The
following newsletter is part two of a two part series that we will do on the
House of Bourbon which
is one of Europe's most important royal house.
THE BOURBONS DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Louis XVI
had become the dauphin of France upon the death of his father, the son of Louis
XV, in 1765. He married Marie Antoinette, a daughter of Maria Theresa, in 1770.
Louis intervened in the American Revolution against Britain in 1778, but he
is most remembered for the French Revolution. France was in financial turmoil
and Louis was forced to convene the Estates-General on May 5, 1789. They formed
the National Assembly and forced Louis to accept a constitution that limited
his powers on July 14, 1790. He tried to flee France in June 1791, but was captured.
The French monarchy was abolished on September 21, 1792 and a republic was proclaimed.
The chain of Bourbon monarchs begun in 1589 was broken. Louis XVI was executed
on January 21, 1793.
Marie Antoinette and her son, Louis, were held as prisoners. Many French royalists
proclaimed him Louis XVII, but he never reigned. She was executed on October
16, 1793. He died of tuberculosis on June 8, 1795 at the age of ten while in
captivity.
The French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars spread nationalism and anti-absolutism
throughout Europe, and the other Bourbon monarchs were threatened. Ferdinand
was forced to flee from Naples in 1806 when Napoleon Bonaparte deposed him and
installed his brother, Joseph, as king. Ferdinand continued to rule from Sicily
until 1815.
Napoleon conquered Parma in 1800 and compenstated the Bourbon duke with Etruria,
a new kingdom he created from the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It was short-lived
when Napoleon annexed Etruria in 1807.
King Charles 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 March 7, 1793, but
he made peace on June 22, 1795. This peace became an alliance on August 19,
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 an uprising that forced Charles to abdicate
on March 19 in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII. Napoleon forced Ferdinand to
return the crown to Charles on April 30 and then convinced Charles to relinquish
it to him on May 10. In turn, he gave it to his brother, Joseph, king of Naples
on June 6. Joseph abandoned Naples to Joachim Murat, the husband of Napoleon’s
sister. This was very unpopular in Spain and resulted in the Peninsular War,
a struggle that would contribute to the downfall of Napoleon..
THE
BOURBON RESTORATION
With the abdication of Napoleon on April 11, 1814 the Bourbon Dynasty was restored
to the kingdom of France in the person of Louis XVIII, brother of Louis XVI.
Napoleon escaped from exile and Louis fled in March 1815. Louis was again restored
after the Battle of Waterloo on July 7.
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
a constitution on June 14, 1814 to appease the liberals, but the ultra-royalist
party, led by his brother, Charles, continued to influence his reign. When he
died in 1824 his brother became king as Charles X much to the dismay of French
liberals. Talleyrand reportedly remarked of the restored Bourbon rulers that
they had "learned nothing and forgotten nothing."
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 August 8, 1829 who did not have the confidence of the chamber. The chamber
censured the king on March 18, 1830 and in response Charles proclaimed five
ordinances on July 26 intended to silence criticism against him. This almost
resulted in another revolution as dramatic as the one in 1789, but moderates
were able to control the situation. As a compromise the crown was offered to
Louis-Philippe, duke of Orleans, a descendent of the brother of Louis XIV, and
the head of the Orleanist cadet branch of the Bourbons. He was proclaimed King
of the French on August 7. The resulting regime, known as the July monarchy,
lasted until the Revolution of 1848. The Bourbon monarchy in France ended on
February 24, 1848, when Louis-Philippe was forced to abdicate and the short-lived
French Second Republic was established.
Some legitimists refused to recognize the Orleanist monarchy. After the death
of Charles in 1836 his son was proclaimed Louis XIX, though this title was never
formally recognized. Charles' grandson Henri, comte de 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 the empire of Emperor Napoleon III, Henri was
offered a restored throne. The stubborn Chambord refused to accept the throne
unless France abandoned the revolution-inspired tricolour and accepted what
he regarded as the true Bourbon flag of France. The tricolour, originally associated
with the French Revolution and the First French Republic, had been used by the
July Monarchy, the Second Republic and both Empires; the French National Assembly
could not possibly agree. A temporary Third Republic was established, while
monarchists waited for the comte de Chambord to die and for the succession to
pass to the Comte de 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 French Bourbons. Thus head of the House of Bourbon became
the now eldest male heir of the dynasty Juan, Conde de Montizón of the Spanish
line of the house who was also carlist claimant to the Spanish Throne. His heir
as eldest Bourbon and head of the house is today Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou.
By an ordinance of Louis Philippe I of France of August 13, 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 duc d'Orléans, that the younger sons would continue to have their existing
titles, and that the sister and daughters of the king would only be styled "princesses
d'Orléans", which meant the Orleans royalty did not take the name "of France".
LATER
BOURBON MONARCHS OUTSIDE FRANCE
Upon the fall of the Napoleonic empire, Ferdinand I was restored to the throne
of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1815. His subjects revolted on July 2,
1820 and he was forced to grant a constitution on July 13. Austria invaded in
March 1821 and revoked the constitution. He was succeeded by his son, Francis
I, in 1825 and by his grandson, Ferdinand II, in 1830. Another revolution erupted
on January 12, 1848 and Ferdinand was also forced to grant a constitution on
February 10. This constitution was revoked in 1849. Ferdinand was succeeded
by his son, Francis II, in May 1859. When Giuseppe Garibaldi captured Naples
on September 7, 1860 Francis restored the constitution on July 2 in an attempt
to save his sovereignty. He failed and after the capture of the fortress of
Gaeta (February 13, 1861) his kingdom was incorporated in the Kingdom of Italy
but only on March 17, 1861 because two other fortress Messina and Civitella
del Tronto surrendered on March 12, 1861 9 p.m.(Messina) and only on March 20
Civitella. (to be true when the magg. Ascione was convinced to surrender from
the order of his King, there was still a group of soldier contrary to the surrender
led by the heroic sgt. Massinelli and the friar Leonardo Zilli. The former commander,
Ascione, however, succeeded to make to penetrate the enemy piemontesi in the
morning of March 20. They shoot the heroes Massinelli and Zilli and so fell
the last fortress of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.)
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 the Duke
of Lucca. When Maria Louisa died in 1847 he was restored to Parma as Charles
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 the kingdom of Sardinia on March 13, 1860. After Italian unification in
1861 the Bourbon dynasty in Italy was no more.
The Spanish branch of the Bourbon dynasty was the only one to survive into the
20th century. Ferdinand VII was restored to the throne of Spain after the fall
of Napoleon in March 1814. Like his Italian Bourbon counterpart his subjects
revolted against him in January 1820 and he was forced to grant a constitution.
A French 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 Sicily, in 1829. Despite his many marriages he did not have a son so on June
30, 1833 he was influenced by his wife to abolish the Salic Law so that her
daughter, Isabella, could become queen depriving his brother, Don Carlos, of
the throne.
Isabella II succeeded her father when he died on September 29, 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 his greatest support in Catalonia
and the Basques 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 cousin Francisco
de Asis, the son of her father’s brother, on October 10, 1846. A military revolution
broke out against Isabella in 1868 and she was deposed on September 29. She
abdicated in favor of her son, Alfonso, in 1870, but Spain was proclaimed a
republic for a brief time.
When the Spanish Republic failed the crown was offered to Isabella’s son who
accepted on January 1, 1875 as Alfonso XII. Don Carlos, who returned to Spain,
was again defeated and resumed his exile in February 1876. Alfonso granted a
new constitution on 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 May 17, 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 married Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena of Battenberg,
the granddaughter of the British queen Victoria, on May 31, 1906. He remained
neutral during World War I, but supported the military coup of Miguel Primo
de Rivera on September 13, 1923. A movement towards the establishment of a republic
began in 1930 and Alfonso fled the country on April 14, 1931. He never formally
abdicated, but lived the rest of his life in exile. He died in 1941.
The Bourbon dynasty seemed finished in Spain as in the rest of the world, but
it would be resurrected. The Second Spanish Republic was overthrown in the Spanish
Civil War, leading to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. He named Juan Carlos
de Borbón, a grandson of Alfonso XIII, his successor on July 22, 1969. When
Franco died on November 20, 1975 a Bourbon monarch was restored to the throne
of Spain two days later as Juan Carlos I. The new king oversaw the Spanish transition
to democracy; the Spanish Constitution of 1978, approved on September 28, 1978,
recognized the monarchy.
Though it is not as powerful as it once was under Louis XIV and it does not
reign in its native country of France, it is by no means extinct, and the house
of Bourbon has survived to the present day world of republics. It seems likely
that it will continue as well under Juan Carlos' son, Felipe, who officially
became heir apparent when he turned eighteen years old in 1986.
To read part one of this series please click on the following link - The
House of Bourbon