Hōjō Masako
Hōjō Masako, known as the “nun shogun”, exercised significant political power in the early years of the Kamakura period (1192 to 1333).
Category Archives: Ruler
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Lili’uokalani
Growing up in a royal family, Queen Lili‘uokalani was trained to be a monarch. Even though becoming queen was probably not a surprise to her, she may not have known that she would also become the last sovereign monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Unfortunately, she was only able to reign for three years because the United States overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy. However, Lili‘uokalani published her side of the story in a memoir that became the only autobiography written by a Hawaiian monarch.
Mama Adame
Mama Adame was a ruler, known as a mansa, of the village of Bakindiki in Niumi Bato in the Kingdom of Niumi, in what is now The Gambia.
Lady of Cao
The Lady of Cao is a nickname given to a female Moche mummy discovered in 2005 at the El Brujo archeological site about 45 km north of Trujillo in Peru’s La Libertad Region.
Queen Sammurāmat
Shammuramat was a wife of King Shamshi-Adad V who ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire as its regent for five years after his death in 811 BC until her son Adad-nirari III came of age. She is believed to be the basis for the mythical figure of Semiramis.
Binao
Binao was a queen of the Bemihisatra group of the Sakalava people of Madagascar from 1881 to 1927. She controlled a relatively small territory on Madagascar’s northwestern coast, consisting of the island of Nosy Be and a stretch of the mainland coast. In the early years of her reign, she faced threats from the ambitions of the mainland’s dominant power, the Merina Kingdom.
Binao allied with France when it intefered in Malagasy politics during the first Franco-Hova War (1883–85), but when the ear ended with France taking de facto control of Madagascar’s foreign policy, Binao was to be disappointed by the French recognising the Merina as the dominant native power on the island.
In 1894–95 France took complete control of the island and established the Malagasy Protectorate, exiling the Merina monarch, Ranavalona III. Binao supported the French and opposed the Menalamba rebellion against the European power two years later. She was confirmed by the French as gouverneur principal of Nosy Be, which had effectively been converted into an internal protectorate within colonial Madagascar under the French politique des races.
Relations with the French deteriorated dramatically in 1918 when a major dispute arose over levying corvée labour under the traditional practice of fanompoana, in which Sakalava subjects paid their respects to their deceased ancestors and reconfirmed their loyalty to the monarch. Binao had been required to obtain French permission for maintenance on the royal tombs but had sought to evade this by sending a request timed to reach colonial authorities after the work had already begun. The plan failed and led to reprisals against subjects who participated in the fanompoana and against Binao herself, who was evicted from her doany (royal palace) and made to pass it on to her half-brother Amada. She was forced to live instead in the town of Hellville (now Andoany), a humiliating blow against the monarchy.
Queen Tiye
Queen Tiye was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III, the mother of Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamun. She was an important power during both her husband’s and son’s reigns.
Teriitaria II
Teriitaria II became Queen of Tahiti when she and her sister Teremoemoe married their second cousin King Pōmare II and later, she ruled as Queen of Huahine and Maiao in the Society Islands.
In 1815, Teriitaria became the Queen of Huahine and Maiao. The previous ruler, Mahine, had fought alongside her at the Battle of Te Feipī, and formally presented the government of the islands to her while he remained the resident chief until his death in 1838. She ruled as a largely absentee monarch while residing on Tahiti for the first few decades of her reign. Teriitaria had no children with Pōmare II, but Pōmare fathered the next two Tahitian monarchs, King Pōmare III (r. 1821–1827) and Queen Pōmare IV (r. 1827–1877), by Teremoemoe. Pōmare II died in 1821, and Teriitaria and Teremoemoe served as regents for Pōmare III and (after his death in 1827) for Pōmare IV.
Teriitaria was removed from the regency in 1828, but continued to have a significant role in Tahiti, including leading Tahitian forces in the Taiarapu rebellion of 1832. She joined her niece, Pōmare IV, in exile on Raiatea during the Franco-Tahitian War (1844–1847). During that time, she repelled a French invasion force at the 1846 Battle of Maeva, which secured the independence of the Leeward Islands.
Zenobia
Zenobia was a 3rd-century Syrian queen who led a revolt against the Roman Empire.
Yaa Asantewaa
As Queen Mother of Ejisu, Yaa Asantewaa led the Asante in a war against British colonization between 1900 and 1901, known as the War of the Golden Stool or the Yaa Asantewaa War.