America doesn’t have royalty but it does have its fair share of dynastic families. From political power players like the Bushes, Clintons, and Kennedys, to the oldest of old money like the Rockefellers, Du Ponts and Astors – money and power have been passed down these bloodlines for hundreds of years.

Using Forbes’ America’s richest families list, Yahoo Finance compiled a list of five families whose accumulated, wealth, influence and longevity make them the American equivalent of the royal family.

Media Titans: The Hearst family

Worth: $35 billion

Wealth established: 1887

Source of wealth: Hearst Corporation

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The Hearst fortune began in the late 1800s with George Hearst, a millionaire goldmine owner and U.S. senator. Hearst's son William Randolph attended the finest schools but was kicked out of Harvard University for throwing keg parties in Harvard Square and sending used chamber pots to his professors. After his expulsion, William Randolph took over managing the San Francisco Examiner, a publication his father had won as settlement for a gambling debt. He soon found he had a flair for the industry and began publishing populist stories, attacking business magnates and corruption. The Examiner became the most popular newspaper in San Francisco and William went on to acquire the New York Morning Journal and other newspapers. The modern day Hearst Corporation owns 49 newspapers, nearly 340 magazines and stakes in the ESPN, Lifetime and A&E television channels.

Like his father, William Randolph was involved in American politics—he was a member of Congress for two terms and ran for both mayor and governor of New York. William Randolph’s life is said to be the inspiration behind Orson Welles’ film "Citizen Kane"—his notorious home, Hearst Castle, was also the inspiration for Kane’s Xanadu.

The Hearsts remain in the publishing business—William Randolph Hearst Jr. won a Pulitzer Prize in 1956 for his international reporting and William R. Hearst III chairs Hearst Corporation today.

Like so many royal families, the Hearsts are not without their own drama. In 1974, 19-year-old Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. After two months in captivity Patty announced that she had joined the cause and robbed a bank while holding an M1 carbine gun. She was arrested a year later and sentenced to 35 years in prison. President Jimmy Carter shortened her sentence to just two years and in 2001 President Bill Clinton granted her a full pardon.

Oil barons: The Rockefeller family

Worth: $10 billion

Worth Established: 1858

Source of wealth: Standard Oil

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