House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon (English: /ˈbʊərbən/, also UK: /ˈbɔːrbɒn/; French: [buʁbɔ̃]) is a dynasty that originated in the Kingdom of France as a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. A branch descended from the French Bourbons came to rule Spain in the 18th century and is the current Spanish royal family. Further branches, descended from the Spanish Bourbons, held thrones in Naples, Sicily, and Parma. Today, Spain and Luxembourg have monarchs of the House of Bourbon. The royal Bourbons originated in 1272, when Robert, the youngest son of King Louis IX of France, married the heiress of the lordship of Bourbon.[2] The house continued for three centuries as a cadet branch, serving as nobles under the direct Capetian and Valois kings.
"Bourbons" redirects here. For other uses, see Bourbon (disambiguation).House of Bourbon
1272
Robert, Count of Clermont, the sixth son of King Louis IX of France, married Beatrice of Bourbon
- France and Navarre: Charles X (1824–1830)
- Of the French: Louis Philippe I (1830–1848)
- Parma: Roberto I (1854–1859)
- Two Sicilies: Francis II (1859–1861)
- King of France and Navarre
- King of Spain
- King of the Two Sicilies
- King of Poland[note 1]
- Grand Duke of Lithuania[note 1]
- Grand Duke of Luxembourg
- Dauphin of France
- Duke of Bourbon
- Duke of Calabria
- Duke of Vendôme
- Duke of Orléans
- Duke of Anjou
- Duke of Berry
- Duke of Alençon
- Duke of Angoulême
- Duke of Parma
- Duke of Lucca
- Prince of Condé
- Prince of Conti
- Count of La Marche
- Count of Soissons
- Count of Provence
- Count of Artois
- Count of Barcelona
- France
- Navarre
- Spain
- Two Sicilies
- Luxembourg
- Parma
- France (and Navarre until 1830):
- 1830: July Revolution
- 1848: February Revolution
- Parma, 1859: Annexation by Kingdom of Sardinia
- Two Sicilies, 1861: Italian unification
The senior line of the House of Bourbon became extinct in the male line in 1527 with the death of Duke Charles III of Bourbon. This made the junior Bourbon-Vendôme branch the genealogically senior branch of the House of Bourbon. In 1589, at the death of Henry III of France, the House of Valois became extinct in the male line. Under the Salic law, the head of the House of Bourbon, as the senior representative of the senior-surviving branch of the Capetian dynasty, became King of France as Henry IV.[2] Bourbon monarchs then united to France the part of the Kingdom of Navarre north of the Pyrenees, which Henry's father had acquired by marriage in 1555, ruling both until the 1792 overthrow of the monarchy during the French Revolution. Restored briefly in 1814 and definitively in 1815 after the fall of the First French Empire, the senior line of the Bourbons was finally overthrown in the July Revolution of 1830. A cadet Bourbon branch, the House of Orléans, then ruled for 18 years (1830–1848), until it too was overthrown.
The princes of Condé was a cadet branch of the Bourbons descended from an uncle of Henry IV, and the princes of Conti was a cadet line of the Condé branch. Both houses, recognized as princes of the blood, were prominent French noble families, well known for their participation in French affairs, even during exile in the French Revolution, until their respective extinctions in 1830 and 1814. Consequently, since the extinction of the Capetian House of Courtenay in 1733, the Bourbons are the only extant legitimate branch of the House of Capet. Although illegitimate, the House of Braganza traces its line to the House of Capet via their descent from Robert II of France through the First House of Burgundy, then through the Portuguese House of Burgundy. Peter I of Portugal fathered an illegitimate son John I of Portugal, founder of the House of Aviz who in turn fathered an illegitimate son named Afonso, who in turn founded the extant House of Braganza.
In 1700, at the death of King Charles II of Spain, the Spanish Habsburgs became extinct in the male line. Under the will of the childless Charles II, the second grandson of King Louis XIV of France was named as his successor, to preclude the union of the thrones of France and Spain. The prince, then Duke of Anjou, became Philip V of Spain.[2] Permanent separation of the French and Spanish thrones was secured when France and Spain ratified Philip's renunciation, for himself and his descendants, of the French throne in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, and similar arrangements later kept the Spanish throne separate from those of Naples, Sicily and Parma. The Spanish House of Bourbon (rendered in Spanish as Borbón [boɾˈβon]) has been overthrown and restored several times, reigning 1700–1808, 1813–1868, 1875–1931, and since 1975. Bourbons ruled in Naples from 1734 to 1806 and in Sicily from 1735 to 1816, and in a unified Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from 1816 to 1861. They also ruled in Parma from 1731 to 1735, 1748–1802 and 1847–1859, the Kingdom of Etruria 1802–1807 and Duchy of Lucca 1814–1847.
Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg married Prince 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, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, married a cadet of the Orléans line and thus their descendants, known as the Orléans-Braganza, were in the line of succession to the Brazilian throne and expected to ascend its throne had the monarchy not been abolished by a coup in 1889.
All legitimate, living members of the House of Bourbon, including its cadet branches, are direct agnatic descendants of Henry IV through his son Louis XIII of France.
Surnames used[edit]
Officially, the King of France had no family name. A prince with the rank of fils de France (Son of France) is surnamed "de France"; all the male-line descendants of each fils de France, however, took his main title (whether an appanage or a courtesy title) as their family or last name. However, when Louis XVI was put on trial and later "guillotined" (executed) by the revolutionaries National 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 the Medieval origins of the Bourbon Dynasty's name and referring to Hugh Capet, founder of the Capetian 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 of Gaston, 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 as Philip 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 only in 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 as Charles X, his son Louis 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 three dynasties of Bourbon[edit]
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 with Guy II of Dampierre, this land passed to the house 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", the House of Bourbon-Dampierre. By the marriage of, Agnes of Dampierre (died around 1287), with John of Burgundy, this important lordship passed to their daughter Béatrice de Bourgogne (1257–1310), lady of Bourbon, then to her husband Robert, Count of Clermont (1256–1317), and penultimate child of Saint 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 of Navarre in 1555, then to the throne of France in 1589 by Henri 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 entire House of France, officially since 29 June 1768, date of death of Hélène de Courtenay (1689–1768), with which was extinguished the Capetian House of Courtenay, extinction which made the House of France the only branch dynasty resulting from the dukes of Bourbon.
Prince of Bourbon since 1196.