Cadet branch is a term in
genealogy to describe the
lineage of the descendants of the younger sons of a
monarch or
patriarch. In the ruling
dynasties and
noble families of much of
Europe and
Asia, the family's major
assets –
titles,
realms,
fiefs, property and
income – have historically been passed from a father to his firstborn son in what is known as
primogeniture: Younger sons – "
cadets" –
inherited less wealth and authority to pass to future
generations of descendants.
In families and cultures in which this was not the custom or law, as in feudal
Germany, equal distribution of the family's holdings among descendants 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/or their descendants sometimes quarreled over their allocations, or even became
estranged. While masculine
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 adoption of inheritance by primogeniture, younger brothers sometimes
vied with older brothers to be chosen their father's heir or, after the choice was made, sought to
usurp the elder's birthright.
Appanage
In the parts of Europe where primogeniture prevailed, cadet sons were generally entitled to receive an
appanage in
patrimony, always substantially smaller than the eldest son's inheritance. Often, especially outside of Germany, the younger branch remained
subordinate to the elder line as
vassals or
subjects.
Often, however, one or more younger sons was encouraged to take
clerical orders, thereby
forfeiting all rights of inheritance. Or a
junior male might be encouraged to pursue a
career in the
military as an
officer, or as a
courtier or
civil servant in the monarch's capital.
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 reproduce 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 that might be considered demeaning for the senior branch, such as
immigration to another sovereign's realm, or engagement in
commerce, or a profession (such as
law),
academia, or civil service.
In some cases, cadet branches eventually inherited the throne of the senior line, e.g. the
House of Savoy-Carignan in the
Duchy of Savoy and the
Kingdom of Sardinia; and the
Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken in the
Electorates of the
Palatinate and
Bavaria. In other cases, a junior branch came to eclipse more senior lines in rank and power, e.g. the
Kings of Prussia and German Emperors who were junior by primogeniture to the
Counts and Princes of Hohenzollern, and the
Electors and Kings of Saxony who were a younger branch of the
House of Wettin than the
Dukes of Saxe-Weimar.
By contrast, it was also sometimes possible for cadet branches to sink in status, either due to diminished fortune or genealogical distance. Such was the case of the Capetian branch of the
princes de Courtenay, the last male of which died in 1730 without ever having been recognized by the French crown as
princes du sang. Likewise, the line of the
principi di Ottajano, a branch of the
House of Medici who were eligible to inherit the
grand duchy of Tuscany when the last male of the senior branch died in 1737, but for intervention of the
Major Powers that allocated the sovereignty of Florence elsewhere for reasons of political expediency.
Notable cadet branches
- 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, 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, which reigned as Emperors of Brazil until 1889.
- Arthur Wellesley, the younger brother of Richard Wellesley, the 2nd Earl of Mornington, started his career as a protege 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 increasingly senior titles, Baron Douro, Viscount Wellington, Earl of Wellington, Marquess of Wellington, eventually reaching Duke of Wellington, a more senior title than his older brother's. One of the three other brothers who survived to adulthood became a bishop, the two others also entered public service, and were also rewarded with Baronages. A descendant of Baron Cowley, the youngest brother, elevated his cadet branch to Earl of Cowley in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, also a more senior title than the Earldom of Mornington in the Peerage of Ireland.
