Francesco de Asis accepted the children so that's good enough for me.
It seems like one's opinion of the efficacy of the legal paternity of Francisco de Asis by his acceptance of the offspring would hinge on whether or not one accepts the Pragmatic Sanction of 1830. The argument for Francisco de Asis's paternity is not as strong as many often say. I mean, he was attached to what was seen by many people as a usurpatory and illegitimate government, so of course he accepted his wife's children as his own. I can't imagine what else he would do in such a situation. Doing anything else could have caused the downfall of everything, not that it saved them in the end from that fate. If somebody wanted to challenge the Isabelline-descended Bourbons of today, they could certainly find a casus belli there and force the issue, at least if they were to use the legal standards of the time period. Wars of succession have been fought on weaker arguments than that.
Juan Carlos is definitely a Bourbon (even if by just appearance) by blood in any case.
Naturally. Juan Carlos de Borbon y Borbon (
And then you have the Bourbon-Parmas in Luxembourg (under the name of Nassau) and they have adapted as well. Even the Bourbon-Two Sicilies have learned to compromise has the two branches of it are no longer disputing who is the head of this or that.
The cause of compromise is greatly helped when your only ruling members are collaborators with the revolutionary régimes and the rest have little real power but are surrounded by and live as citizens in social democracies.
The legacy of Louis XIV. Which is why one of my favorite TL is if the Petite Dauphin Louis lives and we are not only spared OTL Louis XV and the excess that came with that but the monarchy had devolved a bit.
Indeed, though I think that Louis XIV -- who was by any standard a remarkably talented man -- did have the raw ability required to accomplish his goals, just not the humility and wisdom for them, it seems. If any of his descendants were as skilled as he and his ancestors were at ruling, they might still be ruling outside of Spain, where the ruling Bourbon rules because of being the son of a compromise candidate chosen by Franco (and who then broke his oath to continue Franco's programme).
The Bourbons of today are a strange mix. They share some qualities with the House of Orléans, combined with the legacy of the easy-going pleasure of Louis XV, who was mediocre by the standards of a monarch, allowed himself to be manipulated by his many mistresses, and wanted himself to be seen as "first gentleman of Europe." Their ancestors had the stubbornness of the quintessential Gallic rooster, Louis XIV, without his gifts. They seem like they can't quite get themselves together.