Who decided which families would be royal and which not?

Question

I mean, many countries worldwide have "royalty", but who decided that their families are it? In my country (The Netherlands), royalty doesn't mean much anymore. HOWEVER, there are still some "perks" to it. Like not having to pay taxes.

Usually the family tree of such families are wel documented. Now, who was the first of the royals? (In general or if you know of the Dutch royals) and why (or how) did they become more then the rest of us, in other words: royal?

Answer 1

its just a different kind of leader who when they took over power the family ruled for a long time and so declared their family that of being royal. Who cares about them now, all we gotta do to survive these days is praise the almighty dollar

Answer 2

The oath of the British monarch states that they were "chosen by God".

Answer 3

It's hard to say but in Japan's royalty for example, they believe that the first Empress was a God...

Otherwise i have no idea how other royals became royal...

Answer 4

In many countries, what is now considered "royalty" were descendants of conquerers who took over by force and then demanded loyalty, taxes, service to the king, etc. in return for "protection". They were basically "men on horseback" who either defeated the previous rulers, or they took over in that capacity where no one was ruling before.

Looking at most royal families nowdays you would probably never guess at their origins, but that's actually how most monarchies got their start. After a few generations they settled down into a set role.

I'm not very familiar with the Dutch royal family though.... Their story may have been somewhat different.

Edit:

<<So we are basically praizing ancient/old dictators?>>

Yes, that's actually about what it amounts to. Some of these royals actually don't seem like bad people today, but that is their origin........ Keep in mind that originally kings had life and death power over people - their rule and "divine right to rule" was considered absolute. All land and produce from it ultimately belonged to the king, even if it happened to be where you were living. One example: Even if you were a peasant farmer who owned your own small plot of land, you were entitled only to what you actually produced as a farmer. All wild game on the land actually belonged to the king, and there were severe penalties for killing a deer, elk, boar, etc. That's why hunting was originally considered a sport of royalty. And then of course they also got a portion of your farm produce as taxes. In some locales, you were obliged to furnish at least one or two sons in service to the king's army.

Answer 5

Yes ancient lines of inbred dictators. Initially they were heroes and then it all went wary after that point.

Answer 6

The men who conquered other men became the kings and sometimes emperors.  There was no "deciding" going on here.  It was about war and killing your opponents, and often their brothers and other kin.

Answer 7

The hardest kid in the playground became king.