Dynasty

This article is about the general concept of a line of rulers. For other uses, see Dynasty (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Political dynasty.

"Ruling family" redirects here. For other uses, see Royal family.

"Royal house" redirects here. For royal residences and headquarters, see Palace and Royal household.

Family photograph of the Imperial House of Japan, the world's oldest continuous royal dynasty since at least 539, with three generations (from left) Empress Michiko, Emperor Akihito, their son Emperor Naruhito and his consort Empress Masako, Prince Akishino and Princess Akishino, and behind them the children (2021)

A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, 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.

Terminology

The word "dynasty" (from the Greek: 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, 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.

The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a "noble house", 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".

Definition

The Spanish royal family 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. 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 before triggering it by marriage to a Roman Catholic.

Dynastic marriage

Family portrait of Empress Maria Theresa 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. 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.

History

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.

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.

Longevity

King Tupou VI of Tonga and Queen Nanasipau'u, head of one of the oldest still ruling royal dynasties in the world, dating back to c. 950 CE of the Tuʻi Tonga Empire

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	Pandya	2,018 years (estimation)
c. 300 BCE – 1279	Chola	1,579 years (estimation)
c. 493 – present	Imperial House of Japan	1,458 years
c. 5th century – 1947	Eastern Ganga dynasty	1,454 years (estimation)
c. 5th century – 1971	Guhila / Sisodia	1,371 years (estimation)
c. 730 – 1855	Bohkti	1,125 years (estimation)
c. 780 – 1812	Bagrationi	1,032 years (estimation)
c. 900 – 1930	Borjigid	1,030 years (estimation)
987 – present	Capetian	1,037 years
57 BCE – 935	Silla	992 years (estimation)
c. 1700 – 722 BCE	Adaside	978 years (estimation)
950s – present (title Tuʻi Tonga to 1865)	Tonga	974 years (estimation)
c. 891 – 1846	Sayfawa	955 years (estimation)
665 – 1598	Baduspanids	933 years
1128 – 1971	Kachhwaha	843 years
1046 – 256 BCE	Zhou	790 years
750 – 1258, 1261 – 1517	Abbasid	764 years
862 – 1598	Rurikid	736 years
1243 – 1971	Rathore	728 years
37 BCE – 668	Goguryeo	705 years
1270 – 1975	Solomon	705 years
651 – 1349	Bavand dynasty	698 years
18 BCE – 660	Baekje	678 years
1360s – present	Bolkiah	664 years (estimation)
1278 – 1914	Habsburg	636 years
1299 – 1922	Ottoman	623 years
543 BCE – 66	Vijaya	608 years
1228 – 1826	Ahom	598 years
1600 BCE – 1046 BCE or 1766 BCE – 1122 BCE	Shang	554 years or 644 years
1392 – 1910	Joseon and Korean Empire	518 years
1370 – 1857	Timurid	487 years
918 – 1392	Goryeo	474 years
247 BCE – 224	Arsacid	471 years
1154 – 1624	Nabhani	470 years
202 BCE – 9, 25 – 220	Han and Shu Han	448 years
858 – 1301	Árpád	443 years
1586 – present	Mataram	438 years (estimation)
224 – 651	Sassanian	427 years
1010 BCE – 586 BCE	Davidic	424 years
220 – 638	Jafnid	418 years
960 – 1370	Piast	410 years
730 – 330 BCE	Achaemenid	400 years
1220 – 1597	Siri Sanga Bo	377 years
661 – 750, 756 – 1031	Umayyad	364 years
1271 – 1635	Yuan and Northern Yuan	364 years
1057 – 1059, 1081 – 1185, 1204 – 1461	Komnenos	363 years
1428 – 1527, 1533 – 1789	Later Lê (Primitive and Revival Lê)	355 years
1047 – 1375, 1387 – 1412	Estridsen	353 years
c. 653 – 309 BCE	Argead	344 years
1371 – 1651, 1660 – 1714	Stuart	334 years
1154 – 1485	Plantagenet	330 years
905 – 1234	Jiménez	329 years
1699 – present	Bendahara	325 years (estimation)
960 – 279	Song	319 years
1613 – 1917	Romanov	304 years
300 BCE – 602	Lakhmid	302 years
916 – 1218	Liao and Western Liao	302 years
1616 – 1912	Later Jin and Qing	296 years
1368 – 1662	Ming and Southern Ming	294 years
305 BCE – 30 BCE	Ptolemaic	275 years
618 – 690, 705 – 907	Tang	274 years
909 – 1171	Fatimid	262 years
1230 – 1492	Nasrid	262 years
1550 BCE – 1292 BCE	Thutmosid	258 years
1034 – 1286	Dunkeld	252 years

Extant sovereign dynasties

For non-sovereign dynasties currently ruling subnational monarchies, see Non-sovereign monarchy and List of current constituent monarchs.

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.

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

Political families

Main articles: 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 dictatorship

See also: Absolute monarchy

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 manoeuvrer to take control of the dictatorship after the strongman's death.

Current hereditary dictatorships

Dynasty	Regime	Dynastic founder	Current leader	Year founded	Length of rule
Kim family	North Korea	Kim Il Sung	Kim Jong Un	1948	76 years, 121 days
Gnassingbé family	Togo	Gnassingbé Eyadéma	Faure Gnassingbé	1967	57 years, 269 days
Hun family	Cambodia	Hun Sen	Hun Manet	1985	39 years, 360 days
Déby family	Chad	Idriss Déby	Mahamat Déby	1991	33 years, 315 days
Aliyev family	Azerbaijan	Heydar Aliyev	Ilham Aliyev	1993	31 years, 90 days
Berdimuhamedow family	Turkmenistan	Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow	Serdar Berdimuhamedow	2006	18 years, 18 days

Former hereditary dictatorships

Dynasty	Regime	Dynastic founder	Last ruler	Year founded	Year ended	Length of rule
Duvalier dynasty	Haiti	François Duvalier	Jean-Claude Duvalier	1957	1986	28 years, 108 days
Bongo family	Gabon	Omar Bongo	Ali Bongo	1967	2023	55 years, 332 days
Assad family	Syria	Hafez al-Assad	Bashar al-Assad	1971	2024	53 years, 269 days

Influential wealthy families

Main article: List of wealthiest families

See also

Main article: Lists of dynasties

• Cadet branch
• Commonwealth realm
• Conquest dynasty
• Dynastic cycle
• Dynastic order
• Dynastic union
• Elective monarchy
• Family seat
• 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
• Realm
• Royal family
• Royal household
• Royal intermarriage
• Self-proclaimed monarchy