History Main / RulingFamilyMassacre

A SubTrope of ThePurge and FamilyExtermination. Also, this is a '''DeathTrope that often makes a WhamEpisode!''' Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Season 6 of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' revealed one storyline which was not yet shown in the books: [[spoiler:Queen Cersei Lannister stayed in the Red Keep on the day of her trial because she wants to watch her enemies (the Faith Militant under the High Sparrow and House Tyrell of the Reach who are her in-laws) burn to the ground with wildfire at the Sept of Baelor. While she finally got rid of them for good, there is still one Tyrell who was not caught up with the flames (because fortunately she didn't want to be caught by the High Sparrow and went home instead), and that Tyrell allied with the returning rightful Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, Daenerys Targaryen, in order to avenge the deaths of her family. In season 7, the Lannisters manage to turn her own bannermen against her for siding with foreign invaders, and sack Highgarden. Together with the Iron Fleet's attack on the Ironborn who sided with Daenerys and were ferrying other highborn allies of hers, both the Tyrells and Martells are completely wiped out as a result. However, in Season 8, there is an unnamed Prince of Dorne though it was never confirmed if he's distantly related to the Martells.]]

* The murders of the Romanovs by the Bolsheviks during the Russian CivilWar, after the October Revolution. They had initially hoped to put the Tsar on trial in the fashion of the French and English revolutionaries, but the Soviets at Ekaterinaburg, fearing the encroachment of White soldiers into their territory, ordered the execution of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their son Alexei, and all four of their daughters, as well as four servants, on July 17, 1918. All of the other Romanovs in the hands of the Bolsheviks were murdered as well. Nicholas's brother Michael was killed four days before the Tsar. Several other members of the extended Romanov family were thrown down a mineshaft near Alapayevsk the next day -- despite the use of guns and hand grenades, most of them starved to death. Four more grand dukes were executed on January 28, 1919. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Romanov#Exiles A few members of the House of Romanov managed to escape Russia]], and as a result, the house currently survives to the present day, but it’s hard to determine who the legitimate head of the household should be due to multiple morganatic marriages having taken place over the years reducing the number of possible claimants.

* ''Fanfic/TheVictorsProject'': Within days, if not hours of [[PresidentForLife President]] [[PresidentEvil Lucius's]] death, his sons have died [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident in a boating accident]] and his grandsons have [[UncertainDoom disappeared]]. In the {{Backstory}} The Sea Kings of what would later become District 1 were executed in [[TheCoup a coup]] after wanting to go to war with the Capitol, rather than submit to their will. Their heads are presented to the Capitol's army, along with the heads of their wives, children, and other relatives.

* Attempted in the BackStory of the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'': to usurp the leadership of the space colonies, Degwin Sodo Zabi murdered their enlightened ruler Zeon Zum Deikun[[note]]Or possibly Degwin's oldest son Gihren did it without Degwin's knowledge (possibly aided by one or more of his siblings); this remains a mystery both to the audience and in-universe.[[/note]] but failed to finish off his children Casval and Artesia, who were saved by an old family friend. The entire series can be also interpreted as one man's crusade to apply this trope ''back'': Casval, now grown up and going by the new identity of [[spoiler:Char Aznable]], goes about systematically wiping out the Zabi family (with the ultimate prospects of becoming the new ruler of the space colonies, though vengeance is the most important part of the plan to him). Notably, though, unlike some historical examples, while Casval does eventually get revenge on most of the Zabis in glorious fashion (including one truly memorable example involving a ''bazooka to the face''), he absolutely cannot bring himself to murder then-five-year-old Mineva Lao Zabi, who wasn't even alive when the Deikuns were destroyed. After all, a child shouldn't suffer for the sins of her family. This ends up being a matter of some consequence.
* ''Anime/RomeoXJuliet'' begins with the massacre of the Capulet family, with little Juliet being the only survivor.

* The roleplays of ''Webcomic/WhiteDarkLife'' involve, in part, the lunar wizard Mysta repeatedly attempting to kill [[VideoGame/SonicRushSeries Blaze]] and take her kingdom for himself. (This frequently ends with Mysta being [[PlayingWithFire immolated]] by Blaze herself and/or [[PsychicPowers hurled around like a ragdoll]] by an ''extremely'' irate Silver.) After the TimeSkip, Mysta also starts trying to murder Blaze's children and their love interests.

* The murders of the Romanovs by the Bolsheviks during the Russian CivilWar, after the October Revolution. They had initially hoped to put the Tsar on trial in the fashion of the French and English revolutionaries, but the Soviets at Ekaterinaburg, fearing the encroachment of White soldiers into their territory, ordered the execution of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their son Alexei, and all four of their daughters, as well as four servants, on July 17, 1918. All of the other Romanovs in the hands of the Bolsheviks were murdered as well. Nicholas's brother Michael was killed four days before the Tsar. Several other members of the extended Romanov family were thrown down a mineshaft near Alapayevsk the next day -- despite the use of guns and hand grenades, most of them starved to death. Four more grand dukes were executed on January 28, 1919. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Romanov#Exiles A few members of the House of Romanov managed to escape Russia]], and as a result, the house currently survives to the present day, but it’s hard to determine who the legitimate head of the household should be.

* At the turn of the 21st century, UsefulNotes/{{Nepal}} inverted this: rather than a regime change causing a royal massacre, a royal massacre led to regime change. On June 1, 2001, Nepal's Crown Prince Dipendra [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepalese_royal_massacre went on a killing spree in the royal palace]], killing his father King Birendra, his mother Queen Aishwarya, and seven other members of the royal family before shooting himself. His shot left him alive but in a coma, technically making him king for three days until he also died, leaving his uncle Gyanendra on the throne. Gyanendra proved to be a tyrannical and oppressive monarch who so thoroughly alienated the Nepalese people that they overthrew him and abolished the monarchy in 2007.

* The murders of the Romanovs by the Bolsheviks during the Russian CivilWar, after the October Revolution. They had initially hoped to put the Tsar on trial in the fashion of the French and English revolutionaries, but the Soviets at Ekaterinaburg, fearing the encroachment of White soldiers into their territory, ordered the execution of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their son Alexei, and all four of their daughters, as well as four servants, on July 17, 1918. All of the other Romanovs in the hands of the Bolsheviks were murdered as well. Nicholas's brother Michael was killed four days before the Tsar. Several other members of the extended Romanov family were thrown down a mineshaft near Alapayevsk the next day -- despite the use of guns and hand grenades, most of them starved to death. Four more grand dukes were executed on January 28, 1919. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Romanov#Exiles A few members of the House of Romanov managed to escape Russia]], and as a result, the house currently survives to the present day.