Queen mother of the west: Did you mean...?

The ancient and medieval Mediterranean might have been a bustling stage of ever-changing empires but, across the inhospitable barrier of the Sahara Desert, West Africans were equally busy building up and toppling down...

The Empress Mother Cixi (1835 - 1908) photographed in 1903 with the wives of the diplomatic corps having a tea in the Forbidden City, the Chinese imperial palace. After the death of her husband, the Chinese...

The sea dogs, as they were disparagingly called by the Spanish authorities, were privateers who, with the consent and sometimes financial support of Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603 CE), attacked and...

Anne Boleyn (c. 1501-1536) was the second wife of Henry VIII of England (r. 1509-1547). Anne, sometimes known as 'Anne of a Thousand Days' in reference to her short reign as queen, was accused of adultery and executed in the Tower...

The position of God's Wife of Amun was one of the most politically powerful and spiritually significant in later Egyptian history. Elevated from a figurehead in the New Kingdom (c.1570-1069 BCE), the God's Wife of Amun would...

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (l. c. 1532-1588), was a high-ranking courtier who rose to become a favourite of Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603). Rumours abounded that Dudley sought to marry the queen...

The gods of the Mesopotamian region were not uniform in name, power, provenance or status in the hierarchy. Mesopotamian culture varied from region to region and, because of this...

Neolithic clay altar figurine of a mother goddess from Tumba Madzari, North Macedonia, the second half of the 6th millennium BCE. Archaeological Museum of the Republic of Macedonia, Skopje. Tumba Madzari...

Ninhursag (also Ninhursaga) is the Sumerian mother goddess and one of the oldest and most important in the Mesopotamian pantheon. She is known as the Mother of the Gods and Mother of Men for her part in creating...

The cobras on Tasherenese's headdress and forehead signal a royal status, and her fly-whisk was typical of queens. She was, however, not a queen. An inscription on the back-pillar identifies her as the mother of King...