House of Bourbon

The House of Bourbon ( /ˈbʊərbən/; ) is a European royal house of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty (/kəˈpiːʃⁱən/). Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma. Spain and Luxembourg currently have Bourbon monarchs.

Bourbon monarchs ruled Navarre (from 1555) and France (from 1589) 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 branch, the House of Orléans, then ruled for 18 years (1830–1848), until it too was overthrown. The Princes of Condé were a cadet branch of the dukes of Vendômes and, in turn, were senior to the Princes of Conti both of which are now extinct.

Philip V of Spain was the first Bourbon of Spain. The Spanish Bourbons (in Spanish, the name is spelled Borbón) have been overthrown and restored several times, reigning 1700–1808, 1813–1868, 1875–1931, and 1975 to the present day. From this Spanish line comes the royal line of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1734–1806 and 1815–1860, and Sicily only in 1806–1816), the Bourbon of the Two Sicilies family, and the Bourbon rulers of the Duchy of Parma.

Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg married a cadet of the Parmese line and thus her successors, who have ruled Luxembourg since her abdication in 1964, have also been members of the House of Bourbon. Isabel, Princess Imperial, the declared heiress and thrice-regent of the now-defunct Empire of Brazil, married twenty years before their deposition Prince Gaston, Count of Eu, their descendants, known as the Orléans and Braganza, would have ascended to that throne had the empire not ended in 1889.

From the time of Hugh Capet to Charles X (987–1830), the senior Capets were also the Kings of France. In 1589, Henry IV of France, head of the House of Bourbon, became the senior Capet, following the extinction of male line of the House of Valois. All members of the House of Bourbon and its cadet branches alive today are direct agnatic descendants of Henry IV.