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Aqueen regnant (pl.: queens regnant) is a femalemonarch, equivalent in rank, title and position to aking. She reignssuo jure (in her own right) over arealm known as a kingdom; as opposed to aqueen consort, who is married to a reigning king; or a queenregent, who is the guardian of a child monarch and rulespro tempore in the child's stead or instead of her husband who is absent from the realm, be itde jure in sharing power orde facto in ruling alone. A queenregnant is sometimes called awoman king.[1][2] Aprincess,duchess, orgrand duchess regnant is a female monarch who reignssuo jure over aprincipality or (grand)duchy; anempress regnant is a female monarch who reignssuo jure over anempire.
A queen regnant possesses all the powers,such as they may be, of the monarchy, whereas a queen consort or queen regent shares her spouse's or child's rank and titles but does not share the sovereignty of her spouse or child. The husband of a queen regnant traditionally does not share the queen regnant’s rank, title, or sovereignty and usually holds a lowerprincely title. However, the concept of aking consort is not unheard of in both contemporary and historical periods.
Aqueen dowager orempress dowager is the widow of a king or emperor; aqueen mother is a queen dowager who is also the mother of a reigning sovereign.
Since theabdication ofMargrethe II of Denmark on 14 January 2024, there are currently no female sovereigns in the world. This is the first time this has been the case in over 200 years.
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The oldest attested queen regnant was thePharaohSobekneferu from the 18th/17th century BC.
In ancient Africa,ancient Persia, Asian and Pacific cultures, and in some European countries, female monarchs have been given the titleking or its equivalent, such aspharaoh, when gender is irrelevant to the office, or else have used the masculine form of the word in languages that havegrammatical gender as a way to classify nouns. TheRomanEmpress Irene of Athens sometimes titled herselfbasileus (βασιλεύς), 'emperor', rather thanbasilissa (βασίλισσα), 'empress', andMary of Hungary was crowned asRex Hungariae,King of Hungary in 1382.
Among theDavidic Monarchs of theKingdom of Judah, there is mentioned a single queen regnant,Athaliah, though theHebrew Bible regards her negatively as a usurper. The much laterHasmonean QueenSalome Alexandra (Shlom Tzion) was highly popular.[citation needed]
Accession of a queen regnant occurs as a nation'sorder of succession permits. Methods of succession to kingdoms,tribal chiefships, and such include nomination (the reigning monarch or a council names an heir),primogeniture (in which the children of a monarch or chief have preference in order of birth from eldest to youngest), andultimogeniture (in which the children have preference in the reverse order of birth from youngest to eldest). The scope of succession may be matrilineal, patrilineal, or both; or, rarely, open to general election when necessary. The right of succession may be open to men and women, or limited to men only or to women only.
The most typical succession in European monarchies from theLate Middle Ages until the late 20th century wasmale-preference primogeniture: the order of succession ranked the sons of the monarch in order of their birth, followed by the daughters. Historically, many realms like France and theHoly Roman Empire forbade succession by women or through a female line in accordance with theSalic law, and nine countries still do, such countries beingJapan,Morocco,Jordan,Saudi Arabia,Bahrain,Brunei,Liechtenstein,Bhutan. No queen regnant ever ruledFrance, for example. Only one woman,Maria Theresa, ruled Austria. As noted in the list below of widely-known ruling queens, many reigned in European monarchies.
A similar system was practised in many of the kingdoms of theIndian subcontinent from the Middle Ages to theIndian independence movement. In many of these kingdoms, adoption was allowed from a relative if a monarch did not have children, and the adopted child could succeed to the throne at the death of the monarch. Often, the wife or mother of a childless king were allowed to succeed to the throne as well and allowed to rule as queen regnants in their own right, until their death, after which the throne passed to the next closest relative. Prominent examples from Indian history includeQueen Didda of Kashmir,Razia Sultana,Rudrama Devi,Keladi Chennamma,Ahilyabai Holkar,Velu Nachiyar,Queen Gowri Lakshmi Bayi andQudsia Begum of Bhopal.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries,Sweden,Norway,Belgium, theNetherlands,Denmark,Luxembourg[3] and theUnited Kingdom[4] amended their laws of succession toabsolute primogeniture (in which the children of a monarch or chief have preference in order of birth from eldest to youngest regardless of gender). In some cases, the change does not take effect during the lifetimes of people already in the line of succession at the time the law was passed.
In 2011, the United Kingdom and the 15 otherCommonwealth realms agreed to remove the rule of male-preference primogeniture. Oncethe necessary legislation was passed, this means that hadPrince William had a daughter first, a younger son would not have become heir apparent.[5]
In 2015,Elizabeth II became thelongest-reigning queen regnant and female head of state in world history. She was thelongest serving incumbent head of state andmonarch from 2016 until herdeath on 8 September 2022.[6]
Upon Elizabeth's death,Margrethe II of Denmark became the only remaining female monarch of a sovereign state in the world, until herabdication on 14 January 2024.[7][8][9] This made it the first time that no female sovereigns have reigned in over 200 years.[citation needed] On the other hand, there are non-sovereign queens, such asRain QueenMasalanabo Modjadji VII andMāori queenNga wai hono i te po, who currently reign.
Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden,Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant (monarchy of Belgium), andCatharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange (monarchy of the Netherlands) are currentlyheirs apparent to the thrones of their respective monarchies, along withLeonor, Princess of Asturias, who is theheir presumptive of the throne of Spain. All four are therefore liable to become queens regnant following the end of the current reigns.
Because there is no feminine equivalent to king and emperor in East Asian languages, different titles are used for female monarchs and female consorts. The titles of female monarchs in East Asia are translated directly as "female king" or "female emperor" and the titles of female consorts in East Asia are translated directly as "king's consort" or "emperor's consort". So, the titles of female monarchs in East Asia are the same as those of male monarchs, just indicating that they are women.[a]
InChina the termnǚhuángdì (女皇帝, "female emperor"), abbreviated asnǚhuáng (女皇), has been used for three empresses regnant to assume the title ofhuángdì:Daughter of Xiaoming,Chen Shuozhen andWu Zetian, because the titlehuánghòu (皇后, "emperor's consort") means only an empress consort.[b] The termnǚwáng (女王, "female king") was also used for queens regnant of theEastern Queendom of the tribeSumpa and it is different from the titlewánghòu (王后, "king's consort") which means a queen consort.
In Korea, the termyeowang (Hangul: 여왕,Hanja: 女王, "female king") was developed to refer to three queens regnant ofSilla:Seondeok,Jindeok andJinseong, because the titlewangbi (Hangul: 왕비,Hanja: 王妃, "king's consort") means only a queen consort.[10][11] The termyeoje (Hangul: 여제,Hanja: 女帝, "female emperor") was also used forYi Hae-won, the pretender empress regnant ofKorean Empire because the titlehwanghu (Hangul: 황후,Hanja: 皇后, "emperor's consort") means only an empress consort.
AlthoughVietnam is a country in Southeast Asia, it used the royal titles of East Asia.[c] The title as a queen regnant ofTrưng Trắc wasNữ vương (chữ Hán: 女王, "female king") and the title as an empress regnant ofLý Chiêu Hoàng wasNữ hoàng (chữ Hán: 女皇, "female emperor"), and they are different from the titles of female consorts.
In Japan, the title used for two queens regnant ofYamatai:Himiko andToyo wasjoō (女王, "female king") and it is different from the titleōhi (王妃, "king's consort") which means only a queen consort. The termjotei (女帝, "female emperor") orjosei tennō (女性天皇, "female heavenly emperor") has been used for empresses regnant of Japan because the titlekōgō (皇后, "emperor's consort") means only an empress consort.[12]
Although theChrysanthemum Throne ofJapan is currently barred to women following theImperial Household Law (EmperorNaruhito's daughterPrincess Aiko cannot accede to the Chrysanthemum Throne), this has not always been the case; throughout Japanese history, there have been eight empresses regnant. TheJapanese imperial succession debate became a significant political issue during the early 2000s, as no male children had been born to theImperial House of Japan since 1965. Prime MinisterJunichirō Koizumi pledged to present parliament with a bill to allow women to ascend the Imperial Throne, but he withdrew this after the birth ofPrince Hisahito (Naruhito's nephew) in 2006.
butQueen Seondeok was progressive. It taught me the difference between awangbi, a queen by marriage to the king, and ayeowang, a female king,
Another important assumption has been that the rulers of Old Silla, as listed in theSamguk Sagi andSamguk Yusa, were men (kings), with the exception of Queen Seondeok (r. 632–646) and Queen Jindeok (r. 647–653), the two finalSong'gol rulers, and Queen Jinseong (r. 887–896) of Unified Silla, who were called "female kings" (although the English language literature calls them queens), distinguishing between the king's consort and a ruler with intrinsic power.
During Japan's long history eight women have ruled as female emperor orjosei tenno. An older term is empress orjotei. In English "empress" can mean either a reigning monarch or the wife of an emperor, but in Japanese there are separate words for each. The title bestowed on the emperor's wife iskogo.
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