The Impossible Bourbons

by Oliver Thomson

This traces the initially slow rise of the family from Bourbon in the Massif Central which as a result of tenacity, ambition and good marriages came to win the crowns first of France, then Spain and finally Naples and Sicily. It looks at the diverse characters who headed up the family at various times, their remarkable lives, achievements, their extraordinary talents as well as their considerable failings, their artistic legacy as well as their extravagances.

Whereas most Bourbon books stop in 1793, The Impossible Bourbons covers the equally interesting post-Napoleonic period, including the Spanish Bourbons right up to the present day Juan Carlos.

The Impossible Bourbons provides the reader with a series of self-contained, readable mini biographies and concludes with an overview of the surviving monuments of the family, from their earliest castles to the Louvre and Versailles and then the great palaces of Spain and Naples.

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Oliver Thomson read history at Cambridge and later added a PhD at Glasgow University where he has been a part-time lecturer for many years. Though his main career was in advertising he has written twelve books, one of which was also published in Japanese and two in Portuguese. His books include The Great Feud: The Campbells and the MacDonalds, The Impossible Bourbons and The Other Kaisers.

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information, bad editing. Several dates were wrong, and there were many typos.

[Tsarina60 · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is good, quick to read, and a very simple overview. I figured since I had just read about the Russians and the Germans, I'd better see what the French were up to.