Oh, this makes sense. I understand how an emperor or an otherwise important figure would be able to have a huge dynasty while being able to have the offsprings

Oh, this makes sense. I understand how an emperor or an otherwise important figure would be able to have a huge dynasty while being able to have the offsprings stay alive to keep the bloodline alive. However, in this exemple (Charlemagne), I doubt it unless he had a lot of bastard children. In the example of my grandmother, she had up to 20 children (excluding those that didn't even make it to birth), but only 17 of them lived. The poor still had a lot of children, albeit with more issues, so I doubt the social capital would help here. I have no idea, really. But this in an interesting conversation.