The Orléanists were one of three major right-wing political factions in early nineteenth-century France, the others being the Legitimists and the Bonapartists. The Orléanists took their name from the Orléans branch of the House of Bourbon, and the faction comprised many liberals and intellectuals who wanted to restore the monarchy as a constitutional monarchy with limited powers for the king and most power in the hands of parliament. Orléanists were opposed by the more conservative Legitimist Bourbons, who wanted the heirs of Louis XVI restored to the throne with great powers. Both Orléanists and Legitimists were opposed by Republicans who wanted no king at all.
In 1830, the Orléanist pretender Louis Philippe I seized power from the absolute monarchy of King Charles X in the "July Revolution", bringing his liberal faction to power. Chief leaders of the Orléanist faction included Prime Minister Francois Guizot, Jacques Laffitte, Adolphe Thiers, Victor de Broglie, and Albert de Broglie, and the faction would pursue conservative economic and foreign policies. The Orléanist modelled their monarchy after that of the United Kingdom, as they were opposed to the "divine right of kings" and were fearful of democracy. The Orléanist monarchy became so thoroughly middle-class that the nation outside of the pays legal (middle-class constituencies) ended by regarding the government as a privileged class less offensive, but also a great deal less brilliant than the aristocracy of the old monarchy. Discontent with the "July Monarchy" led to the French Revolution of 1848, which resulted in the overthrow of Louis-Philippe and the exile of the Orléanists. During the Second French Empire, the Orléanists possessed little hold on the country outside a cultivated liberal circle in Paris.
When the Second Empire was swept away by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, the people - who were disgusted with the Bonapartists and afraid of the Republicans - chose a great many Orléanists to represent them at the deliberative assembly at Bordeaux on 12 February 1872, although these Orléanists were counterbalanced by the Legitimists. On 24 May 1873, the Orléanists and Legitimists cooperated to force Adolphe Thiers, the first President of the French Third Republic, from power. The Orléanists then sought to fuse with the Legitimists, but no final decision was agreed. In 1876, Republican gains led to the royalist dominance in the assembly being ended. As many supporters progressively rallied to the Republic and as many far-right supporters joined the Action Francaise party, the Orléanist party ceased to exist as an independent political force.
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