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Count of Paris, pretender to French throne, dies at 85

The Count of Paris, Henri d'Orleans, who as head of the house of Orleans was the pretender to the French throne which last saw a king – briefly – in exercise in 1848, has died at the age of 85.

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Henri d'Orleans, Count of Paris and pretender to the defunct French throne, died on Monday - exactly 226 years after his distant cousin Louis XVI was guillotined in Paris, reports KFGO.

His death, aged 85, was announced on Facebook by his son Jean.

Henri was said to harbour royal ambitions, but the movement to restore France's monarchy has progressively dwindled since the years leading up to World War Two, when it was viewed in some quarters as a credible threat to Republicanism.

Henri, the Orleanist pretender, vied for the claim with the Bourbons, based in Spain and headed by the 44-year-old Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou.

France overthrew its monarchy in the revolution of 1789, briefly restoring it after the fall of Napoleon. The last French king, Louis Philippe, was toppled in 1848.

Read more of this Reuters report published by KFGO.