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A dynasty is a succession of rulers who belong to the same family for generations, at least cognatic. A (male-line) dynasty is also often called a "house", e.g. the House of Saud or House of Habsburg (House generally is a Western concept, and usually is limited to agnatic lineage). The term is also used to describe the era during which that family reigned, as well as events, trends and artifacts of the period, e.g. "Ming dynasty vase". In such cases, often the "dynasty" is dropped but the name may be used adjectively, e.g. "Tudor style", "Ottoman expansion", "Romanov decadence". Historians traditionally consider a state's history within a framework of successive dynasties, particularly with such nations as China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire. Much of European political history was dominated, successively and together, by dynasties such as the Carolingians, the Capetians, the Habsburgs, the Stuarts, the Hohenzollerns and the Romanovs. Until the nineteenth century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth and power of family members.[1]