leasheryn's Blog

69BC-30BC Cleopatra held sole rule of Egypt

 

 

 

AD 60-61 Celtic Queen Boudicca of the Iceni tribe in Britian leads an uprising of the tribes against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire

 

 

 

1135 Matilda, daughter of Henry I, was the first female ruler, of the Kingdom of England.  Her crown was usurped by her Cousin, known as King Stephen, upon who she raged a civil war, riding into battle at the head of her armies

 

 

 

 

 

1122-1204 Eleanor of Aquitaine, Duchess of Aquitaine, Gascony and Countess of Poitou was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Europe.  Eleanor was Queen consort of both France and England (Louis VII and Henry II) and mother of Kings Richard and John.  She participated in the Second Crusade

 

 

 

 

 

1412-1431 Joan of Arc, a peasant girl, who was to become a Catholic Saint and national heroine of France, led the French army to several important victories during the hundred years war and was responsible for the coronation of King Charles VI

 

 

 

1474-1504 Isabella Queen of Spain often referred to as one of the Most Catholic Kings (the other being Ferdinand) united the kingdom of Spain under one rule, banished the Moors from her Kingdom often riding into battle at the head of her armies and sent Christopher Columbus on his journey of discovery.  She, during her reign, she was the most powerful monarch of her time.

 

 

 

1519-1589 Catherine de' Medici, Queen Mother of France, rules France as Regent during the reigns of three of her sons, Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III. 

 

 

 

1473-1541 Margaret Pole (nee Plantagenet) Countess of Salisbury.  Margaret Pole was executed, beheaded by Henry VIII for the simple reason that she stood closer to the English throne than he did.  She was such a threat to his kingship, that the only way to rid himself of the treat was to execute her.

 

1505-1544 Margaret Roper, nee More, daughter of Sir Thomas More and student of Erasmus.  Meg Roper was so highly educated that she translated the works of Erasmus.

 

 1521-1546 Anne Askew was an English poet and Protestant who was persecuted as a heretic.  She is the only woman on record to have been tortured in the Tower of London before being burnt at the stake on orders of Henry VIII.

 

1527-1608 Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, known as Bess of Hardwick, owned extensive property in her own right.  She was chosen by Elizabeth I as one of the jailers of Mary Queen of Scots.

 

1533-1603 Elizabeth I sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana and Good Queen Bess.  Upon the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth was declared a bastard by her father Henry VIII and treated as an outcast.  She was however educated in several languages including French, Spanish, Latin and Greek.  She was taught diplomacy and mathematics.  Despite her background as a bastard child, she rose to the throne of England.  The only person to ever stake a claim above hers was Mary Queen of Scots who was later beheaded for treasonous acts against Elizabeth.  Men like Drake, Raleigh and Hawkins bent their knees to her and explored the world on her behalf. Elizabeth was not only the most powerful woman of her time but the most powerful monarch of the world as she knew it

 

1595-1617 Pocahontas, at the point of the attempted execution of Capt John Smith, Pocahontas threw herself across his body, thus saving his life.  Pocahontas was the first Native American woman to marry an Englishman, John Rolfe, and later traveled with him to England 

 

1665-1714 Queen Anne, known as Good Queen Anne,  was ruler of England, Scotland and Ireland.

 

1717-1780 Maria Theresa of Austria reigned as Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia and a Holy Roman Empress

 

1729-1796 Catherine II or Catherine the Great of Russia reigned for 34 years as Empress of Russia until her death.  Marrying into the Imperial family, she came to power with the deposition of her husband Peter III then presided over a significant period of growth in Russian influence and culture

 

1820-1910 Florence Nightingale, known as the Lady with the Lamp, Florence Nightingale took a band of nurses out to the front lines of the Crimean War, to care for the injured soldiers.  She was not only a pioneering nurse but a writer and statistician

 

1819-1901 Victoria, born Alexandrina Victoria, she was Queen of England and Empress of India.  Her reign as Queen lasted 63 years and seven months, longer than any other British monarch to date.  Her reign included the Empire Upon Which the Sun Never Set.  It was my intention of list the nations and colonies that were included in the British Empire but it is far too extensive to include each and everyone.  The Empire did include, in short, Canada, several Caribbean Islands, parts of South America, Middle Eastern countries, colonies in Africa and China, the whole of India, Australia and New Zealand, not to mention several South Pacific Islands.  No one, neither King nor Queen, in the history of the world ever held as much territory as the British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria.  Her name itself means victorious and with the extent of her empire, she surely was.  

 

I cannot by any means include all the women who took part in the formation of our history.  Although this is somewhat an extensive list, this is only a small number of them.  Others would include Mary Shelley, Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Jane Austen, and the Bronte Sisters. 

 

 

Women in history were well educated side by side with the men of their world, they were capable landowners and heiresses of great estates or used their minds in the creation of their art.  They were royals, nobles and peasants but they were strong of character and willing to take their part in the world around them.  It is these women who paved the way for women of today.  They did not break through the proverbial glass ceiling; they prove, by their existence, that there was no need for a glass ceiling to exist, in their day or ours.