Cadet branch
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A cadet branch consists of the
appenage) to pass on to future generations
of descendants.
In families and cultures in which that was not the custom or law, such as the feudal
agnatic primogeniture became a common way of keeping the family's wealth intact and reducing familial disputes, it did so at the expense of younger sons and their descendants. Both before and after a state legal default
of inheritance by primogeniture, younger brothers sometimes vied with older brothers to be chosen as their father's heir or, after the choice was made, sought to usurp the elder's birthright.
Status
In such cases, primary responsibility for promoting the family's prestige, aggrandizement, and fortune fell upon the senior branch for future generations. A cadet, having less means, was not expected to produce a family. If a cadet chose to raise a family, its members were expected to maintain the family's social status by avoiding derogation, but could pursue endeavors too demeaning or too risky for the senior branch, such as emigration to another sovereign's realm, engagement in commerce, or a profession such as law, religion, academia, military service or government office.
Some cadet branches came to inherit the crown of the senior line, e.g. the
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
(1890).
In other cases, a junior branch came to eclipse more senior lines in rank and power, e.g. the
Grand Dukes of Saxe-Weimar
.
A still more
Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, would, through diplomacy or marriage in the 19th and 20th centuries, obtain or consort and sire the royal crowns of, successively, Belgium, Portugal, Bulgaria and the Commonwealth realms. Also, marriage to cadet males of the Houses of Oldenburg (Holstein-Gottorp), Polignac, and Bourbon-Parma brought those dynasties patrilineally to the thrones of Russia, Monaco, and Luxembourg, respectively. The Dutch royal house has, at different times, been a cadet branch of Mecklenburg and Lippe(-Biesterfeld). In the Commonwealth realms, the male-line descendants of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh are cadet members of the House of Glücksburg
.
It was a risk that cadet branches maintaining legal heirs could sink in status because shrunken wealth that was too meagre to survive the shifting political upheavals (legal mechanisms in factionalism or revolution of
capital offences and show trials
) as much as unpopularity or distance from the reigning line.
- The Capetian branch of the princes de Courtenay's last 'prince' died in 1733 without recognition by the crown as dynastic princes du sang despite having undisputed but remote male-line descent from Louis VI of France.
- The title to Francesco II Stefano, of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.
- The Rurikid princess. That was partly so that later cadet children could be sidelined and partly because the marriage was deemed morganatic, as Alexander had long been involved with Catherine as his mistress.
Notable cadet branches
- Henry VIII, thus united in his person and on the throne of England both branches of the Plantagenets, and inaugurated the House of Tudor, which ruled England until 1603.
- House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg: descendants of a younger son of King Christian III of Denmark (of the House of Oldenburg), who eventually became monarchs of Denmark, Norway and Greece.
- House of Orleans-Braganza.
- House of Gonzaga: the noble family which reigned in Mantua counted in its dynasty some cadet branches.
- Calvinist form of Protestantism spread widely among the nobility and mercantile class of France, Claude's descendants embraced the Counter-Reformation and formed the Catholic League to prevent a Protestant monarch from inheriting or seizing the throne of the last Valois kings. Their leadership of the League infused the Guises with unequalled power in French politics. Their leadership role during the French Wars of Religion further extended their influence in European affairs until the accession of the House of Bourbon to the throne in 1593 and was far beyond that of their senior cousins, reigning in Nancy.
- tribal chieftain of Mvezo under the authority of his relative the paramount chief of Thembuland, currently King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo.
- Crown of the United Kingdom.
- Wellington: Baron Cowley, youngest brother of Richard Wellesley, became Earl of Cowley in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, his junior line of the family thereby also achieving a higher status than that of the Earldom of Mornington, in the Peerage of Ireland.
- In the case of the His Highness" (HH) and in addition, a reigning king has the title of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.[2][3][4]
- In the Muhamamdzai dynasty of Afghanistan, the address as Sardar (Prince) is referred to all descendants of Payindah Muhammad Khan the patriarch of the Muhamamdzai Dynasty. Cadet branches of the Muhammadzai are defined by the respective son of Payindah Muhammad through which a prince descends. The cadet branches include the Telai, the descendants of Sultan Mohammed Khan to which King Zahir Shah, Prince Daoud Khan and Professor Prince Abdul Khalek belonged; the Seraj, descendants of Dost Mohammed Khan to which King Amanullah Khan belonged and the Shaghasi, descendants of other children of Payindah Muhammad Khan to which Loynab Shir Dil and Prince Ali Khan Shaghasi belonged.[5][6]
See also
References
- ^ Poore, Benjamin Perley (1848). The Rise and Fall of Louis Philippe, Ex-king of the French: Giving a History of the French Revolution, from Its Commencement, in 1789. W.D. Ticknor & company. p. 299. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
- ^ a b Amos, Deborah (1991). "Sheikh to Chic". Mother Jones. p. 28.
- ^ a b "Saudi Arabia: HRH or HH? | American Bedu". Archived from the original on 2016-08-07. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
- ^ "Family Tree". Datarabia. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
- ^ Adamek in Who is Who in Afghanistan
- ^ Christopher Buyers in Royal Ark, Afghanistan