Azarmiduxt
Boran (r. 630, 631-632) and Azarmiduxt (r. 630-631) were the only queens of the Sassanian Empire who ruled with the power of absolute monarchs.
Category Archives: Ruler
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Berenice II
200s BCE Hellenistic queen, who ruled together with her husband Ptolemy III (r. 246-221 BCE), when the Ptolemaic kingdom was at the height of its power, dominating most of the eastern Mediterranean.
Himiko
Queen Himiko was a 3rd-century CE ruler of the territory in ancient Japan known as Hsieh-ma-t’ai or Yamatai, later to be known as Yamato. Considered by the Chinese as the ruler of all of Japan or Wa, given her state’s power, she exchanged diplomatic embassies with the ruling Wei dynasty.
Velu Nachiyar
Born in 1730, Rani Velu Nachiyar was the first Indian queen to actively oppose the British, though she would be far from the last.
Chand Bibi
1500s regent of India’s Bijapur Sultanate and Ahmednagar Sultanate, who defended Ahmednagar against the Mughal forces
Theresa Kachindamoto
Malawian paramount chief and activist who used her authority to dissolve over 3,500 child marriages and advocate for education for both girls and boys
Ahilyabai Holkar
1700s Indian queen
Medb Chruachna
Queen of Connacht and one of the most prominent figures in the Ulster Cycle of heroic tales.
Sobekneferu
Sobekneferu is believed to be the first female Pharaoh to rule Egypt in her own right, to claim to full titles of a pharaoh, and is also the first woman listed in the Turin King List, an ancient papyrus scroll compiled during the reign of Rameses II in the 1200s BC of all the pharaohs that came before.
Merneith
Merneith ruled Egypt circa 2950. She may also have been a regent for her son after the death of her husband.