BOURBON/BOURBONNAIS
. The Bourbonnais in central France, lying southeast of Berry and north of Auvergne,
with Moulins (Allier) as its principal town, was the site of a lordship in the 10th century,
centered on the castle of Bourbon-L’Archambaud. It was long a fief of the French crown.
The population included free peasants and a network of lesser seigneuries with servile
tenants. Although the region produced cereal grains, it was best known for the highly
regarded wines of Saint-Pourçain, its principal commercial product.
The male line of the ruling house of Bourbon-Dampierre came to an end in 1249 with
the death of Archambaud IX, who was succeeded by his older sister Mahaut and then a
younger sister, Agnès. The latter’s daughter Beatrix married Robert, count of Clermont-
en-Beauvaisis, the sixth son of Louis IX and Marguerite of Provence. The couple
inherited the Bourbonnais at the death of Agnès in 1283. Their son Louis I (1280–1342)
inherited the Bourbonnais from Beatrix in 1310 and Clermont from Robert in 1318. In
1327, King Charles IV traded his county of La Marche to Louis for Clermont and made
Louis duke of Bourbon. Soon thereafter, the duke became a peer of France. Louis’s son
Pierre I (r. 1342–56) married Isabelle de Valois, sister of Philip VI, and their daughter
Jeanne married Philip’s grandson, the future Charles V, in 1350.
Jeanne’s brother, Duke Louis II (1337–1410), with his close connections to the royal
house, was a figure of importance in French political life and in the institutional life of
the Bourbonnais. At the national level, he held important military commands under
Charles V and led a crusade to North Africa in 1390. As one of Charles VI’s uncles, he
played a prominent role in the royal council but avoided the factionalism that led to the
dismissal of two royal uncles in 1388 and of their rivals in 1392. Only in the 15th century
did he join the growing anti-Burgundian party. Although as prodigal as his Valois
cousins, Louis began adding lands to his duchy and established administrative institutions
modeled on those of the crown, such as the judicial Grands Jours in 1371 and a Chambre
des Comptes at Moulins in 1374. Nevertheless, the Bourbonnais suffered terribly from
the ravages of undisciplined soldiers (routiers). Conditions became even worse when the
next duke, Jean I (1382–1434), was captured at Agincourt in 1415 and spent the rest of
his life as a prisoner in England.
Under Charles I (r. 1434–56) and Jean II (r. 1456–88), the duchy of Bourbon
participated in the 15th-century revival of France. By marriage and other means, the
dukes had added Forez, Beaujolais, Auvergne, and Montpensier to their possessions, and
Jean II ruled a powerful apanage. Although occasionally rebellious, he was usually loyal
to Louis XI, whose daughter Anne married his brother and successor, Pierre de Beaujeu.
As the crown gradually gained control of Burgundy, Anjou, Provence, Brittany, and
Orléans, the Bourbon lands constituted the largest block of nonroyal holdings in France
by 1500. When the daughter of Anne and Pierre married her cousin Charles of Bourbon-
Montpensier, their combined holdings constituted a serious threat to the monarchy, but
the rebellion and subsequent disgrace of Charles in the 1520s brought an end to the
independent history of the Bourbonnais.
Meanwhile, a younger son of Louis I, Jacques, count of La Marche (d. 1362), founded
a cadet line of the house of Bourbon that was to have a great future. His son married the
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