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 their own kingdoms and...

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 emperor Xianfeng (1831-1861), Cixi...

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 plundered Spanish colonial settlements...

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 of London...

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 hold power equal...

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, and their relationship may...

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, Marduk should not be regarded as King of the Gods in the same...

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 (lit. hill of the tomb) is a Neolithic...

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 Amasis, who started out...

Caligula Depositing the Ashes of his Mother and Brother in the Tomb of his Ancestors, oil on canvas painting by Eustache Le Sueur, c. 1647. Depicted here is Emperor Caligula as he places the ashes of his mother Agrippina the Elder and brother...