In a country whose system of government is a monarchy, the ruler, or head of state, is decided by inheritance. When a ruler dies their child, or nearest relative, takes over. A queen regnant is a female monarch, equivalent in rank to a king, who reigns in her own right.
In Ancient Egypt, Ancient Persia, Asian and Pacific cultures, female monarchs have been given the title king or its equivalent, such as pharaoh, when gender is irrelevant to the office.
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king, or a queen regent. However the husband of a female ruler is not called a king.
Many European realms forbade succession by women or through a female. No queen regnant ever ruled France, for example.
The kingdom of the Sabeans, who lived in south-west Arabia, were merchants and slave-traders, and men of large structure. Cush, the grandson of Noah, was their traditional ancestor. One of their notable monarchs was the Queen of Sheba, who made a twelve-hundred-mile journey to visit Solomon. The Queen of Sheba made a tribute to the Israeli ling in the form of spices, gold, and precious stones.
Matilda of Flanders, the ‘excessively beautiful’ wife of William the Conqueror, was just 50in (or 4 ft 2 in) tall — the smallest queen to reign over England.
Empress Matilda, the daughter of King Henry I of England, became the first female ruler of England on April 7, 1141. She adopted the title 'Lady of the English'.
The youngest queen consort was Isabella of Valois (November 9, 1389 – September 13, 1409) who was Queen consort of England as the second spouse of King Richard II. She became queen at 6 years of age in 1396.
When Pedro I was crowned King of Portugal in 1357, he proclaimed his lover, Ines de Castro, Queen despite the fact that she had died in 1355.
Queen Margaret I, Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden from 1389-1412, was the political force that founded the Kalmar Union and is regarded by historians as the first great ruling queen in European history.
In Thailand, it was considered a capital offense punishable by death if someone touched the queen. On May 31, 1880, Sunanda Kumariratana, first wife of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Siam (now Thailand) drowned when her royal boat capsized on the way to the Palace. The many witnesses to the accident did not dare to touch the queen while she was drowning.
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| Elizabeth II of the UK, here with her husband on the occasion of her coronation in 1953 |
In Ancient Egypt, Ancient Persia, Asian and Pacific cultures, female monarchs have been given the title king or its equivalent, such as pharaoh, when gender is irrelevant to the office.
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king, or a queen regent. However the husband of a female ruler is not called a king.
Many European realms forbade succession by women or through a female. No queen regnant ever ruled France, for example.
The kingdom of the Sabeans, who lived in south-west Arabia, were merchants and slave-traders, and men of large structure. Cush, the grandson of Noah, was their traditional ancestor. One of their notable monarchs was the Queen of Sheba, who made a twelve-hundred-mile journey to visit Solomon. The Queen of Sheba made a tribute to the Israeli ling in the form of spices, gold, and precious stones.
Matilda of Flanders, the ‘excessively beautiful’ wife of William the Conqueror, was just 50in (or 4 ft 2 in) tall — the smallest queen to reign over England.
Empress Matilda, the daughter of King Henry I of England, became the first female ruler of England on April 7, 1141. She adopted the title 'Lady of the English'.
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| Portrait of Empress Mathilda, from "History of England" by St. Albans monks (15th century |
The youngest queen consort was Isabella of Valois (November 9, 1389 – September 13, 1409) who was Queen consort of England as the second spouse of King Richard II. She became queen at 6 years of age in 1396.
When Pedro I was crowned King of Portugal in 1357, he proclaimed his lover, Ines de Castro, Queen despite the fact that she had died in 1355.
Queen Margaret I, Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden from 1389-1412, was the political force that founded the Kalmar Union and is regarded by historians as the first great ruling queen in European history.
In Thailand, it was considered a capital offense punishable by death if someone touched the queen. On May 31, 1880, Sunanda Kumariratana, first wife of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Siam (now Thailand) drowned when her royal boat capsized on the way to the Palace. The many witnesses to the accident did not dare to touch the queen while she was drowning.
Geraldine Apponyi, an American citizen and member of the Hungarian nobility, married King Zog I of Albania on April 27, 1938, becoming the first American woman to become a queen. The couple met in London in 1937 and were married in a lavish ceremony in Tirana, the Albanian capital. Apponyi's status as an American queen made her a popular figure in the United States, where her marriage was widely covered by the media.
The couple had one child, a son named Leka, who was born in April 1939. However, the couple's reign was short-lived, as they were forced to flee Albania just a few months after Leka's birth due to the country's invasion by Italian forces.
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| Queen Geraldina. Wikipedia Commons |
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