List of living legitimate male Capetians

The Capetian dynasty is the largest dynasty in Europe, with over 120 living male members descended in the legitimate agnatic line. Since the extinction of the House of Courtenay in 1733, the House of Bourbon is the only remaining branch of legitimate descent.

Descendants in the male line of Louis XIV through his grandson Philip V of Spain are designated as House of Bourbon; descendants in the male line of Philip I, Duke of Orléans, are designated as House of Orleans. All those listed below are actually descendants of King Louis XIII; after the death in 1830 of Louis Henry II, the last Prince of Condé (descended from the youngest son of Charles, Duke of Vendôme), no other legitimate lines of descent from Hugh Capet continued to exist.

Patrilineal descent

The Capetian lineage can be traced back more than 1,200 years and is one of the oldest in Europe. The dynasty achieved royal status either in 888, at the election of Odo (a Robertian) to the crown of France, or in 987, at the election of Hugh Capet, making it the oldest Western European royal dynasty in existence.

1. Robert II of Worms and Rheingau, 770–807
2. Robert III of Worms and Rheingau, 808–834
3. Robert the Strong, Margrave of Neustria, 820–866
4. Robert I, King of the Franks, 866–923
5. Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, 895–956
6. Hugh Capet, King of the Franks, 941–996
7. Robert II, King of the Franks, 972–1031
8. Henry I, King of the Franks, 1008–1060
9. Philip I, King of the Franks, 1053–1108
10. Louis VI, King of the Franks, 1081–1137
11. Louis VII, King of the Franks, 1120–1180
12. Philip II, King of France, 1165–1223
13. Louis VIII, King of France, 1187–1226
14. Louis IX, King of France, 1214–1270
15. Robert, Count of Clermont, 1256–1317
16. Louis I, Duke of Bourbon, c. 1280–1342
17. James I, Count of La Marche, 1315–1362
18. John I, Count of La Marche, 1344–1393
19. Louis, Count of Vendôme, c. 1376–1446
20. John II, Count of Vendôme, 1428–1478
21. Francis, Count of Vendôme, 1470–1495
22. Charles, Duke of Vendôme, 1489–1537
23. Antoine, King of Navarre, 1518–1562
24. Henry IV, King of France, 1553–1610
25. Louis XIII, King of France, 1601–1643

Ancestral lines of the Bourbons

Living Bourbon males born of Catholic marriages

Dynastic claims

According to the Legitimist faction of French royalists, all male descendants of Hugh Capet in the legitimate male line are dynasts of the Kingdom of France. According to them, the current heir to the French throne, if restored, is Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou.

Traditional "legitimacy" is based on the old rules that existed in the Ancien Régime of the Kingdom of France; civil marriages were then non-existent. Eudes de Orléans-Bragança (b. 1977) and his brother Guy de Orléans-Bragança (b. 1985), sons of Prince Eudes of Orléans-Braganza, were born of civil marriage only, since their father did not obtain an annulment for his first marriage. Consequently, they are regarded as illegitimate according to canon law. Legitimated children, born before their parents' marriage, such as the eldest sons of the Duke of Noto and Louis de Luxembourg, were also excluded from the list.

According to the Orleanist faction of French royalists, the current heir to the French throne, if restored, is Henri d'Orléans, Count of Paris. They consider foreigners ineligible to inherit the French throne. The Orleanist order of succession is limited to the senior line of the House of Orleans (the cadet branches of Orleans-Braganza and Orleans-Galliera, and the descendants of Philip V of Spain are considered foreigners). However, François d'Orléans, Count of Clermont, had been disinherited due to mental disability, and the branches of Michel d'Orléans, Count of Evreux and Jacques d'Orléans, Duke of Orleans (fraternal twins) are reversed according to "historical French primogeniture".

Renunciations

The renunciations of rights to thrones have created rival claims and disputes among the existing branches of the House of Bourbon.

The first of these is the renunciation, in 1713, of Philip V of Spain, grandson of Louis XIV of France, of his rights to the French throne. Such renunciation is invalid under the fundamental laws of that kingdom; in France, the right of succession to the throne was considered an inalienable right, so that the king should always be the senior male descendant of Hugh Capet. Nevertheless, the act was of no practical value until the extinction of the male line of Louis XV of France, which did not occur until 1883. By then the monarchy was no more, and most of the remaining royalists supported the Count of Paris, descendant of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, brother of Louis XIV.

Charles III of Spain ordained that the Kingdoms of Spain and Two Sicilies ought never to be united. In context, the semi-Salic law of succession then operated in Spain, with Two Sicilies as a secundogeniture if that throne is vacant. In 1900, Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies renounced his rights of succession to the throne of Two Sicilies, upon his marriage to Mercedes, Princess of Asturias. This made his children heirs presumptive to the Spanish throne. But Alfonso XII and his line pushed them farther down the line of succession, while the death of Ferdinand, Carlos' elder brother, made them immediate heirs to the defunct throne of Two Sicilies. Carlos' son Infante Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, reclaimed his rights, to which his uncle, Prince Ranieri, Duke of Castro, objected. The dispute is still unresolved; the Calabria claimant is supported by Spain, while the Castro claimant is supported by other royal houses and the other members of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

In 1908, Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, wished to marry Countess Elisabeth Dobržensky de Dobrženicz. Although a Bohemian noblewoman, she did not belong to a royal or reigning dynasty. The constitution of the Brazilian empire did not require dynasts to marry equally, but made the marriage of the heir to the throne dependent upon the Sovereign's consent. The pretender to the throne was Pedro's mother, who wanted her children to marry royalty, in order to increase the prospects of a restoration. As a result, he renounced his succession rights to the throne of Brazil. Thus the Vassouras branch, descendants of his younger brother, Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza, became the heirs of the Brazilian monarchy. But in 1940, Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza, Pedro's son, rejected his father's renunciation and claimed the headship of the Brazilian Imperial House.

See also

Notes and references