COAT OF ARMS OF THE

 HOUSE OF BOURBON

 (ONE BRANCH)

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS BALTHAZAR NAPOLEON DE BOURBON

Is a middle class Indian lawyer the next in line to the French throne? According to an article in the LA Times, the Bourbons of Bhopal trace their lineage back to "Jean Philippe, a nephew of King Henri IV who survived assassination attempts and a kidnapping at sea, eventually washed up in India, where he served at the court of the Mogul Emperor Akbar in the 16th century."

Through the 18th and 19th centuries, [Balthazar's] forefathers were among Bhopal's elite, trusted retainers of the ruling Muslim clan. But after many decades of loyal service, the Roman Catholic De Bourbons were ousted from their privileged position by a new, intolerant Muslim ruler in the early part of the 20th century.

Much of the De Bourbons' property was confiscated. Over the years they were forced to sell off jewelry, chandeliers and homes, including an imposing gated mansion, now demolished, that Balthazar remembers seeing as a child. The house he lives in has been in the family's hands for 200 years, he says, and was where his ancestors would stop to refresh themselves after riding on elephant-back to attend Mass in the church that still stands nearby. And Balthazar may very well be the last Dauphin.

Jean-Philippe de Bourbon-Navarre 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Philippe_de_Bourbon-Navarre

The Bourbons of Bhopal in India claim their descent from Jean-Philippe de Bourbon-Navarre (John Philip of Bourbon-Navarre). This figure may have no historical basis. According to family tradition, arrived in the court of Mughal emperor Akbar in 1560, having endured hair-raising and exciting adventures involving pirates and kidnapping, including an attempt to sell him in a slave market in Cairo.

His identity is unclear. He could hardly be a scion of the Navarre branch of Bourbon, which begins with Henry IV of France, still a child when Jean Philippe reached India.

Historical context

In the 19th century, traveller and photographer Louis Rousselet proposed in Le Fils du Connétable (The Constable’s Son, 1882) that he could be a secret son of the Constable of Bourbon . He had visited the family in India and got struck by their "European features. In the 20th century, Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark (Michel de Grèce) adopted this view enthusiastically and conducted some researches with the hope of proving it true. There are different versions of this hypothesis. One has the Constable survive the sack of Rome and eventually marry a Mugal princess named Alaïque, Jean Philippe’s mother. Another possible candidate is a member of the Bourbon-Busset branch, reported lost at sea in 1580.

Jean Philippe de Bourbon's supposed descendants moved to Bhopal in 1775 and entered the service of the royal family, becoming the second most important family in Bhopal. Two of the most prominent members are Salvador III de Bourbon (~1830), chief general of Bhopal, and Balthazar de Bourbon († 1879), minister and regent. After Indian independence, the new Indian state abolished the old jagirs (land entitlements) in 1948, and royal and noble status in 1971. Deprived of any privileges, the family joined the ranks of the working bourgeoisie.

There are books about the family : Les Bourbons de l'Inde (2003), written by Lucien Jailloux, is based on the memoirs of Salvadore of Bourbon ; Le Rajah Bourbon (2007) is an historical novel written by Prince Michael of Greece.

Henry IV of France

http://www.apeuropeanlahs.org/resources/TheAgeofReligiousWars.htm

Henry IV (1553-1610) was king of France from 1589 to 1610. The first Bourbon monarch, he faced internal discord caused by the Wars of Religion and the economic disasters of the late 16th century and external danger posed by the powerful Hapsburg monarchy of Spain.

Born at Pau in Béarn on Dec. 14, 1553, Henry IV was the son of Antoine, Duc de Bourbon, and Jeanne d'Albret, daughter of the king of Navarre. Henry's parents were sympathetic to the Huguenot (Calvinist) faith, and Henry was raised a Huguenot. Through his father, Henry was a descendant of King Louis IX of France and hence a prince of the blood royal, next in succession to the French throne should the children of Henry II and Catherine de Médicis have no issue.

Henry's early childhood was supervised by his grandfather, Henri d'Albret, the king of Navarre, and, after his grandfather's death in 1555, by his mother, now queen of Navarre. He was trained in physical as well as intellectual disciplines, and his later career showed the results of both aspects of his early life. His physical endurance and vigor were matched by a quick and tolerant mind, his skill as a soldier matched by his diplomatic and political astuteness in the course of his reign.

Historical Background

From 1559 to 1590 France was the scene of internal political and religious conflicts exacerbated by the constant threat of military intervention by Spain, the greatest military power in Europe. During this period France was ruled by the three children of Henry II and Catherine de Médicis in succession: Francis II (1559-1560), Charles IX (1560-1574), and Henry III (1574-1589). All three were weak-willed, and the first two had political minorities, thus making political power a prize to be controlled either by the queen mother, Catherine, or by one of the rival aristocratic factions, whose dynastic rivalry was further embittered by their religious differences.

The greatest of these rival clans were the ducal house of Lorraine, the family of Guise, and the house of Bourbon, led by Antoine of Navarre, Henry's father, and Antoine's brother, Louis, Prince of Condé. The Guise faction was the champion of orthodox Roman Catholicism, while the Bourbon faction spoke for French Protestantism. During the reign of Francis II the Guise faction acquired greater influence. Catherine's regency during the minority of Charles IX, however, favored playing off one faction against the other, and the French Wars of Religion began in 1562 and continued until 1598. The rival aristocratic houses used warfare or the threat of warfare to increase their own political power, calling for aid from their coreligionists outside France - Spain, the papacy, England, or the Protestant princes of Germany. Warfare, religious hatred, economic disorder, and the continual threat of outside intervention dominated the late 16th century in France.

The Reformation and its ensuing political complications thus struck France in a different way from that in which it had affected Germany and England. Exacerbating political rivalries, playing upon the instability and minority of French kings, and affording all dissident social elements the opportunity of evening old scores, the Reformation in France was not so much the arguing of theological points (as in Germany) or the vehicle of increasing royal authority (as in England), but the unleashing of political forces which the French monarchy was unable to contain. It was to be the task of Henry IV to create a monarchical state out of political and religious anarchy.