About the Book
In a world historically dominated by male rulers, the women who have sat on thrones of their own shine out brightly. Some queens and empresses were born to greatness, while others fought their way to power. Queens ranges from the ancient world to the present day, telling the stories of these women who ruled, from murderous former courtesan Wu Zetian in 7th century China to Elizabeth I, the ‘Virgin Queen’ of England. In 6th century Constantinople, Empress Theodora, who had been a street performer before catching the eye of Emperor Justinian, extended rights for women, passing laws that allowed them to divorce and own property and made rape a crime punishable by death. In 12th century Europe, Eleanor of Aquitaine first married the king of France and then the king of England. At the Mughal court in Lahore in the early 17th century, Nur Jahan, wife of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir, was the political powerhouse behind the throne. In more recent history, the book explores the reigns of Catherine the Great, revealing how a minor German aristocrat came to rule and expand the Russian Empire, Queen Victoria, whose family dominated the world in the early 20th centuty, and her more recent descendent, Elizabeth II, the longest-ruling queen in history.
Female rulers are often described as ambitious rather than bold, as devious rather than diplomatically astute and as intriguers and meddlers, all characterizations that are destructive to the reality of women’s lives in the world’s monarchies. Even genealogies still often leave out the women of royal families, overlooking their genuine contributions. To some extent, we will never know these great women of history as well as we know their menfolk; the sources simply leave too many gaps. However, we can and will do better in giving the women rulers of history the recognition they deserve
Carefully researched, superbly entertaining and illustrated throughout with more than 180 photographs and artworks, Queens highlights the true personalities and real lives of the women who became monarchs and empresses.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
The Ancient World
Hatshetsup, Pharaoh of Egypt (c.1493–1479 BCE) – the first and longest reigning woman pharaoh in Egyptian history. After her husband Thurmose’s death, Hatshetsup reigned for 20 years. She restored her country’s prosperity by rebuilding trade routes. One expedition returned with myrrh trees for making scent – the first recorded transplant of foreign trees. Hatshetsup left an extraordinary legacy of buildings including her mortuary temple at the entrance to Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.
Queen Tomyris of the Massagetae, a nomadic people in Central Asia.
Artemisia I of Caria (484–460 BCE) Greek queen in Asia Minor, she helped Persian king Xerxes at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE.
Cleopatra (51–30 BCE) – The last the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, Cleopatra was diplomat, naval commander, linguist, and medical author.
Boudicca – led a revolt against the Romans in England in 60 CE.
Trung Sisters – a pair of fantastically brave Vietnamese warrior women who fought to oust their Chinese overlords in the first half of the 1st century CE.
Zenobia (267–272 CE) – queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria
The Early Medieval World
Theodora (500–548 CE) – Empress of Byzantium, wife of Emperor Justinian. A street performer who caught the emperor’s eye, Theodora rose to rule the empire alongside her husband. She extended rights for women, passing laws that allowed them to divorce and own property and made rape a crime punishable by death.
Wu Zetian (690–705 CE) – the sole officially recognized empress regnant of China in more than two millennia. She entered court as a concubine and may have strangled her daughter and poisoned her son to advance her status. Skulduggery aside, the importance to history of Wu Zetian’s period of political and military leadership includes the major expansion of the Chinese empire, extending it deep into Central Asia. Within China, besides the more direct consequences of her struggle to gain and maintain supreme power, Wu’s leadership resulted in important effects regarding social class in society and in relation to state support for Taoism, Buddhism, education, and literature.
Æthelflæd (911–918) – Daughter of Alfred the Great and married to the ruler of the kingdom of Mercia, the fierce Queen became known as the ‘Lady of the Mercians’.
The High Middle Ages
Eleanor of Aquitaine – the richest woman in 12th century Europe. She married first the king of France, introduced courtly literature to the French court and accompanied him on crusade. With the marriage annulled, she then married the king of England.
The Renaissance
Mary Queen of Scots (1552–67) – ultimately, reluctantly executed by her cousin Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (1558–1603) – After the short reigns of her half-siblings, Elizabeth I’s 44- year-rule brought welcome stability, relative religious tolerance, no major foreign wars and managed to see off the Spanish Armada. Plots and rebellions against her failed and culturally England flourished.
Early Modern
Nur Jahan (1611–1645) – the twentieth (and last) wife of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, Nur Jahan was a far sharper intellect than her incompetent husband and would whisper advice to him at court. From their court at Lahore, she built up diplomatic and trading relationships across Asia.
Catherine the Great (1762–1796) – Catherine was a minor German princess who married the heir to the Russian throne, Tsar Peter III, who turned out to be mentally unstable. When the Tsar was assassinated after only two years in power, Catherine assumed command of Russia. Helped by her lovers Giorgy Orlov and Giorogy Potemkin, she conquered the Ukraine extending the Russian empire to the shores of the strategically important Black Sea. She gave the nobility greater powers following peasant unrest.
Late Modern
Queen Victoria (1837–1901) – As the British Empire expanded to cover quarter of the globe, she came to rule over more subjects than any other woman in history.
Empress Dowager Cixi (1861–1908) – Cixi effectively controlled the late Qing dynasty in China for 47 years after the death of her husband, the Xianfeng Emperor.
Queen Elizabeth II (1952–Present) – the world’s longest reigning queen regnant and female head of state, the oldest and longest-reigning current monarch and the longest-serving current head of state.
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Phyllis G. Jestice is professor of medieval European history at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. A devoted teacher, Jestice enjoys writing for both academic and popular audiences. She is the author of Queens, Pharaohs and The Medieval Knight, while her most recent monograph is Imperial Ladies of the Ottonian Dynasty: Women and Rule in Tenth-century Germany.
Review :
[A] brilliant tour of the nature of queenship throughout history and all over the world. Rather than the usual list of European monarchs, Jestice demonstrates an impressive range as she introduces readers to queens from Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands, South America—wherever she can find evidence for women rulers… The book is more than an engaging history of women who all deserve to be better known. Each page features illustrations carefully chosen to represent the wide cultures these women came from… Even better, Jestice succeeds in proving that queens have played important parts throughout history—and continue to do so.
