The Bourbon dynasty succeeded to the French throne in 1589, following the assassination of the last Valois king, the childless Henry III. Through the French Revolution two centuries later, there were only five Bourbon monarchs: Henry IV (ruled 1589-1610); Louis XIII (ruled 1610-1643); Louis XIV (ruled 1643-1715); Louis XV (ruled 17151774); and Louis XVI (ruled 1774-1792). The dynasty returned to the throne in 1814, after the fall of Napoleon, but the last Bourbon king fled the Revolution of 1830, and was replaced by a cousin from the Orleans line.
The first three Bourbon reigns included civil wars in their early years, and the fourth opened with an unstable regency government; in each case, disorder resulted primarily from the dissatisfactions of wealthy aristocrats, some of them related to the dynasty itself. But the dynasty’s principal characteristic was its successful affirmation of strong kingship, compounded of military, bureaucratic, and ritual elements. With the exception of Louis XVI, all the Bourbon kings were able individuals, and at least through 1715 they all interested themselves in the details of government. They succeeded in improving government’s control over French society, and they temporarily restored French dominance within European power politics. With their encouragement, the apparatus of government expanded dramatically, as did the state’s investments in culture; the Bourbons showed themselves keenly aware of the propaganda value of artistic sponsorship, most dramatically in works associated with the palace of Versailles. They also insisted on the sacredness of kingship itself. Public acceptance of this idea diminished in the secular atmosphere of the eighteenth century, but like his predecessors, Louis XVI continued to view himself as a sacred being, rather than as a mere administrator of his country.
See also Divine Right Kingship; France; Henry IV
(France); Louis XIII (France); Louis XIV (France);
Louis XV (France); Louis XVI (France); Versailles.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Antoine, Michel. Louis XV. Paris, 1989.
Bluch, Francois. Louis XIV. Translated by Mark Greengrass.
Oxford, 1990.
Buisseret, David. Henry IF. London and Boston, 1984. Moote, A. Lloyd. Louis XIII the Just. Berkeley, 1989.
Jonathan Dewald
World History
