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 698 ORLEANS Salisbury, laid siege to the city, whose inhabi- tants resisted heroically ; it was finally rescued, April 29, 1429, by Joan of Arc. The states general convened there in 1560. The Calvin- ists in 1562 seized upon this stronghold, and it was besieged in 1563 by the Catholics under the duke of Guise, who was assassinated du- ring the siege. In 1652, during the war of the Fronde, the duchess of Montpensier, daughter of Gaston of Orleans, held it against the king. In the Franco-German war of 1870-'71 its neighborhood was the scene of protracted and hotly contested battles. On Oct. 10 Gen. von der Tann, with the first Bavarian army corps and other troops, drove back the advance guard of the " army of the Loire " (Gen. Lamotte- rouge) from Artenay, and moved toward Or- leans ; on the 12th he defeated the main army and took possession of the city. By the be- ginning of November, however, the French army of the Loire had been heavily reenforced, and Gen. Aurelle de Paladines, during the first week of that month, advanced at the head of 150,000 men with the design of recapturing the place. Von der Tann, greatly outnum- bered, preferred to receive the attack in the open country, and on Nov. 8 evacuated the town (leaving only a regiment of infantry) and took up a strong strategic position near 6oul- miers, where a fierce battle began on the 9th. Von der Tann held his ground till night, and then made an orderly retreat ; the troops left in Orleans withdrew, and the French reentered it on the 10th. Aurelle failing to follow up his advantage, the Germans were allowed to reenforce their army undisturbed ; and when later in the month Aurelle attempted to send a great part of his army toward Paris, he encountered a strong force (10th corps, of Frederick Charles's army), which he attacked near Beaume-la-Rolande, and was defeated and forced back to Neuville-aux-Bois near the city. Here the 10th Prussian corps again defeated him on Dec. 3 ; and on the same evening all the other principal French positions around the city were successfully assailed. The attack was continued on the 4th, and by 9 at night the Germans had pressed forward to the city itself. An entrance was forced by the grand duke of Mecklenburg's division, and violent street fighting was going on, when the com- mander of the city surrendered to the grand duke, who occupied it at midnight (Dec. 4-5). Prince Frederick Charles made a formal entry on the 5th, and the Germans held Orleans to the end of the war. ORLEANS, Duchy and Families of. That region in France of which the city of Orleans was the capital formed successively a viscounty and a county under the Carlo vingian and Capetian dynasties. Philip VI. of France erected it in 1344 into a duchy and peerage, and be- stowed it as an apanage upon his son Philip, who died in 1375. Besides several princes of the royal family who occasionally bore the title, it was subsequently held by three families or branches : 1, that of Orleans- Valois (1392- 1498), consisting of three dukes, Louis I., sec- ond son of Charles V. of France ; Charles, the poet; and his son Louis II., who ascended the throne as Louis XII. ; 2, the first house of Or- leans-Bourbon (1626-'60), which had but one duke, Gaston, brother of Louis XIII., who died without male issue ; 3, the second house of Or- leans-Bourbon (1660-1842), which originated with Philippe, the brother of Louis XIV. and husband of Henrietta Anna of England; it reckons among its members Philippe, the re- gent under the minority of Louis XV., Louis Philippe Joseph, known as Philippe figalite during the French revolution, and King Louis Philippe, whose eldest son, Ferdinand Philippe, who died in 1842, was the last who held the title of duke of Orleans. Of the various fam- ilies of Orleans, the following are the most im- portant members. I. Louis, the head of the family of Orleans- Valois, born in 1371, assas- sinated Nov. 23, 1407. The second son of King Charles V. by Jeanne of Bourbon, he was first styled duke of Valois, then of Tou- raine, and finally of Orleans in 1392. He married Valentina Visconti, a Milanese prin- cess, by whom he had several children. When his brother Charles VI. was seized with mad- ness, he tried to share the power with his uncles, and through the influence of Queen Isabella secured a considerable part in the administration. On the death of Philip of Burgundy in 1404, he had for a while the full control of affairs, under the title of lieutenant general of the kingdom, in concert with the queen; but his maladministration soon made him unpopular, and John the Fearless, son of Philip of Burgundy, was hailed as a lib- erator when he presented himself before the gates of Paris. The rivalry between the two princes foreboded civil war ; but the duke of Berry, their uncle, brought about a seeming reconciliation, Nov. 20, 1407. Three days later the duke of Orleans fell a victim to assas- sins hired by the duke of Burgundy. This murder gave the signal for civil wars between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs, the latter being the adherents of the family of Orleans. II. Charles, eldest son of the preceding, born in Paris, May 26, 1391, died in Amboise, Jan. 4, 1465. He was educated under the supervision of his mother, and became familiar with the poems of the French trouveres and of the great Italian writers. On his father's death he showed little executive ability, and when his mother died in 1409 he signed with John of Burgundy a treaty of peace, styled the paix fourree by French historians. But his party soon found a more energetic leader in Count Bernard of Armagnac, whose daughter Charles married in 1410, his first wife, the widow of Richard II. of England, having died the pre- vious year. Under direction of Bernard civil war was renewed, but was terminated by the peace of Arras in 1414. Charles joined the French army under the constable d'Albret in