Favourite Queen in History

[Episcopus]

This seemed the most appropriate forum to post this, but if it isn’t please move mods.

Who is your favourite Queen in history? Can be outright Queen (like Elizabeth II) or consort (wife of a king). Can be British or from another country’s monarchy.

I watched the following video on Emma of Normandy recently - twice Queen and twice Queen Mother - hard to beat that!

Who was Emma of Normandy?

[Iknowitisheresomewhere]

Victoria’s daughter Vicky, Princess Royal of England and Empress Frederick of Prussia.

Semi arranged marriage but definitely a love match, very unfortunately her husband was already terminally ill when he became Emperor, and then she was treated very badly by her son, Kaiser Wilhelm. By all accounts she and her husband would have been much better monarchs (quite a low bar though!). Fascinating to read her long correspondence with her mother - those letters in her possession were smuggled out of Prussia when she died - her son had her under virtual house arrest.

[moofolk]

Boudicca

[BottlingBurpsForGrandma]

Queen Adelaide, Queen consort of William and a wise counsellor to her niece, Victoria, when she became Queen in 1837. The South Australian city and several rivers, villages etc are names for her. Adelaide lost several children in childbirth and to prematurity and had one child who survived til 3 months only to die of an inflammation of the bowel. How she had the strength to go on, nurse her husband devotedly, and do a range of charity work, while missing out of being Queen Mother (instrad becoming the first Dowager Queen for over 100 years) due to the death of her beloved baby is just outstanding.

[Muminabun]

Grace O’Malley for just being terrifying and hard as nails.
eleanor of Aquitaine she led an amazing life and was regent for a while born to lead.
katherine of Aragon was a huge influence on Elizabeth 1st so sexist or say it was Henry VIII.
I have always had a soft spot for Anne Boleyn ‘false vanities my pride hath tricked, oh would I were a child again on blicklings velvet lawn ‘ written in the tower.

[felulageller]

Queen Margaret of Scotland did so much good work for the poor she was later sainted.

[Episcopus]

Ooo, I’ll definitely try to check out both History Chicks and Princess - thanks for the recommendations!

History Indoors’ livestream about Queens is on now: just about to switch from Christina of Sweden to Mary I. m.youtube.com/watch?v=iSpnwqAgAZY

[Dontwanttoberudeorwastetime]

The History Chicks is also a great podcast. Completely dedicated to important women in history.

[CaveMum]

I’ve discovered a new podcast - Princess on BBC Sounds. Each episode looks at a princess, some real and some fictional (inc Moana, Elsa and Princess Leia). I found the episode of Caroline of Brunswick fascinating.

I mentioned the “Not Just The Tudors” podcast previously, they’ve recently done an episode on Anne of Cleves and I highly recommend (again) their series of 9 episodes dropped in June focussed on “Queenship”.

[Snoopsnoggysnog]

Great! Thank you @DesMoulinsRouge

[Viviennemary]

Mary Queen of Scots. What a sad life and the mistakes she made. Especially the men she chose and other mistakes like trusting the wrong people.

Also Eleanor of Aquitane who had a totally fascinsting life. Jean Plaidy wrote some books about her life. Can't remember the titles.

[LoveItOrListIt]

I’ve just googled Lion in Winter and that’s my Saturday evening viewing sorted! I didn’t know there was a film about the Plantagenets…very excited to watch this. Thanks for the recommendation!

[DesMoulinsRouge]

@Snoopsnoggysnog
I love The Lion in Winter about Henry II and his dysfunctional family. Katherine Hepburn plays Eleanor (as Katherine Hepburn!) and is by turns funny and tragic.
Not historically accurate but has a stellar cast and some great lines.

[Episcopus]

Hi all! Thought I’d revive this thread as History Indoors have a Queens evening, a livestream on Monday Aug 1st at 5-10pm BST, revisiting all their talks on queens. Running order is in the image attached, but we’ll cover talks on Emma of Normandy, Christina of Sweden and Mary I, as well as how queens have been featured in movies. You can watch on their YouTube and Twitter (both entitled History Indoors).

Hope to see some of you there!

[CaveMum]

Another vote for Eleanor of Aquitaine here! So pleased to see the You’re Dead To Me recommendations - altogether now “The Count of Champagne!”

There are other queens discussed in various episodes on the podcast so highly recommend scrolling through them. The most recent episode, dropped on Friday, was about Egyptian Queen Hapshesput.

Theres another good podcast called Not Just The Tudors presented by Prof Suzannah Lipscomb and there are plenty of episodes dedicated to various historical queens.

A few years ago the BBC had a series on early English queens called She Wolves of England, based on the book by Helen Castor, which was a very interesting watch.

[Badger1970]

I'd agree with all the comments about Anne Boleyn. She was brave, courageous and determined - and had a huge legacy. Her story is one of history's most popular centuries later.

Also Queen Victoria. She was a strong determined woman too. I'm not sure I could say that about Elizabeth II - her reign has been amazing in terms of length but possibly not achievement?

[Iamacatslave]

Mary Queen of Scots.

[Basilbrushgotfat]

@TooManyAnimals94

@Discovereads the one EVERYONE has heard of, that one.

😁

[TooManyAnimals94]

@Discovereads the one EVERYONE has heard of, that one.

[Discovereads]

@TooManyAnimals94

I feel like Cleopatra should get a mention. Interesting morals (even by the standards of the time, murdering your brother was frowned upon) but incredible what she achieved.

Which Cleopatra? Do you mean Cleopatra VII?

[LoveItOrListIt]

@TooManyAnimals94

I feel like Cleopatra should get a mention. Interesting morals (even by the standards of the time, murdering your brother was frowned upon) but incredible what she achieved.

the Horrible histories episode craft cleopatra always makes me chuckle…my kids have watched it 1000 times

[TooManyAnimals94]

I feel like Cleopatra should get a mention. Interesting morals (even by the standards of the time, murdering your brother was frowned upon) but incredible what she achieved.

[JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon]

Perhaps not technically a Queen but how about Hatshepsut?

She declared herself King of Egypt and was probably the second ever female Pharaoh.

Also for services to make-up as the first recorded user of kohl eyeliner.

[Discovereads]

@GrinAndVomit

I agree my favourite would be Catherine the Great. She seemingly wanted to improve peoples lives. Plus she had a very complicated and risky route to the throne.

She also conquered Ukraine and Crimea and expanded the Russian empire….

[Discovereads]

I quite like Queen Zenobia who conquered a lot of the Roman Empire and set up the Palmyrene Empire making herself an Empress (all done as a widow). Unfortunately, a later Roman Emperor Aurelian was seriously pissed off at a woman Empress and took back all the lands, marched on Palmyra and forced them to surrender. No one knows what happened to Zenobia. But for most of her life, she ruled Egypt, much of the coastal Middle East (Israel, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon) and large parts of Turkey.

[Jins]

Margaret Beaufort doesn’t get any better in the White Queen. Amanda Hale was superb in this part, the character teetered between religious mania and naked ambition. Margaret Beaufort doesn’t make my list because she wasn’t a queen and she engineered the Tudor dynasty which is possibly my least favourite period of history and is filled with some of the most unpleasant characters.

I’ve got a soft spot for the forgotten queen - Anne Neville. Warwick the kingmaker’s younger daughter and married to both a prince of Wales and a king.

Elizabeth of York made a decent job of things. She legitimised Henry Tudor’s reign which may or may not have been a good thing but I doubt she had an easy time with that mother in law.

Mary Queen of Scots and Anne Boleyn for reasons already mentioned. Margaret of Anjou because to be nicknamed a she-wolf shows she shook things up and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Least favourite - Elizabeth I