Bourbon

Bourbon. The noble family of Bourbon, from which so many European kings have sprung, took its name from Bourbon l’Archambault, chief town of a lordship which in the 10th century was one of the largest baronies of the kingdom of France. The limits of the lordship, which was called the Bourbonnais, were approximately those of the modern department of Allier, being on the N. the Nivernais and Berry, on the E. Burgundy and Lyonnais, on the S. Auvergne and Marche and on the W. Berry. The first of the long line of Bourbons known in history was Adhémar or Aimar, who was invested with the barony towards the close of the 9th century. Matilda, heiress of the first house of Bourbon, brought this lordship to the family of Dampierre by her marriage, in 1196, with Guy of Dampierre, marshal of Champagne (d. 1215). In 1272 Beatrix, daughter of Agnes of Bourbon-Dampierre, and her husband John of Burgundy, married Robert, count of Clermont, sixth son of Louis IX. (St Louis) of France. The elder branches of the family had become extinct, and their son Louis became duke of Bourbon in 1327. In 1488 the line of his descendants ended with Jean II., who died in that year. The whole estates passed to Jean’s brother Pierre, lord of Beaujeu, who was married to Anne, daughter of Louis XI. Pierre died in 1503, leaving only a daughter, Suzanne, who, in 1505, married Charles de Montpensier, heir of the Montpensier branch of the Bourbon family. Charles, afterwards constable of France, who took the title of duke of Bourbon on his marriage, was born in 1489, and at an early age was looked upon as one of the finest soldiers and gentlemen in France. With the constable ended the direct line from Pierre I., duke of Bourbon (d. 1356). But the fourth in descent from Pierre’s brother, Jacques, count of La Marche, Louis, count of Vendôme and Chartres (d. 1446), became the ancestor of the royal house of Bourbon and of the noble families of Condé, Conti and Montpensier. The fourth in direct descent from Louis of Vendôme was Antoine de Bourbon, who in 1548 married Jeanne d’Albret, heiress of Navarre, and became king of Navarre in 1554. Their son became king of France as Henry IV. Henry was succeeded by his son, Louis XIII., who left two sons, Louis XIV., and Philip, duke of Orleans, head of the Orleans branch. Louis XIV.’s son, the dauphin, died before his father, and left three sons, one of whom died without issue. Of the others the elder, Louis of Burgundy, died in 1712, and his only surviving son became Louis XV. The younger, Philip, duke of Anjou, became king of Spain, and founded the Spanish branch of the Bourbon family. Louis XV. was succeeded by his grandson, Louis XVI., who perished on the scaffold. At the restoration the throne of France was occupied by Louis XVIII., brother of Louis XVI., who in turn was succeeded by his brother Charles X. The second son of Charles X., the duc de Berry, left a son, Henri Charles Ferdinand Marie Dieudonné d’Artois, duc de Bordeaux, and comte de Chambord (q.v.). From Louis XIV.’s brother, Philip, descended another claimant of the throne. Philip’s son was the regent Orleans, whose great-grandson, “Philippe Égalité,” perished on the scaffold in 1793. Égalité’s son, Louis Philippe, was king of the French from 1830 to 1848; his grandson, Louis Philippe, comte de Paris (1838-1894), inherited on the death of the comte de Chambord the rights of that prince to the throne of France, and was called by the royalists Philip VII. He had a son, Louis Philippe Robert, duc d’Orléans, called by his adherents Philip VIII.

Spanish Branch.—Philip, duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., became king of Spain as Philip V., in 1700. He was succeeded in 1746 by his son Ferdinand VI., who died in 1759 without family, and was followed by his brother Charles III. Charles III.’s eldest son became Charles IV. of Spain in 1788, while his second son, Ferdinand, was made king of Naples in 1759\. Charles IV. was deposed by Napoleon, but in 1814 his son, Ferdinand VII., again obtained his throne. Ferdinand was succeeded by his daughter Isabella, who in 1870 abdicated in favour of her son, Alphonso XII. (d. 1885). Alphonso’s posthumous son became king of Spain as Alphonso XIII. Ferdinand’s brother, Don Carlos (d. 1855), claimed the throne in 1833 on the ground of the Salic law, and a fierce war raged for some years in the north of Spain. His son Don Carlos, count de Montemolin (1818-1861), revived the claim, but was defeated and compelled to sign a renunciation. The nephew of the latter, Don Carlos Maria Juan Isidor, duke of Madrid, for some years carried on war in Spain with the object of attaining the rights contended for by the Carlist party.

GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF THE HOUSE OF BOURBON

I. The French Bourbons.

II. The Spanish and Italian Bourbons.

Neapolitan Branch.—The first Bourbon who wore the crown of Naples was Charles III. of Spain, who on his succession to the Spanish throne in 1759, resigned his kingdom of Naples to his son Ferdinand. Ferdinand was deposed by Napoleon, but afterwards regained his throne, and took the title of Ferdinand I., king of the Two Sicilies. In 1825 he was succeeded by his son Francis, who in turn was succeeded in 1830 by his son Ferdinand II. Ferdinand II. died in 1859, and in the following year his successor Francis II. was deprived of his kingdom, which was incorporated into the gradually-uniting Italy.

Duchies of Lucca and Parma.—In 1748 the duchy of Parma was conferred on Philip, youngest son of Philip V. of Spain. He was succeeded by his son Ferdinand in 1765. Parma was ceded to France in 1801, Ferdinand’s son Louis being made king of Etruria, but the French only took possession of the duchy after Ferdinand’s death in 1802. Louis’s son Charles Louis was forced to surrender Etruria to France in 1807, and he was given the duchy of Lucca by the congress of Vienna in 1815. In 1847, on the death of Marie Louise, widow of Napoleon, who had received Parma and Piacenza in accordance with the terms of the treaty of Paris of 1814, Charles Louis succeeded to the duchies as Charles II., at the same time surrendering Lucca to Tuscany. In 1849 he abdicated in favour of his son, Charles III., who married a daughter of the duke of Berry, and was assassinated in 1854, being succeeded by his son Robert. In 1860 the duchies were annexed by Victor Emmanuel to the new kingdom of Italy.

Bastard Branches.—There are numerous bastard branches of the family of Bourbon, the most famous being the Vendôme branch, descended from Caesar, natural son of Henry IV., and the Maine and Toulouse branches, descended from the two natural sons of Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan.

See Coiffier de Moret, Histoire du Bourbonnais et des Bourbons (2 vols., 1824); Berand, Histoire des sires et ducs de Bourbon (1835); Désormeaux, Histoire de la maison de Bourbon (5 vols., 1782-1788); Achaintre, Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de Bourbon (2 vols., 1825-1826); and Dussieux, Généalogie de la maison de Bourbon (1872).

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