Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/752

BOU  and the Girondists; was member of the committee of public instruction, president of the Society of Jacobins, and in 1794 was elected secretary to the convention. At the close of the convention he retired to his property, and divided his time between music and painting. He wrote, in conjunction with Moline, a five-act piece, entitled "Inauguration de la république française, sans cullotide," that was frequently represented.—J. G.  BOURBON. The first six dukes of this house we notice together; the other distinguished persons who bore the name follow in alphabetical order:— I., count of Clermont, and duke of Bourbon, son of Robert of Clermont, and grandson of St. Louis, born in 1279, succeeded his mother Beatrix, 1310, in the lordship of Bourbon. He bore arms in the Flemish wars of Phillipe le Bel, particularly distinguishing himself on the fatal field of Courtray in 1302. In 1308 he was appointed grand chamberlain to the king—a dignity which was enjoyed by his descendants till the revolt of the constable of Bourbon. In 1312 he purchased for an enormous price from Eudes, duke of Burgundy, the title of prince of Thessalonica, consoling himself with an eastern signiory for the ill success of his attempt to organize a crusade. For his exploits in the English wars of the reign of Charles le Bel, his signiory of Bourbon was erected into a duchy. He took part with Phillip of Valois in his struggle for the throne, and was sent by that prince to Edward III., whom he persuaded to do homage to the king of France. In the three years preceding his death in 1341, he was again engaged in the French wars in Flanders.— I., son of the preceding, born in 1310, a brave soldier and prodigal prince, distinguished in the English wars, and also in the records of the chancery of Rome, where he figured as an excommunicated bankrupt. He was wounded at Cressy, and killed at Poitiers in 1356. One of his daughters was married to Charles V., and another to Peter the Cruel.— II., son of the preceding, born 1337, honourably distinguished for his efforts to arrest the discord which prevailed among the members of the family of Charles V., aid to quell the popular tumults of that reign. Until the peace of 1374 he fought valorously against the English, whom, as the son of one of the proud princes who fell at Poitiers, he excelled in hating. In 1380, after the death of the king, he was appointed guardian of the young duke of Orleans, brother of Charles VI. In 1398 he undertook a crusade against the pirates of Tunis. This was one of the most brilliant as well as one of the most honourable exploits of the age. He not only forced the king of Tunis to liberate all his christian captives, but obliged him to become tributary to Genoa. Died in 1410.— I., son of the preceding, born in 1381. About the time of the murder of the duke of Orleans he was a leader of the Armagnac party, and an active enemy of the Burgundian. He repulsed Jean Sans Peur from before Bourges, and in 1414 took from him the town of Compiegne. The year preceding, with the aid of some troops from Paris, he repressed brigandage in the provinces of Touraine, Anjou, &c. In 1415 he and sixteen other persons, knights or squires, published a cartel in which it was set forth, that each would wear in honour of his lady, and in defiance of all the world, a fetter of gold or silver for the space of two years. Having been made prisoner at the battle of Agincourt, he was carried to London, where, although his ransom was paid no fewer than three times, he was kept in confinement till his death, 1434.— I., son of the preceding, born in 1401, bore, during his father's lifetime, the title of count of Clermont. In 1418 he was seized in Paris by Jean Sans Peur, duke of Burgundy, and compelled to renounce his marriage with Catherine of France. This was preliminary to his being required to espouse the duke's daughter, whom, after the murder of her father, he dismissed into Burgundy. He bore arms for the dauphin, afterwards Charles VII., and in reward for numerous important services, was raised to the command of two provinces, Languedoc and Guyenne. In 1428 he was engaged in the defence of Orleans, against the English, and the year following, took part in the battle of the Herrings. On the marriage of his sister to Phillip the Good of Burgundy, hostilities ceased between the two houses, and it was Jean I. who negotiated the treaty of peace between Phillip and Charles VII., which, to the great joy of the king, was ratified in 1435. He died in 1456.— II., constable of France, son of the preceding, born about 1426, distinguished under the title of count of Clermont for his exploits against the English in Guyenne. He was a prominent leader of the party who in the time of Louis XI., formed, with such poor success, the league called du Bien Public. After the treaty of Conflans, where Louis and his rebellious barons were once more reconciled, he was taken into favour by the crafty monarch, and finally raised to the post of constable. He died in 1488.

The seventh duke of Bourbon was Charles II., Cardinal de Bourbon, noticed below; the eighth was Pierre II., Sire de Beaujeu, noticed under that title.—J. S., G.  BOURBON,, natural son of Jean I., duke of Bourbon, at first distinguished as a brave officer under Charles VII., then as a brigand, and afterwards as one of the leaders of the Praguerie. He was taken at Bar-sur-Aube in 1440, sown in a sack, on which were inscribed the words—"laissez passer le justice du roi," and thrown into the river.—J. S., G.  BOURBON,, king of Navarre. See.  BOURBON,, cardinal de, second son of Charles I, fifth duke of Bourbon, was created archbishop of Lyons in 1446, and raised to the purple in 1477. He was one of the chiefs of the Ligue du Bien Public, but latterly figured at the court of Louis XI., who frequently employed him both in war and diplomacy. When the cunning Louis invited Edward III. to Paris to see the dames of the French court, he recommended to the English monarch the Cardinal de Bourbon as an amiable and not too austere confessor. On the death of his father, the title, but not the estates of the family, came into his hands, the latter being claimed by his elder brother, the Sire de Beaujeu, son-in-law to the king.—J. S., G.  BOURBON,, cardinal de, of the Vendôme branch of the family, brother of Antoine de Bourbon, king of Navarre, born in 1520. His revenues from the church were enormous—he was archbishop, bishop, and abbot of ten rich houses. Under Charles IX. and Henry III. he was chief of the privy council. His interests, however, were with the party of the League, and he became their chief, afterwards their king. In order to forestall his nephew, the king of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV., he had himself crowned under the title of Charles X. His principal supporters were the duke and cardinal of Guise, whose mother he had married. After the assassination of these two princes he was taken prisoner, and shut up in the castle of Fontenay-le-Comte. From that place, two months before his death, 1590, he wrote to his nephew, Henry IV. recognizing him as his sovereign.—J. S., G.  BOURBON,, cardinal de, grandnephew of the preceding, and the fourth son of Louis I., prince of Condé, born in 1560, inherited from his granduncle the archbishopric of Rouen, and several abbeys. He renewed the pretensions of his branch of the family to the throne of France, and was not cured of the folly, bequeathed to him by his granduncle, without causing considerable trouble to Henry IV. He died in 1594.  BOURBON,, duc de, the famous constable, count of Montpensier and la Marche, and dauphin of Auvergne, born 1490, was the second son of Gilbert de Bourbon, count of Montpensier, viceroy of the kingdom of Naples. By the death of his elder brother, and his marriage with Suzanne de Bourbon, heiress of Pierre II., duke of Bourbon, the honours of the two great branches of the family fell to him at an age when his natural love of magnificent display, and his ambition of warlike fame, fostered almost into vices by the retainers of his father and his uncle, were in the full bloom of youthful passions. His skill in military science, and his prowess in the field and the tournament, had answered all the expectations of the veteran warriors to whom the task of fitting him for his high station had been intrusted. No less austere in his personal habits than magnificent in the character of a prince, while his presence at court commanded more deference than love, he was the idol of the soldiery, and the boast of his titled compeers. Louis XII. and his successor, Francis I., were jealous of a subject who rivalled the sovereign in wealth, if not in power. He never travelled without a retinue, which, comprising most of the nobles of his duchies of Bourbon and Auvergne, and of his various counties, was more like an emperor's than a duke's. When on the death of Gaston de Foix, the army of Italy, with which he had served by the side of Bayard in the last campaign of Louis XII., demanded Bourbon for chief, the king refused to comply with its wishes, saying of the duke, "I would like to see in him a little more gaiety and less reserve—nothing is worse than water that sleeps." Francis, indeed, immediately after his accession, appointed Bourbon constable in 1515, and the following year <section end="752Zcontin" />