Reading the history of Britain, I am struck by the number of women who had profound effect. I’m not thinking of women significant only due to their marriage or genealogical position, but of Queens whose strong personalities changed the course of history. I do include strong-willed women like Boadicea (fought the Romans) and Margaret d’Anjou (fought the Yorkists) who lost their fights so may have had only “temporary” significance.
Questions:
Please add or subtract from the following list of most significant female political figures of Britain.
Are there other countries whose historic women had such great effect?
Boadicea of the Icenians (d. ca 62)
Matilda the Empress (d. 1167)
Eleanor of Aquitaine (d. 1204)
Isabella ‘the She-Wolf’ of France (d. 1358)
Margaret d’Anjou (d. 1482)
Mary of Guise (d. 1560)
Elizabeth the Virgin (d. 1603)
That’s what I was thinking. I mean, the woman had an entire era of history (effectively the entire 19th Century after the Napoleonic Wars) named after her.
Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Britain began to move from being an ordinary country to being a superpower, precipitated by the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
In January 1457 a child was born at Pembroke Castle. The mother was aged just 13 and been widowed for 2 months. The birth was difficult and almost killed both. The girl was Margaret Beaufort, the child Henry Tudor. If Margaret had shown any less resolve and determination over the next two decades the “most improbable king of an improbable age” would not have become Henry VII and England and the historical path of England immeasurably changed.
Really? I always had the impression she was a very distinct and strong personality during most of her reign.
Anyway, I think Catherine of Aragon deserves a mention. Not only was she the last Queen to ride out to battle in full armor, I would bet she was the only one to do so while pregnant.
Perhaps that’s because you’ve read only those histories which subscribe to the “Great Man” theory. There are other schools of historical thought which hold that attributing historical events to the decisions of individual men and women is uninformed and unscientific, and under which most or all of the women on your list ought to be subtracted.
Agatha Christie, arguably the most widely read and most commercial succesfull author in the world? (not just female author, no, most successful author period).
What, you mean besides becoming Empress of India? She was extremely active in politics, except when Bad Things happened, in which case it was overzealous people acting in her name that were to blame.
Point is, you can’t have a thread about “Women who affected the history of Britain” and not have Vicky in one of the top three spots.
Please don’t read anything into my omission of Victoria, or anyone else. I just started the list with a few obvious candidates.
What really strikes me is just the fact that Britain has had so many powerful, cunning, charismatic or warrior Queens (etc.). It’s almost surely just my ignorance showing, but for Spain and France, only Isabella the Catholic and Joan of Arc come to mind, and for Germany … no one? France had some famous Queens, e.g. Catherine de’ Medici, but not in the same league as England’s greatest Queens. (Of course mississippiene has posted interesting articles about powerful women like Rome’s Mariozza.)
For France, Blanche of Castile has to be one. Elenore of Aquitaine (although she also fits for England). Joan the Lame. Catherine de’ Medici you’ve mentioned, Joan of Navarre led an army to put down a revolt by the Count of Bar, Yolande of Aragon, who counts for France and Spain. Plenty of prominent female Spanish rulers too.
I would add her three daughters, all of whom were very involved in the movement: Christabel, Sylvia, and Adela Pankhurst.
Florence Nightingale should be mentioned as well. She more or less invented the modern day concept of nursing, revolutionized hospitals, and powerfully influenced health care throughout the British empire.
Florence’s contributions are often underestimated, or get brushed into the category of ‘humanitarian’ - she was much much more than than and whatever humanitarian effect she had was a side effect of her other goals, which were extremely reformist for the day. She was also a talented mathematician and statistician and is acknowledged as having been a pioneer in the area of graphic representation of statistics. She also wrote about theology and religion. Many modern biographers present significant evidence of her lesbianism. Many earlier biographies tried to sanitize her into an ‘angel at the bedside’ which conveniently ignores her most substantial accomplishments.