The Bourbons
The House of Bourbon (English: , also UK: ; 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. Other branches, descended from the Spanish Bourbons, held thrones in Naples, Sicily, and Parma. Today, Spain and Luxembourg have monarchs from 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. The house continued for three centuries as a cadet branch, serving as nobles under the direct Capetian and Valois kings.
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 (first prince of the blood), became King of France as Henry IV. 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 during the French Revolution of 1848.
The House of Condé was a cadet branch of the Bourbons descended from an uncle of Henry IV, and the House 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 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, upon 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. 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, as well as in a unified Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from 1816 to 1861. They also ruled in Parma from 1731 to 1735, 1748 to 1802 and 1847 to 1859, in the Kingdom of Etruria from 1802 to 1807, and in the Duchy of Lucca from 1814 to 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.
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