The last Prince of Condé was found hanged after willing Chantilly to an 8-year-old prince, who later gave it to the Institut de France while in exile

Louis Henri de Bourbon, the last Prince of Condé, owned Chantilly, north of Paris. His English mistress, Sophie Dawes, Baronne de Feuchères, persuaded him to sign a will in 1829. It left most of an estate worth more than 66 million francs to his godson Henri d'Orléans, Duc d'Aumale, then 7, son of the future King Louis-Philippe. The baroness was to get 2 million francs and several châteaux. In August 1830, weeks after Louis-Philippe took the throne, the prince was found dead at Saint-Leu with a rope around his neck and his feet on the ground. An inquiry ruled it suicide. The baroness was suspected but not prosecuted. Aumale inherited at 8. In 1852 Louis-Napoléon forced the exiled Orléans family to sell its French property, and the English bank Coutts held Chantilly until 1872^†. Aumale rebuilt the château from 1875 to 1882. On 3 June 1884 he willed Chantilly and his collections to the Institut de France. A law of 1886 expelled the heads of former reigning families, and he was expelled. On 25 October 1886 he made the gift irrevocable, keeping a life interest. The government withdrew his exile and he returned in 1889. He died on 7 May 1897. The Musée Condé opened on 17 April 1898. Its works cannot be sold or lent, and their display cannot be changed. In 2026 the Institut owns the estate; a foundation set up in 2005 with Aga Khan IV's money runs the château.