dynasty

The word "dynasty" (from the {{langx|el|δυναστεία}}, dynasteía "power", "lordship", from dynástes "ruler"){{OEtymD|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, or any family with a legacy, such as a dynasty of poets or actors. It is also extended to unrelated people, such as major poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team.Oxford English Dictionary, {{nowrap|1st ed.}} "dynasty, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897.

The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a "noble house",Oxford English Dictionary, {{nowrap|3rd ed.}} "house, n.¹ and int, {{nowrap|10. b.}}" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2011. which may be styled as "imperial", "royal", "princely", "ducal", "comital" or "baronial", depending upon the chief or present title borne by its members, but it is more often referred by adding the name afterwards, as in "House of Habsburg".

File:Order of the Civil Merit Ceremony. 5th Felipe VI Reign Anniversary 02 (cropped).jpg of the House of Bourbon dates its roots to the Capetian dynasty of the 9th century, thus making it the oldest still reigning dynasty in Europe (photograph of King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, the Princess of Asturias and her younger sister Infanta Sofía, in 2019)]]

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 after 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, 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.[http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2015-03-26/HCWS490/ Statement by Nick Clegg MP, UK parliament website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160705020637/http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2015-03-26/HCWS490/ |date=5 July 2016 }}, 26 March 2015 (retrieved on same date). 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.{{cite news | url=http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4426171.stm | title=Monaco royal taken seriously ill | work=BBC News | date=8 April 2005 | access-date=27 January 2013 | location=London | archive-date=12 March 2010 | archive-url=http://wayback.vefsafn.is/wayback/20100312144516/http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4426171.stm | url-status=dead }} That exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts before triggering it by marriage to a Roman Catholic.

File:Maria Theresia im Kreise ihrer Familie.jpg of the Habsburg dynasty, surrounded by her children who were married into various European dynasties. Marriage policy amongst dynasties led to the Pax Austriaca.]]

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.{{Cite web |title=The Dynastic Marriage |url=http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/european-networks/dynastic-networks/heinz-duchhardt-the-dynastic-marriage |access-date=2023-02-28 |website=ieg-ego.eu |language=de |archive-date=28 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230228212538/http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/european-networks/dynastic-networks/heinz-duchhardt-the-dynastic-marriage |url-status=live }} For example, the marriage of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, making their eldest child, Princess Catharina-Amalia, the heir apparent to the Crown of the Netherlands. The marriage of his younger brother, Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau, in 2003 lacked government 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.

Empress Maria Theresa of the Habsburg dynasty had her children married into various European dynasties. Habsburg marriage policy amongst European dynasties led to the Pax Austriaca.

Historians periodize the histories of many states and civilizations, such as Ancient Iran (3200–539 BC), Ancient Egypt (3100–30 BC) and Ancient and Imperial China (2070 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"). 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.{{cite book |last=Thomson |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/europesincenapol00thom |title=Europe Since Napoleon |publisher=Knopf |year=1961 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/europesincenapol00thom/page/79 79–80] |chapter=The Institutions of Monarchy |quote=The basic idea of monarchy was the idea that hereditary right gave the best title to political power...The dangers of disputed succession were best avoided by hereditary succession: ruling families had a natural interest in passing on to their descendants enhanced power and prestige...Frederick the Great of Prussia, Catherine the Great of Russia, Maria Theresa of Austria, were alike infatuated with the idea of strengthening their power, centralizing government in their own hands as against local and feudal privileges, and so acquiring more absolute authority in the state. Moreover, the very dynastic rivalries and conflicts between these eighteenth-century monarchs drove them to look for ever more efficient methods of government |url-access=registration}}

Before the 18th century, most dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as those that follow the Frankish Salic law. In polities where it was permitted, succession through a daughter usually established a new dynasty in her husband's family name. This has changed in all of Europe's remaining monarchies, where succession law and conventions have maintained dynastic names de jure through a female. For instance, the House of Windsor is 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 and Gotha-Koháry, but whose descendants remained members of the House of Braganza, per Portuguese law; in fact, since the 1800s, the only female monarch in Europe who had children belonging to a different house was Queen Victoria and that was due to disagreements over how to choose a non German house. 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.

File:Welcome for HM King Tupou VI of the Kingdom of Tonga and HM Queen Nanasipau'u 03.jpg]]

Dynasties lasting at least 250 years include the following. Legendary lineages that cannot be historically confirmed are not included.

{{For|non-sovereign dynasties currently ruling subnational monarchies|Non-sovereign monarchy|List of current constituent monarchs}}

There are 43 sovereign states with a monarch as head of state, of which 41 are ruled by dynasties.{{efn|name="Non-dynastic"|Existing sovereign entities ruled by non-dynastic monarchs include:

• {{flag|Andorra|name=Principality of Andorra}}
• Holy See (ruling the {{flag|Vatican City|name=Vatican City State}})
• {{flag|Sovereign Military Order of Malta|name=Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta}}}} There are currently 26 sovereign dynasties.

{{main|Political family|List of political families}}

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.

{{See also|Personalist dictatorship}}

Hereditary dictatorships are personalist dictatorships in which political power stays within a dictator's family due to the overwhelming authority of the dictator, rather than by the democratic consent of the people. The dictator typically fills government positions with their relatives. They may groom a successor during their own lifetime, or a member of their family may maneuver to take control of the dictatorship after the dictator's death.

{{main|List of wealthiest families}}

{{politics}}

{{main|Lists of dynasties}}

• Cadet branch
• Commonwealth realm
• Conquest dynasty
• Dynastic cycle
• Dynastic order
• Dynastic union
• Elective monarchy
• Family seat
• Genealogy
• Heads of former ruling families
• Hereditary monarchy
• Iranian Intermezzo
• List of current constituent monarchs
• List of current monarchies
• List of current monarchs of sovereign states
• List of dynasties
• List of empires
• List of family trees
• List of kingdoms and royal dynasties
• List of largest empires
• List of monarchies
• List of noble houses
• Non-sovereign monarchy
• Royal family
• Royal household
• Royal intermarriage
• Self-proclaimed monarchy

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Category:Monarchy

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