Circa 38 CE Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus married his second cousin, Valeria Messalina. History would remember him as the emperor who drooled and stammered and her as one of the most controlling, devious, and ambitious women in all of history.
Cwenthryth of Mercia (9th century CE) was the daughter of King Coenwulf (r. 796-821 CE). Little is known of her actual life but she later became infamous in the 12th century CE through the legend of St. Kenelm as the scheming sister who arranges her brother Kenelm’s death.
Empress Galla Placidia (388-450 CE) was taken hostage by Alaric during the sack of Rome 410 CE. After returning to Rome, she became regent for her young son, Valentinian III.
Born to the Argead family of Macedonian rulers like her half-brother Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 BCE), Thessalonike married Cassander (r. 305-297 BCE), and after his death, she probably acted as regent for their sons.
Olympias (c. 375-316 BCE), the mother of Alexander the Great, was the driving force behind Alexander’s rise to the throne and was accused of having a hand in the assassination of Philip by Pausanias of Oretis.
Katharina von Zimmern (l. 1478-1547) was the abbess of the Fraumünster Abbey in Zürich for 30 years and the last before the monasteries were dissolved.
Eurydice I (circa 410 to before 343 BCE) is the earliest queen in the history of ancient Macedonia, whose impact on the political affairs of her time is known to us.
Mesopotamian princess
Sigrid the Proud (c. 927-c. 1014 CE) was a Swedish queen who refused to live by other people’s rules.
1000s CE English queen