More On De Gaulle

My second questioner referred to de Gaulle as «a royalist Catholic who tried to salvage France's honour after 1940.» His Catholicism is between him and his God, but his «Royalism» was open for all to see. It consisted of a sentimental attachment to the la Maison d'Orleans, a cadet branch of la Maison de France. The Head of this junior branch of the Royal House is a direct descendant in the male line of Phillipe II, le Régent, le duc d'Orleans. Wikipedia has this to say about him:

«Philippe was a professed atheist who boasted to read the satirical works of François Rabelais inside a Bible binding during mass, and liked to hold orgies even on religious high holidays.». He was also an unrepentant sodomite who only married for reasons of state.

His son, Louis, duc d'Orleans, rebelled by being a good man and a good Catholic, but his grandson, Louis-Phillipe, duc d'Orleans, began to revert to type, though in a less perverted manner, fathering at least two bastards.

His great grandson, Louis-Philippe-Joseph duc d'Orléans, is known to history as Philippe-Égalité. He was Grandmaster of the violently anti-Catholic Freemasonic Grand Lodge of France and an active supporter of the Revolution (in the hope of usurping the Throne, many think!). He voted for the murder of his cousin, His Most Christian Majesty, King Louis XVI and is thus often referred to as «the Regicide». Despite his devotion to its ideals, the Revolution turned upon him and he was guillotined in November, 1793, during the reign of terror, thus surviving his cousin, the King, by only ten months.

However, his dreams and those of his forebears back to his great grandfather came true in 1830 when the Revolution succeeded in overthrowing the last Legitimate King of France and Navarre, His Most Christian Majesty, King Charles X, and replacing him on the «Throne» with Phillipe-Égalité's son, Louis-Phillipe, as le roi des francaises (King of the French, rather than of France and Navarre, the title of the true Kings of France).

This is the House to which de Gaulle paid lip service. There is evidence that he did approach Henri, comte de Paris, during the war to discuss a possible «restoration», but it went no further. BTW, Wikipedia has his to say of the man de Gaulle may have wanted as «king of the French»:

«During his 'tenure' as pretender to the throne Henri dissipated his family's great wealth (their château at Amboise now belongs to a trust), selling off family jewels, paintings, furniture and properties to support himself and his mistress, Monique Friesz, formerly a nurse. Conflict over the diversion of the family wealth (formerly worth over £40 million) led to court conflicts between him and five of his children, some of whom he unilaterally disinherited.»

At no point did de Gaulle's «royalism» lead him to support or suggest in any way the Restoration of the House of France to the Throne of France and Navarre. Therefore, as I said earlier, his Catholicism is between him and his God, but his royalism was of a revolutionary, leftwing sort, supporting a House dedicated for 250 years to the destruction of the French Monarchy and the enthronement of the Revolution in the person of the head of the House!