![]() ![]() Eleanor of Aquitaine and Margaret of Anjou wielded considerable influence at court in premodern Europe. Other examples from antiquity, during the height of the Roman Empire, include the reign of Cornelia Africana, mother of the Gracchi. In 1478 BCE, Hatshepsut ruled for 20 years as regent to the boy pharaoh Thutmose III. ![]() Women who have served as regents or dowagers, counselling young boy rulers, predate the existence of written history. When women ruled, it was an in-between time when notions and language about something that was not supposed to be nevertheless took shape and tested the limits of what could be made acceptable. ![]() Women after her avoided being compared to her but retained many of her methods of legitimization, such as the patronage of art and religion, the use of cosmic titles and vocabulary, and occasional gestures of impersonating a male emperor. She was the climax of the long history of women rulers. In the most extreme case, Wu Zetian declared herself emperor of her own dynasty. But many women ruled without being recognized as regent, and many did not hand power to the son once he was old enough, or even if they did, still continued to exert power. In such situations, the precedent was for a woman to govern temporarily as regent and, when the heir apparent became old enough, hand power to him. The usual reason that allowed a woman to rule was the illness, incapacity, or death of her emperor-husband and the extreme youth of his son the successor. “Women Rulers in Imperial China”is about the history and characteristics of rule by women in China from the Han dynasty to the Qing, especially focusing on the Tang dynasty ruler Wu Zetian (625-705) and the Song dynasty Empress Liu. ![]()
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