House of Bourbon-Parma

House of Bourbon-Parma
Greater Arms Lesser Arms
Country	Duchy of Parma
Ancestral house	House of Bourbon
Titles	Duke of Parma, Piacenza Duke of Guastalla Duke of Lucca King of Etruria Count of Bardi Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Founder	Philip, Duke of Parma
Final sovereign	Robert I, Duke of Parma
Current head	Duke Carlos
Founding	1748
Deposition	1860

The House of Bourbon-Parma (Italian: Casa di Borbone di Parma) is an Italian cadet branch of the House of Bourbon. It is thus descended from the Capetian dynasty in male line. 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 Duke Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma.

1 Duchy of Parma
- 1.1 Temporary Habsburg rule
- 1.2 Return to the Bourbons
2 The Dukes
3 Family
4 See also
5 External links

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, Charles, whose mother Elisabeth was a member of the Farnese family. 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 Philip, 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 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.

Since 1964, the House of Bourbon-Parma has reigned agnatically in Luxembourg when Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, son of Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma and Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, ascended the throne, followed by Felix's grandson Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

The Dukes