History Main / RoyalBlood

* ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'': This is part of the conflict. Royal units tend to have higher starting stats. This is the only real difference between Royals and "normals"- [[EvilOverlord Stanley]] was made an heir by [[IncrediblyLamePun King Saline IV]], which [[TheAce Ansom]] takes as a ''[[BerserkButton grave]]'' mistake.

** The Targaryens and the Baratheons (who are almost a cadet branch). Additionally, all the great houses except the Tullys and Tyrells can claim direct descent from the kings who ruled before the Seven Kingdoms were united.

** In ''The Napoleon of Notting Hill'', this has been abandoned.

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* In ''Manga/BlackClover'', the Clover Kingdom has three royal families: the Houses of Silva, Vermillion, and Kira. The Silva family includes the heroine Noelle and her siblings Nozel, Nebra, and Solid. The Vermillion family has Mimosa, her brother Kirsch, and their cousins Mereoleona, Fuegoleon, and Leopold. The Kira family is the current family on the throne. Royalty all have high levels of magic power because their ancestors stole mana from the elves.

* In ''Manga/Acca13TerritoryInspectionDept'', the king's grandson, Prince Schwan, is the only heir to the throne, [[spoiler: until it is revealed that the main character Jean Otus, and his sister Lotta, are of royal blood through their mother, a princess who was thought to have died in a shipwreck before they were born. Jean is older than Schwan, making him the true heir to the throne.]]
* Something similar to the ''Stargate'' take occurs in ''Anime/MyOtome'', where the members of the Windbloom royal family have the inherited ability to activate LostTechnology. This becomes important later, as some believe Mashiro to be an impostor, and therefore unable to activate the Harmonium. [[spoiler:While Mashiro was able to activate it a little, since she knew the song and had an Otome with her, she couldn't unlock its full power because she was indeed an impostor. ''Nina'', however, is the real Mashiro, and since she fills all three requirements (is a Windbloom, knows the song, and is an Otome), she unlocks its full power.]]
* Sheeta [[spoiler:and Muska]] in ''Anime/CastleInTheSky''
* In ''Anime/ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld'' two members of the Royal House of Roshtaria working in concert are the only ones who can control the [[ArtifactOfDoom Eye of God]].

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has yet to show how much it is buying into this trope, but the Marines certainly believe in it. The royalty they are tracking is [[spoiler:the Pirate King]]'s. And then there are the Celestial Dragons, [[spoiler:descendants of the founders of the World Government]]. Their royal blood affords them immense wealth and political power which they are more than willing to abuse for the sake of their own amusement.
* The various royal lines of the [[WarriorPrince Ancient Belka kings]] in ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' come with various powers that allow them to become [[PersonOfMassDestruction Persons of Mass Destruction]]. The reason behind this isn't as idealistic as most examples though. During the [[LensmanArmsRace Ancient Belka War]], the different factions delved deeply into [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke genetic engineering to seek an upper hand over everyone else]], and their kings greatly modified themselves to not only gain these powers, [[SuperpowerfulGenetics but to force these powers onto their descendants as well]].
* In ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', [[spoiler:Negi and Asuna]] have Royal Blood, but in this case there's a good reason that this is important, as the person who started the royal bloodline is heavily implied to be the mage that created the Magic World. Konoka is also of Royal Blood, from a different family. This is a key plot point in the Kyoto arc and ignored after that.
* The whole Royal Bloodline thing is a plot point of sorts in the initial ''Anime/{{Tenchi Muyo|Ryo Ohki}}'' OVA series. It's mostly used to confirm that Tenchi is actually related to the then-thought long lost Prince Yosho, and thus a member of the Juraian Royal Family. It doesn't sit well with Emperor Azusa.
* This is a plot point in ''Manga/HanasakeruSeishounen''. [[spoiler: Kajika is actually the granddaughter of King Machaty. Since her father is his oldest son, she is actually first in line for the throne. This is not revealed to anyone outside of the main cast, as it would make her a target for assassination since there is already a SuccessionCrisis. In the end, her cousin Rumaty becomes [[TheGoodKing king]].]]
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' talks quite a bit about the royal family and being of royal blood. The [[spoiler:Reiss]] family are the [[spoiler:''true'' rulers of the walls on Paradis Island, and the Fritz family that's in charge at the start of the series is a puppet family. Christa Lenz, real name Historia Reiss, is the true queen of the walls and eventually gets crowned. Grisha Yeager's first wife Dina was [[TheLastOfHisKind the last remaining descendant]] (at least before birthing her son Zeke) of the Fritz family that didn't accompany the king to Paradis Island when he fled there]]. While we don't know if there are any ''specific'' royal family powers, [[spoiler:the Founding Titan has been passed down the Fritz/Reiss family for generations (until it was stolen by Grisha and then given to Eren)]] and only a member of the royal family can fully unlock [[spoiler:its Coordinate ability, which includes the powers to control Titans and alter memories of Eldians. As Eren, the current holder of the Founding Titan, is not of royal blood, it remains to be seen if he'll be able to master the Coordinate. He seems to be able to use some of its powers when he touches a member of the royal family (such as in the case of the Smiling Titan, aka his stepmother Dina), however]]. Also, [[spoiler:the Founding Titan is currently what the Kingdom of Marley are after and the reason why they attacked Paradis Island in the first place was to retrieve it from the Reiss family. Too bad Grisha got there first.]]
* ''Manga/DragonKnights'' has an incredibly complicated BloodMagic form of this: The Dragon Lord's wife has been cursed to be unable to reproduce with him, he won't take another lover to produce an heir, and his blood is ''literally poisonous'' because it's super-condensed light magic and kills anything that touches it but a blood relative or his wife. So: only Rath, a demon bound in a dragon body by the magic in the Dragon Lord's blood, is a valid heir. Someone better try to talk Rath out of those suicidal tendencies...

* Parodied in H. C. Andersen's ''The Princess and the Pea'' - her royal power gives her the power to feel a pea through a whole stack of mattresses.

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** In ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'', Jadis treats with contempt the notion that Uncle Andrew could be anything but a king: Royal Blood and magic go together. Whoever heard of commoners being magicians? Whether this is AuthorityGrantsAsskicking or -- in light of her ruthless use of magic for power -- AsskickingLeadsToLeadership is not clear, but she certainly treats it as the former.

** In ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'', Jadis treats with contempt the notion that Uncle Andrew could be anything but a king: Royal Blood and magic go together. Whoever heard of commoners being magicians? Whether this is AuthorityEqualsAsskicking or -- in light of her ruthless use of magic for power -- AsskickingEqualsAuthority is not clear, but she certainly treats it as the former.

* Jim Butcher's ''Literature/CodexAlera'' has increasing amounts of magical power amongst the nobility with the First Lord (i.e. the King) being the most powerful.
** Though this is implied to be as much AsskickingEqualsAuthority as it is Royal Blood — more powerful crafters automatically get more respect, and therefore get high titles, and therefore pass both powers and titles on to their children.

* In ''Manga/BlackClover'' the Clover Kingdom has three royal families: the Houses of Silva, Vermillion, and Kira. The Silva family includes the heroine Noelle and her siblings Nozel, Nebra, and Solid. The Vermillion family has Mimosa, her brother Kirsch, and their cousins Mereoleona, Fuegoleon, and Leopold. The Kira family is the current family on the throne. Royalty all have high levels of magic power because their ancestors stole mana from the elves.
* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', more and more characters are revealed to be of Noble blood, [[spoiler: including Nanao, in her backstory and even Ichigo and Issin themselves]] that it can feel like an overused, uninspired reveal in later chapters or break WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has yet to show how much it is buying into this trope, but the Marines certainly believe in it. The royalty they are tracking is [[spoiler: the Pirate King]]'s. And then there are the Celestial Dragons, [[spoiler:descendants of the founders of the World Government]]. Their royal blood affords them immense wealth and political power which they are more than willing to abuse for the sake of their own amusement.

* In ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'', the females of the royal family are endowed with PsychicPowers, often the [[MacGuffin Triforce of Wisdom]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the name "Zelda"]]. Also, even without the Triforce, said PsychicPowers cause her to be an almost endless source of magical energy. All of this combined causes the Princesses Zelda to be very [[DamselInDistress popular targets of supernatural kidnappers]]. Therefore, it sucks to be royal and female in Hyrule. No wonder that the Hyrulean Princesses tend to [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime develop]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker a]] [[{{Tomboy}} tomboyish]] [[RebelliousPrincess side.]]
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' explains much of it: [[spoiler:the Hyrulean Royal Family is SemiDivine, as the first Zelda was herself a human reincarnation of the goddess Hylia. Also, an incredibly powerful demon king decided to hold a post-mortem grudge against her, cursing her line to forever be harassed by an incarnation of his hatred]]. The fact that they're all called Zelda, however, is simple legal obligation - as in there was literally a royal decree somewhere down the line (explained in the [[AllThereInTheManual game manual]] of the [[VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink second NES game]]) requiring that all female members born into the family be named Zelda. Monarchs can be weird sometimes.
* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey III: The Drowned City'' has Princesses and Princes, a Class centered around their Royal Lineage.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', the Orzammar SuccessionCrisis puts the PlayerCharacter in the dilemma of choosing between a radical Royal Blood heir and a more reasonable mere-noble successor named in the late king's last will. The twist is that [[spoiler:the royal heir is very progressive but tyrannical and the other sucks as a ruler]].

Royal Blood! It's real, it's significant, and only the person who's really got it is suitable for the throne. In {{Fantasy}}, it may actually [[RoyaltySuperPower endow the person with magical powers]], or even be required [[FisherKing by the land]] (and, unfortunately, making it useful in BloodMagic). Features even in SF for a FeudalFuture. And when it comes to being OfferedTheCrown, Royal Blood may encourage them to choose you.

* Myth/KingArthur could only pull the sword from the stone because he was secretly the son of Uther Pendragon.

* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/aulnoy/1892/princessbelleetoile.html Princess Belle-Etoile,]]'' the story requires that the heroine be in poverty in the opening, so she's the daughter of a princess in reduced circumstances.

* ''Literature/{{Earthsea}}'': In ''Literature/AWizardOfEarthsea'', Ged found an old man and woman stranded on an island. In the sequel ''Literature/TheTombsOfAtuan'', Tenar explains that they were a prince and princess, the last of their family, whom the God Emperor had abandoned at sea as infants as he feared to kill those of Royal Blood.

* In ''Fanfic/AllThatGlitters'', Anna and Hans have to work together to access a cave with [[BloodMagic a protective spell that requires blood]] from two separate royal lineages.

** King UsefulNotes/CharlesII of England notoriously did not ''want'' to touch for the King's Evil, but was persuaded to do so as a sign of the continuity of the monarchy after the Restoration. He is said to have muttered to a scrofulous victim brought to him, "God grant you good health -- and better sense."

[[quoteright:302:[[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/coronation.JPG]]]]

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', the royal line of Númenor/Arnor/Gondor and thusly Aragorn descend from various elven royal families and human royal families of the First Age. One of these elven royal families includes a divine spirit, whose powers are present in the lineage in reduced form. The people of Gondor have the saying of the opening quote, that royal blood gives him [[HealingHands healing powers]]. This is an in-universe understanding; what it means is that a true and good king will know healing arts because the Kings of Gondor are meant to value that over the arts of war. This proves true; Aragorn only enters the city to heal those afflicted with the Black Breath of the Nazgúl and succeeds because he's taken the time to learn medicine that's been long-forgotten, such as the full and proper uses of the ''athelas'' plant. Aragorn also has a "kingly bearing" that shows up whenever he is in a clash of wills--onlookers perceive that Aragorn seems to grow in stature while the other man appears smaller, and sometimes even seems to have a white flame flickering on his brow--this, at least, would seem to be a remnant of those ancient powers.

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', the royal line of Númenor/Arnor/Gondor and thusly Aragorn descend from various elven royal families and human royal families of the First Age. One of these elven royal families includes a divine spirit, whose powers are present in the lineage in reduced form. The people of Gondor have the saying of the opening quote, that royal blood gives him [[HealingHands healing powers]]. Technically though this is an in-universe misunderstand, it's not actually healing powers but rather a CompellingVoice. This power is the only thing that can cure the supernatural disease known as the Morgul curse, though it has other uses as well: as Aragorn proves at the Black Gate. Having been raised by Lord Elrond though, Aragorn is in fact a skilled healer in addition to his powers.

* Played very straight in Katherine Kurtz's ''Literature/{{Deryni}}'' books. Faced with a [[TheCaligula tyrannical king]] Camber's family track down the last descendant of the ''previous'' royal house (which was overthrown three generations ago)... and when they find him minding his own business as a celibate monk under a vow of silence, they [[MoralDissonance kidnap him in the dark of night]], hold him prisoner for nearly a year, force him to marry at swordpoint, and use mental and magical coercion to make him into a king. The resulting three centuries of persecution for the Deryni might be viewed as karma.

* Arguably, the ''entire human race'' can claim at least some strain of royal blood. It's been stated that most everyone in the Western world is descended from Charlemagne. This is because with every generation going backwards through time, your number of ancestors doubles[[note]]except where marriage between distant relatives narrows the family tree[[/note]] - you have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, etc. - and the population of the world has been such that it would be almost impossible for an individual to not claim at least one royal ancestor. [[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/05/the-royal-we/2497/ The concept is explained in detail here.]]
However, your ancestors don't ''necessarily'' double with each generation. A lot of people marry their cousins, although the practice has become less popular in more recent generations.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', Naveen has it on both sides of his family, according to Facilier -- who says he's royal on his mother's, though it's hard to tell whether he's serious.

** In the second book of the Camber trilogy Joram points out to his father that he (Camber) could have made himself king with fewer problems then Cinhil Haldane is having. Camber argues that that would have made him no better then the Deryni Festils as he has no royal blood and no legal right to the throne of Gwynedd. Clearly Camber is a legitimist.

* In Randall Garrett's ''Literature/LordDarcy'' stories, the throne of England combined with that of the Holy Roman Emperor. As a consequence, it is elective, but only among the Plantagenet line. At one point, we see the king's brother thinking that his nephews are more likely candidates but he is a possible one.

* In Creator/PatriciaAMcKillip's ''Literature/TheRiddleMasterTrilogy'', kings have a mystical bond, called "land-law" that allows them to sense their own kingdoms. An heir receiving this feeling is often the first notice anyone receives that a king has died.

* [[spoiler:Melisandre and Stannis Baratheon]] from ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' are currently trying [[spoiler:to resurrect a dragon]]. They need a royal blood sacrifice to do so, so other characters are actively hiding children that could even remotely be considered "kings blood". [[spoiler:Like the son of Mance Rayder, the leader of the northern wild men.]]

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In "King and Brooks", Miss Brooks discovers one of her students in an Indian prince. The boy's father, the maharajah, proposes marriage to Miss Brooks.

* ''[[Series/WonderWoman1975 Wonder Woman]]'': Unlike the comics where she is made from clay or a daughter of Zeus, there is no backstory explicitly stated of Princess Diana's birth. She is simply the heir to the throne and has a younger sister, Drusilla.

** Some critics have attributed the sterling character of the princes in ''Theatre/{{Cymbeline}}'' and the princess in ''Theatre/TheWintersTale'' to a belief that royal blood would show up in their character, but, on the other hand, in both those plays the older generation, just as royal, is distinctly less sterling.

** Sometimes in the games, royal blood also grants powers that make them worth using over another unit. Other than plot roles such as Louise's relation to the Queen of Bern getting the characters an audience with her or the princess of a foreign land aiding the army, there are some certain combat privileges to being royal. A usual example are weapons only those of royal blood can use. (Namely weapons like the Rapier, Hector's Wolf Beil, Leaf's Light sword, etc) However, when the royal unit is a ''normal'' class unit, they may ''still'' have some specific weapons only they or another royal can use.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' explains much of it: [[spoiler:the Hyrulean Royal Family is SemiDivine, as the first Zelda was herself a human reincarnation of a goddess. Also, an incredibly powerful demon king decided to hold a post-mortem grudge against her, cursing her line to forever be harassed by an incarnation of his hatred]]. The fact that they're all called Zelda, however, is simple legal obligation - as in there was literally a royal decree somewhere down the line requiring that all female members born into the family be named Zelda. Monarchs can be weird sometimes.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'': In the [[VideoGame/FableI first installment]] into this series, it's implied that the main character descends from an ancient royal bloodline, and it's outright stated that a sacrifice of said blood is needed to unlock the full potential of the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Sword of Aeons.]] The other installments in the series also imply a sort of inborn heroic power behind this bloodline as it is essentially the family each player protagonist descends from and the major reason your character can pull off most of their many heroic and death defying feats...like falling out a window some 10-20 stories up.

* In ''Webcomic/NoRestForTheWicked'', November can detect royal blood. She tells Perrault that the Marquis has no royal or even noble blood (if you've read "Puss In Boots", you know she's right there) and later deduces that Clare is royal, but only by marriage (if you're read "The Girl Without Hands", you know she's right there, too.) On the other hand, this doesn't seem a common ability; the Marquis is widely accepted, and November's ragged appearance [[FallenPrincess convinces all and sundry that she's no princess]].

* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' has the Butterfly family, the [[TheHighQueen matrilineal]] royal bloodline of the kingdom[[note]]queendom?[[/note]] of Mewni. This becomes a plot point in season 3, [[spoiler: when [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Eclipsa's]] escape from prison and subsequent trial reveals that every Butterfly who took the throne after Eclipsa wasn't actually a Butterfly, but were descended from a peasant girl the Magical High Commission used to [[FantasticRacism replace]] Eclipsa's [[HalfHumanHybrid half-Monster daughter Meteora]]. Star is distraught by this revelation since, because their royalty is determined through the mother, it means Eclipsa's not her 9th-great grandmother, and Star isn't a real princess]].

But your ancestors don't double with each generation. A lot of people marry their cousins, even more commonly even in the fairly recent past.

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* From the beginning of TheMiddleAges to the end of the Renaissance, monarchs in England and France were thought to be capable of healing citizens (which is likely where Tolkien got his idea of Aragorn being a healer) of scrofula (known as the "King's Evil" as it was thought only the monarch could cure it) simply by laying their hands on the person, murmuring, "God grant you good health," and giving them a coin. This ended in England after Queen Anne failed to cure the future Dr. Creator/SamuelJohnson (of Boswellian fame) and her successor George I condemned the practice as "too Catholic," and was ended by Louis XV in France, although a brief resurrection in 1825 was widely ridiculed.

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* In ''{{Manga/Bleach}}'', more and more characters are revealed to be of Noble blood, [[spoiler: including Nanao, in her backstory and even Ichigo and Issin themselves]] that it can feel like an overused, uninspired reveal in later chapters or break WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief

* Something similar to the ''Stargate'' take occurs in ''Anime/MaiOtome'', where the members of the Windbloom royal family have the inherited ability to activate LostTechnology. This becomes important later, as some believe Mashiro to be an impostor, and therefore unable to activate the Harmonium. [[spoiler:While Mashiro was able to activate it a little, since she knew the song and had an Otome with her, she couldn't unlock its full power because she was indeed an impostor. ''Nina'', however, is the real Mashiro, and since she fills all three requirements (is a Windbloom, knows the song, and is an Otome), she unlocks its full power.]]

* In ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', [[spoiler:Negi and Asuna]] have Royal Blood, but in this case there's a good reason that this is important, as the person who started the royal bloodline is heavily implied to be the mage that created the Magic World. Konoka is also of Royal Blood, from a different family. This is a key plot point in the Kyoto arc and ignored after that.

->''"The hands of the king are the [[HealingHands hands of a healer]], and so shall the rightful king be known."''

Idealistic stories on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism generally have the rightful king also be the better ruler. More cynical stories split them up, and then even LawfulGood characters may support the worse ruler because the one who would be a ReasonableAuthorityFigure would create a dangerous precedent in ignoring the laws of succession. Royal Blood may require your putting up with {{Royal Brat}}s, TheEvilPrince and TheCaligula -- all the time, if it's InTheBlood.