The Most Serene House of Bourbon-Condé, named after Condé-en-Brie, was a French princely house and a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon. The name of the house was derived from the title of Prince of Condé that was originally assumed around 1557 by the French Protestant leader Louis de Bourbon (1530–1569), uncle of King Henry IV of France, and borne by his male-line descendants.
The Château de Chantilly at the time of the Grand Condé
Image: Louis Ier de Bourbon, 1er prince de Condé (1530 1569)
Image: Henri Ier prince de Condé
Image: Henri I Ide Bourbon Conde
The House of Bourbon is a dynasty that originated in the Kingdom of France as a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. A branch descended from the French Bourbons came to rule Spain in the 18th century and is the current Spanish royal family. Further branches, descended from the Spanish Bourbons, held thrones in Naples, Sicily, and Parma. Today, Spain and Luxembourg have monarchs of the House of Bourbon.
The royal Bourbons originated in 1272, when Robert, the youngest son of King Louis IX of France, married the heiress of the lordship of Bourbon. The house continued for three centuries as a cadet branch, serving as nobles under the direct Capetian and Valois kings.
The castle of Bourbon-l'Archambault
French kings from House of Bourbon. Family tree
Henry IV of France, the first Bourbon King of France
Dynastic group portrait of Louis XIV (seated) with his son the Louis the Grand Dauphin (to the left), his grandson Louis, Duke of Burgundy (to the right), his great-grandson the duc d'Anjou, later Louis XV, and Madame de Ventadour, his governess, who commissioned this painting some years later; busts of Henry IV and Louis XIII in the background.
