Everything about Royal House totally explained
A
Royal House or
royal dynasty is a familial designation, or
family name of sorts, used by
royalty. It generally represents the members of a family in various senior and junior or
cadet branches, who are loosely related but not necessarily of the same immediate kin. Unlike most westerners, many of the world's royal families don't have family names, and those that have adopted them rarely use them. They are referred to instead by their titles, often related to an area ruled or once ruled by that family. The name of a Royal House isn't a surname; it's just a convenient way of dynastic identification of individuals.
Because of
royal intermarriage and the creation of cadet branches, a royal house generally won't entirely correspond to one immediate family or place; members of the same house in different branches may rule entirely different countries and only be vaguely related; the family may have originated entirely elsewhere. The
Capetian dynasty (that includes any direct descendant of
Hugh Capet of France) is the oldest continuously ruling monarchial dynasty in Europe – it originates in
987 and is the current ruling house of
Spain and
Luxembourg.
The House of
Wettin, as another example, originated in
Germany as a
comital family. Today, it no longer holds any status in Germany, but different branches sit on various thrones, including those of
Canada,
New Zealand, the
United Kingdom, and
Belgium. Former monarchs of
Portugal and
Bulgaria also belonged to this house, although they were not especially closely related to the aforementioned lines, as they descended from different branches, some of them distinct for many generations.
Royalty till recently had no surnames, and were known only by their titles, or their christian names followed by the name of the house, fief, state or country they belonged to.
Royal house names in
Europe were generally taken from the father; in cases where a
Queen regnant married a prince of another house, their children (and therefore subsequent monarchs) belonged to his house. Thus Queen
Victoria belonged to the
House of Hanover, but her male-line descendants belong to the house of her husband
Albert, which is Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The name was changed to
Windsor in 1917. Nevertheless, this rule had several exceptions in other countries: After the marriage of Empress
Maria Theresia of Habsburg in the 18th century to a Lorraine prince, her issue took the name Habsburg-Lorraine in order to closely associate themselves with the previous Habsburg dynasty. After 1834, in Portugal, the issue of Queen
Maria II of Portugal and Prince Consort Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (styled King Consort Ferdinand II after the birth of his first child to the Queen) remained solely Bragança, in the family and the dynasty unchanged name, following Portuguese matriarchal celtic traditions. More recently, in the 20th century, the children of Queens regnant in the
Netherlands and
Luxembourg have retained their maternal house association, and in the United Kingdom, Queen
Elizabeth II's descendants by her husband, Prince
Philip of Greece and Denmark, will officially remain Windsor, although they're technically of the
House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, which, in turn, is a line of the
House of Oldenburg. The House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg also rules in Norway and ruled in Greece, because the modern founding monarchs of those nations were initially princes invited from
Denmark, which is a
cadet branch of that house.
Another way in which the royal house of a given country may change is when a foreign prince is invited to fill a vacant throne or a next-of-kin from a foreign house succeeds. This occurred with the death of childless
Queen Anne of the
House of Stuart: she was succeeded by a prince of the
House of Hanover who was her nearest
Protestant relative.
Due to the development of countries once in the
British Empire into sovereign kingdoms in a
personal union, the House of Windsor has ruled over 32 countries; 16 remain with the shared monarchy (known as the
Commonwealth Realms), while the others have become republics.
Reigning sovereign Houses
Deposed or extinct sovereign Houses
The majority of these nations are now republics or part of republics. The Princely Houses of Germany often have given their own names to the states they ruled.
Afghanistan: Barakzai and Durrani dynasty
Albania: House of Zogu
Anhalt: House of Ascania
Armenia: Bagratid
Austria: House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Baden: House of Zähringen
Bavaria: House of Wittelsbach
Brunswick: House of Hanover (branch of the House of Guelph, a line of the House of Este)
Bulgaria: House of Wettin (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha branch)
Bohemia: Jagiellon Dynasty; House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Brazil: House of Braganza (an illegitimate branch of the House of Capet); later Orléans-Braganza (branch of the House of Bourbon, a line of the House of Capet)
Busseto: Pallavicino
China: Aisin Gioro 愛新覺羅 (Qing Dynasty, Manchu Imperial Family); Ming Dynasty; Yuan Dynasty
Former Commonwealth Realms: House of Windsor (agnatically the House of Wettin, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha line)
Croatia: Jagiellon Dynasty
Egypt: Muhammad Ali Dynasty
Ethiopia: Solomonic dynasty
Ferrara, Modena & Reggio: House of Este; later Austria-Este (a branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine)
France: House of Capet (royal), branches including: House of Valois (extinct 1589), House of Bourbon, House of Orleans. House of Bonaparte (imperial)
Georgia: Bagrationi
German Empire: House of Hohenzollern (Prussian line)
Greece: Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (branch of the House of Oldenburg)
Hesse and by Rhine: House of Lorraine-Brabant
Hawaii: House of Kawananakoa
Hungary: Jagiellon Dynasty; House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Iran (Persia): Pahlavi
Irak (Iraq): Hashemites
Ireland: Windsor, O'Neill, O Conor, O'Brien
Israel: Davidic line, Beit Shalom and Hasmonean Dynasty
Italy: House of Savoy, or in Italian "Savoia"
Korea: House of Yi; Joseon Dynasty
Leinster: MacMurrough Kavanagh.
Libya: Senussi
Lippe: House of Lippe
Lithuania: Gediminids (later becoming Jagiellon Dynasty
Maldives: Huraa dynasty
Mecklenburg-Schwerin: House of Mecklenburg (Nikloting dynasty)
Mecklenburg-Strelitz: House of Mecklenburg (Nikloting dynasty)
Melfi: House of Melfi
Mexico: House of Iturbide and House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Mirandola: Pico della Mirandola
Monferrato : House of Gonzaga
Montenegro: House of Petrović
Naples and the Two Sicilies: House of Bourbon (branch of the House of Capet)
Oldenburg: House of Oldenburg
Ottoman Empire (Turkey): Osmanli
Palatinate of the Rhine: House of Wittelsbach
Parma Piacenza & Guastalla: Farnese; later the House of Bourbon, a line of the House of Capet
Poland: Jagiellon Dynasty
Portugal: House of Braganza (an illegitimate branch of the House of Capet)
Persia (Iran): Qajar Dynasty
Prussia: See German Empire
Reuß : House of Reuss
Romania: House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
Russia: House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov (branch of the House of Oldenburg)
Sarawak: Brooke family
Saxony: House of Wettin
Schaumburg-Lippe: House of Lippe
Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt: House of Schwarzburg
Serbia and Yugoslavia: Houses of Karadjordjevic and Obrenović
Schleswig-Holstein: House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (branch of the House of Oldenburg)
Sicily: House of Hohenstauffen; later House of Bourbon, a line of the House of Capet
Slavonia: Jagiellon Dynasty
Sri Lanka: Kandy Nayakkar & Aryacakravarti dynasty
Tunisia: Husainid Dynasty
Tuscany: Medici; later House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Tyrconnell: O'Donnell
Vietnam: Nguyễn Dynasty
Waldeck and Pyrmont: House of Waldeck-Pyrmont
Wied: House of Wied
Württemberg: House of Württemberg
Yawnghwe (Myanmar): Kanbawza
Yemen : al-Qasimi
Zimbabwe : Munhumutapa the bloodline survives in several kingdoms and chieftaincies in Southern Africa.Further Information
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