A royal family is the immediate family of

kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Monarchs: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations, with the male being kings *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'' ...

queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, emirs/emiras,

sultans Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, i ...

/ sultanas, or

raja ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested ...

/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

or empress, and the term papal family describes the family of a

pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, while the terms baronial family, comital family, ducal family, archducal family, grand ducal family, or princely family are more appropriate to describe, respectively, the relatives of a reigning

baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or kn ...

count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York ...

earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant " chieftain", particu ...

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are r ...

, archduke,

grand duke Grand duke (feminine: grand duchess) is a European hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families. In status, a grand duke traditionally ranks in order of precedence below an emperor, as an approx ...

, or

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. ...

. However, in common parlance members of any family which

reign A reign is the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Andorra), of a people (e.g., the Franks, the Zulus) or of a spiritual community (e.g., Catholicism, Tibetan Buddhism ...

s by hereditary right are often referred to as royalty or "royals". It is also customary in some circles to refer to the extended relations of a deposed

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...

and their descendants as a royal family. A

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 ...

is sometimes referred to as the "House of ...". In July 2013 there were 26 active sovereign dynasties in the world that ruled or reigned over 43 monarchies. , while there are several European countries whose nominal head of state, by long tradition, is a king or queen, the associated royal families, with the notable exception of the British royal family, are non-notable ordinary citizens who may bear a title but are not involved in public affairs.

Members of a royal family

A royal family typically includes the spouse of the reigning monarch, surviving spouses of a deceased monarch, the children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, and paternal cousins of the reigning monarch, as well as their spouses. In some cases, royal family membership may extend to great grandchildren and more distant descendants of a monarch. In certain monarchies where voluntary abdication is the norm, such as the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, a royal family may also include one or more former monarchs. In certain instances, such as in Canada, the royal family is defined by who holds the styles

Majesty Majesty (abbreviated HM for His Majesty or Her Majesty, oral address Your Majesty; from the Latin ''maiestas'', meaning "greatness") is used as a manner of address by many monarchs, usually kings or queens. Where used, the style outranks the s ...

and Royal Highness.Department of National Defence: ''The Honours, Flags and Heritage Structure of the Canadian Forces''; pg 281
/ref> There is often a distinction between persons of the blood royal and those that marry into the royal family. Under most systems, only persons in the first category are dynasts, that is, potential successors to the throne (unless the member of the latter category is also in line to the throne in their own right, a frequent occurrence in royal families which frequently intermarry). This is not always observed; some monarchies have operated by the principle of '' jure uxoris''. In addition, certain relatives of the monarch (by blood or marriage) possess special privileges and are subject to certain statutes, conventions, or special common law. The precise functions of a royal family vary depending on whether the polity in question is an

absolute monarchy Absolute monarchy (or Absolutism as a doctrine) is a form of monarchy in which the monarch rules in their own right or power. In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen is by no means limited and has absolute power, though a limited constituti ...

, a

constitutional monarchy A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...

, or somewhere in between. In certain monarchies, such as that found in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Ku ...

, or in political systems where the monarch actually exercises executive power, such as in

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, it is not uncommon for the members of a royal family to hold important government posts or military commands. In most constitutional monarchies, however, members of a royal family perform certain public, social, or ceremonial functions, but refrain from any involvement in electoral politics or the actual governance of the country. The specific composition of royal families varies from country to country, as do the titles and

royal and noble styles Styles represent the fashion by which monarchs and noblemen are properly addressed. Throughout history, many different styles were used, with little standardization. This page will detail the various styles used by royalty and nobility in Europe ...

held by members of the family. The composition of the royal family may be regulated by statute enacted by the legislature (e.g., Spain, the

, and Japan since 1947), the sovereign's prerogative and common law tradition (e.g., the United Kingdom), or a private house law (e.g.,

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German language, German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constit ...

, the former ruling houses of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, etc.). Public statutes, constitutional provisions, or conventions may also regulate the marriages, names, and personal titles of royal family members. The members of a royal family may or may not have a surname or dynastic name (see Royal House). In a constitutional monarchy, when the monarch dies, there is always a law or tradition of succession to the throne that either specifies a formula for identifying the precise order of succession among family members in line to the throne or specifies a process by which a family member is chosen to inherit the crown. Usually in the former case the exact line of hereditary succession among royal individuals may be identified at any given moment during prior

s (e.g.

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

, Sark, Nizari Ismailis,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, Balobedus,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

, Kingdom of Benin) whereas in the latter case the next sovereign may be selected (or changed) only during the reign or shortly after the demise of the immediately preceding monarch (e.g.

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...

, KwaZulu Natal,

Buganda Buganda is a Bantu kingdom within Uganda. The kingdom of the Baganda people, Buganda is the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day East Africa, consisting of Buganda's Central Region, including the Ugandan capital Kampala. The 14 mi ...

, Swaziland, Yorubaland, The Kingitanga). Some monarchies employ a mix of these selection processes (

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

, Tonga,

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...

), providing for both an identifiable line of succession as well as authority for the monarch, dynasty or other institution to alter the line in specific instances without changing the general law of succession. Some countries have abolished royalty altogether, as in post-revolutionary France (1870), post-revolutionary Russia (1917), Portugal (1910), post-war Germany (1918), post-war Italy (1946) and many ex European colonies.

Current royal families

Africa

* Lesotho royal family * Moroccan royal family * Swazi royal family * List of current constituent African monarchs

Middle East

* Bahraini royal family * Emirati princely families *

Jordanian royal family The Hashemites ( ar, الهاشميون, al-Hāshimīyūn), also House of Hashim, are the royal family of Jordan, which they have ruled since 1921, and were the royal family of the kingdoms of Hejaz (1916–1925), Syria (1920), and Iraq (1921� ...

* Kuwaiti princely family * Omani sultanic family * Qatari princely family *

Saudi royal family The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), ...

Asia

Bruneian royal family The House of Bolkiah is the ruling royal family of Brunei Darussalam. It is composed of the descendants of the 1st sultan Sultan Muhammad Shah and his family. The Sultan of Brunei is the head of state and absolute monarch of Brunei. He is ...

* Bhutanese royal family * Cambodian royal family * Japanese imperial family * Malaysian royal families ** Johor royal family ** Kedah royal family ** Kelantan royal family ** Negeri Sembilan royal family ** Pahang royal family ** Perak royal family ** Perlis royal family **

Selangor royal family The Selangor Royal Family consists of the family members of the Sultan of Selangor. It currently consists of Sharafuddin of Selangor and his close relations. The Sultan and his family belong to the House of Daeng Chelak. The ruling house had f ...

** Terengganu royal family * Thai royal family *

List of current constituent Asian monarchs This is a list of reigning non-sovereign monarchs, including traditional rulers and governing constitutional monarchs. Each monarch listed below reigns over a legally recognised dominion, but in most cases possess little or no sovereign gover ...

Europe

* Belgian royal family * British royal family * Danish royal family * Dutch royal family * Liechtenstein princely family * Luxembourg grand ducal family *

Monegasque princely family The sovereign prince (french: prince de Monaco) is the monarch and head of state of the Principality of Monaco. All reigning princes have taken the name of the House of Grimaldi, although some have belonged to other families (Goyon de Matignon ...

* Norwegian royal family * Spanish royal family * Swedish royal family

Oceania

* Australian royal family * New Zealander royal family * Papuan royal family * Solomon Islands royal family * Tongan royal family * Tuvaluan royal family

North America

* Antiguan royal family * Bahamian royal family * Belizean royal family * Canadian royal family * Grenadian royal family * Jamaican royal family * Miskito royal family * Saint Kitts and Nevis royal family * Saint Lucian royal family * Vincentian royal family

Deposed royal families

Africa

* Central African imperial family * Egyptian royal family * Ethiopian imperial family * Gambian royal family * Ghanaian royal family * Kenyan royal family * Lybian royal family * Malawian royal family * Mauritian royal family * Nigerian royal family * Rwandan royal family * Rhodesian (Zimbabwean) royal family * Sierra Leonean royal family * South African royal family * Tanganykan (Tanzanian) royal family * Tunisian royal family * Ugandan royal family * Umurundi royal family

Middle East

* Ottoman (Turkish) imperial family * Iranian imperial family * Iraqi royal family * Yemeni royal family

Asia

Afghan royal family This article lists the heads of state of Afghanistan since the foundation of the first modern Afghan state, the Hotak Empire, in 1709. History The Hotak Empire was formed after a successful uprising led by Mirwais Hotak and other Afghan trib ...

* Bengali royal family * Burmese royal family * Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) royal family * Chinese imperial family * Indian imperial family ** Baroda royal family ** Royal family of Dhaka ** Jodhpur royal family ** Mysore roya Family (Wadiyar dynasty) * Korean imperial family * Laotian royal family * Maldivian sultanic family * Nepalese royal family * Pakistani royal family * Singaporean sultanic family * Khiva (Turkmen) royal family * Bhukaran (Uzbek) royal family * Vietnamese imperial family

Europe

* Albanian royal family * Austrian imperial family * Bohemian (Czech) royal family *

Bulgarian royal family The last Bulgarian royal family ( bg, Българско царско семейство, Balgarsko tsarsko semeystvo) is a line of the Koháry branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which ruled Bulgaria from 1887 to 1946. The last tsar, ...

* Croatian royal family * Finnish royal family *

Georgian royal family The Bagrationi dynasty (; ) is a royal dynasty which reigned in Georgia from the Middle Ages until the early 19th century, being among the oldest extant Christian ruling dynasties in the world. In modern usage, the name of the dynasty is som ...

* French imperial family * German imperial family ** Bavarian royal family **

Saxon royal family The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

** Württemberg royal family *** Baden grand ducal family *** Hessian grand ducal family *** Mecklenburg (Schwerin and Strelitz) grand ducal family *** Oldenburg grand ducal family *** Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach grand ducal family **** Anhalt ducal family **** Brunswick ducal family **** Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ducal family **** Saxe-Meiningen ducal family ***** Lippe-Detmold princely family * Greek royal family * Irish royal family *

Italian royal family The House of Savoy ( it, Casa Savoia) was a royal dynasty that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small Alpine county north-west of Italy to absolute rule o ...

* Hungarian royal family * Lithuanian royal family * Maltese royal family * Montenegrin royal family * Polish royal family ( Congress Poland) * Portuguese royal family *

Romanian royal family The Romanian royal family ( ro, Familia regală a României) was the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Romania, a constitutional monarchy in Central-Eastern Europe. The kingdom existed from 1881, when Carol I of Romania was proclaimed king, unti ...

* Russian imperial family * Serbian royal family

Oceania

* Fijian royal family *

Hawaiian royal family The Hawaiian Kingdom, or Kingdom of Hawaiʻi ( Hawaiian: ''Ko Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina''), was a sovereign state located in the Hawaiian Islands. The country was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great, of the independent islan ...

North America

* Barbadian royal family * Haitian imperial family * Mexican imperial family * Miskito royal family * Trinidad and Tobago royal family

South America

Brazilian imperial family The Brazilian Imperial Family ( Brazilian Portuguese: ''Família Imperial Brasileira'') is a Brazilian Dynasty of Portuguese origin that ruled the Empire of Brazil from 1822 to 1889, after the proclamation of independence by Prince Pedro of Bra ...

* Mask of Ferdinand VII context ** Argentine royal family ( United Provinces of the Río de la Plata) ** Chilean royal family ( Kingdom of Chile) ** Colombian royal family (

Free and Independent State of Cundinamarca The Free and Independent State of Cundinamarca ( Spanish: ''Estado Libre e Independiente de Cundinamarca'') was a rebel state in colonial Colombia, replacing the Spanish colonial Viceroyalty of New Granada from 1810 to 1815. It was part of the ...

) ** Venezuelan royal family ( Supreme Junta) * Guyanese royal family

Mediatised princely families

Whilst mediatization occurred in other countries such as

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

, only the certain houses within the former

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...

are collectively called the

Mediatized Houses The mediatised houses (or mediatized houses, german: Standesherren) were ruling princely and comital-ranked houses that were mediatised in the Holy Roman Empire during the period 1803–1815 as part of German mediatisation, and were later recognise ...

. * Arenberg ducal family (

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

) * Fürstenberg princely family (

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

) * Ligne princely family (

) * Merode princely family (

) * Schwarzenberg princely family (

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

) * Thurn und Taxis princely family (

)

Dynasties

References

External links

* {{Authority control

Members of a royal family

Current royal families

Africa

Middle East

Asia

Europe

Oceania

North America

Deposed royal families

Africa

Middle East

Asia

Europe

Oceania

North America

South America

Mediatised princely families

Dynasties

See also

References

External links