1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Legitimists

LEGITIMISTS (Fr. légitimistes, from légitime, lawful, legitimate), the name of the party in France which after the revolution of 1830 continued to support the claims of the elder line of the house of Bourbon as the legitimate sovereigns “by divine right.” The death of the comte de Chambord in 1883 dissolved the parti légitimiste, only an insignificant remnant, known as the Blancs d’Espagne, repudiating the act of renunciation of Philip V. of Spain and upholding the rights of the Bourbons of the line of Anjou. The word légitimiste was not admitted by the French Academy until 1878; but meanwhile it had spread beyond France, and the English word legitimist is now applied to any supporter of monarchy by hereditary right as against a parliamentary or other title.