Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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?