The comte d'Eu and the duc d'Alençon

Prince Gaston d’Orléans, Comte d’Eu (1842-1922) and his younger brother Ferdinand d’Orléans, Duc d’Alençon (1844-1910), sons of the Duc de Nemours, second son of King Louis-Philippe.

The princes are wearing the uniform of the Spanish 'Husares de la Princesa.' At the age of seventeen, Prince Gaston took part in the Spanish-Moroccan war of 1859. He graduated from the military academy at Segovia in 1863, and was promoted to the rank of Captain shortly afterwards. Renouncing all rights to the throne of France, in 1864 he married Isabella of Bragrança, daughter and heir of Don Pedro II, in Rio de Janeiro.

Photographed by Camille Silvy of London on 26 June 1861.