It provided reigning kings of France from to and from to , after which another Bourbon reigned as king of the French until ; kings or queens of Spain from to , from to , from to , and since ; dukes of Parma from to , from to , and from to ; kings of Naples and of Sicily from to and of the Two Sicilies from to ; kings of Etruria from to ; and ducal sovereigns of Lucca from to The present article attempts a rapid survey of the dynasty as a whole, relying mainly on genealogical tables to display necessary details.
In these tables the names and titles of sovereigns are mostly anglicized, but those of other persons are mostly given in the original form, except where princesses, having married into another country, are better known under that country's name for them.
The House of Bourbon is a branch of the House of Capet , which constituted the so-called third race of France's kings.
The Valois, however, established the so-called Salic Law of Succession, under which the crown passed through males according to primogeniture , not through females. On this principle, the senior Bourbon became the rightful king of France on the extinction of the legitimate male line of the Valois. This lordship was made a duchy for his son Louis I in and so gave its name to the dynasty.
From this duchy, the nucleus of the future province of Bourbonnais, the elder Bourbons, mainly through marriages, expanded their territory southeastward and southward. The title of duc de Bourbon passed in to Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier, who was to become famous as constable of France.
