AN ONLINE GOTHA

SECTION I.
 

Special Note regarding Mexico: Over the years several people have suggested that I should add to the Online Gotha the Iturbide family, as the former Imperial family of Mexico. I had not done so for a couple reasons. First, the Online Gotha is meant to cover European royalty and nobility; while it is true that the Imperial family of Brazil is included, the fact is that that family would be included anyway as being parts of the French and Portuguese royal families. Second, I never had a really good genealogy of the Iturbide family.  Click here for a page on the Iturbide family, the imperial house of Mexico

NEW! GENEALOGIES OF EARLIER GENERATIONS OF FAMILIES – See Below, after Section II

SECTION II.

Those houses which have traditionally been designated as Mediatized Houses are marked with an asterisk.
 
 

Note: Some updates to the genealogies of Italian families included here are based on information from Davide Shama's excellent site on Italian royal and noble genealogy at http://www.sardimpex.com/ .

Some information on Spanish families has been provided by Pedro Riquelmo.

GENEALOGIES OF SELECTED FAMILIES BEFORE THE MODERN ERA

Some of these are families since extinct in the male line; others are earlier generations of families whose more recent generations are included in sections above

WETTIN: 1; 2; 3; 4��� WITTELSBACH [including L�wenstein]: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6���

WELF & ESTE: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9�� HOHENZOLLERN: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7

NASSAU: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6�� BRABANT/HESSE/PERCY: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10

HABSBURG: 1; 2; 3���� LORRAINE: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6�� HOHENSTAUFEN�� BABENBERGER���

LUXEMBURG & SALM: 1-2; 3; 4; 5�� ANHALT/BRANDENBURG/SAXE-LAUENBURG: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6

EARLY KINGS OF SWEDEN�� VASA KINGS OF SWEDEN���� EARLY KINGS OF NORWAY�

EARLY KINGS OF DENMARK�� OLDENBURG/DENMARK: 1; 2; 3; 4�� HOLSTEIN

IVREA (including Castile & Leon, Orange, etc.): 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11��� Old CASTILE; Asturias, etc.

BARCELONA & ARAGON: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9��� BRITTANY�� BAR, PFIRT, etc.� NAVARRE

CHAMPAGNE & BLOIS: 1; 2; 3; 4�� CAPET (including Portugal): 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9��� MONTFORT-l'AMAURY

ANJOU & PLANTAGENET: 1; 2�� NORMANDY: 1; 2�� FLANDERS & HAINAUT: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9

SAVOY: 1; 2; 3� HAUTEVILLE (Sicily)��� FARNESE���� GONZAGA�� VISCONTI��� SFORZA� MONTFERRAT�� MEDICI�

PIAST (Poland, Silesia, etc.): 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6��� LITHUANIA�� HUNGARY, House of Arpad: 1; 2��� BOHEMIA: 1; 2

RURIK (Russia, Kiev, etc.): 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6

CRUSADER STATES� EARLY BALKAN HOUSES: 1-6; 7-11; 12-20��� SOME BYZANTINE IMPERIAL HOUSES: 1; 2; 3-5; 6; 7-8�����

BADEN: 1; 2; 3���� LIPPE�� HANAU�� MECKLENBURG: 1; 2; 3��� W�RTTEMBERG: 1; 2��� G�RZ�� MANDERSCHEID

WALDECK THURINGIA� HOHENLOHE� HENNEBERG�� OSTFRIESLAND�� POMERANIA�� OETTINGEN��

REUSS� SCHWARZBURG 1; 2�� RUNKEL/WIED/LEININGEN-WESTERBURG��� LIMPURG� Kleve/Limburg 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

F�RSTENBERG/FREIBURG�� WALDBURG� SALM�� SPONHEIM/SAYN-WITTGENSTEIN/ORTENBURG 1-2; 3; 4���

SOLMS: 1; 2; 3�� STOLBERG� WINDISCH-GR�TZ� LAMBERG�� GIECH�� STADION� METTERNICH�

MANSFELD� HONSTEIN� BARBY/LINDOW-RUPPIN��� KIRCHBERG�� KAUNITZ�

FOIX�� ALBRET� RETHEL�� NEVERS�� LUSIGNAN���� AQUITAINE/POITIERS/LUSIGNAN 2: 1; 2�� ARMAGNAC� GENEVA

MELUN� B�THUNE-SULLY & -CHAROST��� de COUCY: 1; 2���� ARENBERG & LIGNE�� CROY��� COLIGNY

BORGIA: 1; 2�� CHATILLON� COURTENAY� BRIENNE��� IBELIN��� ROHAN & ROHAN-CHABOT: 1; 2; 3; 4���

MONTMORENCY & LAVAL: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5� La TOUR d'AUVERGNE� TALLEYRAND� La TR�MO�LLE

Gotha Supplement: An assortment of families of the higher nobility which do not have princely or ducal rank, or who have not traditionally been listed as Mediatized Houses.  Click here.
 

    Welcome to my Online Gotha.

    Section I encompasses those families which have held hereditary sovereign status in European states, plus Brazil, since the Napoleonic era.

    Section II includes two somewhat overlapping groups of houses: those which hold Princely or Ducal rank, and those which have traditionally been considered as "Mediatized" Houses. Traditionally, the term "Mediatized" has been defined as describing those Houses of the former Holy Roman Empire which lost their sovereignty during the Napoleonic era. The most important thing which traditionally distinguished the "Mediatized" houses from other non-sovereign houses is that they have traditionally been considered to have been granted by the Congress of Vienna the status of equal birth with the sovereign houses. Not all houses usually designated as "mediatized" were actually sovereign at the beginning of the Napoleonic era or, for that matter, at any time. Some seem to have fallen into this category by accident or misunderstanding by scholars and historians. Other houses, which have as good historical claims to be considered mediatized as some who are traditionally included, have not even been listed in the Almanach de Gotha or among the F�rstliche H�user of Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels. (For a discussion of these houses and the definition of "Mediatized", I refer the reader to a short essay  by William Addams Reitwiesner.) After carefully reviewing the situation and the somewhat arbitrary way in which certain houses came to be designated as "Mediatized", I have decided to dispense with that classification.

���� The families included in this Online Gotha do not constitute an exclusive list. There are numerous families, particularly Italian, Spanish, Russian, and eastern European, whose rank would entitle them to be included, but for which I have insufficient sources to compile any kind of comprehensive genealogy.

    I have begun a Gotha Supplement. This section will contain a small selection of houses of the upper nobility which do not fit into the criteria of Sections I or II.

    The advantage of an Online Gotha is that it can be instantly updated and corrected. A printed equivalent becomes obsolete as soon as it is published. Thus I welcome any additions or corrections which any reader may be able to supply, and will update the articles accordingly when I receive them. I am sure I have made some errors, and I am sure that I have missed some new events or have failed to find some old events which should be recorded. Please refer all such corrections and additions to me at my new email address: dptheroff@gmail.com.

    My home page, containing the files on the descendants of King James I of England and of King Henry VII of England, as well as other projects, is here.

   My sources, for the original files and any new additions and corrections, include CEDRE and Gotha Nieuwtjes, several published works including volumes of Europ�ische Stammtafeln, Almanach de Gotha, Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Genealogisches Handbuch des in Bayern Immatrikulierten Adels, Koenig's Queen Victoria's Descendants, and works by Jacques Ferrand, Daniel Willis and others, various Usenet Newsgroup postings and magazines, as well as many correspondents who help me with information, especially William Addams Reitwiesner, R. Kenneth Sheets, Don Kuchison, Andrew Loughrey, Jos� Verheecke, Michael Rhodes, Steven Lavallee, Hein Bruins, Stefan H�llriegl, Davide Sham�, and Lauren Strauss-Jones. The beautifully executed coats-of-arms displayed on this page were produced by Arnaud Bunel, who graciously authorized me to use them here. I also credit the many posters at Nobiliana (http://www.nobiliana.de) , formerly known as Royals Portal forums, where members post news covering a wide array of royal and noble families, for many updates to this site.

ROYAL NEWS: Because of the time needed for my other pages and projects, I no longer maintain a Royal News page. I know that many readers enjoyed having the latest news of events in the royal houses posted here, but this kind of news is now widely available in several places online. I urge all who want to read about the latest events in the various European royal families to join the Nobiliana Forum.

.......Paul Theroff

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