Royal intermarriage

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Royal intermarriage is the practice of members of royal families marrying into other royal families. It was more commonly done in the past for reasons of state and in order to maintain the purity of bloodlines. Historically, royal marriages often sealed alliances or pacts, and were instrumental in many countries' diplomatic relations. Over many generations, intermarriage between royals came to a point where most royals became related to all other royals.

1 Marriage for purity
2 Morganatic marriage
3 Interbreeding
4 Modern examples

[edit] Marriage for purity

Royal intermarriage became practiced widely as a way of ensuring all members of a royal family were descended from royalty as opposed to commoners. This class distinction gave rise to many house laws stipulating who a dynast could marry to have an equal marriage; marriages outside this were considered morganatic. This often occurred in monarchies with such small courts that it became a means of maintaining relations, such as Europe and princely India under the British Raj.

[edit] Morganatic marriage

Main article: Morganatic marriage

If a member of royal family married someone not of appropriate status, they sometimes lost succession rights, titles, or other varied royal privileges. A frequent occurrence was for their children and spouse to receive a lesser title, although these cadet branches sometimes were deemed suitable for marriage into other families. This occurred when Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine married the lesser Countess Julia von Hauke. Julia and the morganatic children of this union were given the style of Serene Highness and title of Prince(ss) of Battenberg. The Battenberg family later married into the royal families of Sweden and Spain, and descendants into the royal families of Britain, Greece, Denmark, and other countries. Similarly, the Teck family, from which Queen Mary of the United Kingdom came, was a morganatic branch of the royal House of Württemberg.

[edit] Interbreeding

Over time, due to the relatively small pool of potential consorts, the gene pool of many regional royal families grew progressively smaller, until all European royalty were related, often to their consorts as well. This also resulted in many being descended from a certain person through many lines of descent, such as the numerous European royals and nobles descended from the British Queen Victoria or King Christian IX of Denmark. The House of Habsburg was infamous for its inbreeding, with the Habsburg lip cited as an ill-effect. The Habsburgs frequently married within the family and the closely related houses of Bourbon and Wittelsbach, uncle-niece and double-cousin and first-cousin unions occurring frequently.