Berri, CHARLES FERDINAND, DUC DE, second son of the Count of Artois (afterwards Charles X.), was born at Versailles, January 24, 1778. In 1792 he fled with his father to Turin; fought with him under Condé against France; afterwards visited Russia, and lived for some time in London and Edinburgh. In 1814 he returned to France, and the following year was appointed by Louis XVIII. commander of the troops in and around Paris. In 1816 he married Caroline Ferdinande Louise (born 1798), eldest daughter of Francis, afterwards king of the Two Sicilies—a marriage on which depended the continuance of the elder Bourbon line. The duke was assassinated on 13th February 1820, as he was conducting his wife from the Opera-house to her carriage, by a fanatic named Louvel. He left only a daughter, born 1819; but on 29th September 1820, the widowed duchess gave birth to the Comte de Chambord (q.v.). After the July revolution, 1830, in which the duchess exhibited immense force of character and courage, offering herself to lead on the troops against the insurgents, she, with her son, followed Charles X. to Holyrood, but left a considerable party in France in favour of the pretensions of her son as Henry V. During a visit to Italy, she was so far encouraged in her ambition, that a project was formed for reinstating the Bourbons; and, accompanied by several friends, she landed near Marseilles, April 29, 1832. After many adventures, she was betrayed by a Jew at Nantes, and was imprisoned in the citadel of Blaye. The confession of the duchess, that she had formed a second marriage with the Neapolitan marquis, Lucchesi-Palli, at once destroyed her political importance, and the government set her at liberty. She died in Styria, 16th April 1870.
See works by Ménéère (1882) and Imbert de St Amand (1890; trans. 1893).