BOURBON, HOUSE OF

Spanish Borbn, Italian Borbone, one of the most important ruling houses of Europe. Its members were descended from Louis I, duc de Bourbon from 1327 to 1342, the grandson of the French king Louis IX (ruled 122670). Bourbons ruled in France from 1589 to 1792 and from 1814 to 1848; in Spain from 1700 to 1868, from 1870 to 1873, from 1874 to 1931, and from 1975; and in Naples and Sicily from 1735 to 1861. A brief account of the Bourbons follows; for a full history and complete genealogical tables, see Bourbon, House of. The House of Bourbon, with its many branches, is itself a branch of the House of Capet, since Louis IX of France, a Capetian of the direct line, is the ancestor of all the Bourbon princes through his son Robert, comte de Clermont, who married the heiress of the ancient lords of Bourbon and whose son Louis, likewise the ancestor of the whole house, was created duc de Bourbon in 1327. The senior male lines of the first duke's descendants, who had moreover acquired by marriage the countship of Montpensier, became extinct in 1527, so that the succession is through a junior line, that of La Marche-Vendme, from which all the sovereign branches of the house, as well as the princes de Cond and the princes de Conti descend. After two Bourbons of this line had been kings consort (Jacques II, comte de La Marche, in Naplesa title not uncontestedand Antoine, duc de Vendme, in Navarre), Henry de Bourbon, the head of the house, became not only king of Navarre in 1572 in succession to his mother but also king of France as Henry IV in 1589 as head of the whole House of Capet on the extinction of the male line of the Valois dynasty. From Henry descend not only the two French branches but also the Spanish, Parmesan, Neapolitan-Sicilian, and Brazilian.