalist insurrection in the Vendée was led by Charles Ferdinand's widow, Marie-Caroline, in an attempt to restore their son Henri, Comte de Chambord to the French throne.
Charles Ferdinand d'Artois, Duke of Berry, was born at Versailles. As a son of a fils de France not being heir apparent, he was himself only a petit-fils de France, and thus bore his father's appanage title as surname in emigration. However, during the Restoration, as his father was heir presumptive to the crown, he was allowed the higher rank of a fils de France (used in his marriage contract, his death certificate, etc.). His maternal grandparents were Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and Maria Antonietta of Spain. She was the youngest daughter of Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese. Since he was already dead when his father became king, he and his surviving daughter always had "Artois" as surname.
At the start of the French Revolution he left France with his father, then Count of Artois, and served in the counter-revolutionary Army of Condé of his cousin, Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, from 1792 to 1797. As a member of Conde's emigre army, he fought in the Rhine Campaign of 1796, and achieved particular distinction at the Battle of Emmendingen and the Battle of Schliengen.[1] He afterwards joined the Russian army, and in 1801 took up his residence in England, where he remained for thirteen years. During that time he had a relationship with an Englishwoman, Amy Brown Freeman. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1911) described her as his wife, but that is highly unlikely.[2]
In 1814, the duke set out for France. His frank, open manners gained him some favour with his countrymen, and Louis XVIII named him commander-in-chief of the army at Paris on the return of Napoleon from Elba. He was, however, unable to retain the loyalty of his troops, and retired to Ghent during the Hundred Days war. On 17 June 1816, following negotiations by the French ambassador, the Duke of Blacas, he married Princess Maria-Carolina of Naples (1798–1870), oldest daughter of then hereditary Prince Francis of Naples.Three children were born before the duke's death, with one surviving infancy. His daughter, Louise d'Artois, born in 1819, married Charles III of Parma.
On 13 February 1820, the Duke of Berry was stabbed and mortally wounded when leaving the opera house in Paris with his wife, and died the next day. The assassin was a saddle maker named Louis Pierre Louvel, a Bonapartist opposed to the monarchy. Seven months after his death, the Duke's wife gave birth to their fourth child, Henri, who received the title of Duke of Bordeaux, but is better known in history as the Count of Chambord,[3] and who in the view of Legitimists, was (from 1844 to 1883) King of France, as Henry V. His grandson Athanase-Charles-Marie Charette de la Contrie would later become a prominent military commander for France and other nations.
With his wife, Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Sicily, the Duke of Berry had four children, of whom only two survived for more than a day:
In addition to them, the Duke had several illegitimate offspring:
Four of his children, the Count of Chambord, Ferdinand Oreille de Carrière, Charles de La Roche and Mélanie Cosnefroy de Saint-Ange, were born after his death.