TheHouse of Bourbon (English:/ˈbʊərbən/,alsoUK:/ˈbɔːrbɒn/;French:[buʁbɔ̃]) is adynasty that originated in theKingdom of France as a branch of theCapetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France andNavarre in the 16th century. A branch descended from the French Bourbons came to ruleSpain in the 18th century and is the currentSpanish royal family. Further branches, descended from the Spanish Bourbons, held thrones inNaples,Sicily, andParma. Today, Spain andLuxembourg have monarchs of the House of Bourbon.The royal Bourbons originated in 1272, whenRobert, the youngest son of KingLouis IX of France, married the heiress of thelordship of Bourbon.[2] The house continued for three centuries as acadet branch, serving as nobles under the direct Capetian andValois kings.
The senior line of the House of Bourbon became extinct in the male line in 1527 with the death of DukeCharles III of Bourbon. This made the juniorBourbon-Vendôme branch the genealogically senior branch of the House of Bourbon. In 1589, at the death ofHenry III of France, the House of Valois became extinct in the male line. Under theSalic law, the head of the House of Bourbon, as the senior representative of the senior-surviving branch of the Capetian dynasty (first prince of the blood), became King of France asHenry IV.[2] Bourbon monarchs then united to France the part of theKingdom of Navarre north of thePyrenees, which Henry's father had acquired by marriage in 1555, ruling both until the 1792 overthrow of the monarchy during theFrench Revolution. Restored briefly in 1814, and definitively in 1815 after the fall of theFirst French Empire, the senior line of the Bourbons was finally overthrown in theJuly Revolution of 1830. A cadet Bourbon branch, theHouse of Orléans, then ruled for 18 years (1830–1848), until it too was overthrown during theFrench Revolution of 1848.
In 1700, at the death of KingCharles II of Spain, the SpanishHabsburgs became extinct in the male line. Under the will of the childless Charles II, the second grandson of KingLouis XIV of France was named as his successor, topreclude the union of the thrones of France and Spain. The prince, then Duke of Anjou, becamePhilip V of Spain.[2] Permanent separation of the French and Spanish thrones was secured when France and Spainratified Philip'srenunciation, for himself and his descendants, of the French throne in theTreaty of Utrecht in 1713, and similar arrangements later kept the Spanish throne separate from those ofNaples,Sicily andParma. The Spanish House of Bourbon (rendered in Spanish asBorbón[boɾˈβon]) has been overthrown and restored several times, reigning 1700–1808, 1813–1868, 1875–1931, and since 1975. Bourbons ruled inNaples from 1734 to 1806 and inSicily from 1735 to 1816, and in a unifiedKingdom of the Two Sicilies from 1816 to 1861. They also ruled inParma from 1731 to 1735, 1748–1802 and 1847–1859, theKingdom of Etruria 1802–1807 andDuchy of Lucca 1814–1847.
Grand DuchessCharlotte of Luxembourg marriedPrince Felix of Bourbon-Parma, and thus her successors, who have reigned in Luxembourg since her abdication in 1964, have also been members of the House of Bourbon.Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, regent for her father, EmperorPedro II of Brazil, married a cadet of the Orléans line and thus their descendants, known as theOrléans-Braganza, were in the line of succession to the Brazilian throne and expected to ascend its throne had the monarchy not been abolished by acoup in 1889. All legitimate, living members of the House of Bourbon, including its cadet branches, are directagnatic descendants of Henry IV through his sonLouis XIII of France.
The pre-Capetian House ofBourbon was anoble family, dating at least from the beginning of the 13th century, when theestate of Bourbon was ruled by theSire de Bourbon who was a vassal of theKing of France. The term House of Bourbon ("Maison de Bourbon") is sometimes used to refer to thisfirst house and theHouse of Bourbon-Dampierre, the second family to rule theseigneury.
Henry succeeded to Navarre as Henry III when his mother died in 1572. That same yearCatherine de' Medici, mother of KingCharles IX of France, arranged for the marriage of her daughter,Margaret of Valois, to Henry, ostensibly to advance peace between Catholics and Huguenots. Many Huguenots gathered in Paris for the wedding on 24 August, but were ambushed and slaughtered by Catholics in theSt. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Henry saved his own life by converting to Catholicism. He repudiated his conversion in 1576 and resumed his leadership of the Huguenots.
The period from 1576 to 1584 was relatively calm in France, with the Huguenots consolidating control of much of the south with only occasional interference from the royal government. Extended civil war erupted again in 1584, whenFrançois, Duke of Anjou, younger brother of KingHenry III of France, died, leaving Navarre next in line for the throne. Thus began theWar of the Three Henrys, as Henry of Navarre, Henry III, and the ultra-Catholic leader,Henry of Guise, fought a confusing three-cornered struggle for dominance. After Henry III was assassinated on 31 July 1589, Navarre claimed the throne as the first Bourbon king of France, Henry IV.
Much of Catholic France, organized into theCatholic League, refused to recognize a Protestant monarch and instead recognized Henry IV's uncle,Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon, as rightful king, and the civil war continued. Henry won a crucial victory atIvry on 14 March 1590 and, following the death of the Cardinal the same year, the forces of the League lacked an obvious Catholic candidate for the throne and divided into various factions. Nevertheless, as a Protestant, Henry IV was unable to take Paris, a Catholic stronghold, or to decisively defeat his enemies, now supported by the Spanish. He reconverted to Catholicism in 1593[9] and was crowned king retroactively to 1589 at theCathedral of Chartres on 27 February 1594.[10]
Henry granted theEdict of Nantes on 13 April 1598, establishing Catholicism as an official state religion but also granting the Huguenots a measure of religious tolerance and political freedom short of full equality with the practice of Catholicism. This compromise ended the religious wars in France. That same year theTreaty of Vervins ended the war with Spain, adjusted the Spanish-French border, and resulted in a belated recognition by Spain of Henry as king of France.
Ably assisted byMaximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully, Henry reduced the land tax known as thetaille; promoted agriculture, public works, construction of highways, and the first French canal; started such important industries as the tapestry works of theGobelins; and intervened in favor of Protestants in the duchies and earldoms along the German frontier. This last was to be the cause of his assassination.
Henry IV of France, the first Bourbon King of France
Henry's marriage to Margaret, which had produced no heir, was annulled in 1599 and he marriedMarie de' Medici, niece of the grand duke of Tuscany. A son, Louis, was born to them in 1601. Henry IV was assassinated on 14 May 1610 in Paris.Louis XIII was only nine years old when he succeeded his father.[2] He was to prove a weak ruler; his reign was effectively a series of distinct regimes, depending who held the effective reins of power. At first, Marie de' Medici, his mother, served as regent and advanced a pro-Spanish policy. To deal with the financial troubles of France, Louis summoned theEstates General in 1614; this would be the last time that body met until the eve of theFrench Revolution. Marie arranged the 1615 marriage of Louis toAnne of Austria, the daughter of KingPhilip III of Spain.
Richelieu advanced an anti-Habsburg policy. He arranged for Louis' sister,Henrietta Maria, to marry KingCharles I of England, on 11 May 1625. Her pro-Catholic propaganda in England was one of the contributing factors to theEnglish Civil War. Richelieu, as ambitious for France and the French monarchy as for himself, laid the ground for theabsolute monarchy that would last in France until the Revolution. He wanted to establish a dominating position for France in Europe, and he wanted to unify France under the monarchy. He established the role ofintendants, non-noble men whose arbitrary powers of administration were granted (and revocable) by the monarch, superseding many of the traditional duties and privileges of the noble governors.
Although it required a succession of internal military campaigns, he disarmed the fortified Huguenot towns that Henry had allowed. He involved France in theThirty Years' War (1618–1648) against the Habsburgs byconcluding an alliance with Sweden in 1631 and, actively, in 1635. He died in 1642 before the conclusion of that conflict, having groomed CardinalJules Mazarin as a successor. Louis XIII outlived him but by one year, dying in 1643 at the age of forty-two. After a childless marriage for twenty-three years his queen, Anne, delivered a son on 5 September 1638, whom he named Louis after himself.[2] In the mid-18th century, the Bourbon monarchy had a faulty system for finance and taxation. Their lacking a national bank led to them taking short-term loans, and ordering financial agents to make payments in advance or in excess of tax revenues collected.[11]
Louis XIV succeeded his father at four years of age;[2] he would go on to become the most powerful king in French history. His mother Anne served as his regent with her favorite Jules, Cardinal Mazarin, as chief minister. When Louis was age 7,Nicolas de Neufville de Villeroy became governor of the young king.[12] The main childhood places of Louis XIV were thePalais-Royal and the nearbyHôtel de Villeroy. Mazarin continued the policies of Richelieu, bringing the Thirty Years' War to a successful conclusion in 1648 and defeating the nobility's challenge to royal absolutism in a series of civil wars known as theFrondes. He continued to war with Spain until 1659.
In that year theTreaty of the Pyrenees was signed signifying a major shift in power, France had replaced Spain as the dominant state in Europe. The treaty called for anarranged marriage between Louis and his cousinMaria Theresa, a daughter of KingPhilip IV of Spain by his first wifeElisabeth, the sister of Louis XIII. They were married in 1660 and had a son, Louis, in 1661.[2] Mazarin died on 9 March 1661 and it was expected that Louis would appoint another chief minister, as had become the tradition, but instead he shocked the country by announcing he would rule alone.
For six years Louis reformed the finances of his state and built formidable armed forces. France fought a series of wars from 1667 onward and gained some territory on its northern and eastern borders. Maria Theresa died in 1683 and the next year he secretly married the devoutly CatholicFrançoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon. Louis XIV began to persecute Protestants, undoing the religious tolerance established by his grandfather Henry IV, culminating in his revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.
The last war waged by Louis XIV proved to be one of the most important to dynastic Europe. In 1700, KingCharles II of Spain, a Habsburg, died without a son. Louis's only legitimate son, theGrand Dauphin, as the late king's nephew, was the closest heir; and Charles willed the kingdom to the Dauphin's second son, the Duke of Anjou. Other powers, particularly theAustrian Habsburgs, who had the next closest claims, objected to such a vast increase in French power.
Initially, most of the other powers were willing to accept Anjou's reign asPhilip V, but Louis's mishandling of their concerns soon drove theEnglish,Dutch and other powers to join the Austrians in a coalition against France. TheWar of the Spanish Succession began in 1701 and raged for 12 years. In the end Louis's grandson was recognized as king of Spain, but he was obliged to agree to the forfeiture of succession rights in France, theSpanish Habsburgs' other European territories were largely ceded to Austria, and France was nearly bankrupted by the cost of the struggle. Louis died on 1 September 1715 ending his seventy-two-year reign, the longest in European history.
Dynastic group portrait of Louis XIV (seated) with his son theLouis theGrand Dauphin (to the left), his grandsonLouis, Duke of Burgundy (to the right), his great-grandson the duc d'Anjou, later Louis XV, andMadame de Ventadour, his governess, who commissioned this painting some years later; busts ofHenry IV andLouis XIII in the background.
The reign of Louis XIV was so long that he outlived both his son and eldest grandson. He was succeeded by his great-grandsonLouis XV.[2] Louis XV was born on 15 February 1710 and was thus aged only five at his ascension, the third Louis in a row to become king of France before the age of thirteen (Louis XIII became king at 9, Louis XIV at almost 5 and himself at 5). Initially, the regency was held byPhilippe, Duke of Orléans, Louis XIV's nephew, as nearest adult male to the throne.[2] ThisRégence was seen as a period of greater individual expression, manifested in secular, artistic, literary and colonial activity, in contrast to the austere latter years of Louis XIV's reign.
Following Orléans' death in 1723, theDuke of Bourbon, representative of the Bourbon-Condé cadet line, became prime minister. It was expected that Louis would marry his cousin, the daughter of King Philip V of Spain, but this engagement was broken by the duke in 1725 so that Louis could marryMarie Leszczyńska, the daughter ofStanislas, former king of Poland. Bourbon's motive appears to have been a desire to produce an heir as soon as possible so as to reduce the chances of a succession dispute between Philip V and the Duke of Orléans in the event of the sickly king's death. Maria was already an adult woman at the time of the marriage, while theinfanta was still a young girl.
Nevertheless, Bourbon's action brought a very negative response from Spain, and for his incompetence Bourbon was soon replaced by CardinalAndré-Hercule de Fleury, the young king's tutor, in 1726. Fleury was a peace-loving man who intended to keep France out of war, but circumstances presented themselves that made this impossible. The first cause of these wars came in 1733 whenAugustus II, the elector of Saxony and king of Poland died. With French support, Stanislas was again elected king. This brought France into conflict withRussia and Austria who supportedAugustus III, Elector of Saxony and son of Augustus II.
Shortly after Fleury's death in 1745 Louis was influenced by his mistress theMarquise de Pompadour to reverse the policy of France in 1756 by creating analliance with Austria against Prussia in theSeven Years' War. The war was a disaster for France, which lost most of her overseas possessions to the British in theTreaty of Paris (1763). Maria, his wife, died in 1768 and Louis himself died on 10 May 1774.
They formed theNational Assembly and forced Louis to accept a constitution that limited his powers on 14 July 1789. Hetried to flee France in June 1791, but was captured. The French monarchy was abolished on 21 September 1792 and arepublic was proclaimed. The chain of Bourbon monarchs begun in 1589 was broken. Louis XVI wasexecuted on 21 January 1793.
Marie Antoinette and her son, Louis, were held as prisoners. Many French royalists proclaimed himLouis XVII, but he never reigned. She was executed on 16 October 1793. He died oftuberculosis on 8 June 1795 at the age of ten while in captivity.[13]
TheFrench Revolutionary Wars andNapoleonic Wars spread nationalism and anti-absolutism throughout Europe, and the other Bourbon monarchs were threatened.Ferdinand IV was forced to flee from Naples in 1806 whenNapoleon Bonaparte deposed him and installed his brother,Joseph, as king. Ferdinand continued to rule from Sicily until 1815.
Napoleon conquered Parma in 1800 and compensated the Bourbon duke withEtruria, a new kingdom he created from theGrand Duchy of Tuscany. It was short-lived, counting only two monarchs,Louis andLouis II, as Napoleon annexed Etruria in 1807.
KingCharles IV of Spain had been an ally of France. He succeeded his father,Charles III, in 1788. At first he declared war on France on 7 March 1793, but he made peace on 22 June 1795. This peace became an alliance on 19 August 1796. His chief minister,Manuel de Godoy convinced Charles that his son,Ferdinand, was plotting to overthrow him. Napoleon exploited the situation and invaded Spain in March 1808. This led to anuprising that forced Charles to abdicate on 19 March 1808 in favor of his son, who became Ferdinand VII. Napoleon forced Ferdinand to return the crown to Charles on 30 April and then convinced Charles to relinquish it to him on 10 May 1808. In turn, he gave it to his brother, Joseph, king of Naples on 6 June 1808. Joseph abandoned Naples toJoachim Murat, the husband of Napoleon's sister. This was very unpopular in Spain and resulted in thePeninsular War, a struggle that would contribute to the downfall of Napoleon.
With the abdication of Napoleon on 11 April 1814 the Bourbon dynasty was restored to the Kingdom of France in the person ofLouis XVIII, brother of Louis XVI. Napoleon escaped from exile and Louis fled in March 1815. Louis was again restored after theBattle of Waterloo on 7 July 1815.
The conservative elements of Europe dominated the post-Napoleonic age, but the values of the French Revolution could not be easily swept aside. Louis granted aconstitution on 14 June 1814 to appease the liberals, but the ultra-royalist party, led by his brother, Charles, continued to influence his reign.[14] When he died in 1824 his brother became king asCharles X much to the dismay of French liberals. In a saying ascribed toTalleyrand, "they had learned nothing and forgotten nothing."[15]
Charles passed several laws that appealed to the upper class, but angered the middle class. The situation came to a head when he appointed a new minister on 8 August 1829 who did not have the confidence of theChamber of Deputies. The chamber censured the king on 18 March 1830 and in response Charles proclaimed theJuly Ordinances on 26 July 1830 intended to silence criticism against him.[citation needed] This resulted in theJuly Revolution.
As a compromise the crown was offered toLouis Philippe, duke of Orléans, a descendant of thebrother of Louis XIV, and the head of the Orléanist cadet branch of the Bourbons. Agreeing to reign constitutionally and under thetricolour, he was proclaimed King of the French on 7 August 1830. The resulting regime, known as theJuly Monarchy, lasted until theRevolution of 1848. The Bourbon monarchy in France ended on 24 February 1848, when Louis Philippe was forced to abdicate and the short-livedSecond Republic was established.
SomeLegitimists refused to recognize the Orléanist monarchy. After the death of Charles in 1836 his son was proclaimedLouis XIX, though this title was never formally recognized. Charles' grandsonHenri, Count of Chambord, the last Bourbon claimant of the French crown, was proclaimed by some Henry V, but the French monarchy was never restored.
Following the 1870 collapse of theSecond French Empire of EmperorNapoleon III, Henri was offered a restored throne. However Chambord refused to accept the throne unless France abandoned the revolution-inspiredtricolour and accepted what he regarded as the true Bourbon flag of France, featuring thefleur-de-lis. The tricolour, originally associated with the French Revolution and theFirst Republic, had been used by the July Monarchy, the Second Republic and both Empires; theFrench National Assembly could not possibly agree.
AtemporaryThird Republic was established, while monarchists waited for the comte de Chambord to die and for the succession to pass toPrince Philippe, Count of Paris, who was willing to accept the tricolour. Henri lived until 1883, by which time public opinion had come to accept the republic as the "form of government that divides us least." His death without issue marked the extinction of the main line of the French Bourbons. Thus the head of the House of Bourbon becameJuan, Count of Montizón of the Spanish line of the house who was alsoCarlist claimant to the throne of Spain, and had become the senior male of the dynasty by primogeniture. His heir as eldest Bourbon and head of the house is todayLouis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou.
However the terms of the Peace of Utrecht forbade the descendants of Philip V of Spain from inheriting the throne of France, therefore many monarchists recognised the Orléans line as heirs to the French throne.
By an ordinance ofLouis Philippe I of 13 August 1830, it was decided that the king's children (and his sister) would continue to bear the arms of Orléans, that Louis-Philippe's eldest son, as Prince Royal, would bear the title of Duke of Orléans, that the younger sons would continue to have their existing titles, and that the sister and daughters of the king would be styledRoyal Highness and "d'Orléans," but the Orléans dynasts did not take the name "of France."
Arms of the presentKing of Spain of the House of Bourbon
The Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon, also known as the House of Bourbon-Anjou, was founded by Philip V. He was born in 1683 at Versailles, the second son of the Grand Dauphin, who was eldest son of Louis XIV. He wasDuke of Anjou and probably never expected to be raised to a rank higher than that. However, KingCharles II of Spain, dying without issue, willed the throne to his grand-nephew the Duke of Anjou, who was the younger grandson of his eldest sisterMarie-Thérèse, who had married Louis XIV.
Philip had two sons by his first wife. After her death, he marriedElisabeth Farnese, niece ofFrancesco Farnese, Duke of Parma, in 1714. She presented Philip with three sons, for whom she had ambitions of securing Italian crowns. She therefore induced Philip tooccupy Sardinia and Sicily in 1717.
AQuadruple Alliance of Britain, France, Austria and the Netherlands was organized on 2 August 1718 to stop him. In theTreaty of The Hague, signed on 17 February 1720, Philip renounced his conquests of Sardinia and Sicily, but he assured the ascension of his eldest son by Elisabeth to the Duchy of Parma upon the reigning duke's death. Philip abdicated in January 1724 in favor ofLouis I, his eldest son with his first wife, but Louis died in August and Philip resumed the crown.
When theWar of the Polish Succession began in 1733, Philip and Elisabeth saw another opportunity to advance the claims of their sons and recover at least part of the former possessions of the Spanish crown on the Italian peninsula. Philip signed theFamily Compact with Louis XV, his nephew and king of France.Charles, Duke of Parma since 1731, invaded Naples. At the conclusion of peace on 13 November 1738, control of Parma and Piacenza was ceded to Austria, which had occupied the duchies but was now forced to recognise Charles as king of Naples and Sicily. Philip also used theWar of the Austrian Succession to win back control of Parma. He did not live to see it to its conclusion, however, dying in 1746.
Coat of arms of Ferdinand VI at theOmoa Fortress in Honduras.
Ferdinand VI, second son of Philip V and his first wife, succeeded his father. He was a peace-loving monarch who kept Spain out of theSeven Years' War. He died in 1759 in the midst of that conflict and was succeeded by his half-brotherCharles III, already reigning as king in Naples and Sicily.
Following Spain's victory over the Austrians at theBattle of Bitonto, it proved inexpedient to reunite Naples and Sicily to Spain, so as a compromise Charles became King of Naples, as Charles IV and VII of Sicily. Following Charles' accession to the Spanish throne in 1759, he was required, by the Treaty of Naples of 3 October 1759, to abdicate Naples and Sicily to his third son,Ferdinand, thus initiating the branch known as theNeapolitan Bourbons.
Charles revived the Family Compact with France on 15 August 1761 and joined in the Seven Years' War against Britain in 1762; the reformist policies he had espoused in Naples were pursued with similar energy in Spain, where he completely overhauled the cumbersome bureaucracy of the state. As a French ally, he opposed Britain during the American Revolution in June 1779, supplying large quantities of weapons and munitions to the rebels and keeping one third of all the British forces in the Americas occupied defending Florida and what is nowAlabama, which were ultimately recaptured by Spain. Charles died in 1788.
Elisabeth Farnese's ambitions were realized at the conclusion of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748 when theDuchy of Parma and Piacenza, already occupied by Spanish troops, were ceded by Austria to her second son,Philip, and combined with the formerDuchy of Guastalla of theGonzagas. Elisabeth died in 1766.
Upon the fall of the French Empire, Ferdinand I was restored to his throne in Naples, forming the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1816 and founding theHouse of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. His subjects revolted in 1820 and he was forced to grant a constitution;Austria invaded in March 1821 at his request and revoked the constitution. He was succeeded by his son,Francis I, in 1825 and by his grandson,Ferdinand II, in 1830. Arevolution in Sicily erupted in January 1848 and Ferdinand was also forced to grant a constitution. This constitution was revoked in 1849. Ferdinand was succeeded by his son,Francis II, in May 1859.
WhenGiuseppe Garibaldi captured Naples in 1860, Francis restored the constitution in an attempt to save his sovereignty. He fled to the fortress ofGaeta, which was besieged andcaptured by the Piedmontese troops in February 1861. His kingdom was incorporated into theKingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861, after the fall the fortress ofMessina (surrendered on 12 March), although the Neapolitan troops inCivitella del Tronto resisted three days longer.
After the fall of Napoleon, Napoleon's wife,Maria Louisa, was made Duchess of Parma. As compensation, Charles Louis, the former king of Etruria, was made theDuke of Lucca. When Maria Louisa died in 1847 he was restored to Parma asCharles II. Lucca was incorporated into Tuscany. He was succeeded by his son,Charles III, and grandson,Robert I, in 1854. The people of Parma voted for a union with theKingdom of Sardinia in 1860. After Italian unification the next year, the Bourbon dynasty in Italy was no more.
Ferdinand VII was restored to the throne of Spain in March 1814. Like his Italian Bourbon counterpart, his subjectsrevolted against him in January 1820 and he was forced to grant a constitution. AFrench army invaded in 1823 and the constitution was revoked. Ferdinand married his fourth wife,Maria Christina, the daughter of Francis I, the Bourbon king of the Two Sicilies, in 1829. Despite his many marriages he did not have a son, so in 1833 he was influenced by his wife to abolish theSalic Law so that their daughter, Isabella, could become queen depriving his brother,Don Carlos, of the throne.
Isabella II succeeded her father when he died in 1833. She was only three years old and Maria Cristina, her mother, served as regent. Maria knew that she needed the support of the liberals to oppose Don Carlos so she granted a constitution in 1834. Don Carlos found hisgreatest support inCatalonia and theBasque country because the constitution centralized the provinces thus denying them the autonomy they sought. He was defeated and fled the country in 1839. Isabella was declared of age in 1843 and she married her cousinFrancisco de Asís, the son of her father's brother, on 10 October 1846. A military revolution broke out against Isabella in 1868 and she was deposed on 29 September 1868. She abdicated in favor of her son, Alfonso, in 1870, but Spain was proclaimed a republic for a brief time.
When theFirst Spanish Republic failed the crown was offered to Isabella's son who accepted on 1 January 1875 asAlfonso XII. The Carlist pretenderDon Carlos, who returned to Spain, was defeated and resumed his exile in February 1876. Alfonso granted a newconstitution in July 1876 that was more liberal than the one granted by his grandmother. His reign was cut short when he died in 1885 at the age of twenty-eight.
Alfonso XIII was born on 17 May 1886 after the death of his father. His mother,Maria Christina, the second wife of Alfonso XII served as regent. Alfonso XIII was declared of age in 1902 and he marriedVictoria Eugenie of Battenberg, the granddaughter of the BritishQueen Victoria on 31 May 1906. He remained neutral duringWorld War I, but supported the military coup ofMiguel Primo de Rivera on 13 September 1923. A movement towards the establishment of a republic began in 1930 and Alfonso fled the country on 14 April 1931. He never formally abdicated, but lived the rest of his life in exile. He died in 1941.
Since 1964 the Bourbon-Parma line has reigned agnatically though not officially in Luxembourg through Grand DukesJean and his sonHenri. In June 2011, Luxembourg adopted absolute primogeniture, replacing the old Semi-Salic law that might have guaranteed the survival of Bourbon rule for generations. Although it is not as powerful as it once was and no longer reigns in its native country of France, the House of Bourbon is by no means extinct and has survived to the present-day world, predominantly composed of republics.
The House of Bourbon, in its surviving branches, is believed to be the oldest royal dynasty of Europe (and the oldest documented European family altogether) that is still existing in the direct male line today: TheHouse of Capet's male ancestors, theRobertians, go back toRobert of Hesbaye (d. 807) as their first secured ancestor and he is believed to be a direct male descendant of Charibert de Haspengau (c. 555–636). Should this be true, only theImperial House of Japan would outmatch the Bourbon's age, being reliably documented – as a ruling house already – from about 540. TheHouse of Hesse traces its line back to 841, theHouse of Welf-Este and theHouse of Wettin are both emerging in the 10th century, and so do some Italian non-ruling houses like theCaetani or theMassimo family, whereas most of the other ruling families of Europe only turn up to the light of history after the year 1000.
Officially, theKing of France had no family name. A prince with the rank offils de France (Son of France) is surnamed "de France"; all the male-line descendants of eachfils de France, however, took his main title (whether anappanage or acourtesy title) as their family or last name. However, whenLouis XVI was put on trial and later "guillotined" (executed) by the revolutionariesNational Convention in France in 1793, they somewhat contemptuously referred to him in written documents and spoken address as "Citizen Louis Capet" as if a "commoner" (referring back to theMedieval origins of the Bourbon Dynasty's name and referring toHugh Capet, founder of theCapetian dynasty).
Members of the House of Bourbon-Condé and its cadet branches, which never ascended to the throne, used the surname "de Bourbon" until their extinction in 1830.
The daughters ofGaston, Duke of Orléans, were the first members of the House of Bourbon since the accession of Henry IV to take their surname from the appanage of their father (d'Orléans). Gaston died without a male heir; his titles reverted to the crown. It was given to his nephew,Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, brother of Louis XIV, whose descendants still bear the surname.
When Philippe, grandson of Louis XIV, became King of Spain asPhilip V, he gave up his French titles. As a Son of France, his actual surname was "de France". However, since that surname was not heritable for descendants of rank lower than Son of France, and since Philippe had already given up his French titles, his descendants simply took the name of their royal house as their surname ("de Bourbon", rendered in Spanish as "de Borbón").
The children of Philippe's brother,Charles, Duke of Berry (all of whom died in infancy), were given the surname "d'Alençon". He was Duke of Berry onlyin name, so the surname of his children was taken from his first substantial duchy.
The children of Charles Philippe, Count of Artois, brother of Louis XVI, were surnamed "d'Artois". When Charles succeeded to the throne asCharles X, his sonLouis Antoine became a Son of France, with the corresponding change in surname. His grandson,Henri d'Artois, being merely a Grandson of France, would use the surname until his death.
The first were the lords of Bourbon, who died out by the males in 1171, then by the women in 1216. Their coat of arms are: D'or au lion de gueules, et à l'orle de huit coquilles d'azur Nicolas Louis Achaintre,Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of Bourbon vol. 1, ed. Didot, 1825, p. 45.
The second family formed by the marriage of the last descendant of the first family,Mathilde of Bourbon withGuy II of Dampierre, this land passed to thehouse of Dampierre in 1196. The coat of arms of this family is: "De gueules à deux léopards d'or, avec couronne de baron",[16] but they took the coat of arms of the previous ones. The son of Guy de Dampierre and Mahaut de Bourbon, Archambaud VIII, took the name and arms of his mother, "de Bourbon", theHouse of Bourbon-Dampierre. By the marriage of,Agnes of Dampierre (died around 1287), withJohn of Burgundy, this important lordship passed to their daughterBéatrice de Bourgogne (1257–1310), lady of Bourbon, then to her husbandRobert, Count of Clermont (1256–1317), and penultimate child ofSaint Louis, thus possessing the land of Bourbon by "the right of the woman (de iure uxoris).
The third house of Bourbon acceded to the throne ofNavarre in 1555, then to the throne of France in 1589 byHenri IV. His coat of arms are: "D'azur, fleurs-de-lys d'or sans nombre, l'écu brisé d'un bâton ou cotice de gueules, brochant sur le tout, avec couronne de fils de France. The name House of Bourbon was then used to describe the entireHouse of France, officially since 29 June 1768, date of death ofHélène de Courtenay (1689–1768), with which was extinguished theCapetian House of Courtenay, extinction which made the House of France the only branch dynasty resulting from the dukes of Bourbon.
^The Governor General of Canada (12 November 2020)."Royal Banner of France – Heritage Emblem".Confirmation of the blazon of a Flag. February 15, 2008 Vol. V, p. 202. The Office of the Secretary to the Governor General.
^abcdefghijklmnopAnselme, Père. ‘'Histoire de la Maison Royale de France'’, tome 4. Editions du Palais-Royal, 1967, Paris. pp. 144–146, 151–153, 175, 178, 180, 185, 187–189, 191, 295–298, 318–319, 322–329. (French).
^"The heart of Louis XVII, the son of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI who died in prison in 1795, has been laid to test in the crypt of Saint-Denis Basilica.(News)(Brief Article)." History Today. History Today Ltd. 2004. HighBeam Research. 18 September 2012;"Louis XVII officially died of TB at the age of ten in the Temple prison."
^Durant, Will andDurant, Ariel.The Story of Civilization, Part XI, The Age of Napoleon". Simon & Schuster, New York, 1975. pp. 730–731, 774.
^In French:Ils n'ont rien appris, ni rien oublié. There is no historic evidence linking the saying to Talleyrand. It may derive from a similar lamentation about the royalists, found in a letter by Charles Louis Etienne, chevalier de Panat, a French naval officer, dated January 1796 and sent from London toMallet du Pan:personne n'a su ni rien oublier, ni rien apprendre ("nobody has been able to forget anything, nor to learn anything"), included in:A. Sayou, ed. (1852).Mémoires et correspondance de Mallet du Pan. Vol. II. p. 197.
^Nicolas Louis Achaintre,Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of Bourbon vol. 1, ed. Didot, 1825, p. 30
Van Kerrebrouck, Patrick.La Maison de Bourbon, 1256–1987. ___v. Villeneuve d'Ascq, France: The Author, 1987–2000. [only Vol. 2 & Vol. 4 have been published as of 2005].
Klaus Malettke,Die Bourbonen. Band I: Von Heinrich IV. bis Ludwig XV. 1589–1715 (Stuttgart,Kohlhammer Verlag, 2008);Band II: Von Ludwig XV. bis Ludwig XVI. 1715–1789/92 (Stuttgart, W. Kohlhammer, 2008);Band III: Von Ludwig XVIII. bis zu Louis Philippe 1814–1848 (Stuttgart, W. Kohlhammer, 2009).
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