#*whm

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women history meme → tragic women [3/5] ↳ Amélie of Orléans, Queen consort of Portugal

“Unfairly ignored in spite of being the last french princess to become a queen consort, Marie-Amélie of Orléans was the great-granddaughter of Louis-Philippe, King of the French; she married, at 21, the cheerful Duke of Brangaza, heir to the throne of Portugal. Life seemed sweet and promising, as they ascended the throne only three years later, but Queen Amélie's fate would soon turn out to be one of the most dramatic among european sovereigns.” –  S. Bern, Marie-Amélie, the Last Queen of Portugal

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women history meme → mistresses [3/5] ↳ Harriet Howard, Comtesse de Beauregard

“Harriet frequently attended his weekly Monday receptions at the presidential palace, where she would meet members of his inner circle [...]. They were genuinely fond of each other, and the president appeared to dote on his little family. [...] Miss Howard [was] shortly removed from Paris, albeit with a 6-million-franc ($77 million) adieu, followed by a peerage as the Countess de Beauregard, complete with a handsome château by the same name, situated just a stone's throw from the Palais de Saint-Cloud. Although Miss Howard finally remarried, they would continued to meet thereafter, if most discreetly. ” – A. Strauss-Schom, The Shadow Emperor

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women history meme → regents [1/5] ↳ Blanche of Castile, twice Regent of France 

“Anyone who argues that women did not really rule or wield power during the Middle Ages is obviously unfamiliar with the career of Blanche of Castile, queen of France, the widow of Louis VIII. For a quarter century, “The White Queen” dominated French politics. […] She built alliances where others erected barriers, and brought peace to regions that had previously known only war. She weathered catastrophe, betrayal, prejudice; faced down enemies; and established a network of spies that any modern intelligence agency might have envied. When she died in 1252, the boundaries of France nearly stretched to present-day limits, and the foundation had been laid for the great nation that was to come. England, by contrast, was imploding in civil war.” –  N. Goldstone, Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe. 

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women history meme → forgotten princesses [2/5] ↳ Cecily, Anne, Catherine & Bridget of York, Princesses of England

“The unmarried sisters of his queen constituted targets of opportunity for powerful men bent on challenging the king, and Henry rapidly counteracted that threat. The youngest sister, Bridget, was no problem since she had entered the Dominician convent at Dartford in 1490 and was safely secluded as a nun of that order. Cecily, the second of Edward IV's daughters, remained safely wed to Viscount Welles, half-brother of the king's mother. The queen's sisters Anne and Katherine, however, loomed as tempting wives for contenders to the throne. The marriages of both princesses in 1495 reveal how Henry's marital policy attempted to secure internal support for his reign. ” – A. Okerlund, Elizabeth of York

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women history meme → tragic women [1/5] ↳ Elizabeth Woodville, Queen Consort of England

“During her fifty-five years of life, Elizabeth Woodville mourned the deaths of her parents, all of her five brothers, all but one of her seven sisters, two of her daughters, four of her fives sons and two husbands, and she may have felt that there was little to detain her in this world when her own time came.” –  D. Baldwin, Elizabeth Woodville, Mother of the Princes in the Tower

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women history meme → princesses/archduchesses [1/5] ↳ Anne of France, Daughter of King Louis XI of France

"Madame Beaujeu ... controlled the throne of France," still another confirmed, adding that "the said lady dispatched all the difficult business of the realm". [...] Unable to see in her the kind of woman they expected, [her contemporaries] saw her, instead, as a woman who possessed the abilities of a man. She was, in the words of one chronicle, a "virago, truly superior to her sex," a woman who was both "skilled and fearless" and who "ceded neither resolution nor courage to men." As a woman who had the abilities deemed appropriate only for a man, Anne was often compared to men, most obviously her father. "One finds in her much of the spirit and character of Louis XI". [...] She was "a shrewd woman and a cunning if ever there was one". –  S. Janser, Anne of France: Lessons for My Daughter.

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women history meme → tragic women [2/5] ↳ Zita of Bourbon-Parma, Empress consort of Austria & Queen consort of Hungary

“Through years of suffering and frustration, [she saw] the world with its triumphs and defeats, its cruel laws of crime and punishments, its glories and its dismal shame, all passed before her. […] Out of this knowledge, Zita had found peace, the peace of utter wantlessness. It seemed to her that all through life she had been struggling - for her husband her throne, a decent, if not brilliant, future for her children.” –  B. Harding, Imperial Twilight, The Story Of Karl And Zita Of Hungary

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women history meme → kick-ass women [1/5] ↳ Yolande of Aragon, the Woman who won the Hundred Years War

“Only a power broker this masterful, a descendant of royalty possessed of the requisite administrative, diplomatic, and logistical skills, could have hope to succeed at so demanding a task. Although this stateman's influence over the events of her time was unparalleled, neither her archievements nor her dominance has ever been recognized. Even her name has been forgotten. She was Yolande of Aragon, the dauphin's mother-in-law. As perhaps the most astute politician of her age, she had been one of the first members of the royal council to regonize the danger represented by the English [...], and she had summoned every weapon in her considerable arsenal - money, spies, coercion and persuasion - to bring the rest of the French governement in line with her point of view.” – N. Goldstone, The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc