Who runs the world? For most of human history, the typical answer is a King, Prince, Emperor, Sultan, or President. In short, male rulers. However, if we take a deeper dive into world history, we will see cases of women ruling their own countries. We think of women ruling as an anomaly, but in some parts of the world, it is quite common. How did these women come to power and fight for their right to rule? Elizabeth Norton explores centuries of ladies who held power in some way in her latest book, “Women Who Ruled the World: 5000 Years of Female Monarchy.”
I have been a big fan of Elizabeth Norton’s previous books and the information she shares about her travels around the world. When I saw that she was writing a book about female monarchies around the world, it caught my attention. I am a sucker for learning about female rulers, but I tend to focus on medieval European leaders. I wanted to expand my knowledge of world history, so when I read the description of this book, it sounded perfect for me.
To cover such a swath of women’s history, Norton has selected a few women to highlight in chapters dedicated to aspects of their reigns. You have your queens who took control for the men in their lives, those who took the throne for themselves, child queens, warrior queens, queens who were both famous and infamous, rulers who had to deal with colonization, empresses, and the queens of the 21st century. We begin in ancient Egypt and explore every continent, except Antarctica, from 5000 years ago to the modern day.
While there are some women whose names are familiar to me, such as Matilda of England, Cleopatra VII of Egypt, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I of England, Isabel I of Castile, Victoria of the United Kingdom, and Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, the majority of these women were new to me. You have the ancient queens like Merneith, Hatshepsut, and Arsinoe IV of Egypt, the Kandakes of Kush, and Zenobia of Palmyra. We get to explore further into European royalty with Margrete I of Denmark, Charlotte of Cyprus, Blanche II and Leonor of Navarre, Elizaveta and Catherine II of Russia, Tamar of Georgia, Jeanne of France, Maria Theresia of Austria-Hungary, and Juana la Beltraneja. Further east, we get to explore the lives of Wu Zetian of China, the 8 empresses who ruled Japan, as well as the rulers of Bora Bora, Bhopal, Sydney, Madagascar, and Tonga. Finally, we also get to learn about the Rain Queens of the Balobedu and the last queen of Hawaii, Lili ‘uokalani.
This was a delightful read full of fascinating female rulers. I must applaud Norton for the copious amount of research that went into this book and how easy it was to read. It gives readers like me a chance to explore different cultures through the lives of colorful queens. If you want a unique read about other cultures and centuries of female rulers, you must read “Women Who Ruled the World: 5000 Years of Female Monarchy” by Elizabeth Norton.
When we think of famous medieval European women, we often think of figures like Joan of Arc and Isabella of Castile. They are seen as women who broke the mold and challenged traditional stereotypes by becoming leaders in traditionally male-dominated fields. These women would be used to craft the identities of their respective nations, but they would help shape the identities of other women from the 18th and 19th centuries. We think we know the stories about these medieval women and their lives, but what new information can we learn from their lives when we examine their lives from their eras? Janina Ramirez takes the stories of seven medieval women and their contemporaries to show how their legacies have been transformed in her latest book, “Legenda: The Real Women Behind the Myths That Shaped Europe.”
The field of history for centuries has been focused on men and the struggles that mankind has had to endure for society to survive. We tend to get only a mere glimpse at the lives of women when they are next to powerful men. Some will write about women, mostly royal women, who lead extraordinary lives and left an imprint on the past. But what about those who lived ordinary lives? What about the women who lived daily, fighting to survive every obstacle? What can we learn about history through the eyes of ordinary women? Philippa Gregory has taken on the mammoth task of trying to answer these questions and more with her tome, “Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History.”