Historyland Ferdaws

  The 10 best English queens in history Thanks to some much-married monarchs, England has had many more queens than kings. Each has made a significant contribution to English history, whether she wielded power as a queen consort (like Eleanor of Aquitaine) or as a ruler in her own right (like Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria). But who were the best women rulers 1 Bertha of Kent  Perhaps the most well known of all the pre-Conquest queens, Bertha played a crucial role in the establishment of Christianity in England. She was the daughter of the Christian king, Charibert  of Paris, who insisted that she be free to practise her own religion when she married the pagan king, Æthelbert of Kent. Bertha crossed the Channel with her chaplain, Bishop Liuthard, and the pair converted an old Roman building into a chapel. She discussed her beliefs with her husband, ensuring that he welcomed the pope’s missionary, St Augustine, when he arrived in 597. She also corresponded directly with th...

  Queens know best: survival lessons from powerful historical women As we navigate modern life, it is sometimes easy to forget there are many timeless tactics to be learned from past historical figures – even more so when these figures happen to be women, who are so often consigned to more subservient roles. Yet there’s much inspiration to be found, writes Estelle Paranque… As a historian, I have always been fascinated by what we can learn from past queens and other female leaders. Upon studying their speeches, letters, prayers and other achievements recorded in pamphlets and print, it becomes obvious that we can learn a great deal from them, especially if we apply their advice, their words and the examples they set to our own modern lives. If we do so, perhaps we can experience a fairer and more equal society, where women are encouraged to embrace both their leadership skills and their dreams. Catherine de Medici was the queen consort to Henry II of France and the mother of three ...

  Today, the word ‘terrible’ can be used to describe anything from a particularly bad meal to a natural disaster that kills millions of people. Back in the 16th Century when it was a nickname bestowed on   the Russian ruler Ivan IV,   it specifically meant ‘awe-inspiring’, ‘powerful’ and ‘formidable’. However, if we examine the reign of one of the most paranoid, bloodthirsty and unpredictable men who has ever ruled the country, maybe the modern definition of ‘extremely bad’ isn’t so wide of the mark after all? So, what exactly made Ivan so terrible? The seeds of the dreadful human being Ivan would become were sewn in his miserable childhood. His father, Vasili the Grand Prince of Moscow, died when Ivan was just three years old and his mother passed away when he was eight. The young prince then became the object of power struggles between various members of the nobility, in particular, the powerful Shuisky and Belesky families. While the royal court descended into a danger...

  8 of the worst monarchs in history From ‘Bad King John’ and the debauched Gaius Caligula to the “useless” Mary, Queen of Scots, historian Sean Lang rounds up nine of the worst kings and queens in history… History has no shortage of disastrous rulers; this list could easily have been filled with the  Roman emperors  alone. Rulers have been homicidal, like  Nero  or  Genghis Khan ; incompetent, like  Edward II ; completely untrustworthy, like  Charles I ; or amiable but inadequate, like Louis XVI of France or Tsar  Nicholas II . Some royal stinkers were limited in their capacity to do serious harm: the self-absorbed  Edward VIII  by his abdication, the narcissistic prince regent and king,  George IV , by the constitutional limits on his power. And the mass murderer and self-proclaimed ‘Emperor’ Jean-Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Empire might have featured on this list had his imperial status been internationally recognis...