House of Bourbon-Parma

Royal house
surname =House of Bourbon-Parma
estate =
coat of arms =
country =Duchy of Parma
parent house =House of Bourbon
titles =Duke of Parma and Piacenza
founder =Philip, Duke of Parma
final ruler =Robert I, Duke of Parma
current head =Duke Carlos Hugo
founding year =1748
deposition =1860
nationality =
cadet branches =

The House of Bourbon-Parma is a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon. It is thus descended from the Capetian dynasty. The name of Bourbon-Parma comes from the main name (Bourbon) and the other (Parma) from the title of Duke of Parma. The title was held by the Spanish bourbons as the founder was the great-grandson of hereditary Duke Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma.

Duchy of Parma

The Duchy of Parma was created in 1545 from that part of the Duchy of Milan south of the Po River, as a fief for Pope Paul III's illegitimate son, Pier Luigi Farnese, centered on the city of Parma. In 1556, the second Duke, Ottavio Farnese, was given the city of Piacenza, becoming thus also Duke of Piacenza, and so the state was thereafter properly known as the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza.

The Farnese family continued to rule until their extinction in 1731, at which point the duchy was inherited by the young son of the King of Spain, Don Carlos, whose mother Elizabeth Farnese was the Farnese heiress. He ruled until the end of the War of the Polish Succession in 1735, when Parma was ceded to Emperor Charles VI in exchange for the Two Sicilies.

Temporary Habsburg rule

The Habsburgs only ruled until the conclusion of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, when it was ceded back to the Bourbons in the person of Don Philip, Don Charles's younger brother. As duke Philip, he became the founder of the House of Bourbon-Parma.

In 1796, the duchy was occupied by French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte. In the Treaty of Aranjuez of 1801, duke Ferdinand formally agreed to cede the duchy to Napoleon. The territories were integrated into the Cisalpine Republic until 1802, the Italian Republic, from 1802 until 1805, and the Kingdom of Italy, from 1805 until 1808, until in 1808 the French Empire annexed them and formed out of them the "Département" of Taro.

In 1814, the duchies were restored under Napoleon's Habsburg wife, Marie Louise, who was to rule them for her lifetime. The duchy was renamed duchy of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, the name that it retained until the end.

Return to the Bourbons

After Marie Louise's death in 1847, the Duchy was restored to the Bourbon-Parma line, which had been ruling the tiny duchy of Lucca. The Bourbons ruled until 1859, when they were driven out by a revolution following the Sardinian victory in their war against Austria.

The duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla and the duchy of Lucca joined with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the duchy of Modena to form the United Provinces of Central Italy in December 1859, and were annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia in march of 1860.The House of Bourbon continues to claim the title of duke of Parma to this day. Carlos-Hugo (Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne in the 1970s) has held the title since 1977.

The Dukes

House of Bourbon-Parma 1731–1735

Nominal Dukes of Parma (since 1860)

*Robert I, Duke of Parma, 1860–1907
*Henry, Duke of Parma (son of preceding), 1907–1939
*Joseph, Duke of Parma (younger brother of preceding), 1939–1950
*Elias, Duke of Parma (younger brother of preceding), 1950–1959
*Robert II, Duke of Parma (son of preceding), 1959–1974
*Xavier, Duke of Parma (half-uncle of preceding), 1974–1977
*Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma (son of preceding), since 1977

Ancestry of the Bourbons of Parma

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1= 1. House of Bourbon-Parma
2= 2. Philip V of Spain
3= 3. Elisabeth of Parma
4= 4. Louis, Dauphin of France
5= 5. Maria Anna of Bavaria
6= 6. Odoardo II Farnese, Duke of Parma
7= 7. Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg
8= 8. Louis XIV of France
9= 9. Maria Theresa of Spain
10= 10. Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria
11= 11. Henriette Adelaide of Savoy
12= 12. Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma
13= 13. Isabella of Modena
14= 14. Philipp Wilhelm, Elector Palatine
15= 15. Landgravine Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt
16= 16. Louis XIII of France
17= 17. Anna of Austria
18= 18. Philip IV of Spain
19= 19. Elisabeth of Bourbon
20= 20. Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria
21= 21. Maria Anna of Austria
22= 22. Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy
23= 23. Christine Marie of France
24= 24. Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma
25= 25. Margherita de Medici
26= 26. Francesco I d'Este
27= 27. Maria Caterina Farnese
28= 28. Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg
29= 29. Magdalene of Bavaria
30= 30. George II, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
31= 31. Sophia Eleonore of Saxony

ee also

*List of Dukes of Parma
*Descendants of Louis XIV of France which includes them

External links

* [http://www.borbonparma.org/ Official website of the House of Bourbon-Parma]