Male-line descendants of a monarch's younger sons
A cadet branch consists of the
male-line descendants of a
monarch's or
patriarch's younger sons (
cadets). In the ruling
dynasties and
noble families of much of
Europe and
Asia, the family's major assets (
realm,
titles,
fiefs, property and income) have historically been passed from a father to his firstborn son in what is known as
primogeniture; younger sons, the cadets, inherited less wealth and authority (such as a small
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
Holy Roman Empire, the equal distribution of the family's holdings among male members was eventually apt to so fragment the inheritance as to render it too small to sustain the descendants at the
socio-economic level of their forefather. Moreover, brothers and their descendants sometimes quarreled over their allocations, or even became estranged. While
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
Bourbon
Counts of Vendôme mounted the throne of France (after civil war) in 1593; the
House of Savoy-Carignan succeeded to the kingdoms of
Sardinia (1831) and
Italy (1861); the
Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken obtained the
Palatine Electorate of the Rhine (1799) and the
Kingdom of Bavaria (1806); and a deposed
Duke of Nassau was restored to sovereignty in 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
Electors and Kings of Saxony who were a younger branch of the
House of Wettin than the
Grand Dukes of Saxe-Weimar.
A still more
junior branch of the Wettins, headed by the rulers of the small
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
attainder,
capital offences and
show trials) as much as unpopularity or distance from the reigning line.
Notable cadet branches
-
House of York: descendants of the fourth son of
Edward III Plantagenet, King of England, who, in the course of the
Wars of the Roses (1455–1485), displaced the
agnatically senior line of
Plantagenets, the
Lancaster branch, on the English throne (1461), only to be finally displaced themselves by a Lancastrian
cognatic descendant,
Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who obtained the crown by conquest from
Richard III (August 1485). As Henry VII, he took as
queen consort the heiress of the cadet branch,
Elizabeth of York, in January 1486. Their son,
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 Bourbon: descendants of a younger son of
Louis IX of France who, in the person of
Henry IV of France, inherited the throne of France from the senior
Capetian line of the
Valois in 1589 and from which sprang the Bourbon kings of
Spain (including the
Carlist and
French legitimist lines), the
kings of the Two Sicilies, and the sovereign
Dukes of Parma, who currently reign in the
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in a cadet line. Also from
Louis XIII de Bourbon descends the cadet branch known as the
House of Orléans,
[1] to which
the Citizen-king Louis-Philippe, the
Orleanist claimants to the throne of
France (
Henri, comte de Paris, duc de France) belong, as does the
House of Orleans-Braganza.
-
House of Gonzaga: the noble family which reigned in
Mantua counted in its dynasty some cadet branches.
-
House of Guise: although the
Dukes of Lorraine exercised continental independence, they were nominally vassals of the
Holy Roman Emperors, and their geopolitical importance resided less in the size of their realm than in their crucial location between the competing French and German nations. A younger brother of Duke
Antoine,
Claude of Lorraine, was appanaged with the lordship of Guise in France and betook himself to the French court in search of his fortune. There, he was granted the title Duke of Guise as a member of the
Peerage of France, he and his male-line descendants henceforth being accorded the rank of
prince étranger. As the
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.
-
Mandela:
Nelson Mandela, the late president of the Republic of
South Africa, was a
male-line great-grandson of King
Ngubengcuka of the
Thembu nation of
Southern African
Xhosas. Be that as it may, he was - and his fellow members of the Mandela branch of the Thembus' ruling royal AmaHala dynasty are - ineligible to succeed to the ancestral throne because all of them descend from Ngubengcuka's
morganatic marriage to a woman of a ritually inferior family. As such, their traditional role in the kingdom is that of hereditary
privy counsellors to Thembu monarchs that are unable to succeed to the throne themselves. In addition, the family's recognised leader, Chief
Mandla Mandela, also serves by tradition as the
tribal chieftain of
Mvezo under the authority of his relative the
paramount chief of
Thembuland, currently King
Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo.
-
Spencer: the comital branch of the
Spencer family descended from
John Spencer, the youngest son of
Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland and
Lady Anne Churchill. The couple's eldest son,
Robert, inherited his father's title of
Earl of Sunderland. When Robert, 4th Earl of Sunderland, died without an heir, his paternal titles passed to his younger brother,
Charles, who later inherited the title of
Duke of Marlborough upon the death of his aunt
Henrietta, and became the 3rd Duke of Marlborough. Charles's descendants (later known as the Spencer-Churchills) became the senior branch of the Spencer family. His younger brother, John, had an only son, also named John, who became the 1st Earl Spencer. From the line of the Earls Spencer descend many prominent figures, including
Diana, Princess of Wales, whose son
William, Prince of Wales, is heir to the
Crown of the United Kingdom.
- Wellington:
Arthur Wellesley, the younger brother of
Richard Wellesley, the 2nd
Earl of Mornington, started his career as a protégé of his older brother. He entered the military, a traditional occupation of younger sons. From 1809 to 1814, he won a series of very significant victories, and was awarded a series of ascending titles; Baron Douro, Viscount Wellington, Earl of Wellington, Marquess of Wellington and finally
Duke of Wellington. A descendant of
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
House of Saud, the surname "Al Saud" is carried by any descendant of
Muhammad bin Saud or his three brothers: Farhan, Thunayyan, and Mishari. Al Saud's other family branches, like the Al Kabir, the Al Jiluwi, the Al Thunayan, the Al Mishari and the Al Farhan, are the cadet branches. Members of the cadet branches hold high and influential positions in government, but they are not in
line of succession to Saudi throne. Many cadet members intermarry within the Al Saud to re-establish their lineage and continue to wield influence in the government.
[2]
[3] Sons, daughters,
patrilineal granddaughters and grandsons of
Ibn Saud are referred to by the
style "
His Royal Highness" (HRH), differing from those belonging to the cadet branches, who are called "
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