Genealogy of the Rothschild family

The Rothschild family was founded by Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the "founding father of international finance". Wanting his sons to succeed on their own and to expand the family business across Europe, he had his eldest son remain in Frankfurt, while his four other sons were sent to different European cities with the mission of establishing a financial institution to invest in business and provide banking services. Endogamy within the family was an essential part of the Rothschild strategy in order to ensure control of their wealth remained in family hands. Through their collaborative efforts, the Rothschilds rose to prominence in a variety of banking endeavours including loans, government bonds and trading in bullion. Their financing afforded investment opportunities and during the 19th century they became major stakeholders in large-scale mining and rail transport ventures that were fundamental to the rapidly expanding industrial economies of Europe.

Five lines of the Austrian branch of the family were elevated into the Austrian nobility, being given hereditary baronies of the Habsburg Empire by Emperor Francis II in 1816. The British branch of the family was elevated into the British nobility by Queen Victoria in 1855.^[1][2] Queen Victoria had initially disliked the proposal by Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone to raise Lionel de Rothschild to the peerage. However, in 1855, Victoria raised Lionel's son, Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, to the peerage; he became the first Jewish member of the House of Lords.^[3]

This article shows the family tree of some of the prominent branches of the Rothschild family.