Princesses Marguerite and Blanche d'Orléans were the daughters of Louis-Charles-Philippe-Raphaël d'Orléans, duc de Nemours [Duke of Nemours]. Born in Paris on 25 October 1814, he was the second son of Louis d’Orléans, afterwards Louis-Philippe I, King of the French.

In 1831 he was elected King of the Belgians, but Louis-Philippe refused the crown in his son’s name. After the abdication of his father in 1842, Nemours, like the rest of his family, went into exile in England. He spent the years of his banishment trying to unite royalists and restore the monarchy, but after the fall of the Second Empire in 1870, he was allowed to return to France. He died at Versailles on 26 June 1896.

Princess Marguerite d’Orléans (1846-1893) was born in the Tuileries on 16 February 1846. She married the Polish prince Wladyslaw Czartoryski (1828-1894) on 15 January 1872 at Chantilly. She died on 25 October 1893, aged 47, at the Hôtel Lambert, rue St. Louis en l’Ile, Paris.

Princess Blanche d’Orléans (1857-1932) was born on 28 October 1857 at Claremond House, Esher, Surry. She remained unmarried throughout her life, her father having refused his permission for her marry the British lord she loved. She died in Paris on 4 February 1932, at the age of 74.