Queens of the British Isles and Ireland

In the Hundred Years’ War, England and France fought for control of their two states. England insisted that France’s crown belonged to her since King Edward III’s mother was the French king’s sister, and in the absence of male heirs, sovereignty should have passed through the female line. Since this was its claim to the throne, women’s rule in England remained legitimate in principle. Yet until the sixteenth century, England never had a formal female sovereign, and throughout his life Henry VIII did everything in his power to prevent it. His first wife Katherine, daughter of Isabella of Castile, a powerful and intelligent woman, blazed the path for women in government but fell out of favor and was sent away when she failed to produce a boy. The second wife, Anne Boleyn, was executed for the same reasons. Henry finally had a son with his third wife, Jane Seymour, but when young Edward died six years after his coronation, there were no males left in the Tudor dynasty. Katherine’s daughter, Mary, was crowned first female sovereign of England and after five years of rule was replaced by her half-sister, Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn. With Elizabeth, female rule in England reached its apex. At one point, with another Mary as Queen of Scotland, and with Grace O’Malley (Gráinne Ní Máille) as sovereign ruler of Western Ireland, almost the entirety of the British Isles and Ireland were governed by women.