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 i oth cen tury 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 north the Nivernais and Berry, on the east Burgundy and Lyonnais, on the south Auvergne and Marche and on the west Berry. The first of the long line of Bourbons known in history, was Adhemar 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 Cham pagne (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. With Charles, afterwards constable of France, who took the title of duke of Bourbon on his marriage, 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 Vendome and Chartres (d. 1446), be came the ancestor of the royal house of Bourbon and of the noble families of Conde, Conti and Montpensier. The fourth in direct descent from Louis of Vendome was Antoine de Bourbon, who in 1S48 married Jeanne d'Albret, heiress of Navarre, and became king of Navarre in 1554. Their son became king of France as Henry IV. The relationship of the descendants of Henry IV. and of the Bourbon and Bourbon-Orleans families, are shown in the accompanying table.
Philip, duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., became king of Spain as Philip V., in 170o. He was suc ceeded in 1746 by his son Ferdinand VI., who died in 1759 with out family, and was followed by his broth.,r 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 187o 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 (1818-61), 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.
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 after wards 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 183o 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.
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 18o1, Ferdinand's son Louis being made king of Etruria, but the French took possession of the duchy only after Ferdinand's death in 5802. Louis' 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 186o the duchies were annexed by Victor Emmanuel to the new kingdom of Italy.
There are numerous bastard branches of the family of Bourbon, the most famous being the Vendome 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 Desormeaux, Histoire de la maison de Bourbon (5782-88) ; Coiffier de Moret, Histoire du Bourbonnais et des Bourbons (1824) ; Achaintre, Histoire genealogique et chronologique de la maison royale de Bourbon (1825-26) ; Berand, Histoire des sires et ducs de Bourbon (1835) ; Dussieux, Genealogie de la maison de Bourbon (1872) .
