♔ Elizabeth Woodville - Queen Consort of England from 1 May 1464 - 3 October 1470 and again from 11 April 1471 - 9 April 1483; married to Edward IV of England; leading figure in the Wars of the Roses and mother to the Princes in the Tower; successfully organised the betrothal of her eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York, to Lancastrian claimant to the throne, Henry Tudor (later Henry VII of England) with his mother, Margaret Beaufort.
♔ Hürrem Sultan - Haseki Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1533/4 - 15 April 1558; legal wife to Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, first former slave to be elevated to such a rank in centuries; one of Suleiman’s most trusted advisors; engaged in several major building programs throughout the Ottoman Empire; first woman to remain in the Sultan’s court for the duration of her life; arguably began the era of the Sultanate of Women despite not becoming Valide Sultan herself.
♔ Isabella of France - Queen Consort of England from 25 January 1308 - 20 January 1327; married to Edward II of England; invaded England in September 1326 with her lover Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March leading to the abdication of her husband and the coronation of her son, Edward III; was Regent to her son from 1326 - 1330.
♔ Eleanor of Aquitaine - Suo jure Duchess of Aquitaine from 9 April 1137 - 1 April 1204; Queen Consort of France from 1 August 1137 - 21 March 1152; Queen Consort of England from 25 October 1154 - 6 July 1189; formally took up the cross on the Second Crusade as the feudal leader of her duchy; had her marriage to Louis VII of France annulled on the grounds of consanguinity; had a tumultuous marriage to Henry II of England; Eleanor was arrested by her husband in 1173 for her role in the Revolt of 1173/74 in favour of her son, Henry the Young King, she was to be imprisoned until Henry II’s death in 1189; when her son, Richard the Lionheart, left his kingdom on the Third Crusade, he left Eleanor to act as Regent.
♔ Turhan Hatice Sultan - Haseki Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 2 January 1642 - 12 August 1648; Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 8 August 1648 (nominal) - 4 August 1683; Naib-i-Sultanat of the Ottoman Empire from 3 September 1651 - 1656; concubine to Sultan Ibrahim I; after Ibrahim’s deposition, her son, Mehmed, ascended the throne as Sultan Mehmed IV; upon this Turhan should have been recognised as Valide Sultan, however, she was overlooked in favour of her predecessor, Kösem; due to Turhan’s ambitions Kösem allegedly planned to depose Mehmed in favour of a grandson with a more pliant mother, this was reported to Turhan and Kösem was murdered; as both Regent and Valide Sultan, Turhan wielded enormous power, almost equal to that of her son and was the only woman in Ottoman history to do so; by 1656 Turhan turned more of her attention to patronage and rescinded most of her power to the Grand Vizier; last of the great figures in the era of the Sultanate of Women.
♔ Isabella of Portugal - Holy Roman Empress, Queen of the Germans, Queen consort of Italy, Queen consort of Spain from 10 March 1526 - 1 May 1539; married to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor; her political union with Charles proved to be a love match; Isabella was to be a competent consort and was appointed Regent of Spain during her husband’s absences in 1529–1532 and 1535–1539; Isabella died after her sixth pregnancy ended in a stillbirth in 1539 and her death affected her husband deeply; in 1580 her son Philip II of Spain ascended the Portuguese throne claiming Isabella’s rights of succession and united the Iberian Peninsula under one crown.
♔ Mary I of England - Queen Regnant of England and Ireland from 19 July 1553 - 17 November 1558; Queen Consort of Spain, Jerusalem and both the Sicilies; Archduchess of Austria; Duchess of Burgundy, Milan and Brabant; Countess of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol from 16 January 1556 - 17 November 1558; married to Philip II of Spain; when her father, Henry VIII of England, broke with the Catholic Church in 1533 he deemed his marriage to her mother, Catherine of Aragon, null and void and thus deemed Mary to be illegitimate; Mary was returned to the line of succession, in 1544; when Edward VI died, he excluded Mary from his will and the line of succession as she was Catholic; he named Lady Jane Grey as heir to the throne, whom Mary deposed (and later executed) on the 19 July 1553 after assembling an army and support in the days following her brother’s death; Mary’s first Parliament in October 1553, declared the marriage of her parents valid and abolished Edward’s religious laws; During 1553 Mary also returned her kingdom to the Catholic Church and the old Heresy Acts were revived; In January 1558, French forces took Calais, England’s sole remaining possession on the European mainland, it was an ideological loss that damaged Mary’s prestige.
♔ Livia Drusilla - Empress consort of the Roman Empire from 27 BCE - 14 CE; married first to Tiberius Claudius Nero with whom she had the future Emperor Tiberius, and Nero Claudius Drusus; she divorced her fist husband in favour of future Roman Emperor, Augustus when she was six months pregnant with her son, Drusus, and she married Augustus three days after his birth; Livia enjoyed the status of privileged counsellor to her husband, petitioning him on the behalf of others and influencing his policies; in 35 BCE Octavian gave Livia the unprecedented honour of ruling her own finances; Livia pushed her sons into positions of power with Tiberius eventually being declared Augustus’ heir in 4 BCE; when her husband died in 14 CE he left one third of his property to Livia, the will also adopted her into the Julian family and granted her the honorific title of Augusta, which permitted Livia to maintain her status and power after his death, under the new name of Julia Augusta.
♔ Catherine of Aragon - Queen Consort of England from 11 June 1509 - 23 May 1533; married first to Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales on 15 November 1501; after her marriage to Arthur, they both fell ill with sweating sickness and as a result Arthur died on 2 April 1502; Catherine was left a widow, during this time she lived as a virtual prisoner in London; in 1507 Catherine began to serve as the Spanish ambassador to England, the first female ambassador in European history; the Scots invaded England in September 1513 and Catherine rode north in full armour despite being heavily pregnant at the time and gave a speech to the troops; from 1525 onwards, Henry sought to divorce or annul his marriage to Catherine on the grounds that she had slept with his brother, her first husband, and was not a virgin when she wed Henry, so that he could marry the Lady Anne Boleyn; in 1531 Catherine was removed from Henry’s court and separated from her daughter; her marriage to Henry was annulled on 23 May 1533 but she continued to refer to herself as Henry’s only lawful wedded wife and England’s only rightful queen but was referred to as Dowager Princess of Wales on Henry’s order.
♔ Eleanor of Provence - Queen Consort of England from 20 January 1236 - 16 November 1272; married to Henry III of England; despite fulfilling all the necessary roles and duties expected of a Queen Consort at the time, Eleanor was deeply unpopular with the people due to her large retinue of Savoyard family members, who did not leave England after her coronation as well as her perceived influence over the King which created friction between the English barons and the crown, during his reign; Eleanor was made Regent in 1253 when her husband left for Normandy; she vigorously opposed Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester’s actions against her husband, and raised troops in France in Henry’s name; after her husband’s death in 1272, she remained in England to help raise her grandchildren.
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