Count of Paris, wounded and under arrest

November 13, 1944

The Count of Paris, pretender to the French throne, was arrested earlier today in Perpignan near the Spanish border, reports the New York Times.  He is said to have been "wounded in the shoulder by a pistol shot in the course of his arrest."

The Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice released a joint communiqué: "According to information that seems reliable, the pretender arrived in France recently and his detention has been ordered."

Under a law passed in 1886, heads of the dynasties that once ruled France "are forbidden entry into the country." A more recent law, passed in 1940, "penalizes their illegal crossing of the frontier."

The Count of Paris violated both laws.  He succeeded his father, the Duke of Guise, as head of the house. He and his family have lived in Brussels or on his estate in Spanish Morocco.

Using an assume name, the count enlisted as a private in the Foreign Legion, but was soon released from the service, when he was recognized.  After there were reports that he was in Algiers, General Charles de Gaulle's "police sought him fruitlessly."  He said he would consider himself as the "pretender" regardless of what regime was established in France."