Royal intermarriage is the practice of members of ruling dynasties marrying into other reigning families. It was more commonly done in the past as part of strategic diplomacy for national interest. Although sometimes enforced by legal requirement on persons of royal birth, more often it has been a matter of political policy or tradition in monarchies.
In Europe, the practice was most prevalent from the medieval era until the outbreak of World War I, but evidence of intermarriage between royal dynasties in other parts of the world can be found as far back as the Bronze Age.[1] Monarchs were often in pursuit of national and international aggrandisement on behalf of themselves and their dynasties,[2] thus bonds of kinship tended to promote or restrain aggression.[3] Marriage between dynasties could serve to initiate, reinforce or guarantee peace between nations. Alternatively, kinship by marriage could secure an alliance between two dynasties which sought to reduce the sense of threat from or to initiate aggression against the realm of a third dynasty.[3] It could also enhance the prospect of territorial acquisition for a dynasty by procuring legal claim to a foreign throne, or portions of its realm (e.g., colonies), through inheritance from an heiress whenever a monarch failed to leave an undisputed male heir.
In parts of Europe, royalty continued to regularly marry into the families of their greatest vassals as late as the 16th century. More recently, they have tended to marry internationally. In other parts of the world royal intermarriage was less prevalent and the number of instances varied over time, depending on the culture and foreign policy of the era.
While the contemporary Western ideal sees marriage as a unique bond between two people who are in love, families in which heredity is central to power or inheritance (such as royal families) have often seen marriage in a different light. There are often political or other non-romantic functions that must be served and the relative wealth and power of the potential spouses may be considered. Marriage for political, economic, or diplomatic reasons, the marriage of state, was a pattern seen for centuries among European rulers.[4]
Africa
At times, marriage between members of the same dynasty has been common in Central Africa.[5]
In West Africa, the sons and daughters of Yoruba kings were traditionally given in marriage to their fellow royals as a matter of dynastic policy. Sometimes these marriages would involve members of other tribes. Erinwinde of Benin, for example, was taken as a wife by the ObaỌranyan of Oyo during his time as governor of Benin. Their son Eweka went on to found the dynasty that rules the Kingdom of Benin.
Marriages between the Swazi, Zulu and Thembu royal houses of southern Africa are common.[6] For example, the daughter of South African president and Thembu royal Nelson Mandela, Zenani Mandela, married Prince Thumbumuzi Dlamini, a brother of Mswati III, King of Eswatini.[7] Elsewhere in the region, Princess Semane Khama of the Bamangwato tribe of Botswana married Kgosi Lebone Edward Molotlegi of the Bafokeng tribe of South Africa.[8]
Other examples of historical, mythical and contemporary royal intermarriages throughout Africa include:
Several Egyptian pharaohs married the daughters of neighbouring kings to secure peace and form alliances. The Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty, the earliest known surviving peace treaty in the world, was sealed by a marriage between the pharaoh Ramesses II and a Hittite princess. Pharaoh Amasis II married a Greek princess named Ladice daughter of King Battus III of Cyrene. Not to mention the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the last (and longest) dynasty to rule all of Egypt before its incorporation into the Roman Republic, who were infamous for their inbreeding in the form of sibling marriages. This was to keep their bloodline pure, and to prevent external forces from potentially taking power through a connection to the royal line.
There are a few recorded cases of intermarriage between Assyrian and Babylonian royals. According to legend, the Babylonian[14][15][16]Semiramis was married to the Assyrian general Onnes and then to the Assyrian king Ninus, the legendary founder of Nineveh according to the Ancient Greeks.[17][18] She has been equated with the historical Shammuramat, wife of Shamshi-Adad V. In turn, Shammuramat has been claimed to be of Babylonian descent.[19][20] In the early 9th century BC, the Babylonian king Nabu-shuma-ukin I (Dynasty of E) exchanged daughters in marriage with the contemporary Assyrian monarch.[21] The Assyrian princess Muballitat-Sherua, daughter of Ashur-uballit I, was given in marriage to the contemporary Babylonian monarch. She was the mother of the future Babylonian king Kara-hardash.[22] Additionally, Kurigalzu II was either the son or grandson of Muballitat.[23] Other consorts of Assyrian monarchs, such as Naqiʾa, Ešarra-ḫammat,[24]Banitu (who was perhaps brought to Assyria as a hostage after Tiglath-Pileser's conquest of Babylon)[25] might also have been of Babylonian origin.[26]
Babylon and Elam
Babylonians and Elamites engaged many times in royal intermarriage, especially in the Kassite period. It is probable that Elamites and Kassites had close ties long before the first attested royal intermarriages between them.[27] Babylonian Kassites and Elamites intensively intermarried for a period of about 120 years, from c. 1290 to 1170 BC.[27] The royal intermarriages in this period were: Pahir-ishshan to eldest daughter (princess) of Kurigalzu II (1290); Untash-Napirisha to daughter of prince Burnaburiash (1250); Kidin-Hutran to daughter of prince [...]-duniash (1230); Shutruk-Nakhunte to the eldest daughter of Melishihu.[27] Also Napirisha-Untash (c. 1210 BC) and Hutelutush-Inshushinak (c. 1190) are thought to have married Babylonian Kassite princesses.[27] A man of Elamite origin, Mar-biti-apla-usur, the founder of the so-called Elamite dynasty, reigned in Babylon from around 980 to 975 BC, though the identity and origin of his consort are unknown. He might not have been himself from Elam but a Babylonian partially of Elamite origin.[28]
Thailand
The Chakri dynasty of Thailand has included marriages between royal relatives,[29] but marriages between dynasties and foreigners, including foreign royals, are rare. This is in part due to Section 11 of 1924 Palace Law of Succession which excludes members of the royal family from the line of succession if they marry a non-Thai national.[30]
The Lý dynasty which ruled Dai Viet (Vietnam) married its princesses off to regional rivals to establish alliances with them. One of these marriages was between a Lý empress regnant (Lý Chiêu Hoàng) and a member of fishermen-turned-warlords Trần clan (Trần Thái Tông) from Nam Định, which enabled the Trần to then topple the Lý and established their own Trần dynasty.[33][34]
A Lý princess also married into the Hồ clan faction, which later usurped power and established the Hồ dynasty after having a Tran princess marry their leader, Hồ Quý Ly.[35][36]
Cambodia
The Cambodian King Chey Chettha II married the Vietnamese Nguyễn lord Princess Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Vạn, a daughter of Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên, in 1618.[37][38] In return, the king granted the Vietnamese the right to establish settlements in Mô Xoài (now Bà Rịa), in the region of Prey Nokor—which they colloquially referred to as Sài Gòn, and which later became Ho Chi Minh City.[39][40]
India
In the Chola dynasty in southern India, Madhurantaki the daughter of Emperor Rajendra II married Kulottunga I the son the son of Eastern Chalukya ruler Rajaraja Narendra. This was to improve the relationship between the two royal houses and to straighten Chola influence in Vengai.[41] Kulottunga and Madhurantaki were first cousins as Kulottunga's mother Amangai Devi was the sister of Rajendra II making them both the grandchildren of Emperor Rajendra I.
Marriage policy in imperial China differed from dynasty to dynasty. Several dynasties practiced Heqin, which involved marrying off princesses to other royal families.
The Xiongnu practiced marriage alliances with Han dynasty officers and officials who defected to their side. The older sister of the Chanyu (the Xiongnu ruler) was married to the Xiongnu general Zhao Xin, the Marquis of Xi who was serving the Han dynasty. The daughter of the Chanyu was married to the Han Chinese general Li Ling after he surrendered and defected.[42][43][44][45] The Yenisei Kirghiz Khagans claimed descent from Li Ling.[46][47] Another Han Chinese general who defected to the Xiongnu was Li Guangli who also married a daughter of the Chanyu.[48]
The XianbeiTuoba royal family of Northern Wei started to arrange for Han Chinese elites to marry daughters of the royal family in the 480s.[49] Some Han Chinese exiled royalty fled from southern China and defected to the Xianbei. Several daughters of the Xianbei Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei were married to Han Chinese elites, the Han Chinese Liu Song royal Liu Hui 劉輝, married Princess Lanling 蘭陵公主 of the Northern Wei,[50][51] Princess Huayang 華陽公主 to Sima Fei 司馬朏, a descendant of Jin dynasty royalty, Princess Jinan 濟南公主 to Lu Daoqian 盧道虔, Princess Nanyang 南陽長公主 to Xiao Baoyin 蕭寶夤, a member of Southern Qi royalty.[52]Emperor Xiaozhuang of Northern Wei's sister the Shouyang Princess was wedded to The Liang dynasty ruler Emperor Wu of Liang's son Xiao Zong 蕭綜.[53]
When the Eastern Jin dynasty ended Northern Wei received the Jin prince Sima Chuzhi 司馬楚之 as a refugee. A Northern Wei Princess married Sima Chuzhi, giving birth to Sima Jinlong. Northern Liang King Juqu Mujian's daughter married Sima Jinlong.[54]
The Kingdom of Gaochang was made out of Han Chinese colonists and ruled by the Han Chinese[57][58] Qu family which originated from Gansu.[59] Jincheng commandery 金城 (Lanzhou), district of Yuzhong 榆中 was the home of the Qu Jia.[60] The Qu family was linked by marriage alliances to the Turks, with a Turk being the grandmother of King Qu Boya.[61][62]
Tang dynasty (618–907) emperors exchanged and the rulers of the Uyghur Khaganate exchanged princesses in marriage to consolidate the special trade and military relationship that developed after the Khaganate supported the Chinese during the An Lushan Rebellion.[63] The Uyghur Khaganate exchanged princesses in marriage with Tang dynasty China in 756 to seal the alliance against An Lushan. The Uyghur Khagan Bayanchur Khan had his daughter Uyghur Princess Pijia (毗伽公主) married to Chinese prince Li Chengcai (李承采) of the Tang dynasty, Prince of Dunhuang (敦煌王), son of Li Shouli, Prince of Bin, while Chinese princess Ninguo of the Tang dynasty married Uyghur Khagan Bayanchur. At least three Tang imperial princesses are known to have married khagans between 758 and 821. These unions temporarily stopped in 788, partly because stability within China meant that they were politically unnecessary. However, threats from Tibet in the west, and a renewed need for Uyghur support, precipitated the marriage of Princess Taihe to Bilge Khagan.[63]
The ethnically Chinese Cao family ruling Guiyi Circuit established marriage alliances with the Uighurs of the Ganzhou Kingdom, with both the Cao rulers marrying Uighur princesses and with Cao princesses marrying Uighur rulers. The Ganzhou Uighur Khagan's daughter was married to Cao Yijin in 916.[64][65][66]
The Chinese Cao family ruling Guiyi Circuit established marriage alliances with the Saka Kingdom of Khotan, with both the Cao rulers marrying Khotanese princesses and with Cao princesses marrying Khotanese rulers. A Khotanese princess who was the daughter of the King of Khotan married Cao Yanlu.[67]
The KhitanLiao dynasty arranged for women from the Khitan royal consort Xiao clan to marry members of the Han Chinese Han 韓 clan, which originated in Jizhou 冀州 before being abducted by the Khitan and becoming part of the Han Chinese elite of the Liao.[68][69][70]
Han Chinese Geng family intermarried with the Khitan and the Han 韓 clan provided two of their women as wives to Geng Yanyi and the second one was the mother of Geng Zhixin.[71] Empress Rende's sister, a member of the Xiao clan, was the mother of Han Chinese General Geng Yanyi.[72]
Han Durang (Yelu Longyun) was the father of Queen dowager of State Chen, who was the wife of General Geng Yanyi and buried with him in his tomb in Zhaoyang in Liaoning.[73] His wife was also known as "Madame Han".[74] The Geng's tomb is located in Liaoning at Guyingzi in Chaoying.[75][76]
Emperors of the proceeding Song dynasty (960–1279) tended to marry from within their own borders. Tang emperors, mainly took their wives from high-ranking bureaucratic families, but the Song dynasty did not consider rank important when it came to selecting their consorts.[77] It has been estimated that only a quarter of Song consorts were from such families, with the rest being from lower status backgrounds. For example, Liu, consort of Emperor Zhenzong, had been a street performer and consort Miao, wife of Emperor Renzong was the daughter of his own wet nurse.[77]
During the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), emperors chose their consorts primarily from one of the eight Banner families, administrative divisions that divide all native Manchu families.[78] To maintain the ethnic purity of the ruling dynasty, after the Kangxi Period (1662–1722), emperors and princes were forbidden to marry non-Manchu and non-Mongol wives.[79] Imperial daughters however were not covered by this ban, and as with their preceding dynasties, were often married to Mongol princes to gain political or military support, especially in the early years of the Qing dynasty; three of the nine daughters of Emperor Nurhaci and twelve of Emperor Hongtaiji's daughters were married to Mongol princes.[79]
The Manchu imperial Aisin Gioro clan practiced marriage alliances with Han Chinese Ming generals and Mongol princes. Aisin Gioro women were married to Han Chinese generals who defected to the Manchu side during the Manchu conquest of China. The Manchu leader Nurhaci married one of his granddaughters to the Ming general Li Yongfang (李永芳) after he surrendered Fushun in Liaoning to the Manchu in 1618 and a mass marriage of Han Chinese officers and officials to Manchu women numbering 1,000 couples was arranged by Prince Yoto 岳托 (Prince Keqin) and Hongtaiji in 1632 to promote harmony between the two ethnic groups.[80][81] Aisin Gioro women were married to the sons of the Han Chinese generals Sun Sike (Sun Ssu-k'o) 孫思克, Geng Jimao (Keng Chi-mao), Shang Kexi (Shang K'o-hsi), and Wu Sangui (Wu San-kuei).[82]
Nurhaci's son Abatai's daughter was married to Li Yongfang.[83][84][85][86] The offspring of Li received the "Third Class Viscount" (三等子爵; sān děng zǐjué) title.[87] Li Yongfang was the great-great-great-grandfather of Li Shiyao 李侍堯.[88][89]
The "efu" 額駙 rank was given to husbands of Qing princesses. Geng Zhongming, a Han bannerman, was awarded the title of Prince Jingnan, and his son Geng Jinmao managed to have both his sons Geng Jingzhong and Geng Zhaozhong 耿昭忠 become court attendants under the Shunzhi Emperor and married Aisin Gioro women, with Prince Abatai's granddaughter marrying Geng Zhaozhong 耿昭忠 and Haoge's (a son of Hong Taiji) daughter marrying Geng Jingzhong.[90] A daughter 和硕柔嘉公主 of the Manchu Aisin Gioro Prince Yolo 岳樂 (Prince An) was wedded to Geng Juzhong 耿聚忠 who was another son of Geng Jingmao.[91]
The fourteenth daughter of Kangxi (和硕悫靖公主) was wedded to Sun Chengen, the son (孫承恩) of Sun Sike (Sun Ssu-k'o) 孫思克, a Han bannerman.[92]
Korea
The wedding photo of Crown Prince Yi Un of Korea and Japanese Princess Masako of Nashimoto
The Silla Kingdom had a practice that limited the succession to the throne to members of the seonggol, or "sacred bone", rank. To maintain their "sacred bone" rank, members of this caste often intermarried with one another in the same fashion that European royals intermarried to maintain a "pure" royal pedigree.[93]
The Goryeo dynasty had a history of incestuous marriage within the royal family in its early years, starting from Gwangjong, the fourth king, who married his half-sister Queen Daemok. To avoid scandals, the female members of the dynasty would be ceremonially adopted by their maternal families after birth. This practice of dynastic incest ended with the overthrow of Queen Heonae, the mother of Mokjong, the seventh king, after she attempted to seize the throne for herself and her illegitimate sons by placing these sons as Mokjong's heir, only to be foiled by a coup masterminded by the Goryeo general Kang Cho.
After the Second Manchu invasion of Korea, Joseon Korea was forced to give several of their royal princesses as concubines to the Qing Manchu regent Prince Dorgon.[94][95][96][97][98] In 1650, Dorgon married the Korean Princess Uisun (義順).[99] She was a collateral branch of the Korean royal family, and daughter of Yi Gae-yun (李愷胤).[100] Dorgon married two Korean princesses at Lianshan.[101]
Japan
The Japanese may not have seen intermarriage between them and the royal dynasties of the Korean Empire damaging to their prestige either.[102] According to the Shoku Nihongi, an imperially commissioned record of Japanese history completed in 797, Emperor Kanmu who ruled from 781 to 806 was the son of a Korean concubine, Takano no Niigasa, who was descended from King Muryeong of Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea.[102]
At the turn of the 14th century, Anatolia and the surrounding areas were a patchwork of small, independent states and marriage was seen as an important way to maintain alliances
The Grand Komnenoi of the Empire of Trebizond were famed for marrying their daughters to their neighbours as acts of diplomacy.[n 2]Theodora Megale Komnene, daughter of John IV, was married to Uzun Hassan, lord of the Aq Qoyunlu, to seal an alliance between the Empire and the so-called White Sheep. Although the alliance failed to save Trebizond from its eventual defeat, and despite being a devout Christian in a Muslim state, Theodora did manage to exercise a pervasive influence both in the domestic and foreign actions of her husband.[115] Their grandson Ismail I was the founder of the Safavid dynasty of Iran
Though usually made to strengthen the position of the empire, there are examples of interdynastic marriages destabilising the emperor's authority. When Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos married his second wife, Eirene of Montferrat, in 1284 she caused a division in the Empire over her demand that her own sons share in imperial territory with, Michael, his son from his first marriage. She resorted to leaving Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, and setting up her own court in the second city of the Empire, Thessalonica.[111]
Medieval and early modern Europe
Careful selection of a spouse was important to maintain the royal status of a family: depending on the law of the land in question, if a prince or king was to marry a commoner who had no royal blood, even if the first-born was acknowledged as a son of a sovereign, he might not be able to claim any of the royal status of his father.[4]
Traditionally, many factors were important in arranging royal marriages. One such factor was the amount of territory that the other royal family governed or controlled.[4] Another, related factor was the stability of the control exerted over that territory: when there was territorial instability in a royal family, other royalty would be less inclined to marry into that family.[4] Another factor was political alliance: marriage was an important way to bind together royal families and their countries during peace and war and could justify many important political decisions.[4][116]
The increase in royal intermarriage often meant that lands passed into the hands of foreign houses, when the nearest heir was the son of a native dynasty and a foreign royal.[117][n 3][n 4] Given the success of the Habsburgs' territorial acquisition-via-inheritance, a motto came to be associated with their dynasty: Bella gerant alii, tu, felix Austria, nube! ("Let others wage war. You, happy Austria, marry!")[118]
Monarchs sometimes went to great lengths to prevent this. On her marriage to Louis XIV of France, Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV of Spain, was forced to renounce her claim to the Spanish throne.[119] When monarchs or heirs apparent wed other monarchs or heirs, special agreements, sometimes in the form of treaties, were negotiated to determine inheritance rights. The marriage contract of Philip II of Spain and Mary I of England, for example, stipulated that the maternal possessions, as well as Burgundy and the Low Countries, were to pass to any future children of the couple, whereas the remaining paternal possessions (including Spain, Naples, Sicily, Milan) would first of all go to Philip's son Don Carlos, from his previous marriage to Maria Manuela of Portugal. If Carlos were to die without any descendants, only then would they pass to the children of his second marriage.[120] On the other hand, the Franco-Scottish treaty that arranged the 1558 marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots and Francis, the son and heir of Henry II of France, had it that if the queen died without descendants, Kingdom of Scotland would fall to the throne of Kingdom of France.[120]
Religion has always been closely tied to European political affairs, and as such it played an important role during marriage negotiations. The 1572 wedding in Paris of the French princess Margaret of Valois to the leader of France's Huguenots, Henry III of Navarre, was ostensibly arranged to effect a rapprochement between the nation's Catholics and Protestants, but proved a ruse for the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.[121] After the English Reformation, matches between English monarchs and Roman Catholic princesses were often unpopular, especially so when the prospective queen consort was unwilling to convert, or at least practice her faith discreetly.[n 5] Passage of the Act of Settlement 1701 disinherited any heir to the throne who married a Catholic.[123] Other ruling houses, such as the Romanovs[n 6] and Habsburgs,[126] have at times also insisted on dynastic marriages only being contracted with people of a certain faith or those willing to convert. When in 1926 Astrid of Sweden married Leopold III of Belgium, it was agreed that her children would be raised as Catholics but she was not required to give up Lutheranism, although she did eventually choose to convert in 1930.[127] Some potential matches were abandoned due to irreconcilable religious differences. For example, plans for the marriage of the Catholic Władysław IV Vasa and the Lutheran Elisabeth of Bohemia, Princess Palatine proved unpopular with Poland's largely Catholic nobility and were quietly dropped.[128]
Marriages among ruling dynasties and their subjects have at times been common, with such alliances as that of Edward the Confessor, King of England with Edith of Wessex and Władysław II Jagiełło, King of Poland with Elizabeth Granowska being far from unheard of in medieval Europe. However, as dynasties approached absolutism and sought to preserve loyalty among competing members of the nobility, most eventually distanced themselves from kinship ties to local nobles by marrying abroad.[129][130] Marriages with subjects brought the king back down to the level of those he ruled, often stimulating the ambition of his consort's family and evoking jealousy—or disdain—from the nobility. The notion that monarchs should marry into the dynasties of other monarchs to end or prevent war was, at first, a policy driven by pragmatism. During the era of absolutism, this practice contributed to the notion that it was socially, as well as politically, disadvantageous for members of ruling families to intermarry with their subjects and pass over the opportunity for marriage into a foreign dynasty.[131][132]
From the time of the Umayyad conquest of Hispania and throughout the Reconquista, marriage between Spanish and Umayyad royals was not uncommon. Early marriages, such as that of Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa and Egilona at the turn of the 8th century, was thought to help establish the legitimacy of Muslim rule on the Iberian Peninsula.[157] Later instances of intermarriage were often made to seal trade treaties between Christian kings and Muslim caliphs.[158]
Ottoman Empire
The marriages of Ottoman sultans and their sons in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries tended to be with members of the ruling dynasties of neighbouring powers.[159] With little regard for religion, the sultans contracted marriages with both Christians and Muslims; the purpose of these royal intermarriages were purely tactical. Christian consorts of Ottoman sultans include Theodora Kantakouzene of Byzantium, Kera Tamara of Bulgaria and Olivera Despina of Serbia. These Christian states along with Muslim beyliks of Germiyan, Saruhan, Karaman and Dulkadir were all potential enemies, and marriage was seen as a way of securing alliances with them.[159] Marriage with foreign dynasties seems to have ceased in 1504, with the last marriage of a sultan to a foreign princess being that of Murad II and Mara Branković, daughter of the Serbian ruler Đurađ Branković, in 1435. By this time, the Ottomans had consolidated their power in the area and absorbed or subjugated many of their former rivals, and so marriage alliances were no longer seen as important to their foreign policy.[159]
The Islamic principle of kafa'a discourages the marriages of women to men of differing religion or of inferior status.[n 9] Neighbouring Muslim powers did not start to give their daughters in marriage to Ottoman princes until the fifteenth century, when they were seen to have grown in importance. This same principle meant that, while Ottoman men were free to marry Christian women, Muslim princesses were prevented from marrying Christian princes.[161]
Royal incest was extremely common in the Kingdom of Hawaii and its predecessors, despite being rare in other Polynesian societies. Among the aliʻi, the ruling class, marriage between blood relatives of the first degree was believed to produce children with the highest rank under the kapu system, equal to that of the gods. A marriage between brother and sister was considered "the most perfect and revered union". It was believed that the mana of a particular aliʻi could be increased by incestuous unions. According to O. A. Bushnell, "in several accounts about Hawaiians, an ali’i who was the issue of an incestuous marriage [...] was noted for a splendid body and a superior intelligence". Writers have suggested that this preference for brother–sister incest came about as a way to protect the royal bloodline. Notable instances of incestuous relationships among Hawaiian royalty were those between King Kamehameha II and his half-sister Kamāmalu, which was a fully fledged marriage, and between Kamehameha III and his full sister Nahienaena. In the latter case, the siblings had hoped to marry but their union was opposed by Christian missionaries.[166]
At one time, some dynasties adhered strictly to the concept of royal intermarriage. The Habsburgs, Sicilian, and Spanish Bourbons and Romanovs, among others, introduced house laws which governed dynastic marriages;[167] it was considered important that dynasts marry social equals (i.e., other royalty), thereby ruling out even the highest-born non-royal nobles.[168] Those dynasts who contracted undesirable marriages often did so morganatically. Generally, this is a marriage between a man of high birth and a woman of lesser status (such as a daughter of a low-ranked noble family or a commoner).[169] Usually, neither the bride nor any children of the marriage has a claim on the bridegroom's succession rights, titles, precedence, or entailed property. The children are considered legitimate for all other purposes and the prohibition against bigamy applies.[170]
Over time, because of the relatively limited number of potential consorts, the gene pool of many ruling families grew progressively smaller, until all European royalty was related. This also resulted in many being descended from a certain person through many lines of descent, such as the numerous European royalty descended from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom or King Christian IX of Denmark.[175] As a result, royal intermarriages became consanguine marriages, which lead to both new health issues arising and existing ones being compounded.
Examples of incestuous marriages and the impact of inbreeding on royal families include:
Most rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty from Ptolemy II were married to their brothers and sisters, in order to keep the Ptolemaic blood "pure" and to strengthen the line of succession.[n 10]Cleopatra VII (also called Cleopatra VI) and Ptolemy XIII, who married and became co-rulers of ancient Egypt following their father's death, are the most widely known example.[176]
King Tutankhamun's father and mother were related.
The Persian Sassanian dynasty often married close blood relatives, partially for religious reasons (see xwedodah). One example would be Narseh, who married his sister Shapuhrdukhtag.
Jean V of Armagnac was said to have formed a rare brother-sister liaison,[177] left descendants and claimed to be married. There is no evidence that this "marriage" was contracted for dynastic rather than personal reasons.[177]
The House of Habsburg frequently practiced consanguine marriages as a way of consolidating the dynasty's political power, with both first cousin and uncle–niece pairings common.[178] The most visible consequence of this was an extended lower chin (mandibular prognathism), which was typical for many Habsburg relatives over a period of six centuries; the jaw deformity is so closely associated with the family that it is commonly known as the "Habsburg jaw" or "Habsburg lip".[179] The Spanish branch took this practice to an extreme: of the eleven marriages contracted by Spanish monarchs between 1450 and 1661, nine contained some element of consanguinity.[180] The last of the Spanish line, Charles II—who was severely disabled from birth and possibly impotent— possessed a genome comparable to that of a child born to a brother and sister.[181][178]
The House of Wittelsbach suffered from several cases of mental illness, often attributed to their frequent intermarriages. Several family members suffered from mental and physical illnesses, as well as epilepsy.[182]
↑ Donald MacGillivray Nicol says in The Last Centuries of Byzantium 1261–1453: "The daughters of Alexios II Grand Komnenos married the emirs of Sinope and of Erzindjan, his granddaughters married the emir of Chalybia and the Turkoman chieftain of the so-called Ak-Koyunlu, or horde of the White Sheep; his great-granddaughters, the children of Alexios III, who died in 1390, performed even greater service to the Empire."[114]
↑ A prime example is the marriage of the Catholic Henrietta Maria and Charles I of England. Her open practice of her faith and insistence on maintaining a Catholic retinue during a time of religious intolerance in English society eventually made her a deeply unpopular queen with the general public.[122]
↑ Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban explains in her article Islamic Law and Society in the Sudan that "It is preferable that a non-Muslim convert to Islam before marriage to a Muslim man, however, it is not essential – it is essential that a non-Muslim man convert to Islam before contemplating marriage with a Muslim woman"[160]
↑ Notable exceptions to that rule are Ptolemy III and Ptolemy V, who married Berenice II (queen of Cyrenaica, half-cousin) and Cleopatra I (Seleucid princess, unrelated), respectively. The two marriages introduced non-Greek blood to the dynasty. Ptolemy II married Arsinoe II, his sister, but later married the unrelated Arsinoe I, who bore Ptolemy III, his successor. Another possible exception to that rule is Ptolemy XII, who married Cleopatra V, whose parents are uncertain for lack of direct sources.
References and sources
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Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spouse, or any children born of the marriage. The concept is most prevalent in German-speaking territories and countries most influenced by the customs of the German-speaking realms.
The grand ducal family of Luxembourg constitutes the House of Luxembourg-Nassau, headed by the sovereign grand duke, and in which the throne of the grand duchy is hereditary. It consists of heirs and descendants of the House of Nassau-Weilburg, whose sovereign territories passed cognatically from the House of Nassau to the House of Bourbon-Parma, itself a branch of the Spanish royal house which is agnatically a cadet branch of the House of Capet that originated in France, itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians and the Karlings and the founding house of the Capetian dynasty.
Heqin, also known as marriage alliance, refers to the historical practice of Chinese monarchs marrying princesses—usually members of minor branches of the ruling family—to rulers of neighboring states. It was often adopted as an appeasement strategy with an enemy state that was too powerful to defeat on the battlefield. The policy was not always effective. It implied an equal diplomatic status between the two monarchs. As a result, it was controversial and had many critics.
Prince Maria Emanuel of Saxony, Duke of Saxony, Margrave of Meissen was the head of the Royal House of Saxony.
Infante, also anglicised as "infant" or translated as "prince", is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain and Portugal to the sons and daughters (infantas) of the king, regardless of age, sometimes with the exception of the heir apparent or heir presumptive to the throne who usually bears a unique princely or ducal title. A woman married to a male infante was accorded the title of infanta if the marriage was dynastically approved, although since 1987 this is no longer automatically the case in Spain. Husbands of born infantas did not obtain the title of infante through marriage, although they were occasionally elevated to the title de gracia at the sovereign's command.
Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark was a Greek historian, author, and member of the Greek royal family. He wrote several historical books and biographies of Greek and other European figures, in addition to working as a contributing writer to Architectural Digest.
The Danish royal family is the dynastic family of the monarch of Denmark. While some members of the Danish royal family hold the title of Prince(ss) of Denmark, descendants of Margrethe II additionally bear the title Count(ess) of Monpezat. Children of the monarch are accorded the style of His/Her Royal Highness. The King and Queen are styled Majesty.
Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria was the son of the last crown prince of Bavaria, Rupprecht, and his first wife, Duchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria. He was the only child from that marriage that reached adulthood. His paternal grandfather was Ludwig III of Bavaria, the last king of Bavaria, who was deposed in 1918.
Princess Margaretha of Liechtenstein is the fourth child and second and youngest daughter of Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg and Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium. As the sister of Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and the sister-in-law of Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein, she is a princess of two current realms and a member of the Luxembourg and Liechtenstein reigning dynasties.
Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, was the third son and fourth child of Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse, and Wilhelmine of Baden. He was a brother of Tsarina Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Tsar Alexander II of Russia. The Battenberg-Mountbatten family descends from Alexander and his wife Countess Julia von Hauke, a former lady-in-waiting to his sister.
Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy is the middle daughter of Italy's last king, Umberto II, and Marie-José of Belgium, the "May Queen". She is a historical writer.
The Greek royal family was the ruling family of the Kingdom of Greece from 1863 to 1924 and again from 1935 to 1973. The family is a branch of the Danish royal family, itself a cadet branch of the House of Glücksburg. The family had replaced the House of Wittelsbach that previously ruled Greece from 1832 to 1862. The first monarch was George I of Greece, the second son of King Christian IX of Denmark. The current head of the family is Pavlos, who assumed the role on 10 January 2023 upon the death of his father, former King Constantine II.
The succession to the throne of the French Empire was vested by Bonapartist emperors in the descendants and selected male relatives of Napoleon I. Following the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, Bonapartist pretenders descended from Napoleon I's brothers have maintained theoretical claims to the imperial office.
Franz Wilhelm Victor Christoph Stephan Prinz von Preussen is a German businessman and member of the House of Hohenzollern, the former ruling German imperial house and royal house of Prussia. From 1976 to 1985 he was known as Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich of Russia. He is also a great-grandson of Wilhelm II, German Emperor.
Count Ingolf of Rosenborg is a Danish count and former prince. Born Prince Ingolf of Denmark, he appeared likely to some day become king until the constitution was changed in 1953 to allow females to inherit the crown, placing his branch of the dynasty behind that of his first cousin Princess Margrethe and her two younger sisters. He later gave up his princely rank and his rights to the throne in order to marry a commoner.
Queen Victoria, the British monarch from 1837 to 1901, and Prince Albert had 9 children, 42 grandchildren, and 87 great-grandchildren. Victoria was called the "grandmother of Europe".
Archduchess Yolande of Austria was a Belgian princess of the House of Ligne, and an Austrian archduchess by her marriage to the Archduke Carl Ludwig of Austria, being the daughter of Eugène, 11th Prince of Ligne and Princess Philippine de Noailles.
Prince Alexander Ferdinand Albrecht Achilles Wilhelm Joseph Viktor Karl Feodor of Prussia was the only son of Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.
Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark is the youngest child of Constantine II and Anne-Marie, who were the last King and Queen of Greece, from 1964 to 1973.
Princess Alexandra Elli Francisca Maria of Greece, known professionally as Alexandra Mirzayantz, is a Greek artist, art collector, arts patron, and child life specialist. As the daughter of Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark, she is a member of the Greek royal family and a relative of the Danish royal family. A morganatic descendant of the House of Glücksburg, she is not a Danish princess nor is she entitled to the style Royal Highness as other members of the Greek royal family are. She was born a princess of Greece entitled to the style Your Highness, and was excluded from the line of succession to the Greek throne. She is a second cousin of Constantine II of Greece, who reigned as King of the Hellenes until the monarchy was abolished in 1973.
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↑ Nghia M. Vo; Chat V. Dang; Hien V. Ho (29 August 2008). The Women of Vietnam. Saigon Arts, Culture & Education Institute Forum. Outskirts Press. ISBN978-1-4327-2208-1. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
↑ Lin Jianming (林剑鸣) (1992). 秦漢史[History of Qin and Han]. Wunan Publishing. pp.557–8. ISBN978-957-11-0574-1. Archived from the original on 9 June 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
↑ Papers on Far Eastern History. Australian National University, Department of Far Eastern History. 1983. p.86. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
↑ Gao Huan, as demanded by Yujiulü Anagui as one of the peace terms between Eastern Wei and Rouran, married the Princess Ruru in 545, and had her take the place of Princess Lou as his wife, but never formally divorced Princess Lou. After Gao Huan's death, pursuant to Rouran customs, the Princess Ruru became married to Gao Huan's son Gao Cheng, who also, however, did not formally divorce his wife.
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