King Louis Philippe. It was in the African expedition that he first came to the front. In 1842 he was captain in the Zouaves; 1847, colonel of the Turcos; in 1850, lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Zouaves; 1851, colonel; 1854, brigadier-general. In the Crimean War he commanded a portion of the Algerian troops; and at the Alma, Inkerman and Sevastopol Bourbaki’s name became famous. In 1857 he was made general of division, commanding in 1859 at Lyons. His success in the war with Italy was only second to that of MacMahon, and in 1862 he was proposed as a candidate for the vacant Greek throne, but declined the proffered honour. In 1870 the emperor entrusted him with the command of the Imperial Guard, and he played an important part in the fighting round Metz.
A curious incident of the siege of Metz is connected with Bourbaki’s name. A man who called himself Regnier,[1] about the 21st of September, appeared at Hastings, to seek an interview with the refugee empress Eugénie, and failing to obtain this he managed to get from the young prince imperial a signed photograph with a message to the emperor Napoleon. This he used, by means of a safe-conduct from Bismarck, as credentials to Marshal Bazaine, to whom he presented himself at Metz, telling him on the empress’s alleged authority that peace was about to be signed and that either Marshal Canrobert or General Bourbaki was to go to Hastings for the purpose. Bourbaki at once went to England, with Prussian connivance, as though he had a recognized mission, only to discover from the empress at Hastings that a trick had been played on him; and as soon as he could manage he returned to France. He offered his services to Gambetta and received the command of the Northern Army, but was recalled on the 19th of November and transferred to the Army of the Loire. In command of the hastily-trained and ill-equipped Army of the East, Bourbaki made the attempt to raise the siege of Belfort, which, after the victory of Villersexel, ended in the repulse of the French in the three days’ battle of the Lisaine. Other German forces under Manteuffel now closed upon Bourbaki, and he was eventually driven over the Swiss frontier with the remnant of his forces (see Franco-German War). His troops were in the most desperate condition, owing to lack of food; and out of 150,000 men under him when he started, only 84,000 escaped from the Germans into Swiss territory. Bourbaki himself, rather than submit to the humiliation of a probable surrender, on the 26th of January 1871 delegated his functions to General Clinchant, and in the night fired a pistol at his own head, but the bullet, owing to a deviation of the weapon, was flattened against his skull and his life was saved. General Clinchant carried Bourbaki into Switzerland, and he recovered sufficiently to return to France. In July 1871 he again took the command at Lyons, and subsequently became military governor. In 1881, owing to his political opinions, he was placed on the retired list. In 1885 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the senate. He died on the 27th of September 1897. A patriotic Frenchman and a brilliant soldier and leader, Bourbaki, like some other French generals of the Second Empire whose training had been obtained in Africa, was found wanting in the higher elements of command when the European conditions of 1870 were concerned.
BOURBON. The noble family of Bourbon, from which so
many European kings have sprung, took its name from Bourbon
l’Archambault, chief town of a lordship which in the 10th century
was one of the largest baronies of the kingdom of France. The
limits of the lordship, which was called the Bourbonnais, were
approximately those of the modern department of Allier, being
on the N. the Nivernais and Berry, on the E. Burgundy and
Lyonnais, on the S. Auvergne and Marche and on the W. Berry.
The first of the long line of Bourbons known in history was
Adhémar or Aimar, who was invested with the barony towards
the close of the 9th century. Matilda, heiress of the first house
of Bourbon, brought this lordship to the family of Dampierre
by her marriage, in 1196, with Guy of Dampierre, marshal of
Champagne (d. 1215). In 1272 Beatrix, daughter of Agnes
of Bourbon-Dampierre, and her husband John of Burgundy,
married Robert, count of Clermont, sixth son of Louis IX. (St
Louis) of France. The elder branches of the family had become
extinct, and their son Louis became duke of Bourbon in 1327.
In 1488 the line of his descendants ended with Jean II., who
died in that year. The whole estates passed to Jean’s brother
Pierre, lord of Beaujeu, who was married to Anne, daughter of
Louis XI. Pierre died in 1503, leaving only a daughter, Suzanne,
who, in 1505, married Charles de Montpensier, heir of the
Montpensier branch of the Bourbon family. Charles, afterwards
constable of France, who took the title of duke of Bourbon on
his marriage, was born in 1489, and at an early age was looked
upon as one of the finest soldiers and gentlemen in France.
With the constable ended the direct line from Pierre I., duke of
Bourbon (d. 1356). But the fourth in descent from Pierre’s
brother, Jacques, count of La Marche, Louis, count of Vendôme
and Chartres (d. 1446), became the ancestor of the royal house
of Bourbon and of the noble families of Condé, Conti and
Montpensier. The fourth in direct descent from Louis of Vendôme
was Antoine de Bourbon, who in 1548 married Jeanne d’Albret,
heiress of Navarre, and became king of Navarre in 1554. Their
son became king of France as Henry IV. Henry was succeeded
by his son, Louis XIII., who left two sons, Louis XIV., and
Philip, duke of Orleans, head of the Orleans branch. Louis XIV.’s
son, the dauphin, died before his father, and left three sons,
one of whom died without issue. Of the others the elder, Louis
of Burgundy, died in 1712, and his only surviving son became
Louis XV. The younger, Philip, duke of Anjou, became king
of Spain, and founded the Spanish branch of the Bourbon
family. Louis XV. was succeeded by his grandson, Louis XVI.,
who perished on the scaffold. At the restoration the throne of
France was occupied by Louis XVIII., brother of Louis XVI.,
who in turn was succeeded by his brother Charles X. The second
son of Charles X., the duc de Berry, left a son, Henri Charles
Ferdinand Marie Dieudonné d’Artois, duc de Bordeaux, and
comte de Chambord (q.v.). From Louis XIV.’s brother, Philip,
descended another claimant of the throne. Philip’s son was
the regent Orleans, whose great-grandson, “Philippe Égalité,”
perished on the scaffold in 1793. Égalité’s son, Louis Philippe,
was king of the French from 1830 to 1848; his grandson, Louis
Philippe, comte de Paris (1838–1894), inherited on the death
of the comte de Chambord the rights of that prince to the throne
of France, and was called by the royalists Philip VII. He had
a son, Louis Philippe Robert, duc d’Orléans, called by his
adherents Philip VIII.
Spanish Branch.—Philip, duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., became king of Spain as Philip V., in 1700. He was succeeded in 1746 by his son Ferdinand VI., who died in 1759 without family, and was followed by his brother Charles III. Charles III.’s eldest son became Charles IV. of Spain in 1788, while his second son, Ferdinand, was made king of Naples in 1759. Charles IV. was deposed by Napoleon, but in 1814 his son, Ferdinand VII., again obtained his throne. Ferdinand was succeeded by his daughter Isabella, who in 1870 abdicated in favour of her son, Alphonso XII. (d. 1885). Alphonso’s posthumous son became king of Spain as Alphonso XIII. Ferdinand’s brother, Don Carlos (d. 1855), claimed the throne in 1833 on the ground of the Salic law, and a fierce war raged for some years in the north of Spain. His son Don Carlos, count de Montemolin (1818–1861), revived the claim, but was defeated and compelled to sign a renunciation. The nephew of the latter, Don Carlos Maria Juan Isidor, duke of Madrid, for some years carried on war in Spain with the object of attaining the rights contended for by the Carlist party.
Neapolitan Branch.—The first Bourbon who wore the crown of Naples was Charles III. of Spain, who on his succession to
- ↑ The whole Regnier affair remained a mystery; the man himself—who on following Bourbaki to England made the impression on Lord Granville (see the Life of Lord Granville, by Lord Fitzmaurice, ii. 61) of being a “swindler” but honestly wishing to serve the empress—was afterwards mixed up in the Humbert frauds of 1902–1903; he published his own version of the affair in 1870 in a pamphlet, Quel est votre nom? It has been suspected that on the part either of Bazaine or of the German authorities some undisclosed intrigue was on foot.
