• '

  In this highly readable and well-informed dynastic history, Jonathan Spangler illuminates the ongoing importance of the Bourbon family, from its medieval origins to the court of Louis XIV and from its grounding in France to the thrones of Spain, Naples, and Parma, and eventually Brazil and Luxembourg. Spangler fruitfully integrates the concerns of cadet branches and other family members into his narrative, illuminating both continuity and change within this important dynasty.

  '

  Hilary J. Bernstein, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

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  A brilliant, detailed guide to over four centuries of the complex Bourbon dynasty, which ruled in Spain and Italy as well as France. Jonathan Spangler’s history, ranging from St Louis to his descendant Felipe VI, the current king of Spain, is particularly valuable for its use of international sources and accounts of impoverished cadet branches, as well as powerful monarchs.

  '

  Philip Mansel, author of King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV

• '

  Jonathan Spangler’s engaging narrative of pre-modern governance on the Western flank of Europe brings into focus the complex history of the Bourbon dynasties. It invites readers to reconceptualize political history as an evolution of dynastic configurations, rather than as (more simply) one princely reign after another or a succession of the wars that consolidated realms.

  '

  Carolyn Chappell Lougee, Frances and Charles Field Professor in History, Emerita, Stanford University

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  Writing a history of the entire Bourbon dynasty across all its realms – France, Spain, Naples and Parma – is an extremely ambitious undertaking, but Jonathan Spangler succeeds splendidly in doing so. He expertly charts the triumphs and vicissitudes of a family that from the sixteenth century helped to shape Europe – and the world – and restores it to its rightful importance. Balancing detail with a broad transnational perspective, he shows how the Bourbons dealt both with complex intrafamilial rivalries and the great external challenges they faced, particularly the French Revolution. The result is an admirable portrait of one the great dynastic survivors of history which, though its French and Italian kingdoms have been lost, occupies the throne of Spain to this day.

  '

  Munro Price, Emeritus Professor of Modern European History, University of Bradford, and author of Napoleon: The End of Glory

A Note on Names

Introduction: The Sons of St Louis
1 Birth of a Dynasty in the Warm Baths of Central France
2 The ‘Great Century’ Begins
3 The Age of the Sun
4 A Mediterranean Odyssey
5 The Enlightenment in Four Bourbon Realms
6 Decline and Revolution
7 Restoration, Revolution and Risorgimento
Epilogue

Timeline for the Bourbon Dynasty
Appendix: Genealogical Tree
References
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index

Jonathan Spangler is Senior Lecturer in History at Manchester Metropolitan University. His previous books include The Society of Princes (2009) and Monsieur: Second Sons in the Monarchy of France, 1550–1800 (2021).