The Shasta courier., 1868-12-12

N1 ioih tue turohe Oh Opain, we nave In
her expulsion another example of that retri-
Dutlve Justice which has followed the race to
"hlcn she belongs for the pastS0 years The
question OF who is-to be her successor being
yet unsettled, it would be premature to saw
at present that she will be the last reigning
Bourbon sovereign but in the mean time we
give brief sketch of that celebrated ROYAL
house. the history of which the events taking
place In Spain invest just now with peculiar
interest.
ORIGIN OF THE B0URB0Ns.
The House of Bourbon, which has .eiyen
so many soyereigns to France, Spain and fftaiv.
is of French origin, deriving its name from
the old lords of Bourbon, a noble family
which centuries ago held very large landed
possessions in the former province Of Bour-
bOnnais, situated in the center of France -
Through the marriage of a member of the
Capet family with Bourbon heress, the no
BILE house became allied to royalty in the
thirteenth century, and about the middle Of
the sixteenth we find the first of the race on
throne, in the person of Antoine de Bour-
bon, King Of Navarro, who afterwards be-
came King of France under the title of Hem
ry lV. With this celebrated Prince begins
the history of
The bVURBON DYNASTY IN FRANCE.
And what history Extending from
1889, when Henry w ascended the French
throne, to 1880, when Charles X was driven
out of his kingdom by the Revolution of July.
1t embraces period filled with events of the
deepest interest and of the highest possible
Importance to the human family. From the
accession of Henry ~. up to.the time of the
first French Revolution. there was no break
In the royal succession of the Bourbon line
in France. ]4ous XIII, Louis XIV. Louis
Nv, and Louis XVII, were all Bourbons,
but, taking the first and last of these five
kings as regards their qualities as rulers,
nothing could present a sharper contrast than
the character of the first French Bourbon
sovereign, Henry . the great and the good, y
as his people delighted to style him, and that
OF the unfortunate son of St. Louis" who
fell by the guillotine. Whatever the original
virtues of the House might have been, by the
time that the volcanic outburst of the revolu-
tionary spirit first shook France, and tumbled
a dlshonored throne into the dust, the race
had been woefully degenerated The gull
lotine did not however, finish it in France.
From the stormy days of the Revolution, and
through those of the Consulate and the EN-
plre, the two brothers of the unfortunate
Louis lived in exile; but when Napoleon fell
the elder of them was placed on the French
throne by the allies under the title of Louis
ANlll., son of Louis XVI, who died while
yet a child IN 1875, had been the seventeenth
OF that name. Louis XVIII. had no children
,'ni on his death, which took place in 1891,
be was succeeded by his brother, Charles X
But experience bad utterly failed to teach
wisdom to this obstinate and ,yrannical ruler.
SOuUlt n oh lt1ti IF ~
French monarchy, the consequence of which
was that revolutionary outbreak occurred
in Paris in July 1880, compelling the King
to flee from France, and finally to abdicate.
The latter he did in favor of his grandson
Henry, Duke of Bordeaux, but the act came
too late to save his house. Louis Phillippe
had already been chosen King of the French.
and the Bourbons were, to all human ap-
pearance, forever excluded from the French
throne. The only surviving descendants of
Charles, and representative of the alleged
claims OF the Bourbons to the French throne,
is that same grandson, now Known as the
Count de Chambord, who is As years of age
lie Is, of course, an exile. but is regarded as
the lawful King of France by the legitimists,
whose. hopes of restoration he feeds by oc-
casionally holding levees in Kingly style.
u
The establishment of the Spanish Bourbon
dynasty originated with Louis XIV, of
France, who in the year 100 succeeded in
placing his grandson Phillip. Duke of Anjou,
on the throne Of Spain as Phillip /. The
descendants of Phillip ruled without inter
ruption until in 1908 Napoleon compelled
King Charles ~. to resign and nominated a
to him in the person of Joseph
FL, D. i
died at Rome in 1911, and after the over
throw of Napoleon the eldest son of Charles
ascended the Spanish throne as Ferdinand
VII. Dying in 1880, Ferdinand left the
crown to his daughter Isabella, in whose favor
law forbidding female to sit upon the throne.
The claims of Isabella were contested by Fer
dinand's brother, Don Carlos, which gave
rise to the Carlist war, but Don Carlos hav-
ing failed to establish his pretensions event
ually resigned them. and died in 1885. His
son, the Count de Montemolin, in 1860. re-
all claims to the throne of Spain. -
The Bourbon princes of Spain have invariably
exhibited all the worst characteristics of their
among which are a passion
for absolute power, and proneness to sensual
self indulgence-and under their pernicious
rule every interest, the prosperity of which
constitutes the strength and glory of a nation,
dwindled away.
THE B0URBoNs IN ITALY.
The late Bourbon dynasties of the King
dem of Naples and the duchies Of Parma and
Piacenza were founded by Phillip V. of Spain,
in the early part of the eighteenth century.
They were overthrown for the time by the
first Napoleon, but after his downfall the
Bourbons were restored to the Kingdom of
the two Sicilies, which they continued to
govern till the revolution of 1860 drove Fran
els | /. to Gaeta as refugee. This prince still
lives, an exile and murderer, and it does
not seem probable that be will ever recover
his lost possessions, The Bourbons Of Parma
and Piacenza lost those duchies in 1850,
which were annexed to Sardinia, and now
form part of the Kingdom of Italy.
THE YOUNGER BRANCH OF THE BOURBON FAMILY.
That branch o. the Royal Family of France,
known as the House of Orleans, is younger
branch of the Bourbon family, and was found
ed by Phillip, Duke of Orleans, the younger
brother of Louis XIV. From him descended
the Duke Of Orleans who played so remark
able a part in the French Revolution as Citi
zen Egalite, and met so tragical fate, per.
lsbing by the guilIotine in 1TQ3 Touis