Dynasty

A dynasty is a succession of persons belonging to the same family, who, through various means and forms maintain power, influence or authority over the course of generations.

History

Most often the term has been used to refer to a succession of monarchs or feudal nobles who reign over one or more territories by hereditary right ("a line of hereditary rulers of a country").

Historians traditionally consider a state's history within a framework of successive dynasties, particularly with such nations as China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire. Much of European political history was dominated, successively and together, by dynasties such as the Carolingians, the Capetians, the Habsburgs, the Stuarts, the Hohenzollerns and the Romanovs. Until the nineteenth century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth and power of family members.

However, a dynasty may also be thought of as a series of related individuals who exercise power or dominance unofficially over a territory or people, or achieve prominence in an industry, academic field, religion, cultural activity, or other sphere of endeavor ("a succession of people from the same family who play a prominent role in business, politics, or another field").