Queens, Empresses, Grand Duchesses, and Regents: Women Rulers of Europe, A.D. 1328-1989 [Library Binding]

Olga S. Opfell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0899503853 | ISBN-13: 978-0899503851 | Publication Date: April 1989

This book presents the lives and accomplishments of 39 women rulers-not "in-name-only," but wielders of real power. Celebrated queens like England's Elizabeth I share equal space here with lesser-known monarchs like Giovanna I of Naples and Maria da Gloria of Portugal. The flamboyant, such as Christina of Sweden, contrast with the moralistic, like Maria Theresa of Austria. Each is the heroine of an often dramatic story involving dynastic interplay and court politics. The complex forces that have impeded or sparked the royal performances are detailed.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This is a collection of 39 vignettes of European women rulers by the author of Lady Laureates . It is arranged chronologically, from Juana II of Navarre, 1328-49, to Holland's Beatrix, 1980-. For those well-documented royal lives, e.g., Catherine the Great and Elizabeth I, this work merely presents abbreviated accounts in some cases, but for the more obscure rulers it gathers biographical histories together in a single source. The book successfully provides a feeling of the rulers' triumphs, tragedies, jealousies, and romances with an objectively written and often colorful, lively style that is aimed at both popular and serious readers. The focus is more on rulers' lives, their families, and how contemporaries viewed them than on the events that surrounded them. Useful for history and women's studies collections in public and academic libraries. A lengthy index; no footnotes, but an extensive selected bibliography.
- Stanley P. Hodge, Ball State Univ. Lib., Muncie, Ind.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"a great deal of information tightly packed into each short biography" -- Booklist/RBB

"concise, fact-filled...useful" -- Book Report

"useful for history and women's studies collections" -- Library Journal

Product Details

• Library Binding: 296 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company (April 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0899503853
• ISBN-13: 978-0899503851
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,875,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Too Shallow, January 15, 2012

By 

Bookworm70 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Queens, Empresses, Grand Duchesses and Regents. Women Rulers of Europe, A.D. 1328 - 1989 (Hardcover)

A courageous attempt on the part of the Author to write a book on
Female rulers of Europe. However, her work is too shallow and not
all rulers are included.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good collective biography of (mostly) less-well-known subjects, January 13, 2012

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Queens, Empresses, Grand Duchesses and Regents. Women Rulers of Europe, A.D. 1328 - 1989 (Hardcover)

One of the enduring effects of the agnatic ("men only") provisions of the Salic Law, on which most French and German law has been based since about the 8th century, is that female rulers have been very much the exception on the Continent. But there have been some, especially in Scandinavia and Spain, and Opfell has brought thirty-nine of them together in a popularly written but accurate collective narrative. Though the volume includes brief chapters on Elizabeth I & II of England, as well as Queens Mary and Anne, a great many other, more complete sources are available about them. However, many of her subjects will be little known to the majority of readers: Maria of Hungary, who was half-Italian; Catalina, niece of the king of France, who was the last ruler of an independent Navarre; Ulrika Eleonore, the anxious and insecure queen of Sweden; and the lazy and self-indulgent Elizabeth of Russia, who staged a coup d'état. The author segues between chapters wherever possible and her narrative style is generally clear and concise, though the relative brevity of the work often requires compression of events. I found it a little odd, though, that nowhere does the author appear to consider whether this group of monarchs and de facto rulers differs fundamentally because of their sex -- from a similar group of men, that is -- whether in personal style or in political and dynastic concerns. If that was not to be at least a partial theme, why write the book?