Cadet branch

Acadet branchconsists of themale-linedescendants of amonarch's orpatriarch's younger sons (cadets). In the rulingdynastiesandnoblefamilies of much ofEuropeandAsia,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 asprimogeniture;younger sons, the cadets, inherited less wealth and authority (such as a smallappenage) to pass on tofuture generationsof descendants.

In families and cultures in which that was not the custom or law, such as the feudalHoly 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 thesocio-economiclevel of their forefather. Moreover, brothers and their descendants sometimes quarreled over their allocations, or even became estranged. Whileagnatic primogeniturebecame 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 astate legal defaultof 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 avoidingderogation,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. theBourbonCounts of Vendômemounted the throne of France (after civil war) in 1593; theHouse of Savoy-Carignansucceeded to the kingdoms ofSardinia(1831) andItaly(1861); theCounts Palatine of Zweibrückenobtained thePalatine Electorateof the Rhine (1799) and theKingdom of Bavaria(1806); and a deposedDuke of Nassauwas restored to sovereignty in theGrand Duchy of Luxembourg(1890).

In other cases, a junior branch came to eclipse more senior lines in rank and power, e.g. theElectors and Kings of Saxonywho were a younger branch of theHouse of Wettinthan theGrand Dukes of Saxe-Weimar.

A still morejunior branch of the Wettins,headed by the rulers of the smallDuchy 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,Bulgariaand theCommonwealth realms.Also, marriage to cadet males of the Houses of Oldenburg (Holstein-Gottorp),Polignac,and Bourbon-Parma brought those dynasties patrilineally to the thrones ofRussia,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 ofPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburghare cadet members of theHouse 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 ofattainder,capital offencesandshow trials) as much as unpopularity or distance from the reigning line.

• TheCapetian branch of the princes de Courtenay's last 'prince' died in 1733 without recognition by the crown as dynasticprinces du sangdespite having undisputed but remote male-line descent fromLouis VI of France.
• Theprincipi di Ottajano(of theHouse of Medici) were heirs to thegrand duchy of Tuscanywhen last male of that more senior branch died in 1737, but they were bypassed by intervention of Europe'smajor powers,which allocated thetitletoFrancesco II Stefano,of theHouse of Habsburg-Lorraine.
• TheRomanovs,which dominated Russia's throne (owed to kinship-by-marriage to tsarIvan the Terrible) from 1613 to the end of monarchy, became reluctant to stress they descended from the 9th century founding rulerRurikafter 1880, when TsarAlexander IIwedCatherine Dolgorukov,aRurikidprincess. That was partly so that later cadet children could be sidelined and partly because the marriage was deemedmorganatic,as Alexander had long been involved with Catherine as his mistress.

Notable cadet branches

• House of York:descendants of the fourth son ofEdward III Plantagenet, King of England,who, in the course of theWars of the Roses(1455–1485), displaced theagnaticallysenior line ofPlantagenets,theLancaster branch,on the English throne (1461), only to be finally displaced themselves by a Lancastriancognaticdescendant,Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond,who obtained the crown by conquest fromRichard III(August 1485). As Henry VII, he took asqueen consortthe 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 theHouse of Tudor,which ruled England until 1603.
• House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg:descendants of a younger son of KingChristian III of Denmark(of theHouse of Oldenburg), who eventually became monarchs of Denmark, Norway and Greece.
• House of Bourbon:descendants of a younger son ofLouis IX of Francewho, in the person ofHenry IV of France,inherited the throne of France from the seniorCapetianline of theValoisin 1589 and from which sprang the Bourbon kings ofSpain(including theCarlistandFrench legitimistlines), thekings of the Two Sicilies,and the sovereignDukes of Parma,who currently reign in theGrand Duchy of Luxembourgin a cadet line. Also fromLouis XIII de Bourbondescends the cadet branch known as theHouse of Orléans,to whichthe Citizen-king Louis-Philippe,theOrleanistclaimants to the throne ofFrance(Henri, comte de Paris, duc de France) belong, as does theHouse of Orleans-Braganza.
• House of Gonzaga:the noble family which reigned inMantuacounted in its dynasty some cadet branches.
• House of Guise:although theDukes of Lorraineexercised continental independence, they were nominally vassals of theHoly 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 DukeAntoine,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 titleDuke of Guiseas a member of thePeerage of France,he and his male-line descendants henceforth being accorded the rank ofprince étranger.As theCalvinistform ofProtestantismspread widely among the nobility and mercantile class of France, Claude's descendants embraced theCounter-Reformationand formed theCatholic Leagueto prevent a Protestant monarch from inheriting or seizing the throne of the lastValoiskings. Their leadership of the League infused the Guises with unequalled power in French politics. Their leadership role during theFrench Wars of Religionfurther extended their influence in European affairs until the accession of theHouse of Bourbonto the throne in 1593 and was far beyond that of their senior cousins, reigning inNancy.
• Mandela:Nelson Mandela,the late president of the Republic ofSouth Africa,was amale-linegreat-grandson of KingNgubengcukaof theThembunation ofSouthern AfricanXhosas.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'smorganatic marriageto a woman of a ritually inferior family. As such, their traditional role in the kingdom is that of hereditaryprivy counsellorsto Thembu monarchs that are unable to succeed to the throne themselves. In addition, the family's recognised leader, ChiefMandla Mandela,also serves by tradition as thetribal chieftainofMvezounder the authority of his relative theparamount chiefofThembuland,currently KingBuyelekhaya Dalindyebo.
• Spencer:the comital branch of theSpencer familydescended fromJohn Spencer,the youngest son ofCharles Spencer, 3rd Earl of SunderlandandLady Anne Churchill.The couple's eldest son,Robert,inherited his father's title ofEarl 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 ofDuke of Marlboroughupon the death of his auntHenrietta,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, includingDiana, Princess of Wales,whose sonWilliam, Prince of Wales,is heir to theCrown of the United Kingdom.
• Wellington:Arthur Wellesley,the younger brother ofRichard Wellesley,the 2ndEarl 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 finallyDuke of Wellington.A descendant ofBaron Cowley,youngest brother of Richard Wellesley, became Earl of Cowley in thePeerage of the United Kingdom,his junior line of the family thereby also achieving a higher status than that of the Earldom of Mornington, in thePeerage of Ireland.
• In the case of theHouse of Saud,the surname "Al Saud" is carried by any descendant ofMuhammad bin Saudor 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 inline 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.Sons, daughters,patrilinealgranddaughters and grandsons ofIbn Saudare referred to by thestyle"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 ofCustodian of the Two Holy Mosques.
• In theMuhamamdzai dynastyof Afghanistan, the address as Sardar (Prince) is referred to all descendants of Payindah Muhammad Khan the patriarch of theMuhamamdzai 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 ofSultan Mohammed Khanto whichKing Zahir Shah,Prince Daoud Khanand Professor Prince Abdul Khalek belonged; the Seraj, descendants ofDost Mohammed Khanto whichKing Amanullah Khanbelonged and theShaghasi,descendants of other children of Payindah Muhammad Khan to which Loynab Shir Dil andPrince Ali Khan Shaghasibelonged.

See also

• Secundogeniture