Hey everyone, here’s the next instalment of me going through the A-Z I’ve been doing on Instagram of female historical figures. In this post I’ll be going over the next 7 women (H-N) I decided to highlight! Hope you enjoy and if you want to go look at the original Instagram posts, you can find it here
H – Hürrem Sultan
Now I’ve spoken about Hürrem so many times that you’re probably bored of it! I did consider doing someone else for H however she’s one of my favourites and she’s so underrated and unknown in the UK that I thought the A-Z was the perfect opportunity to highlight her further! For a full in-depth look into Hürrem and her incredible life, you can take a look at the 3-part profile I did of her (here, here & here). The Ottoman Empire as a whole is fascinating especially the entirety of the period known as the Sultanate of Women and I really think it deserves far more academic attention, especially in the UK.
Runners Up: Hatshepsut Pharaoh of Egypt, Great Royal Wife of Egypt & Regent of Egypt (I’ve written about her here, briefly for a Dear Hollywood post)
I – Irene of Athens
This was a tough one as I love Isabella of France but I also really adore Irene; after much thought I decided to include Irene on this A-Z mainly due to the fact that Isabella was the Queen of England and therefore she’s pretty well known here. Irene is not; unfortunately the Byzantine Empire doesn’t get as much attention as I’d like. Irene is probably one of the more controversial of the empire’s empresses hence why I included her; she’s a very morally grey historical figure, someone whose actions (i.e deposing and then ordering the death of her son) are a direct contradiction to the maternal instincts often expected of women. I think it makes her more interesting. After all her actions are not so dissimilar to the actions of many a male monarch and yet they’re less reviled for such actions.
Runners Up: Isabella of France Queen of England, Isabella of Portugal Holy Roman Empress & Queen of Spain and Isabeau of Bavaria Queen of France
J – Joanna/Juana I of Castile
I was so close to doing Josephine. Honestly I was planning to highlight Josephine for the J of the A-Z but then came across a really interesting article about Joanna/Juana and changed my mind at the last minute! Joanna/Juana is so interesting to me not just because she was the first monarch of a unified Spain but because of the intricacies surrounding her mental health. The first time I learnt about Joanna/Juana it was through the lens of her as the Mad Monarch or Joanna/Juana the Mad. Her madness was stated as a fact, not the heavily contested piece of propaganda potentially espoused by the men in her life. The fact is there’s very little contemporary evidence beyond what can be attributed to her father, husband, son and those loyal to them; this is pretty questionable considering as those three men all stood to gain from her being declared insane. I just think there’s something incredibly tragic about the possibility that she was mentally competent the whole time and yet was imprisoned for most of her life by the three men that are supposed to love and care for her most. Now at the same time it’s very possible she did suffer from a mental health condition which as a historian I find just as interesting, especially in an era where the treatment of people with mental health conditions is more scrutinised. The truth about Joanna/Juana’s mental health is likely one of those historical mysteries we’ll never quite know the answer to; we can’t diagnose her centuries after her death nor can we go back in time. What we can do is discuss her treatment at the hands of her family and highlight the intelligent, charming, defiant young woman, ambassadors declared she was, before her legacy was re-written as “the Mad Monarch”.
Runners Up: Josephine de Beauharnais Empress of the French (read about her here in one of my Dear Hollywood posts), Joan I Queen Regnant of Navarre & Queen Consort of France and Joanna I Queen of Naples
K – Kösem Sultan
I’ve spoken a number of times about the Sultanate of Women; the 150 year period where women reigned supreme over the Ottoman Empire, and I’ve specifically highlighted Hürrem the woman who started it all (see above). I haven’t however highlighted some of the other women as much, mainly because we know far less about them. Kösem is probably the second most important woman in the Sultanate of Women and certainly the one who reached the peak of power as the 1st official Regent of the Ottoman Empire. I chose her for the A-Z for two reasons; one there isn’t many K’s and two she’s such a fascinating figure who like Hürrem had a fairly long political career compared to some of the other women of the Sultanate, in fact there’s quite a few parallels between the two in the early years of their careers. Kosem was regent for two sons and a grandson and it’s so interesting to me that she managed to hold onto power for so long. Also as I’ve said before, the Ottoman Empire also doesn’t get the attention I think it deserves in British academia so I wanted to highlight more figures from there.
L – Louise of Savoy
French Queens like Marie Antoinette and Catherine de Medici are pretty well known; women like Louise of Savoy less so. Louise of Savoy was not Queen of France and yet she was so important to the survival and story of the nation that it’s quite frankly a disgrace that she isn’t revered more outside of France. Her son Francis I King of France is also pretty well known, popping up in many a Tudor Hollywood production. She however does not. Louise was the backbone of Francis’ rule, the woman who managed to keep it all together when it almost fell apart and the power behind Francis’ throne. She was incredibly influential, far more so than many a French Queen Consort and so I wanted to highlight her in this A-Z. She deserves more recognition and so hopefully I’ve given it to her!
Runners Up: Livia Drusilla the 1st Roman Empress
M – Matilda of Tuscany
If you ever here someone ignorantly say that women had no power in the medieval era, all you have to do is point them to this woman right here. Matilda of Tuscany was incredible and yet outside of Italy not tremendously well known, hence why I decided to highlight her in this A-Z. I did consider Empress Matilda (who I adore) but she’s fairly well known and I’ve already done an in depth profile of Melisende I Queen of Jerusalem so I decided to go with this Matilda. She was alive at such a fascinating time and played such an important role in events of the period such as the Investiture Crisis. She’s also one of the rare well known women in history who didn’t do the typical get married and bear heirs thing, which admittedly caused a bit of a clusterfuck after her death. I just think she’s fascinating and wanted to give her a bit of love!
Runners Up: Empress Matilda, Melisende I Queen of Jerusalem (I wrote a multi-part profile of her you can read here and here), Madeleine of France Queen of Scotland, Matilda I Countess of Boulogne & Queen Consort of England, Margaret Tudor, Margaret of Anjou, Marie Antoinette Queen of France, Marie of Blois Duchess of Anjou & Marie Curie.
N – Nur Jahan
The Taj Mahal is one of the most recognisable structures in the world, and the story behind the construction of it is almost as well known. Very few people however know that it’s based on a much smaller, simpler tomb constructed by this woman Nur Jahan Empress of the Mughal Empire, the step-mother of Shah Jahan the Emperor that ordered the construction of the Taj Mahal and the aunt of Mumtaz Mahal the woman it was built for. The love story of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal and his heartbreak over her death is legendary, in India however the love story of Nur Jahan and her husband Jahangir is just as well known, to the extent that it’s difficult to know what about them is true and what is merely myth. In many places, the UK for example Nur Jahan is not a well known figure, women outside of Europe rarely are and so I decided to highlight her in this A-Z. I also wanted to be as inclusive as people and include several women from the Asian continent. Nur’s influence during the reign of her husband was so incredible; she was de facto monarch due to her husband’s lack of interest in ruling and that level of authority makes her completely unique in the annals of Indian history.
Runners Up: Nefertiti Great Royal Wife of Egypt (and potentially Pharaoh of Egypt in her own right who I wrote about in a Dear Hollywood post here), Nurbanu Sultan Haseki Sultan & Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Nefertari Great Royal Wife of Egypt
Hope you enjoyed this post! There’ll be part 3 of the A-Z summary up in a few days! Thank you,
Alexandra x
The Monstrous Regiment of Women 