Dynasty

A dynasty (UK: /ˈdɪnəsti/, US: /ˈdaɪnəsti/) is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchicalsystem, but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. Alternative terms for “dynasty” may include “house“, “family” and “clan“, among others. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, otherwise known as the Yamato dynasty, whose reign is traditionally dated to 660 BC.

The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a “noble house”, which may be styled as “imperial”, “royal”, “princely”, “ducal”, “comital”, “baronial” etc., depending upon the chief or present title borne by its members.

Historians periodize the histories of many nations and civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt (3100–30 BC) and Imperial China (221 BC–AD 1912), using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the term “dynasty” may be used to delimit the era during which a family reigned, and also to describe events, trends and artifacts of that period (e.g., “a Ming-dynasty vase”). The word “dynasty” itself is often dropped from such adjectival references (e.g., “a Ming vase”).

Until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty: that is, to expand the wealth and power of his family members.

Prior to the 20th century, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. In nations where it was permitted, succession through a daughter usually established a new dynasty in her husband’s ruling house. This has changed in some places in Europe, where succession law and convention have maintained dynasties de jure through a female. For instance, the House of Windsor will be maintained through the children of Queen Elizabeth II, as it did with the monarchy of the Netherlands, whose dynasty remained the House of Orange-Nassau through three successive queens regnant. The earliest such example among major European monarchies was in the Russian Empire in the 18th century, where the name of the House of Romanov was maintained through Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna. This also happened in the case of Queen Maria II of Portugal, who married Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, but whose descendants remained members of the House of Braganza, per Portuguese law. In Limpopo Province of South Africa, Balobedu determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mother’s dynasty when coming into her inheritance. Less frequently, a monarchy has alternated or been rotated, in a multi-dynastic (or polydynastic) system—that is, the most senior living members of parallel dynasties, at any point in time, constitute the line of succession.

Not all feudal states or monarchies were or are ruled by dynasties; modern examples are the Vatican City State, the Principality of Andorra, and the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta. Throughout history, there were monarchs that did not belong to any dynasty; non-dynastic rulers include King Arioald of the Lombards and Emperor Phocas of the Byzantine Empire. Dynasties ruling subnational monarchies do not possess sovereign rights; two modern examples are the monarchies of Malaysia and the royal families of the United Arab Emirates.

The word “dynasty” is sometimes used informally for people who are not rulers but are, for example, members of a family with influence and power in other areas, such as a series of successive owners of a major company. It is also extended to unrelated people, such as major poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team.

Etymology

The word “dynasty” derives from Latin dynastia, which comes from Greek dynastéia (δυναστεία), where it referred to “power”, “dominion”, and “rule” itself. It was the abstract noun of dynástēs (δυνάστης), the agent noun of dynamis (δύναμις), “power” or “ability”, from dýnamai (δύναμαι), “to be able”.

Dynast

A ruler from a dynasty is sometimes referred to as a “dynast”, but this term is also used to describe any member of a reigning family who retains a right to succeed to a throne. For example, King Edward VIII ceased to be a dynast of the House of Windsor following his abdication.

In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a “dynast” is a family member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchy’s rules still in force. For example, after the 1914 assassinations of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his morganatic wife, their son Maximilian, Duke of Hohenberg, was bypassed for the Austro-Hungarian throne because he was not a Habsburg dynast. Even since the abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Duke Maximilian and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position.

The term “dynast” is sometimes used only to refer to agnatic descendants of a realm’s monarchs, and sometimes to include those who hold succession rights through cognatic royal descent. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people. For example, David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, a nephew of Queen Elizabeth II, is in the line of succession to the British crown; making him a British dynast. On the other hand, since he is not a patrilineal member of the British royal family, he is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor.

Comparatively, the German aristocrat Prince Ernst August of Hanover, a male-line descendant of King George III of the United Kingdom, possesses no legal British name, titles or styles (although he is entitled to reclaim the former royal dukedom of Cumberland). He was born in the line of succession to the British throne and was bound by Britain’s Royal Marriages Act 1772 until it was repealed when the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 took effect on 26 March 2015. Thus, he requested and obtained formal permission from Queen Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco in 1999. Yet, a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time, stipulating that dynasts who marry Roman Catholics are considered “dead” for the purpose of succession to the British throne. That exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Roman Catholic.

A “dynastic marriage” is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, so that the descendants are eligible to inherit the throne or other royal privileges. The marriage of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands to Queen Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, making their eldest child Princess Catharina-Amalia the heir apparent to the Crown of the Netherlands. However, the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau in 2003 lacked governmental support and parliamentary approval. Thus, Prince Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession to the Dutch throne, and consequently lost his title as a “Prince of the Netherlands”, and left his children without dynastic rights.

Gallery

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  Zhao Kuangyin, the Emperor Taizu of Song, was the founder of the Song dynasty in China.

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  Hongwu Emperor, the Emperor Taizu of Ming, was the founder of the Ming dynasty in China.

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  Sukapha, of the Ahom dynasty, was the first King of the Ahom Dynasty in Assam, India.

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  Babur, of the Timurid dynasty, was the first emperor of the Mughal Empire in India.

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  Suleiman the Magnificent, from the House of Osman, was the longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until 1566.

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  Muhammad Ali Pasha, founder of the Muhammad Ali dynasty, ruled Egypt and Sudan from 1805 to 1848.

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  Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, The second emperor of the Pahlavi Dynasty, and the last Shah of Iran before the Iranian Revolution.

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  Peter I, from the House of Romanov, was the first Russian monarch to rule as emperor.

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  Constantine XI Palaiologos, of the Palaiologos dynasty, was the final monarch of the Byzantine Empire.

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  Pedro II, from the Most Serene House of Braganza, ruled Brazil from 1831 to 1889.

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  Kalākaua, founder of the House of Kalākaua, was the penultimate sovereign ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

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  Asahito, the Emperor Higashiyama, from the Imperial House of Japan, was the 113th Japanese emperor.

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  Emperor Meiji, from the Imperial House of Japan, was the 122nd Japanese emperor.

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  Christian I, from the House of Oldenburg, served as king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

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  Aisin Gioro Xuanye, the Kangxi Emperor, of the Qing dynasty, was the longest reigning emperor of China.

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  Mohammad Shah Qajarwas a king of Persia from the Qajar dynasty.

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  Yi Dan, King Taejo of Joseon, ruled Korea from 1392 to 1398 as the first king of Joseon.

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  Nikola I, of the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty, ruled Montenegro from 1860 to 1918.

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  Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Lân, the Emperor Thành Thái, of the Nguyễn dynasty, was emperor of Vietnam from 1889 to 1907.

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  Ahmad al-Mansur, of the Saadi dynasty, was sultan of Morocco from 1578 to 1603.

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  Louis XIV, from the House of Bourbon, reigned as king of France from 1643 to 1715.

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  Napoleon I, from the House of Bonaparte, ruled over France and Italy.

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  Thibaw Min was the last monarch of the Konbaung dynasty in Myanmar.

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  Henry VIII, from the House of Tudor, reigned as king of England and Ireland from 1509 to 1547.

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  Edward VI, from the House of Tudor, reigned as king of England and Ireland from 1547 to 1553.

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  Elizabeth I, from the House of Tudor, reigned as queen of England and Ireland from 1558 to 1603.

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  Ranavalona I, of the Hova dynasty, was queen regnant of Madagascar from 1828 to 1861.

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  Shō Tai, of the Second Shō dynasty, was the final sovereign ruler of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

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  Zaman Shah Durrani Sadozai, of the Durrani dynasty, ruled Afghanistan from 1793 to 1800.

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  Wanyan Aguda, the Emperor Taizu of Jin, was the progenitor of the Jin dynasty in China.

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  Trần Thuyên, the Emperor Trần Anh Tông, of the Trần dynasty, ruled Vietnam from 1293 to 1314.

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  Otto I, from the House of Wittelsbach, was king of Greece from 1832 to 1862.

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  Tamar was queen regnant of the Bagrationi dynasty in Georgia.

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  Khayishan, the Külüg Khan and Emperor Wuzong of Yuan, was the seventh khagan of the Mongol Empireand the third emperor of the Yuan dynasty in China.

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  Milan I, of the Obrenović dynasty, ruled Serbia from 1868 to 1889.

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  Agustín I was the first and only Mexican emperor from the House of Iturbide.

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  Sigismund III, from the House of Vasa, was monarch of Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and Finland.

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  Leopold I, from the House of Habsburg, was emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and king of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia.

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  Wang Jeon, King Gongmin of Goryeo, ruled Korea from 1351 to 1374 as king of Goryeo.

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  Frederick the Great, from the House of Hohenzollern, was the King of Prussiafrom 1740 to 1786.

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  Wilhelm I, from the House of Hohenzollern, was the first German emperor.

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  Victor Emmanuel II, from the House of Savoy, was the first king of Italy.

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  Gediminas, King of Lithuania, started the Gediminids dynasty in 1315.

Extant dynasties ruling sovereign monarchies

There are 44 sovereign states with a monarch as head of state, of which 42 are ruled by dynasties. There are currently 26 sovereign dynasties.

Dynasty	Realm	Reigning monarch	Dynastic founder	Dynastic place of origin
House of Windsor	Antigua and Barbuda	Queen Elizabeth II	King-Emperor George V	Thuringia and Bavaria (in modern Germany)
	Commonwealth of Australia
	Commonwealth of The Bahamas
	Barbados
	Belize
	Canada
	Grenada
	Jamaica
	New Zealand
	Independent State of Papua New Guinea
	Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis
	Saint Lucia
	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
	Solomon Islands
	Tuvalu
	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
House of Khalifa	Kingdom of Bahrain	King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa	Sheikh Khalifa bin Mohammed	Najd (in modern Saudi Arabia)
House of Belgium	Kingdom of Belgium	King Philippe	King Albert I	Thuringia and Bavaria (in modern Germany)
House of Wangchuck	Kingdom of Bhutan	Druk Gyalpo Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck	Druk Gyalpo Ugyen Wangchuck	Bhutan
House of Bolkiah	Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace	Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah	Sultan Muhammad Shah	Tarim (in modern Yemen)
House of Norodom	Kingdom of Cambodia	King Norodom Sihamoni	King Norodom Prohmbarirak	Cambodia
House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg	Kingdom of Denmark	Queen Margrethe II	Duke Friedrich Wilhelm	Glücksburg (in modern Germany)
	Kingdom of Norway	King Harald V
House of Dlamini	Kingdom of Eswatini	King Mswati III	Chief Dlamini I	East Africa
Imperial House of Japan	Japan	Emperor Naruhito	Emperor Jimmu	Nara (in modern Japan)
House of Hashim	Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan	King Abdullah II	King Hussein ibn Ali al-Hashimi	Hejaz (in modern Saudi Arabia)
House of Sabah	State of Kuwait	Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah	Sheikh Sabah I bin Jaber	Najd (in modern Saudi Arabia)
House of Moshesh	Kingdom of Lesotho	King Letsie III	Paramount Chief Moshoeshoe I	Lesotho
House of Liechtenstein	Principality of Liechtenstein	Prince Hans-Adam II	Prince Karl I	Lower Austria (in modern Austria)
House of Luxembourg-Nassau	Grand Duchy of Luxembourg	Grand Duke Henri	Grand Duke Adolphe	Nassau (in modern Germany)
Bendahara dynasty	Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Abdullah	Bendahara Tun Habib Abdul Majid	Johor (in modern Malaysia)
House of Grimaldi	Principality of Monaco	Prince Albert II	François Grimaldi	Genoa (in modern Italy)
Alaouite dynasty	Kingdom of Morocco	King Mohammed VI	Sultan Abul Amlak Sidi Muhammad as-Sharif ibn ‘Ali	Tafilalt (in modern Morocco)
House of Orange-Nassau	Kingdom of the Netherlands	King Willem-Alexander	Prince William I	Nassau (in modern Germany)
House of Said	Sultanate of Oman	Sultan Haitham bin Tariq	Sultan Ahmad bin Said al-Busaidi	Yemen
House of Thani	State of Qatar	Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani	Sheikh Thani bin Mohammed	Najd (in modern Saudi Arabia)
House of Saud	Kingdom of Saudi Arabia	King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud	Emir Saud I	Diriyah (in modern Saudi Arabia)
House of Borbón-Anjou	Kingdom of Spain	King Felipe VI	King Philip V	Bourbon-l’Archambault (in modern France)
House of Bernadotte	Kingdom of Sweden	King Carl XVI Gustaf	King Charles XIV John	Pau (in modern France)
Chakri dynasty	Kingdom of Thailand	King Vajiralongkorn	King Rama I	Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (in modern Thailand)
House of Tupou	Kingdom of Tonga	King Tupou VI	King George Tupou I	Tonga
House of Nahyan	United Arab Emirates	President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan	Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa Al Nahyan	Liwa Oasis (in modern United Arab Emirates)

Political dynasties in republics and constitutional monarchies

Though in elected governments, rule does not pass automatically by inheritance, political power often accrues to generations of related individuals in the elected positions of republics, and constitutional monarchies. Eminence, influence, tradition, genetics, and nepotism may contribute to the phenomenon.

Family dictatorships are a different concept in which political power passes within a family because of the overwhelming authority of the leader, rather than informal power accrued to the family.

Some political dynasties in republics:

Influential and wealthy families