General information
Criteria for inclusion
This list includes defunct and extant monarchical dynasties of sovereign and non-sovereign statuses at the national and subnational levels. Monarchical polities each ruled by a single family—that is, a dynasty, although not explicitly styled as such, like the Golden Horde and the Qara Qoyunlu—are included. Dynasties had/have assumed power in various types of monarchical entities, from loose hereditary tribal units to multinational dynastic empires.
While most dynasties were/are reckoned through the male line, the relatively uncommon cases of dynasties formed through matrilineal succession, such as the Rain Queen dynasty, are also listed.
Although thrones could theoretically be rotated among several families in elective monarchies, some entities consistently elected/elect their rulers from the same family, effectively functioning as hereditary monarchies controlled by dynasties. For example, the Holy Roman Empire was de jure an elective monarchy, but came under the de facto hereditary rule of the House of Habsburg from AD 1440 to AD 1740, and is therefore listed as such in the "Germany" section.
This list also includes monarchical regimes whose ruling houses became extinct or were removed from power after having produced only one monarch, but would otherwise have been dynastic in their throne successions. For instance, whereas the Thonburi Kingdom had only one ruler, it would likely have produced a series of monarchs from the same ruling clan had the throne not been usurped by the Chakri dynasty; the Thonburi Kingdom is thus included under the "Thailand (Siam)" section.
Where possible, descendants of overthrown dynasties and pretenders are also listed. For instance, the House of Plantagenet laid claim to the throne of the Kingdom of Sicily between AD 1254 and AD 1263, and is thus listed under the "Italy" section. Likewise, the Osmanoğlu family is descended from the Ottoman dynasty, and is therefore included in the "Anatolia (Asia Minor)" section.
Entries in each section are sorted by the start year and end year of their rule, irrespective of the exact dates. Dynasties with unverifiable or disputed periods of rule are listed after those with reign periods that are generally agreed upon by scholars. In cases wherein several dynasties are typically grouped together in conventional historiography, such as the Northern and Southern dynasties of China, they are listed as such for ease of reference.
Houses of nobility with no territorial holdings (and thus were/are not monarchical dynasties in their own right), like the House of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Ludwigsburg and the House of Jocelyn; dynasties of micronations, like the Bertoleoni dynasty; dynasties of religious sects, like the Nusaybah family and the Slonim dynasty; political families, like the Roosevelt family and the Chiang family; family dictatorships, like the Mount Paektu bloodline and the Duvalier dynasty; and dynastic military regimes, like the Choe clan and the Ashikaga shogunate, are not included.
Nomenclature
A dynasty may be known by more than one name, either due to differences between its official and historiographical denominations, and/or due to the existence of multiple official and/or historiographical names. For example, the Amorian dynasty is also referred to as the "Phrygian dynasty".
Due to variations in romanization, the name of a dynasty may be rendered differently depending on the source. For instance, the Qing dynasty is also written as "Ch῾ing dynasty" using the Wade–Giles romanization.
In layman and academic parlance, the name of a dynasty is often affixed before the common name of a state in reference to a state under the rule of a particular dynasty. For example, whereas the official name of the realm ruled by the Qajar dynasty was the "Sublime State of Iran", the domain is commonly known as "Qajar Iran".
Period of rule
The year of establishment and/or the year of collapse of a dynasty may be unknown or remain contentious among scholars. In the latter cases, only an approximate time frame will be given. For example, the Deva dynasty is believed to have ruled during the 12th and 13th centuries AD, but the exact dates are disputed.
The year of establishment and/or the year of collapse of a dynasty could differ from its period of rule over a particular realm and/or geographic region. In such cases, the year(s) provided indicate the period during which a dynasty was/is in power in a particular realm and/or geographic region. For instance, whereas the House of Savoy was founded in AD 1003 in the County of Savoy and maintained its rule until AD 1946 in the Kingdom of Italy, it briefly held the throne of Spain from AD 1870 to AD 1873, and is thus reflected as such in the "Spain" section.
Location of rule
This list is sorted by the territorial extent of dynasties. Listing a particular dynasty under a specific section need not necessarily denote affiliation—political, ethnic, religious, cultural, or otherwise—between the historical dynasty and the contemporary polity/polities existing in the same region. As the succession of states and the identities of the rulers, elites, and subjects or citizens are complex and contentious issues, the classification of dynasties may be multidimensional. For example, the Ayyubid dynasty has been variously described as "Egyptian" and "Syrian" based on its geographic location and the titles held by its monarchs; "Kurdish" according to its rulers' ethnicity; "Arabized" according to its cultural identity; and "Muslim", "Islamic", and "Sunni" based on its religious faith.
Some dynasties appear more than once in this list, because:
- more than one realm was/is ruled by a single dynasty; or
- a single dynastic realm spanned/spans across more than one geographic region.
For example, apart from previously ruling over the possessions of the British Empire and numerous sovereign states that later abolished the monarchy, the House of Windsor remains the ruling dynasty of 15 sovereign states and their associated territories, and is therefore included in multiple sections.[1] Likewise, although the Tang dynasty existed as a single realm, it had at various points in time ruled over China proper, Dzungaria, the Tarim Basin, the Mongolian Plateau, Inner Manchuria, Outer Manchuria, as well as parts of Central Asia, the Korean Peninsula, Vietnam, Siberia, and Afghanistan, and is thus listed under multiple sections.[2][3][4]
Regions with long lines of "local" dynasties—including dynasties of indigenous and non-indigenous (but had/have assumed "local" characteristics) provenances—that experienced partial or full colonization in the modern era are given separate lists for clarity. For instance, the "Indian Subcontinent (South Asia)" section includes a main list containing "local" South Asian dynasties, such as the indigenous Chola dynasty and the non-indigenous Mughal dynasty, and a subsection listing the decidedly "foreign" dynasties of colonial entities, like the House of Bourbon of French India.
.svg)
Politics portal
