, 1869-01-08
lOaIo1N OF rHR BoURBoNs.

| - tOnldAN VI Thh bOOhbONc.
The House of Bourbon, which has given
so many sovereigns to France, Spain and
Italy 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 centre of France
Through a marriage of a member of the
Capet family with the Bourbon heiress the
noble 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, 10 the person of Antoine de Bour.
bon, King of Navarro. Antoine was the
father of the gallant aud renowned Henry of
Navarro, who was afterwards King of France
under the title of Henry w. With this
celebrated prince began the history of
THE BOURBON DYNASTY IR FRANCE.
And what a history Extending from
1889 when Henry ". ascended the French
throne to 1880, when Charles Y. was driven
out of bis kingdom by the revolution of uly,
it 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. Louis Kill, Louis XIV, Louis
XIV, Louis XVI were all Bourbons but,
the first aud last of these FIVE kings as re-
CARDS their qualities as rulers, nothing could
present sharper contrast than the character
of the first French Bourbon sovereign, Henry
the great " and "the good as his people
delighted to style him, and that Of the un>
fortunate son of 81. Louis, who fell by the
guillotine. Whatever the original virtues of
the House might have been, BY the time the
volcanic outburst Of the revolutionary spirit
first shook France, and tumbled dshonOred
throne into the dust, the race become woe
fully degenerate. The guilotine did not,
however, finish it in France. From the
stormy days of the revolution, and through
those Of the Consulate aud the Empire, the
two brothers to the unfortunate Louis lived
in exile; but when Napoleon fell the eide.
of them was placed on the throne by the
Allies under the title of Louis XVIII, a sou
of Louis XVI, who died when yet child in
1895, had been the seventeenth of that name.
Louis XVIII. had no children, and on his
death, which took place in 1924, be was
succeeded by his brother, Charles Y. But
experience had utterly failed to teach wisdom
to this obstinate and tyranical ruler, who
sought to restore the absolutSm of the
French monarchy, the consequence of which
was that revolutionary outbreak occurred
in July, 1880, compelling the King to flee
from France, and finally to abdicate. The
latter be did, in favor OF his grandson Henry,
Duke of Bordeaux; but the act came too
late to save his house. Louis Phillip had
already been chosen King of the French, and
the BOurbons were, to all human appearance,
forever excluded from the French throne.
The only surviving descendant of Charles,
and representative of the alleged claims of
the Bourbons to The French throne, is that
same grandson, known as the Count de
ChambOrd, who is AZ years of age. He is,
of course, an exile, but is regarded as the
awful King Of France by the legitimists,
whose hopes of restoration he feeds by oc-
casiOnally holding levees in kingly style.
THE BoURBoNs IN SPAIN.
The establishment of the Spanish Bourbon
dynasty originated with Louis XIV. Of
France, who, iu the year 100, succeeded in
placing his grandson, Phillip, Duke Of Anjou,
on the throne of Spain, as Phillip l. The
descendants of Phillip ruled without inter-
ruption, until, in 1903, Napoleon compelled
King Charles w. to resign, and nominated
a successor to him in the person of Joseph
Bonaparte, the Emperor's brother Charles
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 10 1880, Ferdinand left the
crown to his daughter Isabella, 10 whose favor
be had set aside by royal decree, the salic
law forbidding a female to sit upon the
throne. The claims of Isabella were con-
tested by Ferdinands brother, Don Carlos,
which gave rise to the Carist war, but Don
Carlos having failed to establish his preteu-
sions eventually resigned them, and died in
1885. His son, the Count de MontemOlin,
in 1860, renounced all claim to the throne
of Spain. The Bourbon princes of Spain
have invariably exhibited all the worst char
acteristics of their race-foremost among
which are passion for absolute power-and
under their pernicious rule every interest,"
the prosperity of which constitute the
strength and glory of nation, has dwindled
away.
THE BoURBoNs IN ITALY.
The late Bourbon dynasty of the kingdom
Of Naples aud the Dutchies of Parma and
Piacensa were founded by Phillip ", of
Spain in the early part of the eighteenth
century, They were overthrow for the
time BY the first Napoleon, bu. after his
downfall the Bourbons were restored to the
Kingdom OF the two Sioilies, which they
continued to govern till the revolution Of
1860 drove Francis IL. to Gaeta as a refuge.
This prince still lives, an exile and mur>
derer, and it does not seem probable that be