Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres, was the son of Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans, and thus a grandson of King Louis-Philippe of France. He fought for the Union in the American Civil War, and then for France in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. In 1863, he married his cousin Princess Françoise of Orléans, the daughter of François, Prince of Joinville. In 1886, he was exiled from France.

Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans was the eldest son of King Louis Philippe I of France and Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. He was born in exile in his mother's native Sicily while his parents were the Duke and Duchess of Orléans. Ferdinand Philippe was heir to the House of Orléans from birth. Following his father's succession as King of the French in 1830, he became the Prince Royal of France and Duke of Orléans. He died in 1842, never to succeed his father or see the collapse of the July Monarchy and subsequent exile of his family to the United Kingdom.