Queens of England: Inside the Historic Reigns of 8 Female British Monarchs

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty ; Ute Grabowsky/Photothek/Getty

Britain has had a number of monarchs through the centuries, though notably far more kings than queens have truly ruled.

In fact, there have only been eight reigning queens of England, includingQueen Elizabeth II, who died in September 2022.

A number of queens ascended to the role through their husbands, who were legitimate heirs to the throne. Of the women who became queens in their own right, only one — Queen Mary II — insisted on reigning alongside her husband as an equal. The seven other queens each ruled in their own way, whether for a handful of days, like Lady Jane Grey, or for several decades, such asQueen Elizabeth.

From Empress Matilda’s chaotic reign in the 12th century toQueen Elizabeth’s steady 70-year rule, here is a look at the eight former queens of England.

Empress Matilda

Historia/Shutterstock

Empress Matilda, who was also known as Empress Maude, claimed the English throne during the chaotic civil war called the Anarchy. The war broke out between England and Normandy (now part of France) in 1138 and plunged the country into crisis until 1153.

Matilda was born to King Henry I and Matilda of Scotland around 1101 or 1102 in Berkshire, England. Henry had married her mother, the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland, in the hopes that it would raise his own status.

In 1120, Matilda’s brother —William Adelin, the only legitimate heir to the English throne — died at sea, putting Henry I’s hope for a dynasty at risk. According to Chibnall, Matilda’s husband, Henry V of Germany, died in 1125, presumably of cancer. His death was the catalyst that Henry I needed to push for her ascension to the English throne; in 1127, 25-year-old Matilda became engaged to 13-year-old Geoffrey of Anjou, the son of a French nobleman. They married in 1128. While the marriage wasn’t known to be a happy one, the pair had three children.

Matilda soon traveled to England to overtake her cousin and claim the throne as her own. Eventually, Matilda controlled part of the country and Stephen the other, and she left England to meet her husband in Normandy, France. Matilda and Geoffrey’s son stayed in England and was later crowned King Henry II.

Lady Jane Grey

World History Archive / Alamy

Lady Jane Grey was born in 1537, according toHistoric Royal Palaces. Of all of England’s reigning queens, Jane was monarch for the least amount of time — only nine days — despite being the great-granddaughter of King Henry VII. She married Lord Guildford Dudley and together they had three children.

Jane was named queen following the death of her cousin, King Edward VI. At the time of his death, Jane was fifth in line for the throne, but Edward VI personally chose her to succeed him because they were both Protestant. Jane was 16 when she was proclaimed queen of England, France and Ireland.

However, things took a dark turn for Jane within days; the monarchy’s advisers decided that Edward VI’s half-sister, Mary, should be queen. Jane was deposed on July 19, 1553, marking the end of her reign.

In January 1554, Jane’s father became involved in Wyatt’s Rebellion, an attempted uprising against Queen Mary I after she announced her intention to marry a foreigner. Found guilty of treason, Jane and her husband were imprisoned at the Tower of London and then beheaded on Feb. 12, 1554.

Queen Mary I

Chronicle / Alamy

Queen Mary Iis consideredthe first British monarch to become queen on her own— that is, not through marriage to a king. Born on Feb. 18, 1516, in Greenwich, England, to King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Mary was the only one of her siblings to survive past infancy. Mary is also known as Mary Tudor or Bloody Mary, a nickname she earned after sending hundreds of Protestants to their deaths.

Henry VIII, dissatisfied that Catherine of Aragon had not produced a male heir, eventually had his marriage to Catherine declared invalid. He went on to marry Anne Boleyn, and Mary was subsequently deemed illegitimate.

In 1544 however, the Third Succession Act restored both Mary and her younger half-sister Elizabeth I (born to Henry VIII and Boleyn) to the line of succession through their half-brother King Edward VI.

But, when Edward VI died in July 1553, he excluded both Mary I and Elizabeth I from the line of succession to ensure that Mary did not inherit the throne and restore Catholicism to the country. Still, Mary became queen after the nine-day reign of Lady Jane Grey and was officially crowned on Oct. 1, 1553.

While Mary wed King Philip of Spain, the couple never welcomed any children. She died in 1558 with her younger half-sister Elizabeth I as her successor.

Queen Elizabeth I

D Walker/Getty

Queen Elizabeth Iwas born on Sept. 7, 1533, in Greenwich, England, to King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. King Henry VIII later had Boleyn beheaded in 1536 after she was charged with adultery — though historians generally believe she was falsely accused.

A multilinguist, Elizabeth acceded to the throne following Queen Mary’s death in 1558. According to the Royal Family’s official website,Queen Elizabeth’s reign is generally considered the “most glorious in English history.”

Shefamously never marriedthroughout her 45-year rule and instead declared herself married to her country, a move that many have observed as politically savvy.

“It was actually quite clever of her to announce that she was married to the country and therefore could not be married to someone else,” actressMargot Robbie, who playedQueen ElizabethI inMary Queen of Scots, told PEOPLE in 2018. “It was really the only way of protecting herself and protecting her position in that way. It really came from life and death stakes. In her mind, it was a survival technique.”

Ultimately, Mary, Queen of Scots, helped to plan the attempted assassination of Elizabeth I in the Babington Plot of 1956. Mary was tried, convicted and executed in February 1587.

Queen Mary II

CBW / Alamy

Queen Mary IIwas born on April 30, 1662, in London to King James II and his first wife, Anne Hyde.

Mary married her husband, William III of Orange, when she was 15 years old. The pair were initially matched due to their families' political motivations, but they grew to love each other, according toHistoric Royal Palaces. When Mary was asked to become queen in 1689, she agreed only if her husband could rule alongside her as an equal. To date, they are the first and only couple in the British monarchy to rule jointly.

Mary II and William III were essentially co-monarchs; when William, an experienced military leader, was in the country, Mary followed her husband’s lead, only exercising her rule when he was away.The World History Encyclopediawrote that Mary II was popular for her willingness to conduct her rule in this way. When her husband was home, Mary focused her attention on hobbies such as gardening.

Per theUniversity of Exeter, Mary had miscarriages in 1678 and 1679; she and William never had children.

Queen Mary II came down with smallpox in December 1694 and died before the year ended. William III remained king, but he never remarried and died heirless in 1702, paving the way for Mary II’s sister Anne to take the throne.

Queen Anne

Ian G Dagnall / Alamy

The younger sister of Mary II,Queen Annewas born on Feb. 6, 1665, in London to James II and Anne Hyde.

According to theRoyal Family’s official website, Anne marriedPrince Georgeof Denmark when she was 18 years old. The pair attempted to have children — Anne was pregnant at least 18 times, each resulting in miscarriage, stillbirth or death during childhood. One son, William, Duke of Gloucester, died of what was likely a bacterial infection and pneumonia just days before his 11th birthday.

Much was made ofAnne’s close friendshipwith Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, and the two women were close friends long before Anne became queen. Their friendship inspired Yorgos Lanthimos' filmThe Favourite, which starsOlivia Colmanas Queen Anne andRachel Weiszas Churchill. The movie explored the possibility that Anne and Churchill were also lovers.

Somerset continued, “But you also have to bear in mind that in that era women did have passionate friendships with no erotic undertones. I don’t doubt that her marriage toPrince Georgewas a happy and devoted one.”

During her reign, Anne oversaw the union of Scotland and England as the Kingdom of Great Britain. The last years of Anne’s life were plagued with tension between Scotland and England, and many in Scotland endured tough economic times.

The last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne died in 1714.

Queen Victoria

Getty

Queen Victoriawas born on May 24, 1819, and was the only daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. The future Queen Victoria was a granddaughter of King George III; she became heir to the throne after her father died, as her three uncles did not have children who survived to adulthood.

Victoria was barely 18 years old whenshe became queenin 1837. As historian Daisy Goodwin explained to PEOPLE in 2017, “That is a huge deal. After a succession of old men, they had a teenage woman running the country.”

She married her husband, Prince Albert, three years later. According to Goodwin, the two had a full-blown love affair and connected because they had each lived through personal tragedy. “They had this real bond because they had both lost a parent — she was fatherless and Albert was motherless,” Goodwin said. “He is an interesting character as, unlike most men of his generation, he was not fooling around. He fell for Victoria but never looked at another woman.”

The two went on to havenine childrentogether, all of whom survived into adulthood. Most of her children married into other European royal families.

According toEncyclopaedia Britannica, Victoria’s reign coincided with a particularly successful time period for what had since become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The death of her husband in 1861 sent the queen into a depression, and she rarely left her home in the years that followed.

In 1887, Victoria gained a personal attendant namedAbdul Karim, who was introduced to the queen when he was part of her Jubilee celebrations that year. Journalist and author Shrabani Basu has explained that despite the power dynamics at play, the two were genuinely close.

Basu added: “You could see the relationship growing. In [Victoria’s] journals, there are mentions of seeing the Munshi’s wife, or the Munshi’s cat has had kittens. This is the Queen of England and she’s just frequently visiting his house, [asking him], ‘Will you come up and say goodnight to me?’ All very personal things.”

Queen Elizabeth II

Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty

Queen ElizabethII was born on April 21, 1926, in London. As the oldest daughter of then-Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Elizabeth, Duchess of York, Elizabeth was not expected to ascend to the throne. Albert was King George V’s second son; Albert’s elder brother, Edward VIII, succeeded the throne when their father George V died.

Things changed for Elizabeth and her family in 1936 when her uncle Edward VIIIabdicated the throneso he could marryWallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite. Elizabeth’s father became King George VI, and she became first in line to the throne.

Elizabeth met her future husband,Prince Philip, in November 1934 when she was 8 years old. The pair began exchanging letters in 1939, and they married in 1947. They welcomedfour childrentogether:King Charles III,Princess Anne,Prince AndrewandPrince Edward. Elizabeth received news that her father had died while she and Philip were in Kenya in 1952; overnight, she became queen.

“She was interested in people. That was the great unifying force. With all these prime ministers and leaders, she was able to relate to them as people,” her former assistant private secretarySamantha Cohenexplained. “Male leadership is often transactional, and female leadership is relational. She built relationships with people like[Nelson] Mandelaand[Ronald] Reagan, and those relationships endured.”

If there was one period in which the Queen’s reputation wobbled with the public, it was in the days that followed the unexpected death of her former daughter-in-lawPrincess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in 1997. Elizabeth was blasted for not appearing in public shortly after the accident, but her grandsonPrince Williamlater praised his grandmother’s decision to comfort him andPrince Harryduring that time.

source: people.com