Reading path · 9 stops

Women Who Ruled

Nine rulers who held power in their own right, from the Nile to the Forbidden City.

In most ages the rules said a woman could not rule, and in every age some did anyway. This path crosses four millennia of them: a pharaoh who wore the false beard, warrior queens who fought Rome, the only woman to found a Chinese dynasty, an African queen who out-negotiated an empire, and the empresses who steered Russia and China through their most dangerous centuries.

Suits the Chronicler

  1. 1 · Encyclopedia · Person · c. 1479–1458 BCEHatshepsutThe pharaoh who ruled Egypt for two decades and built like a king.
  2. 2 · Encyclopedia · Person · r. 51–30 BCECleopatra VIIThe last Ptolemy, who played Rome's strongmen against each other for twenty years.
  3. 3 · Encyclopedia · Person · d. 60 or 61BoudicaThe Iceni queen whose revolt burned Roman London.
  4. 4 · Encyclopedia · Person · c. 240–after 274ZenobiaThe queen of Palmyra who carved an empire from Rome's east.
  5. 5 · Encyclopedia · Person · r. 690–705Wu ZetianThe only woman to rule China as emperor in her own name.
  6. 66 · Encyclopedia · Person · d. 647Seondeok of SillaKorea's first reigning queen, patron of scholars and stargazers.
  7. 7 · Encyclopedia · Person · c. 1583–1663Njinga of Ndongo and MatambaThe queen who fought and out-bargained the Portuguese for forty years.
  8. 8 · Encyclopedia · Person · 1533–1603Elizabeth IGloriana: the unmarried queen who made a weak realm a power.
  9. 9 · Encyclopedia · PersonCatherine the GreatThe empress who seized a throne and an age and gave Russia both.

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