Aphrodite - Greek
goddess of love
Berengaria - Queen of Richard the Lionheart
Betsy Bonaparte - American wife 
Red, White & Blue Jewelry
Boudicca - Queen of the Iceni
Brigantia - Celtic
goddess of fire and healing
Briseis - Queen of Lyrnessus, slave of Achilles
Candace - Queens of Nubia
Christina - Swedish monarch
Cleopatra VII - Last of the pharaohs
Dahia - Berber leader
Deirdre - Irish legend
Desiree - Queen of Sweden
Dido - Queen
of Carthage
Epona - Celtic goddess of horses
Galla Placidia - Roman Empress
The Goodbye Lie - The characters
from the novel by Jane Marie
Guinevere - Legendary Queen of Britain
Inanna -
Sumerian goddess of heaven and earth
Isabelle (Isabella) - Queen of England, Princess of
France
Isolde -
Legendary Queen of Cornwall, Lover of Tristan
Judith - Queen of England, Countess of Flanders
Lakshmi
Bhai - Queen of Jhansi
Li Qingzu - Chinese
poet
Liliuokalani -
Queen of Hawaii
Livia Augusta - Roman Empress
Lozen - Apache leader
Lucilla -
Roman Empress of Gladiator movie fame
La Malinche - Mistress of Cortez
Margaret - Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden
Marina -
Polish noble, Czarina of Russia
Martha Bear - Our SpokesBear's Best Bargains
Melisende - Queen of Jerusalem
Murasaki Shikibu - Japanese noble and author
Nefertiti - Queen of Egypt
Nzingha - Queen of Ndongo and
Matamba
Mama Oello (Ocello
/ Oqlyo) Huaco - Legendary co-founder of the Incas
Pulcheria -
Byzantine Empress
Roxanne - Wife of Alexander the Great
Salamasina - Queen of Samoa
Semiramis - Queen of
Babylon
Tatiana - Russian Grand Duchess
Descendents of
Britain's Queen Victoria, like the Grand Duchess Tatiana, were
sometimes cursed with hemophilia, women were carriers and men
doomed.
Born to Rule by Julia P.
Gelardi, traces the lives of five of Victoria's grandaughters -
queens all. Victoria Eugenia of Spain and Tatiana's mother,
Czarina Alexandra, were carriers and paid a heavy price for their
genetic heritage. Sophie of Greece and Marie of Romania did
not pass hemophilia to their children, but their lives were also
touched by sorrow. Only Maud of Norway completely escaped
Victoria's curse. Born to Rule is a highly
readable account of the intertwined lives of these women.
Nancy |
If a book you're looking for is out of print,
click on any link to Amazon Books Home Page,  Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, or Alibris to find out if it is available as
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Mini Book Review List
Biography Book Reviews
History Book Reviews
Historical Fiction Book Reviews |
Trotula - Medieval physician
Trung Trac - Liberator Queen of Vietnam
Empress Wu - Ruler of China
Zenobia - Queen of Palmyra
Other
Fascinating Women
Adelaide - Holy Roman Empress
When her first husband died, Adelaide was kidnapped,
imprisoned and tortured. Holy Roman Emperor Otto I rescued and
married her, but when he died young, she acted as regent for their son and
later their grandson. The grandson, Otto III, helped Adelaide retire
to a convent when he was 14.
Agrippina the Younger - Roman Empress, mother of Nero,
wife of Emperor Claudius whom she poisoned. Her son attempted to murder her several times until he succeeded.
Amina - Queen of Zaria (Zazzua) in today's Nigeria was a military leader and able administrator. She died in 1589.
Anna Comnena - Byzantine princess and historian during the Crusades. Born 1083.
Anne - Duchess
of Brittany, twice queen of France. Everyone wanted to marry Anne, who was a duchess in her own right. She was a good administrater, a lover of gemstones, and the first bride of note to wear white. She died in 1514, and Brittany promptly became part of France.
Anne Boleyn and her sister, Mary, both slept with England's Henry VIII. Mary ended up a poor widow, but Anne wore a queen's crown until Henry had her beheaded.
Arwa - Queen of Yemen, also known as "Little Bilquis" after the Biblical Queen of Sheba. Queen Arwa, a widow, ruled for 55 years, focusing on peace, prosperity and the education of women. She died in 1138, owing much of her success to the upbringing her mother-in-law, Queen Asma, provided.
Catherine
d' Medici - Queen of France. Catherine, the orphaned sole heiress to the riches of the Medici family of Florence, Italy, was married off to Henri d'Orleans, a prince in love with his mistress. Catherine became an unpopular foreign queen and served as a strong anti-Hugennot regent during the the reigns of her three sons.
Catherine Parr - Last queen of Henry VIII of England. Married four times, Catherine, an intelligent and compassionate woman, was only happy with her last husband, Thomas Seymour, who had a thing for the future Elizabeth I.
Didda - Queen of Kashmir - Didda Rani was a ruthless tyrant who controlled her country even before she formally held power, becoming empress in 980.
Eleanor
of Aquitaine - Queen of France and England - see our page
about the Louvre Museum for more
about Eleanor.
Hatshepsut / Hatshepsu - Pharaoh / Queen of Egypt - Hatshepset was the daughter of Pharaoh Thuthmose I of Egypt's 18th Dynasty. She was married to her half brother, Thuthmose II, who was the father of her daughter as well as a son, Thuthmose III, by another wife. When her husband died young, Hatshepset became regent and finally assumed the title of pharaoh. She was deposed or killed after 20 or so years in power. Hatshepset built temples, including the incomparable Deir el-Bahri, sent an expedition to Punt (present day Somalia), fought a war with Nubia and ruled very well.
Haseki Hurrem - Wife of Suleyman
(Suleiman) the
Magnificent - Roxelana of Galicia (Poland) was captured on a raid by Crimean Tatars and sold into the Ottoman sultan's harem in Istanbul. She excelled at harem politics, becoming the favorite concubine and ultimately the wife of Suleyman, and was responsible for the deaths or exiles of her rivals and their sons. She sponsored major building projects and inspired artists, writers and musicians.
Irene - Byzantine Empress - Emperor Constantine V married Irene for her beauty, but he disliked her religious inclininations. She became a saint for restoring the veneration of icons when she came to power after her husband's death, but she had her son's eyes gouged out so she could retain control of the empire.
Joanna - Princess or Lady of Wales, illegitimate daughter of England's King John. Joanna or Joan was married to Llywelyn, prince of Gwynedd and leader of the Welsh resistance to English control. Llwelyn hanged their daughter's fiancé, William de Braose, after catching him with Joanna.
Lady MacBeth - Queen of Scots and wife to the guy in the play. Historians are beginning to believe she, Gruadh, and her husband got a raw deal from Shakespeare, but he was writing to please descendents of King Malcolm Canmore.
Lady MacBeth, great fiction by Susan Fraser King
Maria Theresa - Holy Roman Empress, mother of Marie Antoinette. Maria Theresa had 16 children, but managed to rule her empire with great ability and wisdom.
Mary, Queen of Scots - Mary, Queen of Scots, was first crowned queen of France. When her young husband, King François II died, she returned to Scotland and took up a tempestuous reign in the country of her late father. Her second husband was murdered, and her third was so disliked by Scotland's nobility that his presence helped lead to Mary's abdication in favor of her son, James VI of Scotland / James I of England.
Mary fled to England and took refuge with her first cousin, Elizabeth I of England. After 19 years of religious rumblings and plots, Elizabeth had Mary beheaded.
Empress Matilda - Would be queen of England in her own right (her father made the nobles swear to support her - they didn't) and mother of St Thomas à Becket's nemesis, Henry II.
Nandi - Mother of Shaka Zulu. Nandi and her son were exiled by other wives of the Zulu king. When Shaka came to power, he expected everyone to worship her as he did. When she died, Shaka lost it and thousands were massacred.
DVD
1986
Nur Jahan - De facto ruler of Mogul India
Olympias,
Queen of Epirus and Macedon, mother of Alexander
the Great
Razia (Raziyya) (Radiyya) - Ruler of Delhi, India. Raziyya was chosen to succeed her father as Sultan of the Mamluk Dynasty because she was the most worthy of his children. After four years on the throne, she was ousted from power because of her sex and defeated by the army of Ikhtiyar al-Din Altuniyya, whom she married. Escaping the battlefield after another military defeat, Raziyya fled and fell asleep in a farmyard, where the farmer killed her.
Sorghaghtani Beki - Ruler of Mamlek
Egypt
Sondok - Queen of the Silla kingdom of Korea. Sondok inherited the throne from her father in 632 and reigned for 15 years. She allied herself with China and supported education.
Sorghaghtani Beki - Mongol ruler
Theodora - Byzantine Empress
Theophano - Holy Roman Empress
Tzu-hsi - Empress Dowager of China
Virginia Dare -
First baby born to English colonists in the Americas
Walladah - Moorish poet and princess
Zawditu - Empress of Ethiopia
Zoe - Byzantine Empress
