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| Louis I of Bourbon @Wikipedia |
(1279-1341)
1st Duc de Bourbon
1315-1341
Son of: Robert de France, Comte de Clermont & Beatrix de Bourbon, Dame de Bourbon.
Husband of: Marie d'Avesnes (1280-1354), daughter of Jean II d'Avesnes, Comte de Hainaut & Philippa de Luxembourg, mar 1310.
His lovers were:
1) Jeanne de Bourbon-Lancy (c1249-c1309)
Dame de Clessy
Also known as Jeanne de Rochefort.
Natural offspring:
a. Jean batard de Bourbon (c1297-1375), Seigneur of Rochefort, Advisor to the dukes of Berry & Bourbon, Lieutenant du Forez, mar Agnès Chaleu (3rd wife)
b. Jeannette bâtarde de Bourbon, Guichard of Chastellus, mar 1310
2) Unnamed mistress.
Natural offspring:
a. "N" de Bourbon married to Girard of Châtillon-en-Bazois in 1317
b. Guy de Bourbon (vers 1299-1349), seigneur of Clessy, la Ferté-Chauderon and Montpensier. (Louis recognized him as his child in 1346 but the child was taken from him that same year), mar 1315 Agnès of Chastellus, then between 1330 and 1333 Isabelle of Chastelperron.
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Charles I of Bourbon & Agnès of Burgundy |
(1401-1456)
Duc de Bourbon
1434-1456
Duke of Auvergne
1434-1456
Comte de Clermont
1424
Son of: Jean I de Bourbon & Marie, Duchesse d'Auvergne
Husband of: Agnes de Bourgogne, mar 1425
His lovers were:
1. Jeanne de Bournan.
Natural offspring:
1. Jeanne de Bournan.
Natural offspring:
a. "Louis, Bastard of Bourbon, a natural son of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon, by Jeanne de Bournan, was legitimated in September, 1463; he married Jeanne, a natural daughter of Louis XI, and died on the 19th of January, 1486." (Commines & Roye: 187)
2. Jeanne de Souldet.
[Fam1:Geneanet]
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| Jean II of Bourbon 1470 |
"Jean de Clermont, came from the uppermost echelons of French society but was still young when he was nominal commander of the French army at Formigny. He had not yet even been knighted (this ceremony being carried out after the victory), Jean's father was Charles I de Bourbon, a generally loyal supporter of Charles VII who had nevertheless been involved in the Praguerie revolt of nobles in 1440. Jean's military career nevertheless earned him the nickname 'Scourge of the English', while his later years earned him the name 'Jean the Good' despite quarelling with the King as his father had done before him. During his long and eventful life, Jean also showed himself to be a cultured man, supporting the poet Francois Villon and creating a great library and a remarkable zoological garden in his castle of Moulins." (The Fall of English France 1449–53: 17)
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| Jeanne of Valois Duchess of Bourbon |
2. Catherine d'Armagnac (d.1487), daughter of Jacques d'Armagnac, Duc de Nemours, mar 1484
2) Louise d'Albret, Dame de Estouteville, a.k.a. Jeanne-Louise d' Albret, daughter of Jean d'Albret, Vicomte de Tartas.
Also known as:
Son of: Gilbert de Bourbon, Comte de Montpensier & Clara Gonzaga.
"While Charles de Bourbon left no legitimate children he did, according to some sources, have an extraordinary affair with a Mogul princess from Delhi. This resulted, according to one version, in the birth of a boy, Jean Philippe (1525-1560) who after numerous adventures became a courtier of the Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605) in Delhi, was made captain of the royal guard, chief of the harem, promoted to the rank of Nawab, married Akbar's sister-in-law and founded a new branch of the Bourbons who later settled in Bhopal. The alternative account of Jean Philippe's parentage suggests that he was the son of one of Duke Jean II's bastards who had married a Busset heiress and begun a new branch of the family. Whatever the truth of this the family in India survived into the modern era as the Fratcis or Bourbons in Bhopal." (The Impossible Bourbons: Europe's Most Ambitious Dynasty)
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Jeanne de Bourbon-Vendome Duchess of Bourbon |
3) Jeanne de Bourbon-Vendome, daughter of Jean de Bourbon, Comte de Vendome, mar 1487.
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| Jean II of Bourbon |
His lovers were:
1) Marguerite de Brunant.
[Fam1:Geneall]
Natural offspring:
a. Mathieu batard de Bourbon, a.k.a. le Grand Batard de Bourbon.
2) Louise d'Albret, Dame de Estouteville, a.k.a. Jeanne-Louise d' Albret, daughter of Jean d'Albret, Vicomte de Tartas.
Natural offspring:
a. Charles batard de Bourbon, Vicomte de Lavedan (d.1502)
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Charles III of Bourbon 16th/17th c. |
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Charles de Montpensier
Charles the Constable
Constable de Bourbon
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Duc de Bourbon & d'Auvergne 1505
Comte de Clermont-en-Beauvais, de Forez, & de La Marche 1505
Sire de Beaujeau, 1505
Comte de Montpensier,, de Clermont, d'Auvergne & Dauphin d'Auvergne 1501
Constable of France 1515
Viceroy of Milan 1516
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"Charles, count de Montpensier, was the only son of Gilbert de Bourbon, viceroy of Naples under king Charles VIII, by his consort Clara, a princess of the house of Gonzaga. He was, consequently, a cousin once removed of Marguerite's mother, the countess Louisa. Bold, valorous, and impetuous, Charles's martial ardour often betrayed him into faults, which it required the utmost effort on his part to retrieve. He united the great qualities and defects of an elevated but ill-regulated mind. His prodigality and love of magnificence speedily exhausted his slender patrimony, which, as a cadet of the house of Bourbon, sufficed not to enable him to make a suitable figure at court. Rash, dissipated, and profuse, Charles's martial genius, and handsome person, despite these defects, procured him many warm friends. Dazzled by the versatility of his talents, they overlooked the absence of firm principle and unswerving rectitude of conduct, in their admiration of the gallant and accomplished cavalier." (The Life of Marguerite d'Angoulême, Queen of Navarre: 17)
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
"The leader of the troop, a very striking personage, whom it was impossible to regard without interest, was a man of large stature, with handsome, strongly-marked features, very stern in expression. An ample chest and muscular throat indicated the possession of great personal strength, but his frame, though stalwart, was admirably proportioned, and it was easy to discern, from the manner in which he bestrode his steed---a powerful block charger---that he was a consummate horseman. His looks and deportment were those of one accustomed to command. If not absolutely young, he was in the very prime of his life, being just thirty-three. His complexion was swarthy, his eyes dark and piercing, and his beard, which he wore exceedingly long, black as jet. His firm-set mouth betokened inflexible resolution, while his towering forehead indicated great sagacity. Though he was magnificently arrayed, his bearing showed that he was not one of the silken gallants who thronged the gay and chivalrous court of Francois I, and who delighted in the banquet, the masquerade, or the tournay---but a hardy warrior, who had displayed prowess in the field, and could lead hosts to conquest." (The Constable de Bourbon)
A very powerful woman in love spurned.
"The Duc de Bourbon was at the very summit of his pride and prosperity when he was smitten from his high state, and there came upon him that great and terrible downfall---one of the most striking tragedies of history. On the death of his wife, Suzanne de Bourbon, lawsuits were bright against Charles by King Francois I and Queen Louise de Savoie; the subject was powerless against his sovereign, and by a legal quibble, the great noble was deprived, not only of the vast possessions of the House of Bourbon, but also of all his personal property. This was felt by himself and his supporters to be a most cruel and flagrant act of injustice, and many historians have seen in it the vengeance of Louise, the King's mother; a woman scorned in her insensate love for the handsome young Constable of France, who had somewhat contemptuously refused her proffered hand. . . ." (Charles de Bourbon: High Constable of France: 12)
The King's mother who was much in love with him.
"Suzanne's death had raised a second major problem: since she left no children, her husband needed to remarry in order to ensure the continuity of his line. Even in Suzanne's lifetime, imperial agents had hinted at a possible future remarriage between the Duke and one of Charles V's sisters. After her death the hint became a firm offer, but Bourbon was careful not to rush into a course which would eventually alienate the king. Yet he also resisted pressure to marry him off to a French princess of royal blood. Did he reject an offer of marriage from Louise of Savoy, as historians of a romantic disposition have often claimed? There is some evidence for this. In May 1523, the imperial ambassador in England reported that Bourbon had refused to marry the king's mother, who was 'much in love with him'. Marillac says nothing about this in his contemporary life of Bourbon, but de Laval, who completed his work, does mention such a marriage project, though he presents it as an unsentimental affair whereby Louise hoped to acquire the Bourbon lands. Such a match would certainly have suited the crown. At the age of forty-four, Louise was unlikely to bear children; thus, in the event of her outliving the Duke, the Bourbon demesne would ultimately revert to the crown. There is evidence, too, that Louise tried to reach some amicable arrangement -- possibly a marriage -- with Bourbon before she laid claim to his lands. Legally she was supposed to act within a year and a day following Suzanne's death, yet she waited till the last moment before doing so. This lends substance to the story that she sued the Constable only after he had rejected her advances." (Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I: 205)
A tarnished reputation for a royal warrior.
"CHARLES DE MONTPENSIER, Duc de Bourbon and Constable of France, is one of the most splendid and tragic figures of the early sixteenth century, and this is saying much, for that flowering age of the French Renaissance abounded both in splendour and in tragedy. At the same time, History has never yet placed Charles de Bourbon among her heroes, and the reason is not far to seek, for this great French noble, near to the King in blood and not much his inferior in power and wealth, gained the fame by which he lives in the savage campaign against France which, under Charles V., culminated in the siege and sack of Rome. Bourbon's death on the Roman ramparts was fortunate for his memory. It can thus be said that if he had lived the horrors of those days would have been greatly lessened, if not prevented altogether. But the history of the march through Italy makes this improbable. Those wild hordes of unpaid, starving mercenaries would scarcely have been checked in the moment of victory by the man who had been forced to lead them to their promised land; unless, indeed, Bourbon had been a higher character and a greater genius than we have any reason to believe him." (Spectator)
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Suzanne de Bourbon |
Husband of: Suzanne de Bourbon, Duchesse de Bourbon mar 1505.
"The constable was born February 17, 1490. Son of Count Gilbert de Montpensier, he married in 1505, at age 15, with his cousin Suzanne de Bourbon, daughter of Duke Pierre II of Bourbon and Anne de Beaujeu . This, eldest daughter of Louis XI, had taken advantage of his regency (1483-1494), under the minority of Charles VIII to transmit to his daughter Suzanne vast and rich appanages in the heart of France, including the Auvergne, the Bourbonnais, Beaujolais, Marche ... They make Suzanne and her husband the last great feudal kingdom." (Herodote)
"The constable was born February 17, 1490. Son of Count Gilbert de Montpensier, he married in 1505, at age 15, with his cousin Suzanne de Bourbon, daughter of Duke Pierre II of Bourbon and Anne de Beaujeu . This, eldest daughter of Louis XI, had taken advantage of his regency (1483-1494), under the minority of Charles VIII to transmit to his daughter Suzanne vast and rich appanages in the heart of France, including the Auvergne, the Bourbonnais, Beaujolais, Marche ... They make Suzanne and her husband the last great feudal kingdom." (Herodote)
His lovers were:
1) Alaigne.
A Mongol princess related to Akbar-Khan of Delhi.
by Prince Michael of Greece |
"The Bourbons of Bhopal were a Catholic family who bore the surname "Francis" (a corruption of Frenchman) who served the Mughals and by the 18th century the Rulers of Bhopal [remember that Bhopal was somewhat unusual in that it had both male and female rulers into the 20th century]. The family descended from Jean Philippe Bourbon, a collateral of King Henry IV of France, and the son of the Constable of Bourbon who was supposedly killed at the siege of Rome in l527 by Benvenuto Cellini (amazing?). Jean Philippe left France ostensibly being obliged to flee for killing a Gascon relative in a duel. More romantic legends assert that after the siege of Rome, he went to Sicily and was there captured by pirates who sold him to the court of an Egyptian Pasha, and after many dashing adventures he repaired to India. More probably he left Navarre about 1560 and sailed to Bengal and then came to Delhi where he eventually met Akbar who was impressed with his high birth and appointed him to a position as a head of the Imperial Guard with the designation of "Mansabdar". Shortly afterwards Akbar gave to him in marriage the sister of one of his Christian wives, and gave him the title of "Nawab", placing him as hereditary governor of the imperial seraglio and awarded him extensive territories in the area of Narwar near Gwalior. His descendants eventually came into the service of the Nawabs of Bhopal. By the 19th century they were appointed captains of the city of Bhopal. By the 1930's the family fell out of favor with the Nawab, and most of their properties did not survive the fall of the princes in the next decade. In time their chapel became the Catholic cathedral in Bhopal. Lawrence M. Ober." (Yahoo Groups)
During the reign of the illustrious Akbar, justly styled the Great, a contemporary of Queen Elizabeth of England and of Shah Abhas the Great of Persia, there arrived at the Mogul Court, between the years 1557 and 1559, a French prince, John Philip Bourbon of Navarre, a scion of the royal house of France. He told the Emperor that having been taken captive by Turkish pirates, during a voyage he had made in company with his family priest, who was his preceptor, he had been taken to Egypt as a prisoner. This happened in 1541 when he was fifteen years old. Once in Egypt, the young prince soon gained, by his affable manners, the esteem of the sovereign of the country who took him in his service and gave him a command in his army. He was again made a prisoner in a war with the Abyssinians, but his Christian religion, his noble lineage, his lively intelligence and his great learning soon raised him to a high position in the Christian country, which a highly civilized Christian nation of to-day is trying to crush and subjugate by sheer force of superior arms. By reason of his high position in that country, he succeeded, under certain pretexts, to sail to India in one of those Abyssinian vessels which at that time kept up continued relations with the Konkan coast. Landing at Broach, he heard of the splendour and the magnificence of the Court of the Great Mogul and deserting the Abyssinian fleet, he went forthwith to Agra. Akbar, who always welcome distinguished foreigners at his Court, was struck by his gracious manners, his noble bearing, and his vivid intelligence. He immediately offered him command in his army and a little later he appointed him master of the guns and conferred on him the title of a Mansabdar, and being desirous of keeping the prince at his court permanently, Akbar gave him in marriage an Armenian lady, Juliana by name, who was employed at that time as a lady doctor and in medical charge of the Emperor's seragle (sic). This lady, who according to some writers was the sister of Akbar's Christian wife, built the first Christian Church at Agra, where according to a well-founded tradition in the family records of the Bourbons in India, both Lady Juliana and her husband, John Philip Bourbon were buried. The above is confirmed by a note in the Agra Mission Archives in which it is stated that 'the old Church was built by Philip Bourbon of the House of Navarre and his wife Juliana, an Armenian lady who was in medical charge of the Emperor's Harem. They are both buried in the Church itself, probably the epitaphs are in Armenian." (Armenians in India, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day: 92)
Natural offspring: "Illegitimate by Alaigne, a Mongol princess related to Akhar-Khan of Delhi] Jean Philippe, a courtier of the khan, b.1525, d.after 1560; m. a sister of the khan; This son, Jean Philippe de Bourbon, ended up as a courtier of the Khan in Delhi, India. His descendants were the Bourbons of Bhopal, for whom see Vitold de Golish, *Splendeur et Crepuscule des Maharajas* (Paris: Hachette, 1963), pp. 208-223.; this note is from W.A.Reitwiesner." (Yahoo Groups)
"While Charles de Bourbon left no legitimate children he did, according to some sources, have an extraordinary affair with a Mogul princess from Delhi. This resulted, according to one version, in the birth of a boy, Jean Philippe (1525-1560) who after numerous adventures became a courtier of the Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605) in Delhi, was made captain of the royal guard, chief of the harem, promoted to the rank of Nawab, married Akbar's sister-in-law and founded a new branch of the Bourbons who later settled in Bhopal. The alternative account of Jean Philippe's parentage suggests that he was the son of one of Duke Jean II's bastards who had married a Busset heiress and begun a new branch of the family. Whatever the truth of this the family in India survived into the modern era as the Fratcis or Bourbons in Bhopal." (The Impossible Bourbons: Europe's Most Ambitious Dynasty)
2) Unnamed mistress.
References:
Bourbons of India @ Wikipedia
Madame de Bourbon in Inde Des Rajahs.
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