Dynasty

A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,Oxford English Dictionary, "dynasty, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. 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 , 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",Oxford English Dictionary, "house, n.1 and int, " 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.
===Definition===
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.Statement by Nick Clegg MP, UK parliament website , 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. 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===
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.
==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==
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 	Pandya 	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 	Rurikid 	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
==Extant sovereign dynasties==
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 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	New Zealand	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Windsor 	 	King Charles III 	King-Emperor George V 	Thuringia and Bavaria
House of Khalifa 	 	King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa 	Sheikh Khalifa bin Mohammed 	Najd
House of Belgium 	 	King Philippe 	King Albert I 	Thuringia and Bavaria
Wangchuck dynasty 	 	Druk Gyalpo Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck	Druk Gyalpo Ugyen Wangchuck 	Trongsa, Bhutan
House of Bolkiah 	 	Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah 	Sultan Muhammad Shah 	Tarim in Hadhramaut
House of Norodom 	 	King Norodom Sihamoni 	King Norodom Prohmbarirak 	Cambodia
House of Glücksburg 	 	King Frederik X 	Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg	Glücksburg
House of Glücksburg 	 	King Harald V 	Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg	Glücksburg
House of Dlamini 	 	King Mswati III 	Chief Dlamini I 	East Africa
Imperial House of Japan 	 	Emperor Naruhito 	Emperor Jimmu 	Nara
House of Hashim 	 	King Abdullah II 	King Hussein ibn Ali al-Hashimi 	Hejaz
House of Sabah 	 	Emir Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah 	Sheikh Sabah I bin Jaber 	Najd
House of Moshesh 	 	King Letsie III 	Paramount Chief Moshoeshoe I 	Lesotho
House of Liechtenstein 	 	Prince Hans-Adam II 	Prince Karl I 	Lower Austria
House of Luxembourg-Nassau	 	Grand Duke Henri 	Grand Duke Adolphe 	Nassau
Bendahara dynasty 	 	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Abdullah 	Bendahara Tun Habib Abdul Majid 	Johor
House of Grimaldi 	 	Prince Albert II 	François Grimaldi 	Genoa
'Alawi dynasty 	 	King Mohammed VI 	Sultan Abul Amlak Sidi Muhammad as-Sharif ibn 'Ali 	Tafilalt
House of Orange-Nassau 	 	King Willem-Alexander 	Prince William I 	Nassau
House of Busaid 	 	Sultan Haitham bin Tariq 	Sultan Ahmad bin Said al-Busaidi 	Oman
House of Thani 	 	Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani 	Sheikh Thani bin Mohammed 	Najd
House of Saud 	 	King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud 	Emir Saud I 	Diriyah
House of Bourbon-Anjou 	 	King Felipe VI 	King Philip V 	Bourbon-l'Archambault
House of Bernadotte 	 	King Carl XVI Gustaf 	King Charles XIV John 	Pau
Chakri dynasty 	 	King Vajiralongkorn 	King Rama I 	Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya
House of Tupou 	 	King Tupou VI 	King George Tupou I 	Tonga
House of Nahyan 	 	President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan 	Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa Al Nahyan 	Liwa Oasis
==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===
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.
Current hereditary dictatorships
Dynasty 	Regime	Current leader 	Dynastic founder 	Year founded
Kim dynasty 	 	Kim Jong Un 	Kim Il Sung 	1948
Gnassingbé dynasty 	 	Faure Gnassingbé 	Gnassingbé Eyadéma 	1967
Assad dynasty 	 	Bashar al-Assad 	Hafez al-Assad 	1971
Gouled-Guelleh dynasty	 	Ismaïl Omar Guelleh 	Hassan Gouled Aptidon 	1977
Déby dynasty 	 	Mahamat Déby 	Idriss Déby 	1991
Aliyev dynasty 	 	Ilham Aliyev 	Heydar Aliyev 	1993
Hun dynasty 	 	Hun Manet 	Hun Sen 	1985
Berdimuhamedow dynasty	 	Serdar Berdimuhamedow	Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow	2006
Former hereditary dictatorships
Dynasty 	Regime	Dynastic Founder 	Last Ruler 	Year founded	Year ended	Length of rule
Somoza family 	 	Anastasio Somoza García	Anastasio Somoza Debayle	1936 	1979 	43 years
Bongo dynasty 	 	Omar Bongo 	Ali Bongo 	1967 	2023 	56 years
Kabila dynasty	 	Laurent-Désiré Kabila 	Joseph Kabila 	1997 	2019 	22 years
==Influential wealthy families==
==See also==
* 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
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Monarchy
 
Category:History-related lists