A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,[1] usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others.
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.
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.
Dynastic politics has declined over time, owing to a decline in monarchy as a form of government, a rise in democracy, and a reduction within democracies of elected members from dynastic families.[2]
The word "dynasty" (from the Greek, Modern (1453-);: δυναστεία, dynasteía "power", "lordship", from dynástes "ruler") 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.
The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a "noble house",[3] 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".
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.[4] 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.[5] 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.[4]
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.[6] 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.
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.[7]
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.
Dynasties lasting at least 250 years include the following. Legendary lineages that cannot be historically confirmed are not included.
| Era | Dynasty | Length of rule | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 400 BCE - 1618 CE[8] [9] | 2,018 years | ||
| - 1279 CE | Chola | 1,579 years | |
| 539 - present | Imperial House of Japan | 1,458 years | |
| - 1947 CE | Eastern Ganga dynasty | 1,454 years est. | |
| - 1971 CE | Guhila - Sisodia | 1,371 years | |
| 950s CE - present (title Tui Tonga to 1865 CE) | Tonga | years | |
| - 1812 CE | Bagrationi | 1,032 years | |
| - 1930 CE | Borjigid | 1,030 years | |
| c.730 – 1855 | Bohkti | 1,125 years est. | |
| - 722 BCE | Adaside | 978 years | |
| - 1846 CE | Sayfawa | 955 years | |
| 665 - 1598 CE | Baduspanids | 933 years | |
| 57 BCE - 935 CE | Silla | 992 years | |
| 1128 - 1971 | Kachhwaha | 843 years | |
| 987 - 1792, 1814 - 1848 CE | Capetian | 839 years | |
| 1046 - 256 BCE | Zhou | 790 years | |
| 750 - 1258 CE, 1261 – 1517 CE | Abbasid | 764 years | |
| 862 - 1598 CE | 736 years | ||
| 1243 - 1971 | Rathore | 728 years | |
| 37 BCE - 668 CE | Goguryeo | 705 years | |
| 1270 - 1975 CE | Solomon | 705 years | |
| 651 - 1349 CE | Bavand dynasty | 698 years | |
| 18 BCE - 660 CE | Baekje | 678 years | |
| 1360s - present | Bolkiah | or | |
| 1299 - 1922 CE | Ottoman | years | |
| 543 BCE - 66 CE | Vijaya | 608 years | |
| 1228 - 1826 CE | Ahom | 598 years | |
| 1600 – 1046 BCE or 1766–1122 BCE | Shang | 554 years or 644 years | |
| 1392 - 1910 CE | Joseon and Korean Empire | 518 years | |
| 1370 - 1857 CE | Timurid | 487 years | |
| 918 - 1392 CE | Goryeo | 474 years | |
| 247 BCE - 224 CE | Arsacid | 471 years | |
| 1154 - 1624 CE | Nabhani | 470 years | |
| 202 BCE - 9 CE, 25 - 220 CE | Han and Shu Han | 448 years | |
| 858 - 1301 CE | Árpád | 443 years | |
| 1586 - present | Mataram | ||
| 224 - 651 CE | Sassanian | 427 years | |
| 1010 - 586 BCE | Davidic | 424 years | |
| 220 - 638 CE | Jafnid | 418 years | |
| 960 - 1370 CE | Piast | 410 years | |
| 730 - 330 BCE | Achaemenid | 400 years | |
| 1220 - 1597 CE | Siri Sanga Bo | 377 years | |
| 661 - 750, 756 - 1031 CE | Umayyad | 364 years | |
| 1271 - 1635 CE | Yuan and Northern Yuan | 364 years | |
| 1057 - 1059, 1081 - 1185, 1204 - 1461 CE | Komnenos (styled as Megas Komnenos since late 13th century) | 363 years | |
| 1428 - 1527, 1533 - 1789 CE | Later Lê (Primitive and Revival Lê) | 355 years | |
| 1047 - 1375, 1387 - 1412 CE | Estridsen | 353 years | |
| - 309 BCE | Argead | 344 years | |
| 1278 - 1914 CE | Habsburg | 636 years | |
| 1371 - 1651, 1660 - 1714 CE | Stuart | 334 years | |
| 1154 - 1485 CE | Plantagenet | 330 years | |
| 905 - 1234 CE | Jiménez | 329 years | |
| 1699 - present | Bendahara | ||
| 960 - 1279 CE | Song | 319 years | |
| 1613 - 1917 CE | Romanov | 304 years | |
| 300 - 602 CE | Lakhmid | 302 years | |
| 916 - 1218 CE | Liao and Western Liao | 302 years | |
| 1616 - 1912 CE | Later Jin and Qing | 296 years | |
| 1368 - 1662 CE | Ming and Southern Ming | 294 years | |
| 305 - 30 BCE | Ptolemaic | 275 years | |
| 618 - 690, 705 - 907 CE | Tang | 274 years | |
| 909 - 1171 CE | Fatimid | 262 years | |
| 1230 - 1492 CE | Nasrid | 262 years | |
| 1550 - 1292 BCE | Thutmosid | 258 years | |
| 1034 - 1286 CE | Dunkeld | 252 years |
There are 43 sovereign states with a monarch as head of state, of which 41 are ruled by dynasties. There are currently 26 sovereign dynasties.
See main article: Political family and 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.
Hereditary dictatorships are personalist dictatorships in which political power stays within a strongman's family due to the overwhelming authority of the strongman, rather than by the democratic consent of the people. The strongman 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 strongman's death.
| Regime | Current leader | Dynastic founder | Year founded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kim dynasty |
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