LE RAJAH DE BOURBON

 DO YOU KNOW

Due to some twist of history, in case the French people decide to restore their monarchy, then the next King of France is an Indian??
Yes, the direct blood descendent of the House of Bourbon is a resident of Bhopal and practices law in the Courts in Bhopal.
The gentleman I am referring to is Balthazar Napoleon IV de Bourbon.

The lineage traces back to Prince Jean-Philippe de Bourbon. Jean-Philippe was a French nobleman (purportedly a nephew or cousin of King Henri IV) who fled France in 1560 after killing a man in a duel.
After a series of events involving pirates and shipwrecks and being sold as a slave in the slave market in Egypt, he ended up at the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. He rose to prominence, married a sister of one of Akbar's wives (a Christian woman named Lady Juliana), and was given the title of "Raja of Shergar."
Two sisters—Dona Maria Mascarenhas and Juliana—were captured by pirates and brought to Akbar's court. While the names sound distinctly Portuguese, there is a very strong historical argument that they were Armenian. Akbar married Maria (making her his "Christian wife") and gave Juliana in marriage to the French exile Jean-Philippe de Bourbon.
Anyways, coming back to the "House of Bourbon"
In the 18th century, the Bourbon family moved to Bhopal, where they became incredibly influential. They served as prime ministers and top administrators to the Begums of Bhopal.
Balthazar Napoleon IV maintains a very dignified but grounded life in Bhopal. He is a well-known figure in the Bhopal legal community, practicing from his office in the Jahangirabad area.
Despite the royal claim, he grew up speaking Hindi and English and only recently encouraged his children to learn French. His home still features the Fleur-de-lis (the lily symbol of French royalty) and portraits of his ancestors.

Most notably Prince Michael of Greece in his 2007 book "Le Rajah de Bourbon" suggested that Balthazar might actually be the senior-most legal heir to the defunct French throne (due to the extinction of other senior lines).

Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark, who is associated with the "Bourbon-Bhopal" story, passed away recently on July 28, 2024, at the age of 85. At the time of his death in 2024, he was the last surviving grandchild of King George I of Greece.
In 1965, he famously renounced his rights to the Greek throne (and those of his descendants) to marry Marina Karella, a commoner and talented artist. Because of this, he was the only member of the royal family who remained in Greece after the 1967 coup that sent the rest of the monarchy into exile.

Writing under the name Michel de Grèce, he wrote over 30 books. He had a gift for blending rigorous historical research with the pace of a thriller, covering everything from the Ottoman Empire to the Russian Tsars.
He was a first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II. While Philip grew up in the UK, Michael remained deeply tied to his Greek identity and was the only member of the family to hold Greek citizenship in his later years.

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