Bourbon-Busset
Encyclopedia
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . 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...
, being thus agnatic
Patrilineality
Patrilineality is a system in which one belongs to one's father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritance of property, names or titles through the male line as well....
descendants of the Capetian dynasty
Capetian dynasty
The Capetian dynasty , also known as the House of France, is the largest and oldest European royal house, consisting of the descendants of King Hugh Capet of France in the male line. Hugh Capet himself was a cognatic descendant of the Carolingians and the Merovingians, earlier rulers of France...
. Historically they have been regarded as non-dynastic since decisions rendered by Louis XI of France
Louis XI of France
Louis XI , called the Prudent , was the King of France from 1461 to 1483. He was the son of Charles VII of France and Mary of Anjou, a member of the House of Valois....
.
Possibly, however, the family may be canonically
Canon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
legitimate, in which case it is the most senior extant male-line branch of the Capetians, and senior to the Bourbons which reign
Reign
A reign is the term used to describe the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation or of a people . In most hereditary monarchies and some elective monarchies A reign is the term used to describe the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office...
today in Spain and Luxembourg and have in the past ruled France, Naples and Sicily, as well as to the House of Braganza
House of Braganza
The Most Serene House of Braganza , an important Portuguese noble family, ruled the Kingdom of Portugal and its colonial Empire, from 1640 to 1910...
, also Capetians by illegitimate descent.
Its head uses the title count of Busset since the marriage of the first Bourbon with Louise Borgia, Duchess of Valentinois heiress of the barony of Busset, daughter of Cesare Borgia
Cesare Borgia
Cesare Borgia , Duke of Valentinois, was an Italian condottiero, nobleman, politician, and cardinal. He was the son of Pope Alexander VI and his long-term mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei. He was the brother of Lucrezia Borgia; Giovanni Borgia , Duke of Gandia; and Gioffre Borgia , Prince of Squillace...
, Duke of Valentinois
Duke of Valentinois
Duke of Valentinois , formerly Count of Valentinois, is a title of nobility, originally in the French peerage. It is currently one of the many hereditary titles claimed by the Prince of Monaco despite its extinction in French law in 1949...
.
Origin
The line of Bourbon-Busset descends in male linePatrilineality
Patrilineality is a system in which one belongs to one's father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritance of property, names or titles through the male line as well....
from the son of Louis of Bourbon, Prince-Bishop of Liège (1438–1482), himself a son of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon
Charles I, Duke of Bourbon
Charles de Bourbon was the oldest son of John I, Duke of Bourbon and Marie, Duchess of Auvergne.He was Count of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis from 1424, and Duke of Bourbon and Auvergne from 1434 to his death, although due to the imprisonment of his father after the Battle of Agincourt, he acquired...
. Louis, in male line a sixth cousin of king Charles VII of France
Charles VII of France
Charles VII , called the Victorious or the Well-Served , was King of France from 1422 to his death, though he was initially opposed by Henry VI of England, whose Regent, the Duke of Bedford, ruled much of France including the capital, Paris...
, married, without royal licence, Catharine d'Egmond, a daughter of Arnold, Duke of Gelderland (probably illegitimate, as the ducal House of Egmont's chronicles never recognized her among princesses of Gelderland). Either from this marriage, or from a mistress of Louis of Bourbon, a son was born, who then married the heiress of the barony of Busset.
Although the marriage between Louis and Catherine took place before Louis was consecrated as a priest, which would have made it canonically
Canon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
impossible for him to marry, it was kept secret, being against the interests of Louis XI of France
Louis XI of France
Louis XI , called the Prudent , was the King of France from 1461 to 1483. He was the son of Charles VII of France and Mary of Anjou, a member of the House of Valois....
. French alliances in the Low Countries
Low Countries
The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....
were not compatible with those of the House of Egmont. The French king therefore never recognized any children of the marriage as legitimate.
Records are unclear as to whether Louis and Catherine produced any surviving descent in the male line. Evidence just as easily suggests that the Bourbon-Bussets derived from an entirely uncanonical affair between Louis of Bourbon and a mistress.
Historical evolution
Members of the Bourbon-Busset family later acquired the titles of count of Châlus and count of Lignières.When the Valois-Angoulême branch on the throne was nearing its end in 16th century, Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme
Antoine of Navarre
Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme was head of the House of Bourbon from 1537 to 1562, and jure uxoris King of Navarre from 1555 to 1562.-Family:...
was recognized as the premier prince du sang
Prince du Sang
A prince of the blood was a person who was legitimately descended in the male line from the monarch of a country. In France, the rank of prince du sang was the highest held at court after the immediate family of the king during the ancien régime and the Bourbon Restoration...
of France, although he only descended from James I, Count of La Marche
James I, Count of La Marche
James of Bourbon-La Marche was the son of Louis I, Duke of Bourbon and Mary of Avesnes. He was Count of Ponthieu from 1351 to 1360, and Count of La Marche from 1356 to his death.-Hundred Years War:...
(1315–1362), the younger brother of Pierre I, Duke of Bourbon.
Were the Bourbon-Busset legitimate, the position of the premier prince would have belonged to the then count of Busset instead of to Duke Antoine. However, what is certain is that the Bourbon-Bussets, accepting their status as an illegitimate line, whether a matter of fact or law, never claimed the position, and played no significant role either at the French royal court
Royal court
Royal court, as distinguished from a court of law, may refer to:* The Royal Court , Timbaland's production company*Court , the household and entourage of a monarch or other ruler, the princely court...
or in the politics of the nation.
Similarly, upon the death of Henry III of France
Henry III of France
Henry III was King of France from 1574 to 1589. As Henry of Valois, he was the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575.-Childhood:Henry was born at the Royal Château de Fontainebleau,...
, were the Bourbon-Busset a legitimate dynastical line, the crown should have passed to César de Bourbon-Busset (1565–1630), in male line the late king's 10th cousin. However, he never claimed the crown, and was not proposed by any known partisans as an alternative choice when King Henry III of Navarre
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
, his agnatic 7th cousin once removed, Antoine's son, became king of France and César's liege lord
Liege Lord
Liege Lord was an American speed/power metal band, active in the 1980s and considered to be a pioneer of the genre. It was formed by Matt Vinci, Anthony Truglio and Frank Cortese....
.
Modern era
Madeleine de Bourbon-BussetMadeleine de Bourbon-Busset
Madeleine de Bourbon was the Duchess of Parma and was also Carlist queen of Spain by virtue of marriage to Xavier of Parma, the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne,....
(1898–1984), daughter of the count of Lignières and Jacques's fourth cousin once removed, married in 1927 a royal Bourbon relative, Xavier, titular duke of Parma
Xavier, Duke of Parma
Xavier, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, known before 1974 as Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma was the head of the ducal House of Bourbon-Parma, pretender to the defunct throne of Parma, and Carlist claimant to the throne of Spain under the name Javier I.-Early life:Xavier...
and Carlist pretender
Carlism
Carlism is a traditionalist and legitimist political movement in Spain seeking the establishment of a separate line of the Bourbon family on the Spanish throne. This line descended from Infante Carlos, Count of Molina , and was founded due to dispute over the succession laws and widespread...
to the throne of Spain. Although Madeleine brought as dowry
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
the chateau of Lignières, at the time this marriage was not accepted as dynastic by the titular
Titular
Titular means existing in title only. It may refer to:*Titular ruler, a person in an official position of leadership who possesses few, if any, actual powers*Titular , bishop or titular cardinal, whose see is in name only**titulus**titular see...
Duke, Xavier's elder brother, obtaining dynastic recognition retroactively around the time of the engagement of Xavier's eldest son to the daughter of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands
Juliana of the Netherlands
Juliana was the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands between 1948 and 1980. She was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry...
in 1964.
As wife of Xavier, Madeleine was, however, proclaimed Queen consort
Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
of Spain by the remaining Carlists in 1952. Widowed in 1977, she remained a staunch adherent of her husband's Carlist principles. She excluded her elder son from the funeral of her husband as disloyal to his father's traditionalist
Traditionalism
Traditionalism may refer to:*The systematic emphasis on the value of Tradition*Traditionalism *Traditional values, those beliefs, moral codes, and mores that are passed down from generation to generation....
Carlism, recognizing instead the claim to Carlist leadership and to Lignières of her younger son Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma, (self-proclaimed) duke of Aranjuez, who continues the rivalry with his brother as Carlist pretender.
A senior male-line descendant of the Bourbon-Busset was the French writer Jacques de Bourbon-Busset (1912–2001), member of the French Academy. President Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
was once quoted telling him: Had it not been for the decision of King Louis XI, you might well be head of state of France today, instead of me.
Since 2006, the Head of the House of the Bourbon-Busset is Carlos de Bourbon, Count of Busset (born 1945), who is a civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
for the Mines of Paris
Mines of Paris
The Mines of Paris comprise a number of abandoned, subterranean mines under Paris, France, connected together by galleries...
, and Mayor of Ballancourt-sur-Essonne
Ballancourt-sur-Essonne
Ballancourt-sur-Essonne is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France.-Geography:The Essonne forms the commune western border.Inhabitants of Ballancourt-sur-Essonne are known as Ballancourtois.-References:**...
(2008-2014). He is the son of Jacques de Bourbon-Busset.
Other Illegitimate Houses
- Bourbon du MaineBourbon du MaineThe House of Bourbon-Maine was an illegitimate branch of the House of Bourbon, being thus part of the Capetian dynasty. It was founded in 1672 when Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine was legitimised by his father, King Louis XIV of France....
extinct - Bourbon-VendômeBourbon-VendômeThe Bourbon-Vendôme family was an illegitimate branch of the senior line of the House of Bourbon, being thus part of the Capetian dynasty. It was founded by César de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme...
extinct - Bourbon-PenthièvreBourbon-PenthièvreThe House of Bourbon-Penthièvre was an illegitimate branch of the House of Bourbon, thus descending from the Capetian dynasty. It was founded by the duc de Penthièvre , the only child and heir of the comte de Toulouse, the youngest illegitimate son of Louis XIV of France and the marquise de...
extinct