Conclusion: How and Why Did It End?

From the early 1600s onward, royal women receded into the background. In the Ottoman Empire after Kösem, in the Safavid Empire after Zaynab, and in the Mughal Empire after Nur Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, we hardly even know their names. In Christian Europe, the names may still be recognized by historians of monarchy, but in France after Marie de Medici, in England after Elizabeth, and even in Jewish communities after Dona Gracia Mendes and the two kiras, women remained behind the scenes and did not play as prominent a role as they did during this short efflorescence. The conclusion offers several explanations for the disappearance of queendom during the seventeenth century.