Dynasty

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Charles I of England and his son, the future James II

A dynasty (UK: /ˈdɪnəsti/, US: /ˈdaɪnəsti/) is a sequence of rulers from the same family,[1] usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a "house";[2] which may be styled "royal", "princely", "comital", etc., depending upon the chief or present title borne by its members. Historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the term "dynasty" may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends, and artifacts of that period ("a Ming-dynasty vase"). The word "dynasty" itself is often dropped from such adjectival references ("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 increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members.[3] The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, the Yamato dynasty, whose reign is traditionally dated to 660 BC.

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 through a female, for example the House of Windsor is maintained through the children of Queen Elizabeth II, similarly with the Monarchy of the Netherlands whose dynasty remained the House of Orange-Nassau through three successive queens regnant. The earliest such example among the major European monarchies was in Russia in the 18th century, where the name of the House of Romanov was maintained through a non-ruling female.

Some states in 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 multidynastic (or polydynastic) system – that is, the most senior living members of parallel dynasties, at any point in time, constitute the line of succession.

The word "dynasty" is sometimes used informally for people who are not rulers but, 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.[1]

Etymology

The word "dynasty" derives from Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia (δυναστεία), where it referred to "power", "dominion", and "rule" itself.[4] It was the abstract noun of dynástēs (δυνάστης),[5] the agent noun of dynamis (δύναμις), "power" or "ability",[6] from dýnamai (δύναμαι), "to be able".[7]

Dynasts

A ruler in 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, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a dynastic member of the House of Windsor.

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 Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support and parliamentary approval. Thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights.

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 Sophie von Hohenberg, their son Max was bypassed for the Austrian throne because he was not a Habsburg dynast. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max 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, Viscount Linley, a nephew of Queen Elizabeth II through her sister, Princess Margaret, is in the line of succession to the British crown: in that sense he is a British dynast. Yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor.

On the other hand, the German aristocrat Ernst August, Prince of Hanover (born 1954), a male-line descendant of George III of the United Kingdom, possesses no legal British name, titles or styles (although he is entitled to re-claim the once-royal dukedom of Cumberland), was born in the line of succession to the British crown 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.[8] Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained formal permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. 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 throne.[9] 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 Catholic.[8]

Dynasties by region

Africa

Chad

Egypt

Ethiopia

Guinea

Madagascar

Morocco

Nigeria

Senegal and Gambia (Senegambia)

Senegambian

Somalia

Swaziland

South Africa

Asia

Afghanistan

Bhutan

Cambodia

China

Central Asia

Middle East

India

Iran (Persia)

Israel

Kingdom of Jerusalem

Indonesia

Japan

Korea

Kuwait

Malaysia

Mongolia

Myanmar

Nepal

 *Not truly dynasty but did hold reputation of dynasty, they ruled under Shah Dynasty.

Philippines

Royal families

Ryūkyū

Sri Lanka

Anuradhapura
Polonnaruwa
Jaffna
Kandy
British Ceylon

Saudi Arabia

Tibet

Thailand

United Arab Emirates

Vietnam

Champa

Europe

Austria

Albania

Armenia

Belgium

Bosnia

Bulgaria

Barbarians

Bavarii
Franks
Huns

This is a list of rulers of the Huns. Period Ruler

Scirii
Lombards
Ostrogoths
Suebi
Vandals
Visigoths

Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire)

Croatia

Cyprus

Denmark

(1448 – present)

France

Georgia

Germany

Bavaria
Saxony

Hungary

Monaco

Montenegro

Ireland

Italy

Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Portugal

County of Portugal
Kingdom of Portugal

Western Roman Empire

Romania

Moldavia
Wallachia
After the Unification

Russia

Serbia

Spain

Aragon
Asturias
Barcelona
Castile
León
After the Unification (1516)

Sweden

Turkey

Two Sicilies

Sicily

British Isles

England
Wales
Ireland
Scotland
Kingdoms after the Union of the Crowns (1603–1707)

The crown of the Kingdom of England and Ireland merged with that of the Kingdom of Scotland to form a personal union between England-Ireland and Scotland (the former a personal union itself)

Personal union between Great Britain and Ireland (1707–1801)
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1921)
Personal union of the UK [of GB and NI] and several other Irish states (1921–1949)
UK [of GB and NI] (without the personal union with Ireland) (1949-present)

North America

Mexico

Central America

Maya States

South America

Peru

Brazil

Chile

Caribbean

Haiti

Oceania

Hawaii

New Zealand Māori

Tahiti

Tonga

Political families in Republics

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

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

Some political dynasties:

Influential/wealthy families

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "dynasty, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897.
  2. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. "house, n.¹ and int, 10. b." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2011.
  3. ↑ Thomson, David (1961). "The Institutions of Monarchy". Europe Since Napoleon. New York: Knopf. pp. 79–80. 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
  4. ↑ Liddell, Henry George & al. A Greek–English Lexicon: "δυναστεία". Hosted by Tufts University's Perseus Project.
  5. ↑ Liddell & al. A Greek–English Lexicon: "δυνάστης".
  6. ↑ Liddell & al. A Greek–English Lexicon: "δύναμις".
  7. ↑ Liddell & al. "δύναμαι".
  8. 1 2 Statement by Nick Clegg MP, UK parliament website, 26 March 2015 (retrieved on same date).
  9. ↑ "Monaco royal taken seriously ill". BBC News. London. 8 April 2005. Retrieved January 27, 2013.
  10. 1 2 The Times Atlas of World History (second/third edition), ISBN, 0-7230-0304-1
  11. ↑ http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/html/en/History1766bye3553.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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