Giuliano de' Medici

Lord Krishna Family Tree - Mahabharata

## Lord Krishna and His Close Family: A Complete Family Biography Lord Krishna is one of the most revered deities in Hinduism and the eighth incarnation (avatar) of Lord Vishnu. His life, described in the **Mahabharata**, **Bhagavata Purana**, **Harivamsa**, and other sacred texts, is filled with stories of divine love, wisdom, courage, and dharma. Beyond his role as a spiritual guide and warrior, Krishna belonged to the illustrious **Yadava dynasty**, and his family played a central role in many events of Indian mythology. ### Parents: Vasudeva and Devaki Krishna was born in **Mathura** to **Vasudeva** and **Devaki**, members of the royal Yadava family. Devaki was the sister of King Kamsa, whose prophecy foretold that her eighth son would end his reign. To protect the newborn Krishna, Vasudeva carried him across the Yamuna River on the night of his birth and entrusted him to foster parents in Gokul. Devaki and Vasudeva remained symbols of sacrifice and unwavering faith throughout Krishna's life. ### Foster Parents: Nanda and Yashoda Krishna was lovingly raised by **Nanda Maharaja** and **Yashoda** in the village of **Gokul** and later **Vrindavan**. Nanda was the respected chief of the cowherd community, while Yashoda became one of Hinduism's most celebrated maternal figures. Her affectionate relationship with Krishna, including stories of butter theft and childhood miracles, represents unconditional love and devotion. ### Brother and Sister Krishna's elder brother, **Balarama**, is considered an incarnation of **Shesha**, the divine serpent associated with Lord Vishnu. Balarama was Krishna's closest companion, protector, and guide throughout his youth and adulthood. Krishna's younger sister **Subhadra** became an important figure in the Mahabharata after marrying **Arjuna**, making Krishna both Arjuna's cousin and brother-in-law. Subhadra was also the mother of the heroic warrior **Abhimanyu**. ### Wives of Lord Krishna Krishna is traditionally said to have **eight principal queens**, known as the **Ashtabharya**. The most prominent among them was **Rukmini**, regarded as the goddess Lakshmi's incarnation and Krishna's chief queen in Dwarka. Other principal queens include **Satyabhama**, known for her courage and determination; **Jambavati**, daughter of the bear king Jambavan; **Kalindi**, **Mitravinda**, **Nagnajiti (Satya)**, **Bhadra**, and **Lakshmana**. According to the Bhagavata Purana, Krishna also married **16,100 women** whom he rescued from captivity, restoring their dignity and status. ### Sons and Daughters Ancient texts describe Krishna as having many children through his queens. His most famous son was **Pradyumna**, born to Rukmini and considered an incarnation of Kamadeva, the god of love. Pradyumna became a renowned Yadava prince and warrior. Another well-known son was **Samba**, born to Jambavati. Although brave, Samba's mischievous actions eventually contributed to the downfall of the Yadava dynasty through a famous curse narrative. Other sons included **Charudeshna**, **Aniruddha's father Pradyumna**, **Bhanu**, **Gada**, and several others born to Krishna's different queens. The Puranas also mention daughters, though they receive less detailed attention than his sons. ### Grandchildren and Legacy Krishna's grandson **Aniruddha**, son of Pradyumna and Rukmavati, became one of the most important heirs of the Yadava dynasty. His marriage to **Usha**, daughter of the powerful king Bana, is celebrated in Hindu mythology. Aniruddha's son **Vajra** survived the destruction of the Yadavas after the Mausala Parva. Following Krishna's departure from the earthly world, Vajra became the ruler of **Indraprastha** and later regions associated with Mathura, preserving Krishna's royal lineage. ### The Yadava Family Legacy Krishna's family represents devotion, duty, sacrifice, and divine purpose. From Devaki's courage and Yashoda's unconditional love to Balarama's loyalty, Rukmini's devotion, Subhadra's connection to the Pandavas, and Vajra's continuation of the dynasty, each family member contributed to the enduring legacy of the Yadava lineage. Together, they form one of the most influential and beloved family trees in Hindu mythology, connecting the stories of the Mahabharata, Bhagavata Purana, and the spiritual traditions followed by millions around the world.

Plantagenet Family Tree - The House of Plantagenet from Henry II to Richard III

The House of Plantagenet was the royal dynasty that ruled England for 331 years, from the accession of Henry II in 1154 to the death of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, making it the longest-reigning royal house in English history. Fourteen Plantagenet kings held the throne in unbroken succession, and in the fifteenth century the family's two junior branches, the houses of Lancaster and York, fought each other for the crown in the civil wars later known as the Wars of the Roses. ## Origins The dynasty came from Anjou in western France. Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, is said to have worn a sprig of broom, *planta genista*, in his cap, and from that nickname the family eventually took its name, although it was not used as an actual surname until Richard, 3rd Duke of York, adopted it in the 1440s. Geoffrey's marriage in 1128 to Empress Matilda, daughter and designated heir of Henry I of England, gave their son a claim to the English throne that he made good in 1154. With Normandy and Anjou behind him, and Aquitaine gained through his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II ruled lands reaching from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees, the assemblage historians call the Angevin Empire. ## Notable members The early, or Angevin, kings are among the most familiar names in English history: Henry II, whose itinerant justices and sworn juries laid the foundations of the common law; Richard the Lionheart, a leading commander of the Third Crusade; and King John, who sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215. Henry III rebuilt Westminster Abbey, Edward I conquered Wales and summoned the Model Parliament, and Edward III opened the Hundred Years' War and founded the Order of the Garter. Later generations produced Edward the Black Prince, the victor of Poitiers, Henry V of Agincourt, and Richard III, whose lost grave was rediscovered in Leicester in 2012. ## Lancaster and York Edward III's many sons divided the dynasty. From his third surviving son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, came Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI, and, through Gaunt's Beaufort children, Margaret Beaufort and her son Henry VII. From his fourth son, Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, combined with the senior Mortimer descent from his second son, Lionel of Antwerp, came Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and his sons Edward IV and Richard III. The rivalry of those branches produced thirty years of intermittent civil war, ending when Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at Bosworth and married Elizabeth of York, uniting the red and white roses. ## Significance No other family has shaped English institutions so deeply. Under the Plantagenets, Magna Carta became a settled principle, parliament grew from an occasional royal council into a body whose consent was needed for taxation, the common law took its enduring form, and English displaced French as the language of the court. Their castles, abbeys and cathedrals still define the medieval landscape of England and Wales. | Fact | Details | | --- | --- | | Ruled | England, 1154 to 1485 | | Founder | Henry II, son of Geoffrey V of Anjou and Empress Matilda | | Place of origin | Anjou, France | | Kings | Fourteen, from Henry II to Richard III | | Branches | Angevin, Lancaster, York | | Emblems | The broom flower, the red rose of Lancaster, the white rose of York | | Last king | Richard III, killed at Bosworth in 1485 | | Legacy | Magna Carta, English common law, the growth of parliament |

The Jackson Family Tree - Michael Jackson

Hohenzollern Family Tree - Prussia's Royal House from Frederick the Great to Kaiser Wilhelm II

The House of Hohenzollern is the German dynasty that ruled Brandenburg from 1415, held the Prussian crown from 1701, and gave Germany its three emperors between 1871 and the fall of the monarchy in 1918. This tree follows the senior Prussian line in one unbroken descent, from Frederick William the Great Elector, through the kings of Prussia and the German Emperors, down to Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia, the present head of the house. ## Origins The family takes its name from Hohenzollern Castle on a hill in the Swabian Alb, where a line of counts is recorded from the eleventh century. A Swabian Zollern married into the burgraviate of Nuremberg in 1192, and the Franconian branch that grew from it spent two centuries accumulating lands and credit with the Holy Roman Emperors. The decisive moment came in 1415, when Emperor Sigismund invested Frederick VI of Nuremberg as Elector of Brandenburg in return for his political and financial support. The Duchy of Prussia, a separate inheritance lying outside the Empire, passed to the Brandenburg electors in 1618, and Frederick William, the Great Elector, welded the two into a single functioning state after the devastation of the Thirty Years' War. ## Notable members Frederick I turned the electorate into a kingdom in 1701. His son Frederick William I, the Soldier King, built the army and the treasury that his own son, **Frederick the Great**, used to seize Silesia and to make Prussia a European power, while also composing music, building Sanssouci and corresponding with Voltaire. **Queen Louise** became the emotional centre of Prussian resistance to Napoleon. **Wilhelm I**, with Otto von Bismarck as his minister president, was proclaimed German Emperor at Versailles in 1871. His son **Frederick III** and the liberal English princess he married, Victoria, daughter of Queen Victoria, reigned for only ninety nine days. **Wilhelm II**, the last Kaiser, abdicated in 1918 and died in Dutch exile in 1941. ## Significance No other German family shaped the modern state so directly. Hohenzollern rulers created the Prussian civil service, compulsory schooling and the general staff, sponsored the Berlin academies and the Humboldt university model, and then used Prussian power to unify Germany around themselves. The monarchy ended with the revolution of November 1918, but the house continues as a private family: the headship passed from Wilhelm II to his eldest son, then to Louis Ferdinand, and in 1994 to Georg Friedrich, whose own father and uncles are part of the succession story told in this tree. ## Quick facts | Fact | Details | |---|---| | Family name | Hohenzollern | | Place of origin | Hohenzollern Castle, Swabia, southern Germany | | Ruled | Brandenburg from 1415, Prussia from 1618, Germany from 1871 | | Royal title | King in Prussia from 1701, King of Prussia from 1772 | | Imperial title | German Emperor, 1871 to 1918 | | German Emperors | Wilhelm I, Frederick III, Wilhelm II | | Monarchy ended | 9 November 1918 | | Present head of the house | Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia, since 1994 | | Principal residences | Berlin City Palace, Sanssouci and Cecilienhof at Potsdam, Charlottenburg | | Branch shown here | The senior Prussian line only, not Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen |