The Betrayal of the Duchess: The Scandal that Unmade the Bourbon Monarchy and Made France Modern

Samuels (The Right to Difference), a professor of French at Yale University, delivers a colorful history of the duchesse de Berry’s failed attempt to restore the Bourbon dynasty to the French throne in 1832. Arguing that the duchess’s betrayal by her adviser, Simon Deutz, “helped make antisemitism a key feature of right-wing ideology in France,” Samuels details her childhood among exiled royals in Sicily, her arranged marriage to the nephew of King Louis XVIII, her husband’s assassination, and the birth of her son, Henri, the only male heir to the Bourbon monarchy. When Louis-Philippe d’Orléans seized power in the Revolution of 1830, the duchess went into exile in Scotland. She later snuck back into France dressed as a peasant boy and rallied support for a “legitimist” rebellion to place her on the throne as regent until Henri came of age. Deutz, a Jewish convert to Catholicism, received 500,000 francs after revealing her location to the authorities, and the duchess was imprisoned before returning to Italy. She became a hero for “all those who saw themselves as victims of modernity,” according to Samuels, while Deutz was villified with racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic stereotypes. The wealth of historical details sometimes slows the narrative, but Samuels delivers a spirited and comprehensive account of this lesser-known drama and draws insightful parallels to anti-Semitism within modern-day reactionary movements. Armchair historians will be delighted. [em](Apr.) [/em]