History Main / RulingFamilyMassacre

** In the series' backstory, the forces of Emperor Tiber Septim, [[FounderOfTheKingdom founder]] of the Third Tamriellic Empire, sacked Mournhold, the capital city of Morrowind, home of the [[OurElvesAreBetter Dunmer (Dark Elves)]]. His legions slaughtered the entire noble family, down to their young daughter, Barenziah. Septim's Dunmeri General, Symmachus, convinced Septim to spare Barenziah in order to groom her as a [[PuppetKing Puppet Queen]] who could look out for Imperial interests in Morrowind after the armistice was signed joining Morrowind to the Empire as a VoluntaryVassal.

This trope is naturally [[GenocideBackfire countered]] by a HiddenBackupPrince (if the ruling family in question is productive and prudent enough) or by a SoleSurvivor-slash-LastOfHisKind who somehow escapes the massacre.

* [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI]]: The town of Tzen located in the Southern Continent had a royal family that was executed by TheEmpire prior to the events of the game.

* 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 Minerva Zabi, who wasn't even alive when the Deikuns were destroyed. This ends up being a matter of some consequence.

* After Roman emperor Caligula was assassinated in 41 AD, the conspirators also killed his wife and his little daughter. They were too late to get Caligula's uncle Claudius, who was rescued from the palace by guards loyal to Caligula (he'd been [[CurtainCamouflage hiding behind a curtain]]), and wound up becoming an emperor himself.

-->-- '''[[Literature/BooksOfKings 1 Kings 16:11]]'''

* As [[ComicBook/XWingSeries Plourr Ilo]] is an {{Expy}} of Anastasia, during her backstory her family was overthrown and then later slaughtered, though she and her little brother managed to escape. [[spoiler: Though her brother immediately tried to tell the revolutionaries where she was.]]

* 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-unvierse.[[/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 Minerva Zabi, who wasn't even alive when the Deikuns were destroyed. This ends up being a matter of some consequence.

* 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 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). 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 Minerva Zabi, who wasn't even alive when the Deikuns were destroyed. This ends up being a matter of some consequence.

* 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.]]

* ''Fanfic/TheMasksWeWear'' starts with one of these against the Fire Nation's Royal Family. Ozai, Ursa, and their two children survive, but Ursa and the kids are forced to disguise themselves as Earth Nation peasants afterwards.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11825762/1/The-Masks-we-Wear The Masks We Wear]]'' starts with one of these against the Fire Nation's Royal Family. Ozai, Ursa, and their two children survive, but Ursa and the kids are forced to disguise themselves as Earth Nation peasants afterwards.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003''. When the Quorum of Twelve refuse to support Zarek's attempted coup, he leaves the room and orders his men outside to immediately execute them. From his point of view this is an act of ruthless but necessary pragmatism -- if no-one in the previous administration supports you, better to KillThemAll and present your own rule as a fait accompli. Gaeta is shocked at the massacre and refuses to accept this argument; instead he insists on holding a KangarooCourt for Commander Adama that fatally delays the transfer of power.

* Four years prior to the first ''Fanfic/HeartOfALionessThroughTheEyesOfAQueen'' book, a group of rogues overthrew the Pridelands by attempting this. Queen Aza survived along with her newborn daughter, however she was killed four years afterwards. Aza's daughter Jolina survived and took back her kingdom.

* ''Literature/AscendanceTrilogy'': In ''The False Prince'', the entire royal family of Karthya is poisoned at once, leading to the plot to create a successful impersonator of the youngest [[HiddenBackupPrince prince]], who [[NeverFoundTheBody had been lost at sea]] several years ago. [[spoiler:And then it turns out that the [[GenuineImposter "winnning" impostor was the real]] HiddenBackupPrince all along.]]

* ''Literature/AscendanceTrilogy'': In ''The False Prince'', the entire royal family of Karthya is poisoned at once, leading to the plot of create a successful impersonator of the youngest [[HiddenBackupPrince prince]] who [[NeverFoundTheBody had been lost at sea]] several years ago. [[spoiler:And then it turns out that the [[GenuineImposter "winnning" impostor was the real]] HiddenBackupPrince all along.]]

* Inverted in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', in which the foreign takeover occurs because Prince Fortinbras of Norway happens to be passing through Denmark at the same time that a GambitPileup leads to the royal family massacring each other. (Kenneth Branagh's 1996 film depicts Fortinbras' arrival as an actual invasion, but the royal family has already taken care of the hard part for him.)

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'', Rasputin bewitches the Russian people into an overthrow of the Tsar and executing his entire family... except they miss Anastasia. This story is (loosely) based on the RealLife massacre of the Romanov family by the [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Bolsheviks]].

* ''Literature/AscendanceTrilogy'': In ''The False Prince'', the entire royal family of Karthya is poisoned at once, leading to the plot of create a successful impersonator of the youngest [[HiddenBackupPrince prince]] who [[NeverFoundTheBody had been lost at sea]] several years ago. [[spoiler:And then it turns out that the [[GenuineImposter "winnning" impostor was the real HiddenBackupPrince all along]].]]

* ''Literature/AscendanceTrilogy'': In ''The False Prince'', the entire royal family of Karthya is poisoned at once, leading to the plot of create a successful impersonator of the youngest [[HiddenBackupPrince prince]] who [[NeverFoundTheBody had been lost at sea]] several years ago. [[spoiler:And then it turns out that the [[GenuineImposter "winnning" impostor was the real HiddenBackupPrince all along]].]]

!!Examples

[[folder:Fan Works]]

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''
** In the BackStory, the Targaryen family that ruled Westeros for centuries had been all but wiped out by Robert Baratheon's rebels. Tywin Lannister sent his men to murder Prince Rhaegar's children as he had remained neutral during the war and wanted to establish his loyalty, though Ned Stark remained angry at Tywin for murdering children. Only two very young children were successfully smuggled to another continent by their retainers.
** The infamous Red Wedding between Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey saw the traitorous houses of Frey and Bolton try to slaughter every member of the Starks, former ruling families of the North, to usurp said lands. It wasn't as successful as they wanted, because there were some Starks who were falsely presumed dead and thus not targeted. They also move against the Tullys but aren't actually planning to kill them all yet. Though they kill Edmure Tully's sister Catelyn they originally intended to keep her alive but after she goes insane murder her (which backfires on them horribly when she is resurrected). As for Edmure they keep him alive but imprisoned, though his wife fears her father will have Edmure killed if she bears him a son. Also one Tully did not attend the wedding at all (in the books) or took a lucky leak and escaped (in the series).
** Aegon the Conqueror wiped out two ruling Houses, the Hoares and the Gardeners using his dragons. However when he killed Harren "The Black" Hoare and all their sons by burning their castle of Harrenhal he had the support of most of the Riverlands due to Harren being a brutal tyrant. As for Mern IX Gardener he and all his family were killed at the Field of Fire, the only survivor being a nephew who died from his wounds three days later.
* The opening chapter of ''Literature/BlackTrillium'' sees the Ruwendan royal family making a LastStand during the sack of their capital by the neighboring Labornok. They are massacred by the Labornok troops off-screen, while the three Ruwendan princesses are being led to safety by their servants.

* A variant of this happens in Mary Doria Russell's ''Children of God'', the sequel to ''Literature/TheSparrow''. The perpetrator wants to liberate his people and the only way he can begin is to kill off every member of ''his own'' family.

* In the backstory of the first book of the ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'' series, the ruling family of Ruatha Hold is slaughtered by the invading Warlord Fax. Unfortunately for him, he misses one...
* In ''[[Literature/AscendanceTrilogy The False Prince]]'', the entire royal family of Karthya is poisoned at once, leading to the plot of create a successful impersonator of the youngest [[HiddenBackupPrince prince]] who [[NeverFoundTheBody had been lost at sea]] several years ago. [[spoiler: And then it turns out that the [[GenuineImposter "winnning" impostor was the real HiddenBackupPrince all along]].]]
* Averted in Neil Gaiman's ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'', as not only does Door [[spoiler: and also her younger sister]] survive her family's murder, but the BigBad never wanted to actually wipe out the House of Portico, just coerce one of its members to use its hereditary powers on his behalf.
* In the backstory of ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', the royal family of Riva was killed by assassins sent by Queen Salmissra of Nyissa. Only the youngest Prince survives by jumping into the sea. This event is shown in the prequels ''Belgarath the Sorceror'' and ''Polgara the Sorceress''.

* 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.]]

[[folder:Theater]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]

[[folder:Webcomic]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Blindsprings}}'' has the ruling Llyn family killed by a mob. Interestingly, the man who dethroned them wanted to ''avert'' this trope; he put {{Power Nullifier}}s on all of them and placed them in house arrest. Two sisters survived, though, thanks to the empress making a pact with spirits to save her two youngest daughters. [[spoiler:Turns out that after a failed rescue attempt, the house guards decided to kill all the Llyn's, and the whole incident was whitewashed.]]
* 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.

* 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. Eventually, 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, both the Tyrells and Martells are completely wiped out as a result.]]

* 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, Daenarys Targaryen, in order to avenge the deaths of her family]].

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