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Queen

Definition: Queen

Queen

Noun

1. The only fertile female in a colony of social insects such as bees and ants and termites; its function is to lay eggs.

2. A female sovereign ruler.

3. The wife or widow of a king.

4. Offensive terms for an openly homosexual man.

5. One of four face cards in a deck bearing a picture of a queen.

6. The most powerful chess piece.

7. Especially large and only member of a colony of naked mole rats to bear offspring sired by only a few males.

8. Female cat.

Verb

1. Promote to a queen, as of a pawn in chess.

2. Become a queen, of a chess pawn.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

"Queen" is a name that signifies or is derived from: "a woman", "a wife".

Date "queen" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

 

Specialty Definition: Queen

DomainDefinition

Satire

QUEEN, n. A woman by whom the realm is ruled when there is a king, and through whom it is ruled when there is not. Source: Devil's Dictionary.

19th Century Satire

One entitled to rule a nation, make up a deck, or beat a knave. Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904.

Bible

Queen No explicit mention of queens is made till we read of the "queen of Sheba." The wives of the kings of Israel are not so designated. In Ps. 45:9, the Hebrew for "queen" is not _malkah_, one actually ruling like the Queen of Sheba, but _shegal_, which simply means the king's wife. In 1 Kings 11:19, Pharaoh's wife is called "the queen," but the Hebrew word so rendered (g'birah) is simply a title of honour, denoting a royal lady, used sometimes for "queen-mother" (1 Kings 15:13; 2 Chron. 15:16). In Cant. 6:8, 9, the king's wives are styled "queens" (Heb. melakhoth). In the New Testament we read of the "queen of the south", i.e., Southern Arabia, Sheba (Matt. 12:42; Luke 11:31) and the "queen of the Ethiopians" (Acts 8:27), Candace. Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary.

Dream Interpretation

To dream of a queen, foretells succesful{sic} ventures. If she looks old or haggard, there will be disappointments connected with your pleasures. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted ....

Literature

Queen Greek, gyne (a woman); Sanskrit, goni; Swedish, qvenna; Gothic, queins; Anglo-Saxon, cwen. (See Sir .)
Queen, "woman," is equivalent to "mother." In the translation of the Bible by Ulfilas (fourth century), we meet with gens and gino ("wife" and "woman"); and in the Scandinavian languages karl and kone still mean "man" and "wife." (See King.)
"He [Jesus] saith unto His mother, Woman, behold thy son."- St. John xix. 26.
Queen (The White). Mary Queen of Scots; so called because she dressed in white mourning for her French husband. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.

Mining

Slate measuring 36 in by 24 in (91.44 cm by 60.96 cm). (references)

Multilingual Slang

French (folle, tante), Italian (checca, regina). (references)

Slang

Noun. Source: The connotation of the word "queen" in Standard English implies a person that is not only regal and often puts on airs, but also one that is somewhat almighty. In Standard English it refers to a woman and not a man. . Definition: A reference to a man that is feminine. Context: This is used in casual conversation as a descriptive term for a man that has feminine mannerisms. Social Source: LGBTA. Source: Compiled by The University of Oregon. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Beatrix of the Netherlands

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard of Orange-Nassau (born January 31, 1938) is the Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, having acceded to the throne in 1980. Beatrix is the daughter of Queen Juliana and her husband, Bernhard von Lippe-Biesterfeld. When Beatrix was a young girl, the Dutch royal family fled the German invasion of the Netherlands in World War II, moving to Great Britain in May 1940 and then to Ottawa, Canada. They returned home in 1945.


Queen Beatrix

In Canada, Princess Beatrix had attended nursery and primary school. On her return to the Netherlands, she continued her primary education at The Workshop (De Werkplaats), Kees Boeke's progressive school in Bilthoven. In April 1950, Princess Beatrix entered the Incrementum, part of Baarns Lyceum, where she passed her school-leaving examinations in arts subjects and classics in 1956.

On January 31, 1956, Princess Beatrix celebrated her 18th birthday. From that date, under the Constitution of the Netherlands, she was entitled to assume the royal prerogative. At that time, her mother installed her in the Council of State.

Beatrix began her university studies the same year, at Leiden University. In her first years at university, she attended lectures in sociology, jurisprudence, economics, parliamentary history and constitutional law. In the course of her studies she also attended lectures on the cultures of Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles, the Charter of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, international affairs, international law, history and European law.

While at university, the Princess visited various European and international organisations in Geneva, Strasbourg, Paris, and Brussels. She was also an active member of the Leiden Women Students' Association. In the summer of 1959, she passed her preliminary examination in law, and she obtained her law degree in July 1961.

On March 10, 1966, she married the diplomat Claus von Amsberg. Initially, there was quite some opposition to the marriage. With fresh memories of the Second World War, a part of the Dutch people didn't appreciate a German prince. As time went on, however Claus became one of the most popular members of the Dutch monarchy and his 2002 death was widely mourned.

On April 30, 1980, Beatrix became Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands when her mother abdicated. She exercises her function with more formality than Queen Juliana. She has a lot of supporters because of her professionalism, but during the 1990s criticism increased.

She has been a long-time member of the Club of Rome.

Beatrix has three sons:

On October 6, 2002, her husband Prince Claus died after a long illness.

Preceded by:
Juliana
List of Kings and Queens of the Netherlands Heir apparent:
Prince Willem-Alexander

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Beatrix of the Netherlands."

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British monarchy

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The British monarch or sovereign is the head of state of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, and is the source of all executive, judicial and (as the Queen-in-Parliament) legislative power. The monarch is also Supreme Governor of the Church of England as well as Head of the Commonwealth and head of state of 15 other Commonwealth Realms. Although the monarch plays an important ceremonial role, in practice the United Kingdom uses the Westminster system of constitutional monarchy, so the power of the monarch in British politics is greatly limited by convention.


Queen Elizabeth II

There are two situations in which the monarch may have political power. By convention, the monarch dissolves parliament and issues a writ for new elections at the request of the Prime Minister, however it is an open question as to whether the monarch must always grant such a dissolution. Another possible situation is if no party gains a majority in Parliament. The monarch would by convention offer the post of Prime Minister to the head of the party most likely to form a government, but it is possible that this may not be the party with the most seats.

The monarch must formally assent to all acts of Parliament before they can become law. Royal assent is given in Norman French by a representative of the monarch. The last time royal assent was withheld was by Queen Anne. Although there is a popular consensus in support of the continuing existence of the monarchy, there is a wide belief that this would rapidly change were the monarch to exercise power in opposition to the democratically elected government.

The current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II (since February 6 1952) and the Heir Apparent is Charles, Prince of Wales (son of the Queen, born November 14 1948). Although Charles is the formal heir-apparent, there has been continuing speculation that when the Queen dies or abdicates then the crown will pass not to Charles, but to his eldest son. Advocates for this suggest that Charles is unsuitable as a monarch because of his divorce from Diana, Princess of Wales. There is also a large Royal Family made up of the Queen's other children and cousins.

The present monarch's style is Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

Succession to the British throne is restricted to Protestant descendants of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, with male heirs having precedence over females, and those who have married a Roman Catholic excluded, though there have been moves to amend these restrictions in recent years.

Labour minister Lord Williams of Mostyn said in 1998 that the government would like to change the law to give equal precedence regardless of sex. However, the government also believes that such a change would take up a lot of parliamentary time, and would require the approval of the other countries of which the British monarch is head of state. Despite public calls for change by two female cabinet ministers, Patricia Hewitt and Tessa Jowell, no moves have yet been taken.

The Guardian newspaper has campaigned in recent years for an abolition of the restriction on non-Protestants from succeeding to the throne. It argues that the restriction may be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, which is now part of British law. A "ten minute rule" bill to overturn this restriction was introduced in the British House of Commons by Labour MP Kevin McNamara in 2001, and won a symbolic victory when forced to a vote, but did not become law.

Upon the death of a Monarch, an Accession Council meets at St James's Palace. Attending are the members of the House of Lords, Privy Counsellors, the Lord Mayor of London, Aldermen of the City of London, and High Commissioners of Commonwealth countries. The Council makes a proclamation declaring the death of the previous monarch and names the individual who is to succeed to the Crown. The proclamation is then read aloud at various places in London, Edinburgh, Windsor, and York.

See also

External links

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Canadian monarchy

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)


Portraits of the Queen can be found in most Canadian government buildings

Canada is a Constitutional Monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its reigning monarch and head of state.

In Canada, Her Majesty's official title is Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom, Canada and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. Such capacity is Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. In common practice Queen Elizabeth II is referred to simply as "The Queen" or "The Queen of Canada" when in Canada.

Constitutional monarchy in Canada

The most notable features of the Canadian constitutional monarchy are:

History

Canada has been independent of the United Kingdom since a combination of the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act, 1927 (which replaced the concept of a singular crown throughout the British Empire with multiple crowns with each dominion as a separate kingdom, all worn by the common shared monarch) and the Statute of Westminster 1931, which granted the dominions of the Commonwealth independence from the British parliament and equality with the United Kingdom. Canada's constitution was repatriated under Prime Minister Trudeau in 1982, becoming a Canadian law rather than an act of the British parliament which required amendment in both jurisdictions. See Canada Act 1982.


The Throne of Canada
Throne Chairs for The Queen of Canada, and the Duke of Edinburgh and the Governor General, in the Canadian Senate, Ottawa. (The front chair is used by the Speaker of the Senate)

However the repatriation of the constitution did not have any impact on the position of Queen Elizabeth as Queen of Canada, though the rules of succession are still laid down in British, not Canadian law.

Occasionally, the Queen's authority is appealed to by Canada's partisan political leaders.

In 1992, Brian Mulroney, then Prime Minister of Canada, appealed to the Queen (through the Governor-General) to temporarily add eight seats to the Senate (a right reserved for the queen). Senators are appointed until the age of 75 in Canada, and it is generally believed that Mulroney made this move in order to secure passage of the controversial Goods and Services Tax, which faced widespread opposition in Canada, and would not have passed there without the votes of the newly appointed Senators.

This was an occasion on which the Queen played a significant role in Canadian government, though as the monarch's advisors made clear, the monarch felt bound to do as advised by Her Prime Minister, who was answerable to cabinet, parliament and the Canadian electorate for whatever advice he gave. They argued that to in effect overrule prime ministerial advice would have involved the Queen directly in controversy; by automatically accepting advice she placed the responsibility on the person giving the advice.

Debate

Throughout Canada's history there has rarely been much discussion or debate on the continued existence of the "Canadian monarchy." Historically, the monarchy has often been touted by Canadians as one of the key differences between the United States and Canada.

In recent years however, some Canadians, such as Deputy Prime Minister John Manley have advocated the abolishment of the Canadian monarchy, and the establishment of a republic with head of state as a fully Canadian (and possibly democratically-elected) office. In contrast to Australian republicanism, there is not much public interest in turning Canada into a republic.

Arguments against the monarchy claim that its abolition would be a blow for democracy and remove an unnecessary expense for the Canadian taxpayer. Many Canadian republicans also say it would remove Canada's last political connection to her colonial past, and thus improve her image as a sovereign nation.

On the other hand, some of the monarchy's defenders have argued that having a Canadian monarchy, with a Queen of Canada and a governor-general, allows Canada to highlight its difference from the United States, whereas a republican president might be seen just another president on the American continent where the most prominent president is the President of the United States.

It is also noted that whereas Canada currently has a female head of state and female governor-general, no woman has ever been president or vice-president in the United States. They also argue that a republican head of state would cost more, not less, than the current monarchy, with additional costs involving in updating the governor-general's residences to full head of state presidential palace level, the costs of state visit, political advisors, increased ceremonial functions, etc, functions that in many cases do not exist for a governor-general, given that they are not a full head of state, but which would be required for a Canadian president. There is also, in large part because of previous long disputes over constitutional issues and reforms, a reluctance to enter into the extensive constitutional renegotiation that would be required to establish a new political system in Canada. At any rate, at this time this issue is not at all high on peoples' minds. A recent poll suggested that only 5% of Canadians are aware that Canada's Queen and Head of State is Elizabeth II. Most Canadians incorrectly regard the Prime Minister as the nation's Head of State.

The Canadian monarchy has a powerful special interest group, known as the Monarchist League of Canada. The republican movement has a smaller, recently-formed group, known as Citizens for a Canadian Republic.

See also

External Links

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Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (May 19, 1744 - November 17, 1818) was the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.

She was born Sophia Charlotte, at Mirow in her father's duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Germany. Having been selected as the bride of the young king George (who had already flirted with several young women considered unsuitable by his mother, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, and by his political advisors), she arrived in Britain in 1761 and the couple were married at the Chapel Royal in St James's Palace, London, on September 8 of that year.

Despite not having been his first choice, and having been treated with a general lack of sympathy by his mother, Charlotte's relationship with her husband soon blossomed, and he is not known ever to have been unfaithful to her. In the course of their marriage, they had sixteen children, most of whom survived into adulthood. Charlotte was supportive to her husband as he descended into mental illness, but pre-deceased him, dying at Kew Palace, their family home in Surrey. She was buried at Windsor.

The cities of Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward Island, Canada, and Charlotte, North Carolina were named for her.

According to information published on www.pbs.org, the official website of the Public Broadcasting System, Queen Charlotte was part black, six times a descendant of Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a black, Moorish, or mixed-race member of the Portuguese royal family who lived in the 15th century. Citing research conducted by Charlotte biographer Olwen Hedley as well as the history department of Canada's McGill University, black-diaspora historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom writes on the PBS website that Queen Charlotte's personal physician, Christian Friedrich, Baron von Stockmar, described his patient as having "true mulatto features" ("ein wahres Mulattengesicht").

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz."

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Commonwealth Realm

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A Commonwealth realm is any one of the 16 sovereign states that recognize Queen Elizabeth II as their Queen and head of state. In each state she acts as the monarch of that state regardless of her other roles. For example, in Canada she is known as "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada" or simply, the Queen of Canada.

Upon the advice of the nations' prime ministers, the Queen appoints a governor-general to represent her as the de facto Head of State during her absence. The governor-general in turn exercises the powers of a constitutional monarch with a few symbolic, figurehead duties.

Fifteen of the nations are all former British colonies that became independent countries either after the ratification of the Statute of Westminster in 1931, the collapse of the Federation of the West Indies in 1961, or at later dates, the latest being Saint Kitts and Nevis in 1983. Papua New Guinea was administered by Australia as an international trusteeship before independence in 1975. For historical information see also Dominion.

Countries currently Commonwealth Realms

The Commonwealth Realms are a part of, but should be distinguished from, the Commonwealth of Nations which is an organization of mostly former British colonies, the majority of whom do not recognize The Queen as head of state.

Commonwealth Realms are:

Flags of The Queen in Commonwealth Realms

In her capacity as Queen of different Commonwealth Realms, Her Majesty does not use the British Royal Standard, but instead uses either her flag for that realm, or her personal flag as Head of the Commonwealth, which is also used when visiting Commonwealth countries where she is not recognised as Head of State.


Queen of Malta's Flag 1967
The Queen has flags for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Jamaica and Barbados. Each is a banner of the country's coat of arms, with the royal cypher in the centre, with the letter 'E' for 'Elizabeth'. The Queen formerly had flags for Sierra Leone, Malta, and Trinidad and Tobago, but when these countries became republics, they became obsolete.

Flags of Governors-General


Governor-General of Malta's
Flag 1964-1974
Similarly, the Governor-General has his or her own flag featuring the Royal Lion and Crown (The Saint Edward's Crown), with the name of the country written in capitals on a scroll underneath. The Governor-General of Canada has a distinctive design, which features the Royal Lion with the Saint Edward's Crown, bearing a maple leaf.

Countries formerly Commonwealth Realms

Following their independence from Britain, most Commonwealth countries retained The Queen as head of state, but eventually changed the title of the monarch to the Sovereign of their own respective nations. (i.e. The Queen of Australia, The Queen of Canada etc...) In each realm the monarch is represented by a Governor-General, a Governor or a Lieutenant Governor.

With time, some Commonwealth Realms moved to become republics, passing constitutional amendments removing the monarch as their head of state, and replacing the Governor-General with an elected or appointed president. They remained within the Commonwealth, following the precedent set by India in 1950, recognising the British monarch as 'Head of the Commonwealth', but not as head of state. Previously, republican status was incompatible with Commonwealth membership, prompting Ireland to withdraw from the association on becoming a republic in 1949.

In some former Commonwealth realms, including Malta, Trinidad and Tobago, and Mauritius, the office of President was a ceremonial post, but other countries, such as Ghana, Malawi and Gambia, the President was an executive post, held by the last Prime Minister.

However, in Fiji, the change to a republic in 1987 came as a result of a military coup, rather than out of any republican sentiment, as Fiji's indigenous chiefs had voluntarily ceded their country to the Crown. Even when Fiji was not a member of the Commonwealth, symbols of the monarchy remained, including the Queen's portrait on banknotes and coins, and, unlike in the United Kingdom, the Queen's Official Birthday is a public holiday. When Fiji was readmitted to the Commonwealth, the issue of reinstating the Queen was raised, but not pursued, although the country's Council of Chiefs reaffirmed that the Queen was still the country's 'paramount chief'.

1. Presidency is ceremonial post.
2. Presidency is executive post.
3. Presidency originally ceremonial, now executive.
4. Presidency replaced office of Governor-General, but Republic not declared until 1949.

Republicanism in The Realms

In recent years, there has been some debate within the remaining Commonwealth realms about the continuing status of their monarchy. While some view the Queen's role as Head of State with either strong enthusiasm or passive indifference, others view her as an obstacle to true ' symbolic independence' from the United Kingdom. Those advocating change have pointed out that the majority of Commonwealth countries have long since become republics, and that were their countries to do the same, they too would accept the Queen as 'Head of the Commonwealth'.

Supporters of the monarchy argue that a republican head of state would cost more, not less, than the current monarchy. They point to the presidencies of the United States and France which cost more to maintain than their monarchies. They cite the additional costs involving in updating the governor-general's residences to full head of state presidential palace level, the costs of state visit, political advisors, increased ceremonial functions, etc, functions that in many cases do not exist for a governor-general, given that they are not a full head of state, but which would be required for a president. There is also, in large part because of previous long disputes over constitutional issues and reforms (especially in Canada and to some extent after the republican debate in Australia), a reluctance to enter into the extensive constitutional renegotiation that would be required to establish a new political system.

While The Queen's powers in Commonwealth realms are limited to appointing the Governor-General (and even this is done on the advice of the prime minister), her name and image play a prominent role in political institutions and symbols. For example, the Queen's image usually appears on coins and banknotes, and an oath of allegiance to her is usually required from politicians, judges, and new citizens. While some view a nation's political history and traditions to be part of their national identity, others view these traditions as anachronisms.

In Australia, Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating made clear his intention to make the country a republic by 2001. Following the holding of a Constitutional Convention in 1998, a referendum was held in 1999 on replacing the Queen as head of state with a President indirectly elected by Parliament. This was rejected because of divisions over how the future President should be elected, with some advocating direct election.

In neighbouring New Zealand, Prime Minister Helen Clark and her predecessor James Bolger, have also voiced their support for republicanism, but this does not yet have popular support, although a republican movement has been established. There have also been doubts expressed about the future role of the monarchy in Canada, but there has been little sign of change in the immediate future.

In the Caribbean, P.J Patterson, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, and Owen Arthur, the Prime Minister of Barbados also plan to make their countries republics, replacing the Queen with a ceremonial president.

Related pages

External Links

[in alphabetical order]

Australia

Canada

New Zealand

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Dutch monarchy

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Netherlands have been an independent monarchy since 1815, and have been governed by members of the House of Orange-Nassau since.

History

The first king of the Netherlands, from 1806 until 1810, was French. Napoleon set up his brother Louis Napoleon as king over what was then called the Kingdom of Holland, but this was virtually a puppet state.

The present monarchy was established in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna as part of the re-arrangement of Europe after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. The house of Orange-Nassau were given the modern-day Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg to rule, to become known as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Previous to the Napoleonic wars, the Netherlands had stadtholders from the same family, although the state was formally a republic.

The first king of the constitutional monarchy of the Netherlands, Willem I, was a descendant of Willem the Old and his son William of Orange, also known as William the Silent, who from 1568 on had led the Dutch in their eighty-year struggle for independence from Spain. His family had a considerable influence on Dutch politics. They came from Dillenburg, Germany, home of the Nassau family. Willem's title 'Prince of Orange' was acquired through his possession of the county of 'Orange', located south of Valence in France.

Abdication of the throne has occurred several times. Queen Wilhelmina and Queen Juliana both abdicated in favor of their daughters and William I abdicated in favor of his son.

Monarchs

William I1815-1840Belgium seceded during his reign
William II1840-1849
William III1849-1890
(Emma)1890-1898 Regent for her daughter Wilhelmina
Wilhelmina1890-1948
Juliana1948-1980
Beatrix1980-

William I (1815-1840)

William II (1840-1849)

William III (1849-1890)

Wilhelmina (1890-1948)

When Wilhelmina came to the throne in 1890 at age 10 (her mother, Queen Emma, second wife of the then deceased William III, acted as regent until Wilhelmina reached the age of 18) -- Luxembourg, also a former member of the erstwhile German Confederation, seceded almost immediately. One of the reasons was that at the time they were not willing to accept a queen under Salic law. Instead a family member, Adolf, former Duke of Nassau, became the first Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

The 50(58)-year reign of Queen Wilhelmina was dominated by the two World Wars. She married a German prince, Hendrik von Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who unfortunately was not happy with his unrewarding role of husband-to-the-queen. Wilhelmina's strong personality and unrelenting passion to fulfill her inherited task overpowered many men in position of authority, including ministers, prime-ministers and her own husband. She is mostly remembered for her role during World War II. Initial disappointment of many Dutch people because of her quick withdrawal to London faded when she proved to be of great mental support to the people and the resistance in her occupied country. Hendrik and Wilhelmina had one daughter, Juliana, who came to the throne in 1948. They lived in The Hague and in Palace 't Loo (Paleis 't Loo) in Apeldoorn.

Juliana (1948-1980)

Juliana reigned from 1948 until 1980, and whereas Wilhelmina reigned like a general, Juliana expressed a more motherly character. One of her first official acts was to sign the treaty of independence of the Dutch colony Indonesia. She became involved in two major crises: the Greet Hofmans affair and the Lockheed scandal, both of which directly threatened the credibility of the throne. She married a German of noble descent, Prince Bernard von Lippe-Biesterfeld. Together they had four daughters, Beatrix, Irene, Margriet and Christina. After their return from Ottawa, Canada in 1945 (where Margriet was born), they lived in the Soestdijk Palace (Paleis Soestdijk) in Soestdijk, about 20 km. north-east of Utrecht.

Beatrix (1980-present)

The Dutch royal family today is much larger than it has ever been. Queen Beatrix and her husband, Prince Claus, have three sons, Willem-Alexander, Johan Friso and Constantijn (married to princess Laurentien). Her sister Margriet and her spouse Pieter van Vollenhoven have four sons: Maurits, Bernhard, Pieter-Christiaan and Floris. These seven princes as well as Margriet, are all (potentially) legal heirs to the throne, although the first right goes to the Crown Prince, and after him to his brothers. The two other sisters of Beatrix, Irene and Christina, have renounced their rights to the throne due to marriages which were not officially approved by the Dutch parliament. They both married Roman-Catholics and Irene herself converted to Roman-Catholicism, which at that time (the 1960s) was still politically problematic for an heir to the throne. Traditionally, Dutch monarchs have always been members of the Dutch Reformed church although this was never constitutionally required. This tradition is embedded in the history of the Netherlands. An additional complication which the government wanted to avoid, was that Irene's husband, Carlos de Bourbon Parma, (whom she later divorced) was a Spanish member of a noble family that claimed their alleged rights to the Spanish throne.

The crown prince is Willem-Alexander (born 1967), prince of Oranje-Nassau. He studied history at the University of Leiden and became actively involved in watermanagement. His wife is princess Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti, an economy major, whose father was a minister of agriculture in the dictatorial regime under general Vidéla in Argentina. Because of that, their relationship was accompanied by fierce public debate, and only officially sanctified after quiet diplomacy, resulting in Máxima's father agreeing not to be present on their wedding day (February 2, 2002). Former minister Max van der Stoel and prime-minister Wim Kok seem to have played a crucial role in this process.

External links

Official Royal Website: lots of information about the monarchy and Royal Family, and virtual palace tours (all texts in Dutch and English).

Res Publica : The Netherlands (an international anti-monarchy Web directory)

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Dutch monarchy."

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Elizabeth I of England

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Elizabeth I (September 7, 1533 - March 24, 1603) was Queen of England (reigned November 17, 1558 - March 24, 1603) and the last Tudor ruler. Elizabeth, sometimes called "The Virgin Queen", ruled a religiously divided England at the end of the 16th century. She is often considered one of the greatest British monarchs as she presided over an immense flourishing of culture and economics, and has been voted the "greatest Briton" of all time. The period of her reign is now known as the Elizabethan era of British history.


Queen Elizabeth I
Queen of England, Ireland and France

Childhood

Born in the royal Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, Elizabeth was the daughter and only surviving child of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Because of the circumstances of her parents' marriage, Elizabeth was considered by Roman Catholics to be illegitimate. At the time of her birth, she was recognised as the heir to the throne, in preference to her older half-sister, Mary Tudor, who was made to serve in Elizabeth's household. However, fortunes quickly changed. When Elizabeth was less than three years old, her mother was executed for treason. Just over a year later, a male heir, Edward, was born to Henry VIII, and Elizabeth found herself in much the same position as Mary.

King Henry's later wives all showed kindness to the two princesses. Following Henry's death in 1547, Elizabeth was cared for by Henry's last queen, Catherine Parr, and her new husband, Thomas Seymour (brother of Jane Seymour and uncle to the new king, Edward VI of England). It is believed that Seymour lusted after the youthful Elizabeth, and planned to marry her after Catherine's untimely death. However, the Seymour brothers fell out of royal favour and were both executed.

As long as her brother lived, Elizabeth's position was secure. However, on his death in 1553, her sister Mary came to the throne as Mary I. Mary, a staunch Catholic, was keen to convert Elizabeth, who for her part was willing to go along with the outward appearance of Catholic worship, though she remained a Protestant at heart. Mary was not deceived, and Elizabeth was briefly confined to the Tower of London. It was here that she probably first encountered the love of her life, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

Elizabeth's life was spared, but Mary's marriage to Philip II of Spain made it seem possible that an heir would be born and that England would return to the Catholic faith. When Mary died childless in 1558, however, Elizabeth was the natural successor.

Coronation

Elizabeth I was crowned Queen of England on January 15, 1559 in Westminster Abbey. Her tenure was insecure right from the beginning. The coronation, the date of which was chosen by John Dee as a particularly auspicious one in preventing future misfortune, had to be performed by the Bishop of Carlisle, who was the most senior prelate willing to recognise her as the legitimate heir. The same year she was one of the parties to the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis that ended the Italian Wars.

Politics

Elizabeth's forty-five-year reign would be marked by religious tension. Although the queen herself attempted to steer a middle way between extremist beliefs, she was herself unquestionably Protestant, and the persecution of Catholics and others regarded as heretics continued. For much of her reign, she relied on the counsel of the experienced courtier, William Cecil, whom she created Lord Burghley. On his death, his son, Robert Cecil, became her leading advisor. Another man who played a major role in the success of her administration was Sir Francis Walsingham, who ran a network of intelligence officers throughout Europe, ensuring that no move against the queen went undetected. It was Walsingham's agents who discovered the Babington plot.

Succession

One of the major criticisms of Elizabeth was her failure to provide for the succession. It was taken for granted that she would marry and attempt to produce an heir, and there were many contenders for her hand, including her sister's former husband, Philip of Spain, as well as her favourite, Leicester, who was popularly believed to be her lover. Elizabeth wisely avoided both extremes, and, after a few years, as her hold on the throne was strengthened, it began to seem less likely that she would ever marry or have children.

She explained her failure to marry herself, in response to those who asked, by pointing out the position in which she had been placed during the reign of her elder sister. Besides being a target for Mary's jealousy, she had also been made use of, by rebels such as Thomas Wyatt. She therefore believed that the naming of a successor would weaken her rule and offer an incentive to those who wished her dead. Furthermore, she would not have been able to do so without consulting Parliament.

There were several possible successors, and Elizabeth did not particularly care for any of them. Her cousin, Mary I of Scotland, was a Catholic, but remained the most likely candidate to succeed her until, and even for a while after, Mary was forced to flee her own kingdom of Scotland. When Mary was driven out of Scotland, she was received by Elizabeth but was kept a prisoner at Fotheringhay. Mary's son, James, was a child and would have to prove himself before he could even be considered. The alternatives looked no better. Lady Catherine Grey, younger sister of Lady Jane Grey, displeased the queen by marrying against her wishes, and the youngest sister, Mary Grey, was a hunchbacked dwarf. While Elizabeth believed she might be able to influence Mary Stuart into changing her faith and marrying someone suitable, she held out the prospect of the succession to her, and continued to prevaricate on the matter while Mary was a prisoner in England.

It still looked possible that Elizabeth would marry and have children. Forced to abandon Dudley, she toyed with the idea of a French husband, one of the several royal princes available. The first one proposed, the Duc d'Anjou, a younger brother of King Charles IX of France, was twenty years younger than Elizabeth. When this idea was rejected, it was suggested that she should marry an even younger brother, the Duc d'Alençon. She was still considering it seriously when the young prince died suddenly. This marked the end of marriage negotiations.

When, in 1568, Lady Catherine Grey died, there was no other obvious successor of English birth, and Elizabeth was once again forced to consider Mary Stuart. Mary, too, had turned down Dudley as a potential husband before marrying Lord Darnley, but by now Mary had a son who was being brought up as a Protestant. In 1570, Elizabeth was persuaded by the French to help put Mary back on the Scottish throne. She set impossible pre-conditions, one being to bring Prince James to be brought up in England. Nevertheless, Cecil continued negotiations with Mary on the Queen's behalf. It was the Scots who stood in the way of a settlement.

End of religious toleration

At this stage, the new pope, Pius V intervened and excommunicated Elizabeth on February 25, 1570, something his predecessor had been reluctant to do. This made it impossible for Elizabeth to continue her policy of religious toleration. Nevertheless, the discovery of the Ridolfi Plot came as a great shock to her.

After twenty years of confinement, Mary Stuart allowed herself to become implicated in yet another plot by Catholic sympathisers, led by Sir Antony Babington to rescue her and place her on the throne in Elizabeth's place. This was a good excuse for Elizabeth to remove her from the equation, and she was executed in 1587.

War with Spain

Elizabeth had provided troops and money to assist the French Protestant Henri of Navarre to capture the throne of France. She had also sent troops to support the United Provinces in the Eighty Year's War. Mary's execution was the needed excuse for Philip II of Spain to make a determined invasion attempt. Thanks to Elizabeth's naval leaders, notably Sir Francis Drake, the Spanish Armada of 1588 was decisively defeated and scattered.

In the last few years of her reign, Elizabeth's favourite was Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who happened to be Leicester's stepson. Elizabeth forgave him a succession of misdemeanours, but his attempt at armed rebellion in 1601 gave her no alternative but to have him executed for treason.

Death

Elizabeth never married and her death ended the Tudor dynasty. In later years, when pressed to decide on the succession, she showed an inclination towards her nephew, ironically the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, whom she had executed; but she never officially named him. Elizabeth died on March 24, 1603, at Richmond Palace in Surrey and is buried at Westminster Abbey. She was succeeded by James I of England, who was already James VI of Scotland. Yet within 50 years of her death, England was to endure the English Civil War and become a republic.

English culture

The Elizabethan era was an important one for the development of English culture. Literature, particularly poetry and drama, enjoyed a golden age; and exploration of other continents, including the Americas, began in earnest. Indeed, the queen herself became noted as a poet and classical translator, personally writing the first English translation of Horace's Art of Poetry. Several of Elizabeth's speeches from throughout her reign, as well as her 1548 translation of Marguerite d'Angouleme's A Godly Meditation of the Christian Soul, are available from the Women Writers Project. (See also the Speech to the Troops at Tilbury.)

Popularity

Elizabeth is included in the top 10 of the 100 Greatest Britons poll sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public. She has often been portrayed in drama and fiction. In 1971, Glenda Jackson portrayed her in the BBC's blockbuster serial, Elizabeth R, and in the film Mary, Queen of Scots. 1998 saw portrayals of the young queen by Cate Blanchett in the movie Elizabeth, and of the aging monarch by Dame Judi Dench in the movie Shakespeare in Love. The second series of historical fiction comedy Blackadder features a surreal version of her played by Miranda Richardson. Gay pioneer Quentin Crisp played the queen in the film "Orlando". Benjamin Britten portrayed her relationship with Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex in the opera Gloriana, written for the coronation of Elizabeth II.

Preceded by:
Mary I		 List of British monarchs Succeeded by:
James I

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Elizabeth I of England."

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Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)


Golden Jubilee photograph of Queen Elizabeth II
[wearing her Canadian orders]

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor) (born April 21, 1926) is the Queen regnant and head of state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and 15 other Commonwealth Realms, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand. She has reigned since February 6, 1952. Her coronation took place in Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953.

Titles

In the United Kingdom, Her Majesty's official title is, in English, Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith and in Latin, Elizabeth II, Dei Gratia Britanniarum Regnorumque Suorum Ceterorum Regina, Consortionis Populorum Princeps, Fidei Defensor.

In Canada, Her Majesty's official title is Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

In Australia, Her Majesty's official title is Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of Australia and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth.

Likewise, her other titles in other commonwealth realms make some references to "...and Her other Realms and Territories" as a symbol of unity. Some Commonwealth realms omit "By the Grace of God" from her title. In common practice Queen Elizabeth II is referred to simply as "The Queen". She is the first Queen Regnant in Scotland to bear this name but bears the numeral II thoughout her realms.

Her previous titles were:

Family

Born in London, England, by Caesarean section she is the elder daughter of King George VI (then Duke of York) and his Queen consort, Elizabeth, her younger sister being the late Princess Margaret.

Her first public engagement was in 1942 when she inspected the Grenadier Guards on her 16th birthday.

During World War Two Elizabeth convinced her father that she should be allowed to contribute directly to the war effort. She joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (the ATS) where she was known as No 230873 Second Subaltern Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor. She was trained as a driver. This training was the first time she had been taught with other students. It is said that she greatly enjoyed this and that this experience lead her to send her own children to school rather than have them educated at home.

She married Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark on 20 November 1947 (Prince Phillip had renounced his claim to the Greek throne and was simply referred to as Lieutenant Phillip Mountbatten, RN prior to being created Duke of Edinburgh the night before the marriage). They have four children (see below). Though the Royal House is named Windsor, it was decreed that the descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip should have the personal surname Mountbatten-Windsor. (The personal surname change came via an Order-in-Council in 1960. Source: Buckingham Palace.)

Elizabeth succeeded to the throne following the death of her father in 1952. Her coronation took place in Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953.

Despite a succession of controversies about the rest of the royal family, particularly throughout the 1980s and 1990s (including wide reportage of Prince Philip's propensity for verbal gaffes, and the marital difficulties of her children), Queen Elizabeth remains a remarkably uncontroversial and widely respected figure. She has managed to reflect the expectations of the British public for the role near-perfectly, with one notable exception when she and the other royals were perceived to be unmoved by the public outpouring of grief following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on August 31, 1997.


Coronation portrait of Queen Elizabeth II

Personality and Image

She is both a public figure, and, by all accounts, an exceedingly private person. She has never given press interviews, and her views on political issues are largely unknown except for those few heads of government who have private conversations with her. She reportedly has few close friends, instead preferring the company of horses and corgis, areas in which she, like many of the other royals, is regarded as an expert. She is also regarded as a excellent mimic, whose impressions of people are regarded as first rate. One British impressionist once said if the British monarchy was abolished, he would hire her for his show the next day, so good are her impressions.

Her former prime ministers speak highly of her. Since becoming queen, she spends an average of three hours every day 'doing the boxes', i.e. reading state papers sent to her from her various departments, embassies, etc. Having done so since 1952, she has probably seen as much of world affairs in that period as anyone, and is thus able to offer observations to Tony Blair based on things said to her by Harold Wilson, Harold Macmillan, Ted Heath, Winston Churchill and many other senior leaders she had spoken to. She takes her responsibilities in this regard seriously, once mentioning an "interesting telegram" from the Foreign Office to then Prime Minister Winston Churchill, only to find that her prime minister had not bothered to read it when it came in his box.

Political Role

Prime Ministers take their weekly meetings with her very seriously. One said it he took it more seriously than Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, because she would be better briefed and more constructive than anything he would face at the dispatch box. She also has regular meetings with her individual ministers. Even ministers known to have republican views speak highly of her and value those meetings. She receives daily reports also on what is on in Parliament, as well as frequent meetings with the Scottish First Minister, whom she (nominally) appoints. (The royal palace in Edinburgh, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, once home to Scottish kings and queens like Mary, Queen of Scots, is now regularly used again, with at least one member of the Royal Family, often the Prince of Wales or Princess Royal frequently in residence). She also receives reports on the Welsh Assembly.

Though bound by convention not to intervene directly in politics, her length of service, the fact that she has been a confidante of every prime minister since Sir Winston Churchill, and her knowledge of world leaders, means that when she does express an opinion, however cautiously, her words are taken seriously. In her memoirs, Margaret Thatcher offers this description of her weekly meetings with the Queen:

"Anyone who imagines that they are a mere formality or confined to social niceties is quite wrong; they are quietly businesslike and Her Majesty brings to bear a formidable grasp of current issues and breadth of experience."

The Rhodesia controversy of the late 1970's is a prominent example of the Queen subtly influencing policy. In 1973, a report by Lord Grenville on his visit to Rhodesia initially depressed the then Labour government, as it reported only slight movement from the Ian Smith regime. However, after a conversation with James Callaghan at a state dinner in Buckingham Palace, the Queen through her Private Secretary noted that though the scale of the movement was slight, any movement was a change from what had happened before, and might indicate the beginning of change. Her observation, based on many years reading Foreign Office reports (including years when those Labour ministers were not in office), was influential in convincing the Labour government not to abandon contact with Smith's Rhodesia. That contact was the genesis of what ultimately became the Lancaster House Agreement that produced Zimbabwe. When Margaret Thatcher, who was known to hold pro-Ian Smith views, became prime minister, it was feared that those contacts might be scaled back, but according to one Thatcher cabinet minister, an "intoxicating mix" of the Queen and Thatcher's Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington kept her attached to the process developed by the previous Labour government.

Though her political views are never expressed publicly, she is believed to hold centre, even slightly left of centre views. She was seen as closer to Harold Wilson than Edward Heath and certainly closer to Tony Blair than Margaret Thatcher. During Thatcher's period in government, an unnamed source in Buckingham Palace reported that the Queen was worried that the right wing policies of the Thatcher government were dividing Britain and hurting the Commonwealth. Her statement of praise for the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement raised some complaints in Northern Ireland among some unionists in the Democratic Unionist Party who opposed the Agreement, including the role given to the Irish government, the downgrading of British symbols in the North and the presence of Sinn Féin in the Northern Ireland Executive.

Foreign relations

Her personal friendship with leaders like Nelson Mandela, Mary Robinson, Bill Clinton and others have made her exceptionally well informed on world affairs. On occasion such contacts have proved highly beneficial for Britain. John Major as prime minister once had difficulty at a Commonwealth Conference working with a particular Commonwealth leader. The Queen, knowing that leader, guessed that there might be problems and informed her British Prime Minister that he and the leader shared a mutual interest in sport. Major used that information to establish a personal relationship between both men, which ultimately benefited both countries. Similarly she took the initiative when Irish President Mary Robinson began visiting Britain, by suggesting to Her Government that she invite her Irish counterpart to pay courtesy call on her in the Palace. The Irish Government enthusiastically supported the idea. The result was a groundbreaking first ever visit by an Irish president to meet the British monarch.

In its aftermath, Mary Robinson was invited to pay an official visit to Britain. Since then, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, the Earl of Wessex and the Duke of Edinburgh have all visited Ireland, many travelling to Áras an Uachtaráin to meet the Irish President. Successive Irish presidents and taoisigh (prime ministers) have also visited Buckingham Palace, while President McAleese, in a break with precedent, attended a major royal event, the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (co-incidentially the last Queen of Ireland [1936-1949]) in 2002. Expectations are high that the Queen will pay a state visit to Ireland as the guest of the Irish President in the near future. (Mary McAleese once paid a public compliment to the Queen, whom she had known before she became president, calling her a 'dote' (a term of affection meaning a lovely person) in an Irish newspaper interview.)

On January 2 2003 the Queen, following advice from her Government in the United Kingdom, rejected a claim from Jamaican Rastafarians for compensation for slavery following representations made by Rastafarians to the Queen on a visit to Jamaica in 2002. In a letter addressed to the Rastafarian brethren and widely reported in the Jamaican media (see for instance this report in the Jamaica Gleaner), she wrote "Under the statute of the International Criminal Court, acts of enslavement committed today... do constitute a crime against humanity. But the historic slave trade was not a crime against humanity or contrary to international law at the time when the UK Government condoned it... It is a fundamental principle of international law that events have to be judged against the law as it stood at the time when they occurred. We regret and condemn the inequities of the slave trade, but these shameful activities belong to the past. Governments today cannot accept responsibility for what happened over 150 years ago.... [My Government] is looking at ways to commemorate all victims of the slave trade. The aim is to express the profound regret we feel about slavery while looking positively to the future."

Republicanism

The Queen's reign has probably seen more calls for the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic than any since the English Civil War. Most nobtably, Labour M.P. Tony Benn has several times proposed the Commonwealth of Britain Bill to turn the United Kingdom into a republic. Several notable publications, including The Guardian, The Economist, and numerous tabloids, also profess republicanism. Nevertheless, despite frequent claims in the tabloids of "the monarchy in crisis" in response to the various personal scandals within the royal family, the monarchy seems to be well-ensconced for the time being.

Golden Jubilee

In 2002 the Queen celebrated her Golden Jubilee, marking the 50th year of her accession to the throne.

Other titles

Besides being Queen of the United Kingdom, at her accession she was also Queen of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa (to 1961), Pakistan (to 1956), and Sri Lanka (to 1972). In the course of her reign, she has also been:

From 1965 to 1970 she was also proclaimed Queen of Rhodesia by the White minority government there, although she never accepted this office.

Coat of Arms

The Queen bears quarterly, I and IV England, II Scotland, III Northern Ireland, which serves as the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom. This shield has been unchanged since Queen Victoria.

Children of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip

External link

Preceded by:
George VI 		List of British monarchs Heir apparent:
Charles, Prince of Wales

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom."

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Henrietta Maria

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)


Henrietta Maria

Henrietta Maria (November 25, 1609 - September 10, 1669) was Queen Consort of England, Scotland and Ireland (June 13, 1625 - January 30, 1649) through her marriage to Charles I.

Henriette-Marie de Bourbon was the youngest daughter of Henry IV of France and Maria de Medici and the sister of the future Louis XIII of France. Her father was killed before she was one; her mother was banished in 1617.

She was born at the Louvre Palace and brought up as a Roman Catholic. This made her an unpopular choice of wife for the English king, whom she married by proxy in May, 1625, shortly after his accession to the throne. They were married in person at St Augustine's Church, Canterbury, England, on June 13 of that year. However, her religion made it impossible for her to be crowned with her husband in an Anglican service. Initially their relationship was cold. Charles had intended to marry a daughter of Philip III of Spain, but a mission to Spain in 1623 had failed.

She was not close to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, the king's favourite. Following the murder of Buckingham in August, 1628, her relationship with the king improved and they finally found deep bonds of love and affection. Her refusal to give up her Catholic faith alienated her from the people and certain powerful courtiers such as William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury and Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford. Charles, on the other hand, had definite leanings towards Catholicism, and, once he had reached maturity, did not share his father's sexual ambivalence. Henrietta Maria gave birth to ten children, six of whom survived into adulthood, and also had several miscarriages. Their surviving children were Charles (b. 1630), Mary, princess of Orange (b. 1631), James (b. 1633), Elizabeth (b. 1636), Henry, duke of Gloucester (b. 1640), and Henrietta Anne duchess of Or!eans (b. 1644).

Henrietta Maria increasingly took part in national affairs as the country moved towards open conflict through the 1630s. She allied with Puritan courtiers to deflect a diplomatic approach to Spain and sought a coup to pre-empt the Parliamentarians. As war approached she was active in seeking funds and support for her husband, but her concentration on Catholic sources like the Pope and the French angered many in England and hindered Charles' efforts.

In August 1642, when the conflict began, she was in Europe. She did not return to England until early 1643. She landed in Yorkshire and tried to rally support for the Royalists in northern England. The collapse of the king's position and his refusal to negotiate led her to flee to France with her sons in July 1644. Charles was executed in 1649, leaving her almost destitute.

She settled in Paris, appointing as her chancellor the eccentric Sir Kenelm Digby. She angered both Royalists in exile and her eldest son by attempting to convert her youngest son, Henry, to Catholicism . She returned to England following the Restoration in October 1660 and remained mostly in England until 1665 when she returned permanently to France. Her financial problems were resolved by a generous pension. She founded a covent at Chaillot, where she settled.

Henrietta Maria died at Château de Colombes, and was buried in the Royal tombs at Saint Denis Basilica near Paris.

Links:

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List of British monarchs

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

This is a list of British monarchs, that is, the monarchs on the thrones of the various kingdoms that have existed on, or incorporated, the island of Great Britain, namely:

Complications over Title and Style

Royal titles are also complicated because in some cases, names of kingdoms are used that did not officially come into existence until later, or came into existence earlier without immediate adoption of the royal title.

The list of monarchs below cannot be exhaustive. For succession to the many thrones often did not pass smoothly from parent to child; lack of heirs, civil wars, murders and invasions affected the inheritance in ways that a simple list does not show. The relationships that formed the basis for claims to throne are noted where we know them, and the dates of reign indicated.

Scottish monarchs

Prior to the formation of Scotland, Dalriada, Strathclyde, Bernicia and the seven kingdoms of the Picts occupied the northern third of Britain.

The kingdom of Scotland is taken to have begun when Kenneth mac Alpin became king of the Picts and the Dalriadan Scots. However the kingdoms of Strathclyde and Bernicia were still independent of it. Strathclyde became part of Scotland in the reign of Duncan I.

The House of Alpin

The House of Dunkeld

The Wars of Scottish Independence

When Margaret died, there was no clear heir, and King Edward I of England took over, installing a puppet.

John Balliol rebelled, and Scotland was plunged into war. In the end, independence was secured under a new dynasty.

The House of Bruce

The House of Balliol

The House of Stewart (Stuart)

In 1707, with the Act of Union, the thrones of England and Scotland were formally united as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, keeping the numbering system of England. See GB and UK monarchs below.

Rulers of Wales

Prior to 1282, Wales was independent of England, consisting of a number of separate principalities. See List of rulers of Wales for full details.

English monarchs

After the departure of the Romans and prior to the formation of England, various British, Viking and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms existed in the southern two-thirds of Britain. Between 400 and 1000 the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms gradually conquered the others, amalgamating to form England.

The Bretwalda

The Bretwalda were chosen from among the rulers of the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. There was not always a Bretwalda.

The Saxon kings

By this time, the kings of Wessex had become established as kings of England.

The Danelaw

For a period of time, both Danish and Saxon kings claimed the throne of England.

The Saxon restoration

The Norman kings

After the Norman Conquest in 1066, numbering of kings begins anew, although this affects only the Edwards. (This is because the numbering of monarchs was originally a French tradition, brought to England by the Normans. The numbers given to pre-conquest kings were added by later historians.)

The Angevins or Plantagenets

The House of Lancaster

The Houses of Lancaster and York fought the Wars of the Roses over the English crown.

The House of York

The House of Tudor

The House of Stuart

The Commonwealth and Protectorate

There was no king between Charles I's execution in 1649 and the restoration in 1660, but there were two Lords Protector during the Protectorate.

The Stuart restoration

Monarchs of Great Britain

In 1707, with the Act of Union, the thrones of England and Scotland were formally united as the throne of the Kingdom of Great Britain.

The House of Stuart

The House of Hanover

Monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland

In 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (George III's reigns spanned both the separate kingdoms and their merged entity. For clarity and ease of use, Wikipedia has placed George III as 'George III of the United Kingdom')

In 1877, Victoria became also Empress of India

The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

The House of Windsor

The name of the Royal house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was changed to Windsor in 1917 due to anti-German feelings aroused by World War I.

Monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The Irish Free State left the United Kingdom in 1922. The name of the UK was changed to reflect that change, becoming the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland' in 1927. Note also: from 1927, each dominion in the Commonwealth became a separate kingdom, with George V as native king in each. Hence, in 1927, he became 'King of Ireland', 'King of Australia,' 'King of Canada', 'King of New Zealand', and 'King of South Africa'

In 1947, India and Pakistan were granted independence, and George VI ceased to Emperor of India, but became King of India and King of Pakistan. (and, in 1948, King of Sri Lanka, also granted independence.) In 1949, Ireland became a Republic, and George ceased to be King of Ireland. India did the same in 1950

Mnemonics

A useful rhyme for memorising the names of the English and UK monarchs since the Norman Conquest in chronological order:

Willy Willy Harry Steve,
Henry Dick John Henry three;
Then three Edwards Richard two,
Henry Four, Five Six then who?
Edward four five, Dick the bad,
Two more Henries, Ned the lad;
Bloody Mary she came next,
Then we have our Good Queen Bess.
From Scotland we got James the Vain;
Charlie one, two, James again.
William and Mary, Anna Gloria,
Four Georges, William, and Victoria.
Edward, George, the same again,
Now Elizabeth - and the end.

(Compare with Chinese history mnemonics.)

See also

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Margrethe II of Denmark

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Margrethe II of Denmark (Margrethe Alexandrine Thorhildur Ingrid) born April 16, 1940, 6 days after the German occupation of Denmark, is the current Queen Regnant of Denmark.

On June 10, 1967 she married a French diplomat, Henri Marie Jean André de Laborde de Monpezat, who was created Prince Henrik of Denmark. Two children were born of this union, Frederik André Henrik Christian, Crown Prince of Denmark, on May 26, 1968, and Joachim Holger Valdemar Christian, on June 7, 1969.

She ascended the throne on January 14, 1972, on the death of her father, Frederick IX (Frederik IX).

Preceded by:
Frederick IX 		List of Danish monarchs (currently regnant)

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Margrethe II of Denmark."

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Mary I of England

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Queen Mary I of England (February 18, 1516- November 17, 1558 - reigned July 19, 1553 - November 17, 1558) was born in the royal Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, the only one from that union to survive infancy. She is commonly known as Bloody Mary. She was alienated from her father, however, during his divorce (it was not a divorce in the modern sense, but an annulment) from her mother. As her parents' marriage was deemed null and void, Mary was then deemed illegitimate and thus deprived for a time of her status as an heir to the throne. By the time of Henry's death, however, she had been restored as second in line to the throne, after her half-brother Edward, who was physically weak.


Queen Mary I
Queen of England, Ireland and France

It was not until 1553 that Edward died, however, by which time Protestantism had gained such ground that a rival claimant to the throne was put forward, Mary's cousin Lady Jane Grey. Public sympathy remained with Mary, and she soon overcame resistance to her accession. By July 19 Jane Grey had been deposed and Mary was the undisputed Queen. Her official coronation came on November 30, 1553 .It is generally believed that Mary would have spared Jane's life if it had not been for the intervention of the Spanish diplomats who conditioned Mary's marriage to their king on her executing Jane.

Mary had always rejected the break with Rome that her father had instituted and the establishment of the Anglican Church that had flowed from her half-brother's protestantism, and now she tried to turn England back to Roman Catholicism. This effort was carried out by force, and a number of Protestant leaders were executed. The first was John Rogers, followed notably by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. This earned the queen the title of Bloody Mary. Modern scholars have pointed out that fewer Protestants died under Mary than Catholics under Mary's half-sister and successor Elizabeth but admit that, averaged over the lengths of their reigns, the Marian death toll was indeed higher. Her restoration of Catholicism was remarkably successful in some ways: Where only one bishop -- John Fisher of Rochester -- had resisted Henry's changes to the point that Henry had him executed, most of Mary's bishops refused to conform to the restored Protestantism under Elizabeth I and died under house arrest.

Mary also set in motion currency reform to counteract the dramatic devaluation of the currency that characterized the last few years of Henry VIII's reign and the reign of Edward VI. Mary's deep religious convictions also inspired her to institute social reforms, although these were largely unsuccessful. Her marriage to Philip II of Spain, in 1554, was unpopular even with her Catholic subjects; Philip spent little time with her once it became apparent she was beyond the possibility of conceiving a child. She was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I, who quickly undid many of Mary's changes. She died at 42 of uterine or ovarian cancer.

Mary I of England is sometimes confused with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, who lived at the same time.

Many scholars trace the nursery rhyme "Mary, Mary, quite contrary" to her unpopular attempts to bring Roman Catholicism back to England, identfying the "cockle shells", for example, with the symbol of pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James in Spain and the "pretty maids all in a row" with nuns.

See also

Preceded by:
(Jane)		 List of British monarchs Succeeded by:
Elizabeth I

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mary I of England."

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Monarch

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A monarch is a hereditary ruler, figure-head or head of state, except in certain states like the former Kingdom of Poland, the various Irish kingdoms before english rule, and current-day Malaysia which feature or featured elected monarchs. A nation or state that is ruled by a monarch is called a kingdom. A system of governance involving a monarch is known as a monarchy.

Kings and Queens

"King" designates a male monarch (when he does not use another title such as emperor or tsar). A female monarch is called queen, or in full "reigning queen" or "queen regnant", to distinguish from "queen consort," the wife of a king. In some countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and the Pacific, a "King" is the hereditary head of a nation-state, except when a queen or other head of state fills the role.

In China, "king" is the usual translation for the term wang, which designated the sovereign before the Qin dynasty and during the Ten Kingdoms period. During the early Han dynasty, China had a number of small kingdoms, each about the size of a county and subordinate to the Emperor of China.

Other Monarch Titles

Where there is a difference, male titles are left of the slash and female titles are to the right.

By Region

General monarch titles

Monarchs Today

Few monarchs today exercise absolute authority. Although there are a number of hereditary monarchies still existing in the world, many countries with hereditary royalty are de facto ruled by a democratically elected leader such as a prime minister, while the monarchy continues to hold a symbolic or ceremonial position (eg. United Kingdom; see also constitutional monarchy).

In a few cases a monarch is associated with a particular group (or nation) within a state, such as Te Arikuini Te Atairangikaahu of the Maori (the Maori Queen) and Osei Tutu II of the Ashanti. Malaysia provides an example of a monarch-rich state.

The system for succession to the throne varies from monarchy to monarchy. Traditionally, succession to the eldest son of the monarch has been most common; if the monarch had no sons, the throne would pass either to the eldest daughter, or to the nearest male relative, depending on whether the monarchy accepted female rulers and/or descent in the female line. Some monarchies have abolished this preference for males, and the eldest child of the monarch ascends to the throne, be that child male or female, e.g. some European monarchies such as Sweden. There are also elected monarchs of elected monarchies, and dictators who proclaim themselves rulers of a self-proclaimed monarchy.

In some monarchies, e.g. Saudi Arabia, succession to the throne has passed to the monarch's next eldest brother, and only to the monarch's children after that. In some other monarchies, the monarch chooses who will be his successor, who need not necessarily be his eldest son, e.g. Jordan.

See also: dauphin, regent, queen consort

Reigning Monarchs

There are thirty reigning sovereign monarchs in the world:

Some countries have reigning monarchs who are not head of state, for example the individual emirs of the United Arab Emirates and the kings of the Wallis and Futuna islands.

A monarch is also a type of butterfly.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Monarch."

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Queen

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Political

Other This is a disambiguation page; that is, one that just points to other pages that might otherwise have the same name. If you followed a link here, you might want to go back and fix that link to point to the appropriate specific page.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Queen."

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Queen (band)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Queen was a British rock band of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Their biggest hit was Bohemian Rhapsody, first released in 1975, and promoted by one of the earliest successful music videos.

The beginnings of Queen can be traced to 1968, when Brian May and Roger Taylor formed Smile, a psychedelic trio, at Imperial College, London, where they were both students. After their bassist lead singer's departure in spring 1970, they formed a new band—Queen—with Freddie Mercury as lead vocalist,in April 1970 and, in 1971 John Deacon as bassist joined. Queen never actually disbanded, although their last album (not including compilations) was released in 1995, four years after Freddie Mercury's death. The band is still active from time to time, making 'Queen+' projects with various singers.

Members

Though Freddie Mercury's personality always dominated in the press, actually all four members of the group wrote huge hits: In the 1970s Queen enforced a strict no-synthesizer policy, as evidenced by the famous "No Synthesizers were used on this Album" sleevenote included on their early LPs. The first album to feature a synthesizer was The Game, although the change in policy came about during the earlier recording of the music for the movie Flash Gordon which was released as an album after The Game.

They lost many fans with the Hot Space album, which used Funk and Dance music rather than the Glam or Hard Rock of earlier albums. Despite this, the song Under Pressure, co-written with David Bowie was an enormous world-wide hit.

They also embarked upon many successful tours, and were one of the first bands to play in stadiums, with memorable shows held at Wembley Stadium in England, and Maracanã, for the Rock N' Rio festival, in Brazil.

The Wembley concert, part of a UK tour in 1986, attracted 150,000 people over two nights. A memorable and prophetic moment occurred when Freddie Mercury told the audience: "There's been a lot of rumors lately about a certain band called Queen... the rumors are that we're gonna split up. What do you think?" Audience: "No!". Freddie: "Forget those rumors, we're gonna stay together till we fucking well die, I'm sure!".

Musical progression

Queen's musical style changed every few years, sometimes rather drastically. They started off with what may be called Medieval Metal moving in the direction of Glam Rock.

The A Night at the Opera an A Day at the Races albums (named after Marx Brothers movies) are perhaps best described as Opera Metal. News of the World and Jazz are fairly eclectic.

Elements of Funk and classic rock and roll make up The Game. Hot Space is definitely Funk orientated, which was not received well either by fans or critics.

With The Works and A Kind of Magic Queen gave up experimenting, making sure the fans get what they wanted.

With The Miracle Queen returned to their Hard Rock roots.

However, most Queen albums contain songs that do not fit into these descriptions.

Legendary songs

Films

Queen contributed music directly to the movies Flash Gordon and \Highlander (the original film directed by Russell Mulcahy). Several other films featured their songs, including Iron Eagle, Wayne's World, Small Soldiers and A Knight's Tale.

Theatre

In 2002, a musical or rock theatrical based on the songs of Queen, entitled We Will Rock You, began playing at the Dominion Theatre in the West End of London. The musical was written by British comedian and author Ben Elton in collaboration with Brian May and Roger Taylor. The launch of the musical coincided with the Queen's Golden Jubilee. As part of the Jubilee celebrations Brian May performed a guitar solo of the National Anthem - as featured on Queen's A Night at the Opera - from the roof of Buckingham Palace.

Discography

Albums

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Queen (chess)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of his first rank next to his king. Beginners often accidentally interchange the placement of the queen and king, thus the mnemonic "queen on her color". The white queen starts on a white square, and the black queen on a black square. In algebraic notation, the white queen starts on d1 and the black queen on d8.

The queen can be moved in a straight line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, any number of unoccupied squares as shown to the left, thus combining the moves of the rook and bishop. As with most pieces, the queen captures by occupying the square on which an enemy piece sits.

Ordinarily the queen is slightly more powerful than a rook and a bishop, while slightly less powerful than two rooks. Because the queen is more valuable than any other piece, it is almost always disadvantageous to exchange the queen for a piece other than the enemy's queen.

The queen is at her most powerful when the board is open, when the enemy king is not well-defended, or when there are loose (i.e. undefended) pieces in the enemy camp. Because of her long range and ability to move in more than one direction, the queen is well-equipped to execute forks, but such forks are only useful when both the forked pieces are undefended, or one is undefended and the other is the enemy king.

Beginners often develop the queen as soon as possible, in the hopes of plundering the enemy position and possibly even delivering an early checkmate. While effective against other beginners, this strategy is disadvantageous against experienced players. The defender need only look to his king's safety and make sure every piece is protected, and the attacking queen will not be able to strike home. Moreover, because the queen is too valuable to exchange, the defender can often gain time and space by threatening an exposed queen and forcing her to retreat.

Typically an exchange of queens marks the beginning of the endgame. After the queens and a few other pieces have been exchanged, the kings are able to participate more actively in events, and the focus of the game shifts to a struggle to promote a pawn, usually to a new queen. However, it is not necessary to lose one's queen before gaining a new one by promotion.

See also Eight queens puzzle.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Queen (chess)."

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Queen bee

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Honeybee queens are developed from larvae selected by worker bees to become sexually mature. In each hive or colony, there is normally only one adult, mated queen, who is the mother of the bees of the hive, although there are exceptions.


Peanut-like queen brood cells
extend outward from the broodcomb.
Queen Larva Floating on Royal Jelly
in open queen cell

Development

The queen develops more fully than sexually immature workers, because she is given royal jelly, a secretion from glands on the heads of young workers, for an extended time, and she is given a specially constructed cell, which is larger than the cells of normal brood comb, and also is oriented vertically instead of horizontally. There are three kinds of queen bee cells: large, solitary cells, usually on the bottom of the comb (or in a hole if in the middle of the comb), constructed by the workers when they want to replace the queen; smaller groupped cells, at the same positions as previous, constructed when the colony is swarming; and solitary cells usually on the surface of the middle of the comb, constructed as expansion of a normal cell if a colony looses its queen. The best queens are those from replacement cells.


Queen cell opened to show
queen pupa (with darkening eyes).

As the young queen larva pupates with her head down, the workers cap the cell with beeswax. When ready to emerge, she will chew a circular cut around the cap of her cell. Often the cap swings open when most of the cut is made, so as to appear like a hinged lid.

When the young queens are ready to emerge, they often begin to "pipe," a shrill peeping, which is thought to be a challenge to other emerged or ready to emerge virgins. Unless the workers restrain them, emerged virgins will quickly find and kill rivals. During the swarm season, workers may separate young queens, thus keeping alive more than one for a brief period. The extra queens may go with swarms or afterswarms, to sort out their survial in a new home.

Reproduction

When one queen survives in a colony, she will go out, on a sunny, warm day to mate with 12-15 drones. She has only a limited time to mate, and if she is unable to fly, because of bad weather, and remains unmated, she will become a "drone layer." Drone laying queens usually mean the death of the colony, because the queens have no fertilized (female) larvae from which to raise a replacement. If there is a deficit of drones, or the weather provides too brief a window for full mating, the queen may be able to function briefly, laying fertilized eggs for a few weeks or months, but will begin to lay drone eggs at some point earlier than the normal 2-3 year life span of queens.

If workers realize their queen is failing, and the weather will allow a replacement to be raised and mated, the bees can "supercede" the queen. However, supercedure will fail in winter in colder climates, because there are no drones and the queens cannot fly to mate.


Adult queen with attendants

Daily Life for the Queen

A queen has no control of the hive, as the name might imply, but she is the reproductive portion. Actually she is an "egg laying machine." A good queen, of quality stock, well reared with good nutrition, and well mated, can lay about 2,000 eggs per day during the spring build-up, and live for two or more years. She lays her own weight in eggs every couple hours, and is continuously surrounded by young worker attendants, who meet her every need, giving her feed, and disposing of her waste. They also lick her body for the pheromones that are needed for well being of the colony.

Because the social structure is so complex and fixed, honeybee colonies can be thought of as an organism, and the individual bees are simply cells of the organism; they cannot survive on their own. The queen is responsible for the reproduction of the "cells", but also is responsible through her own pheromone production for the reproduction of the whole colony. This usually takes place in the spring and is called swarming.

Swarm Management

During the first year of a queen's life the colony has little incentive to swarm, unless the hive is very crowded. During her second spring, however, she seems to be programmed to swarm. Without beekeeper "swarm management" in the second year, the hive will cast a "prime swarm" and one to five "after swarms." The old queen will go with the prime swarm, and others will be accompanied by virgins. For a beekeeper to allow swarming is equivalent to a cattleman losing all his calves. Furthermore the hive that cast the swarm is often so badly depleted that it will be unproductive for the entire season. For this reason, beekeepers try to anticipate swarming and assist the bees to reproduce in a more controlled fashion by "splitting hives" or making "nucs." This saves the "calves" and keeps the "cow" in condition to accomplish some work.

For more information on the bio-chemical factors that govern swarming, see this external link.

Identification

ColorUsed for
years
ending in
white1 or 6
yellow2 or 7
red3 or 8
green4 or 9
blue5 or 0

As is visible in the photograph preceding the "Daily Life" section, the queen is noticeably longer than the worker honeybees surrounding her. However, in a hive of 60-80,000 honeybees, it is often difficult for beekeepers to find the queen with any speed: for this reason, many queens in non-feral colonies are marked with a light daub of paint on their thorax. The paint used does no harm to the queen, and makes her much easier to find when necessary. Although the color is sometimes randomly chosen, professional queen breeders use a system whereby the color of a queen's dot indicates what year she hatched (therefore aiding beekeepers who are deciding whether their queens are too old to maintain a strong hive, and need replacing). Sometimes, even a tiny plate is used with the number of the queen.

Queen bees cannot live more then five years.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Queen bee."

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Queen consort

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A Queen Consort is the wife and consort of a reigning king.

In contrast, the husband of a reigning queen is not called 'King Consort'. Such a husband is popularly called the prince consort; however, this title has so far been granted officially only to Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. In the British system, a male consort is not even automatically a prince until he is so created by the sovereign.

In general, the consorts of monarchs have no constitutional status or power, merely the title.

There are a few cases in which a married couple ruled a kingdom jointly. Ferdinand II of Aragon and his wife Isabella, in her own right Isabella I of Castile, ruled their kingdoms as one dominion, and Ferdinand was also called Ferdinand V of Castile. However, the two kingdoms would not be de jure united until the monarchs' grandson Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor acceded to both thrones as Charles I of Spain.

The daughter of James II of England, Queen Mary II, married William of Orange; although Mary was the heiress to the throne, she and William chose to reign together and were made co-monarchs by Parliament, with William becoming King.

There have also been a number of cases when the queen consort of a deceased king (the queen dowager or queen mother) has served as regent while her child, the heir to the throne, was still a minor; for example Catherine de Medici.

Besides these examples, there have been many cases of queen consorts being shrewd stateswomen and, albeit unofficially, being one of the king's major advisors. In some cases, the queen consort has been the chief power behind the throne.

Examples of Queens Consort

See also: Prince Consort

Because queens consort lack an ordinal with which to distinguish between them, many historical texts and encyclopædias refer to deceased consorts by their pre-marital or maiden name or title, not by their marital royal title.

Thus:

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Queen of Sheba

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Queen of Sheba is biblical figure, a queen of a realm of Sheba, which some modern arhceologist place in modern Yemen.

According to Bible, Sheba heard of the great wisdom of Solomon and journeyed to Israel with herbs and spices as gift to the king (I Kings 10). The king tircked her into bed with him. She later gave birth a son, which was not accepted by the critizing elders of the council. She returned to her kingdom with the son Menelik and later established kingdom in Aksum, modern-day Ethiopia.

Royal family of Ethiopia has claimed origin from the Queen of Sheba.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Queen of Sheba."

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Victoria of the United Kingdom

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Queen Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria) of the Royal House of Hanover or, after her marriage, possibly Wettin 1 (May 24, 1819 - January 22, 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for a record sixty-three years, seven months, and two days (June 20, 1837 - January 22, 1901). She was also Empress of India.

Birth and background

She was born on May 24, 1819, to Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent (fourth son of King George III) and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield, sister of King Leopold I of the Belgians and widow of HSH Emich, 2nd Prince of Leiningen. King Leopold's first wife, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, was the only legitimate child of the Prince Regent (future King George IV). After Princess Charlotte's death in 1817, there was a scramble by George III's younger sons to abandon their mistresses, marry, and beget an heir to the realm. The Duke of Kent, marrying at the age of fifty, became the father of the ultimate heiress. (In later years, it was rumoured that Victoria's biological father was Sir John Conroy, an Irish soldier who served as private secretary to Victoria's mother. See footnote 2 below.)


Victoria
Queen of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland

At the tender age of eighteen, she ascended to the throne following the death of King William IV on June 20, 1837. Victoria was to prove Britain's longest reigning monarch. In her early days, she was largely dependent for advice on the Prime Minister, William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne, with whom she forged a strong relationship.

Victoria and Albert

Victoria met her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha when she was just sixteen, and found him appealing even then. The families' desire to unite the two happened to coincide well with the desires of Victoria and Albert themselves, and they were married on February 10, 1840. However, there was some friction between them at first, because Albert wished to take an active role in the administration of the realm. Eventually, they reached a compromise, and their marriage became an outstandingly happy one, with the result that Victoria was completely devastated by his early death in 1861.


Victoria
Cartoon of Queen Victoria receiving
the imperial crown of India
from Disraeli
Victoria blamed Bertie, her eldest son, for the death of Prince Albert. She continued to regard him as unfit to take responsibility, even though he was the heir to the throne, and never allowed him the kind of role that would have helped him prepare for kingship. With the extra time on his hands he became an aging playboy, whilst the queen withdrew into semi-permanent mourning and was popularly known as "the widow of Windsor". Her withdrawal from public life increased the profile of her children, most notably, Bertie and his wife Alexandra. She was known to keep dachshund dogs.

Mrs Brown

As well as being known as the Widow of Windsor, Queen Victoria was also known as "Mrs Brown" because she relied increasingly on a Scottish retainer, John Brown. The nickname was long perceived as a joke. The recently discovered diaries of Lewis Harcourt, a politician of the time, may lend credence to the story. The diaries contain a report that one of the Queen's chaplains, Rev'd Norman Macleod, made a deathbed confession to Harcourt repenting of his action in presiding over Queen Victoria's marriage to John Brown. Debate continues over whether the marrige actually happened. Some scholars insist that Victoria would never have married a servant and even doubt that the relationship was even romantic. They doubt the veracity of Harcourt's account and question why a royal chaplain would confess to a politician. Others are equally certain that Victoria was in love with Brown and regard Harcourt's account as confirmation that a marriage actually occured. Supporters of the Brown marriage theory regard Harcourt as a well-placed source with no obvious reason to place a false story in his private diaries. In the final analysis there is no way to be absolutely certain of the truth. (Victoria requested that mementos of both Prince Albert and John Brown be placed in her coffin, a request which horrified her family, who disliked Brown intensely).

Empress of India

Her favourite Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, persuaded her to assume, by Royal Proclamation of April 28, 1876, the title of "Empress of India," reflecting the fact that she had presided over a massive expansion of the British Empire and the continued rise of Britain as an industrial power. On January 1, 1877, at the first Imperial Assemblage (or Durbar) in Delhi, Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. She was not present, and she never visited India. Later in 1887, her golden jubilee brought her to new heights of popularity, and she went on to celebrate a diamond jubilee ten years later.

Grandmother of Europe

Victoria was known as the Grandmother of Europe. She was the first known carrier of hæmophilia in the royal line. It remains unclear how she acquired it. One theory is that it came about as a result of a sperm mutation from her father, who was 52 when Victoria was conceived. Alternately, she may have acquired it from her mother, though there is no known history of hæmophilia amongst her mother's family or her maternal ancestors. A third is that it came via Sir John Conroy, her mother's Irish secretary and reputed lover2, who was rumoured to be Victoria's actual father. This theory is not perceived as credible, however, as a male who is not a hæmophiliac cannot carry the gene for hæmophilia.


Victoria R
Signature of Victoria R(egina)
before becoming Empress of India
What is clear is that she passed it on to at least two of her daughters (Princesses Alice and Beatrice) with tragic consequences for the heirs to the Russian and Spanish thrones who were the descendants of these two daughters. The most famous victim of this disease was Alexei, the son of Nicholas II of Russia, who inherited the disease from his mother Alexandra of Hesse, a granddaughter of Victoria. Queen Victoria's youngest son, Prince Leopold, was also born with hæmophilia and died a young man because of it.

Queen Victoria died in 1901, at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and was buried at Frogmore, Windsor Castle. She was succeeded by her eldest son, Edward VII.

Quotations

"We are not amused." - This quotation is attributed to Victoria, with varying stories. One has her saying it after viewing a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore. Other stories describe it as a reaction to a groom-in-waiting of hers, the Hon. Alexander Grantham Yorke, either to a theatrical production he put on, or to a risqué joke he told to a German guest and which the Queen asked him to repeat after the guest laughed loudly. In this account, she was not using the royal "we" but speaking for the affronted ladies of the court. [1]

"I will be good." - 11-year-old Victoria's spoken response in 1830 when her governess let her know that one day she would be Queen.

"Since it has pleased Providence to place me in this station, I shall do my utmost to fulfil my duty towards my country; I am very young, and perhaps in many, though not in all things, inexperienced, but I am sure, that very few have more real good will and more real desire to do what is fit and right than I have." - her response in her diary upon becoming Queen in 1837 at age 18.

Children of Queen Victoria & Prince Albert

Footnotes

1 Victoria's actual surname remained a mystery for much of her life until she had her aides check it out. They concluded that Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was only the Royal House name of Prince Albert, not as is often presumed, his surname. The general conclusion was that his actual surname, were he to have to use one, would be Wettin, which by marriage became Victoria's also and that of her children. Victoria was less than happy with the name and all mention of the name she hated was hidden for decades until rediscovered during the First World War. In 1917, both the Royal House name and the personal family surname was changed to Windsor.
2 According to the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Victoria as a young girl caught her widowed mother in a compromising position with Conroy. It was widely rumoured at court that their sexual relationship predated the Duke of Kent's death, and that Conroy rather than the Duke may well have been Victoria's natural father. However the continuing existence of particular genetic illnesses in the Royal Family after Victoria that existed before her conception and which did not exist in Conroy's family suggest that her natural father almost certainly was the Duke of Kent, who would have passed on the genes to illnesses that struck as late as the Prince William of Gloucester, who was killed in an airplane crash in 1972. Source: report of a conversation with Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom in which she talked of the health problems of Prince William of Gloucester.

Preceded by:
William IV 		List of British monarchs Succeeded by:
Edward VII

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Victoria of the United Kingdom."

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Abbreviations & Acronyms: Queen

The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted.
EntrySourceExpressionField

QUEEN

EnglishQuaternary Environment of the Eurasia NorthGeography

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Synonyms: Queen

Synonyms: fag (n), faggot (n), fagot (n), fairy (n), female monarch (n), nance (n), pansy (n), poof (n), poove (n), pouf (n), queen regnant (n), queer (n), tabby (n). (additional references)
Antonym: king (n). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Queen

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Amusement

Ace, king, queen, knave, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, trey, deuce; joker; trump, wild card.

Man

Homosexual, gay, queen.

Master

Empress, queen, sultana, czarina, princess, infanta, duchess, margravine; czarevna, czarita; maharani, rani, rectrix.

Ornament

Smart, gay, trickly, flowery, glittering; new gilt, new spangled; fine as a Mayday queen, fine as a fivepence, fine as a carrot fresh scraped; pranked out, bedight, well-groomed.

World

Sun, orb of day, Apollo, Phoebus; photosphere, chromosphere; solar system; planet, planetoid; comet; satellite, moon, orb of night, Diana, silver-footed queen; aerolite, meteor; planetary ring; falling star, shooting star; meteorite, uranolite.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Queen

English words defined with "queen": Mary Queen of Scots, May queen, Mother queen ♦ Queen Anne's bounty, Queen gold, Queen mother, Queen of May, queen of the May, Queen regent, Queen regnant, Queen Victoria. (references)
Specialty definitions using "queen": Queen Anne is Dead, Queen Anne's Style, Queen Dick, Queen Mary and Westfield College, Queen of Hearts, Queen of Heaven, Queen of the Dripping-pan, Queen of the Eastern Archipelago, Queen of the North, Queen of the Northern Seas, Queen Passion, Queen Quintessence, QUEEN STREET ♦ Republican Queen ♦ Virgin Queen ♦ Warrior Queen. (references)
Etymologies containing "queen": Victorium. (references)

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Modern Usage: Queen

DomainUsage

Screenplays

The biggest thing in this town is probably the homecoming queen. (The Iron Giant; writing credit: Brad Bird and Tim McCanlies, based on the novel and play 'The Iron Man' by Ted Hughes.)

It's a queen. (Alien: Resurrection; writing credit: Dan O'Bannon; Ronald Shusett)

A Queen who'll do whatever his highness desires (Coming to America; writing credit: David Sheffield)

You're like some marvelous, distant, well, queen, I guess (The Philadelphia Story; writing credit: Donald Ogden Stewart)

I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired this. In place of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Morning (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; writing credit: Frances Walsh)

Lyrics

Ya always was a black queen mama (Dear Mama; performing artist: 2Pac)

Dancing Queen, feel the beat from the tambourine ("Dancing Queen"; performing artist: Abba)

I ate the mushroom and I dance with the queen (Sunshine; performing artist: Aerosmith)

'52 Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new Queen (We Didn't Start The Fire; performing artist: Billy Joel)

Queen Pen and Blackstreet, it's no diggity (No Diggity; performing artist: Blackstreet)

Tongue Twisters

The queen coined quick clipped quips. (references; author: unknown)

Movie/TV Titles

Queen of Fist (1974)

Watching for the Queen (1973)

Nickel Queen (1971)

Queen Bee Strikes Again (1971)

The Corporate Queen (1970)

Song Titles

Queen Of Hearts (performing artist: Juice Newton)

Queen Isabella (performing artist: Kristoph Klover)

Queen of Venus (performing artist: The New Duncan Imperials)

Killer Queen (performing artist: Queen)

Queen Of The Night (performing artist: Whitney Houston)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Queen

DomainTitle

Books

  • Same Game, Different Rules: How to Get Ahead Without Being a Bully Broad, Ice Queen, or "Ms. Understood" (reference)

  • Marcus Brutus and Silver Queen Saloon (reference)

  • The Queen, the Bear, and the Bumblebee (reference)

  • Queen of Burlesque: The Autobiography of Yvette Paris (reference)

  • The Green Queen (A Candlewick Toddler Book) (reference)

    (more book examples)

  

Periodicals

  

Theater & Movies

  

Music

  

High Tech

  

Consumer Goods

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Queen

Photos:
Queen

More pictures...

Illustrations:
Queen

More pictures...

Computer Images:
Queen

More pictures...

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Photo Album: Queen

ThumbnailDescription & CreditThumbnailDescription & Credit

Albert Siepert Points Out Highlights of Apollo 10 Liftoff to Belgium King and Queen. Credit: NASA.

"Their Majesties the King and Queen ...." In: "The Heart of the Antarctic", Volume I, by E. H. Shackleton, 1909. P. 34. Library Call Number G149 S52. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth.

The U. S. halibut vessel Queen, home port out of Seattle. Typical of smaller wooden-hull vessels about 50 feet long. At 57 52 North Latitude 136 49 W Longitude. Credit: Fisheries.

"The Discovery on the rocks in Queen Charlotte's Sound." Latitude 51 02 N, Longitude 127 35 W. In: "A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World" by Captain George Vancouver. Volume I, Plate VI, page 364. Library Call Number G420 .V22 1798. Credit: Treasures of the Library.

Queen triggerfish - Balistes vetula. Credit: The Coral Kingdom.

Queen angelfish - Holocanthus ciliarus. Credit: The Coral Kingdom.

A Queen Angelfish. Credit: Sanctuaries.

4H advisor and mom checks her daughter's Guernesy heifer in Queen Anne's County, MD. Credit: USDA.

Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota) along Crowfoot Road. Credit: Terry Tuttle.

Caption: Three Edison Disc Phonographs, A-200, Queen Anne Model Cabinet, in Mahogany, Golden Oak, and Mission Oak; June 29, 1912; {29.120/44} (jpg).

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Digital Photo Gallery: Queen
 

"Queen of the Night 3" by Kam Lee
Commentary: "Night-Blooming Cereus."		"King queen buildings" by Grenville Tryon
Commentary: "Picture of the buildings queen & king in ga."

Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers.

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Sounds Captioned with "Queen".

PlayCaption
Royalty; royal; king; queen; princess; prince; duchess; duke; trumpet; majestic; majesty.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Familiar Quotations: Queen

AuthorQuotation

Elizabeth I

I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married.

Lewis Carroll

"No, no!" said the Queen. "Sentence first -- verdict afterwards."

Mary Queen Of Scots

No one provokes me with impunity.

Pierre Auguste Renoir

I've been forty years discovering that the queen of all colors is black.

Queen Victoria

He speaks to Me as if I was a public meeting.
Being married gives one one's position like nothing else can.
A marriage is no amusement but a solemn act, and generally a sad one.

Virgil

Unwillingly I left your land, O Queen.
Unspeakable, O Queen, is the sorrow you bid me renew.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Historic Usage: Queen

AuthorDateQuotation

Magna Carta

1215

And if we shall not have corrected the transgression (or, in the event of our being out of the realm, if our justiciar shall not have corrected it) within forty days, reckoning from the time it has been intimated to us (or to our justiciar, if we should be out of the realm), the four barons aforesaid shall refer that matter to the rest of the five and twenty barons, and those five and twenty barons shall, together with the community of the whole realm, distrain and distress us in all possible ways, namely, by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, and in any other way they can, until redress has been obtained as they deem fit, saving harmless our own person, and the persons of our queen and children; and when redress has been obtained, they shall resume their old relations towards us. (reference)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Use in Literature: Queen

TitleAuthorQuote

Alice in Wonderland

Carroll, Lewis

There was a sound of many footsteps, and Alice looked round, eager to see the Queen.

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

Virtue of my queen.

King Richard III

Shakespeare, William

QUEEN MARGARET

Gulliver's Travels

Swift, Jonathan

The Queen observed my coldness, and when the farmer was gone out of the apartment, asked me the reason

Walden

Thoreau, Henry David

We are amused at beholding the costume of Henry VIII, or Queen Elizabeth, as much as if it was that of the King and Queen of the Cannibal Islands

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Queen

SubjectTopicQuote

Children

Tonga

The education of children with special needs has been a longstanding priority of the Queen. (references)

Jordan

In March 2000, Queen Rania established the National Team for Family Protection (NTFP) to consolidate all issues concerning family safety. (references)

Economic History

The Netherlands

Shortly after the Netherlands was liberated in May 1945, the Queen returned. (references)

Human Rights

Yemen

The country's first Minister of State for Human Rights, Dr. Wahibah Fare'e, is a prominent women's rights activist and the founder of Queen Arwa University. (references)

Fiji

The November 2000 mutiny at Suva's Queen Elizabeth Barracks caused 8 deaths, 3 of which were loyalist soldiers, and approximately 24 other military casualties. (references)

Political Economy

Trinidad

A President elected by Parliament for a five-year term replaced the Queen as head of state. (references)

Political Rights

New Zealand

In April Dame Silvia Cartwright took office as the new Governor General representing Queen Elizabeth II of England. (references)

Travel

Barbados

The main hospital is the 600-bed Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown, and there are several well-equipped health clinics distributed throughout the island. (references)

Worker Rights

Malawi

In September medical workers from Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre went on strike after the hospital failed to grant salary increases that it promised to begin in July. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Spoken Usage: Queen

SpeakerPhrase(s)

Bill Maher

Well when this queen story broke today, I said, I have got to get back on the air because I don't know what.

Dennis Miller

Everywhere you look, cooperation is as rare as a tube top in Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe.

Rosie O'Donnell

Well, I was a non-sexually active teenager in any capacity. I was very popular in high school, I was the homecoming queen, I was senior class president. I was not at all thinking of dating in any way, shape or form.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Speeches: Queen

SpeakerTermPhrase(s)

Andrew Jackson

1829-1837The act of Congress to countervail the discriminating duties to the prejudice of our navigation levied in Cuba and Puerto Rico has been transmitted to the minister of the United States at Madrid, to be communicated to the Government of the Queen.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: Queen

"Queen" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 52.52% of the time. "Queen" is used about 6,433 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words		Rank in English
Noun (singular)52.52%3,3782,850
Noun (proper)47.47%3,0543,070
Lexical Verb (infinitive)0.02%1339,140
                    Total100.00%6,433N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Name Usage Frequency: Queen

The following table summarizes the usage of "queen" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified.
NameUsage/GenderUsage per 100
million Persons		Rank in USA
QueenFirst name Female9,000923
QueenLast name7,0001,814
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Derived & Related Names: Queen

"Queen" is a name that signifies or is derived from: "a woman", "a wife".
 
The following table summarizes names derived from the word "queen".
 
NameGenderLanguageMeaning
MilcahN/ABiblical

Queen

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

 

The following table summarizes names related to "Queen."
NameGenderLanguageRelated Name
QueenFemaleEnglishN/A
QueenieFemaleEnglishQueen
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Expressions: Queen

Expressions using "queen": beauty queen ♦ bee queen ♦ closet queen ♦ De Queen ♦ drag queen ♦ fairy queen ♦ fashion queen ♦ hangar queen ♦ harvest queen ♦ Killer Queen ♦ King And Queen C ♦ King and Queen County ♦ Mary Queen of Scots ♦ may queen ♦ mother queen ♦ queen a pawn ♦ Queen Anne ♦ queen anne is dead ♦ queen anne is dead! ♦ queen Anne's bounty ♦ Queen Anne's County ♦ queen Anne's lace ♦ queen ant ♦ queen apple ♦ queen bee ♦ queen cake ♦ Queen City ♦ queen conch ♦ queen consort ♦ Queen Creek ♦ queen dowager ♦ queen gold ♦ queen it ♦ queen it over ♦ queen Mary and Westfield College ♦ Queen Mary College ♦ queen mother ♦ queen of clubs ♦ queen of England ♦ queen of hearts ♦ queen of heaven ♦ queen of May ♦ queen of spades ♦ queen of the May ♦ queen of the meadow ♦ queen of the meadows ♦ queen of the night ♦ queen of the prairie ♦ queen olive ♦ queen pigeon ♦ queen post ♦ queen regent ♦ queen regnant ♦ queen triggerfish ♦ queen truss ♦ queen Victoria ♦ snow queen ♦ the queen dowager ♦ the queen of hearts ♦ the virgin queen ♦ virgin queen. Additional references.

Hyphenated Usage

Beginning with "queen": Queen-anne-style, queen-bee, queen-budget, queen-dowager, Queen-empress, Queen-hithe, Queen-in-council, Queen-in-parliament, queen-mother, Queen-post, queen-regnant, queen-side, queen-size, queen-sized, queen-style, Queen-to-be.

Ending with "queen": drag-queen, elf-queen, ex-queen, Fairy-queen, ice-queen, khan-queen, player-queen, teen-queen, tragedy-queen, warrior-queen, widow-queen.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Queen

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day		ExpressionFrequency
per Day

queen

4,679

airport aruba beatrix queen

219

dairy queen

2,453

queen mary 2

202

queen latifah

1,123

queen mattress

194

the queen of the damned

1,074

queen charlotte island

185

queen elizabeth

1,007

dancing queen

184

queen nefertiti

980

queen rania

181

queen mary

919

filter queen

175

drag queen

865

mary queen of scot

173

race queen

636

queen elizabeth theater

172

queen lyrics

518

queen size bed

154

queen victoria

465

queen bee

148

girdle queen

448

queen of hearts

145

queen of clean

367

queen of the stone age

142

queen elizabeth ii

341

queen of england

138

delta queen

334

queen elizabeth 1

137

queen noor

318

queen bed

135

damned queen soundtrack

317

queen latifa

124

ivy queen

316

sweet potato queen

122

queen elizabeth i

253

de queen arkansas

121

emerald queen casino

226

bohemian lyrics queen rhapsody

119
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Queen

Language Translations for "queen"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Afrikaans

  

dam (dame, king, lady). (various references)

   

Albanian

  

mbretëreshë (crown, Czarina). (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏ملكة جمال (miss), ‏ملكة (faculty, talent), ‏اللوطي مشتهي المماثل. (various references)

   

Basque

  

erregina. (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

управлявам като царица, царица, кралица (princess), владея като царица, майка (dam, mother), женска котка, любимка, произвеждам (afford, bring forth, fabricate, generate, make, manufacture, produce, promote, put out, raise), повелителка (lady sovereign, mistress), педераст (bugger, fag, faggot, fagot, homosexual, pansy, pederast, pouf, quean, queer, sod, sodomite, swish), дама (checkers, chequers, draughts, gentlewoman, hopscotch, lady, partner, picture card). (various references)

   

Catalan

  

reina. (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

王后 , 后 (to swallow, to take), 女王/王后 (Queens), 女王 . (various references)

   

Czech

  

královna (queen bee). (various references)

   

Danish

  

dame (dame, king, lady). (various references)

   

Dutch

  

vrouw (dame, female, king, wife, woman), koningin, jonkvrouw (dame, king, lady), dam (dam, dame, king, lady). (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

reĝino. (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

ملکه شدن , ملکه (Empress, Monarch, Rial), وزیر, زن پادشاه , شهبانو (Empress), بی بی (Dame). (various references)

   

Finnish

  

kuningatar. (various references)

   

French

  

reine, dame. (various references)

   

Frisian

  

keninginne, dam (dam, king, lady). (various references)

   

German

  

Königin (queen consort). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

βασίλισσα. (various references)

   

Hawaiian

  

mbretëreshë. (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

מלכה. (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

királyné (queen consort). (various references)

   

Icelandic

  

drotning. (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

ratu, permaisuri (princess, royal consort). (various references)

   

Irish

  

banríon. (various references)

   

Italian

  

regina (regina). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

王妃, 后 (empress). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

おうひ, きさき (empress), こうひ (construction cost, empress, folklore, legend, oral tradition, public expenditure, your valued criticism), こうごう (collation, empress, examining and comparing, incense container, sexual union), クイーン , クィーン , じょおう. (various references)

   

Korean 

  

여왕 (Queens). (various references)

   

Manx

  

rein (regina), reeven, immee gys benrein, benrein. (various references)

   

Norwegian

  

dronning. (various references)

   

Occitan

  

rèina. (various references)

   

Papiamen

  

reina (control, govern, restrain, rule). (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

eenquay.(various references)

   

Portuguese

  

rainha (princess, queen bee, vicereine), dama (dame, gentlewoman, king, lady, madam, Mrs.). (various references)

   

Romanian

  

reginã (mother bee), pisicã (cat, puss), matcã (bed, bottom, channel, layer, mother bee, source), damã (broad, Dame, demimondaine, demi-rep, face card, lady, tart, whore), împãrãteasã (empress). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

ферзь, королева королевский, королева, возглавлять (head, spearheading, take charge of, take the lead), матка (dam, matrix, uteri, uterus, womb), богиня (goddess), делать королевой, дама (dame, gentlewoman, ladies, lady). (various references)

   

Scottish

  

ban-righinn. (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

zameniti pešaka za damu, načiniti kraljicom, kraljica (belle), homoseksualac (fag, fairy, gay, homosexual, pansy, queer), dama (dame, lady). (various references)

   

Shona

  

simai renyuchi (queen bee). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

reina (empress). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

drottning, dam (checkers, draughts, king, ladies, lady, madam, Mrs., wman, woman). (various references)

   

Tagalog

  

réyna. (various references)

   

Thai

  

ไพ่ควีน, นางพญาผึ้ง (queen bee), ราชินี (ranee). (various references)

   

Turkish

  

vezir yapmak, vezir çıkmak, vezir (vizier), top (ball, bolt, bowl, cannon, fagot, fairy, globe, gun, knob, pellet, pill, poof, pouf, pouffe, rifle, roll), sultan (sultan, sultana), sevgili (beau, beloved, concubine, darling, dear, dearie, deary, dove, doxy, duck, duckie, ducky, fancy man, favorite, favourite, feller, fellow, flame, gallant, Gill, girl, inamorata, inamorato, Jill, ladylove, love, loved, lover, paramour, pet, precious, steady, sweetheart, sweetie, sweety, Truelove, well-beloved), nonoş (darling, fairy, fruit, gay, poof, pouf, pouffe, queer), kraliçe yapmak, kraliçe (Regina), kız (babe, bird, bunny, chick, chicken, colleen, daughter, female, gal, girl, Jenny, lass, lassie, maid, maiden, Miss, wench), homoseksüel (camp, fruit, gay, homo, homoerotic, homophile, homosexual, invert, pederast, poof, queer, sod, sodomite, swish), dam (Dame, partner, roof). (various references)

   

Turkmen 

  

prezi (queen (in chess)). (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

царювати (reign), ферзь, краса (amenities, beauty, dear, delight, handsomeness), коронувати (coronate, crown, diadem), королева, богиня (goddess), дама серця, дама (burd, gentlewoman, lady). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

người đàn bà đẹp, nữ hoàng, con kiến chúa người ta đã biết tỏng đi rồi, bây giờ mới nói! cô gái đẹp, bà hoàng (princess). (various references)

   

Welsh

  

brenhines. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Queen

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Sumerian3100 BCE-2500 BCE

gaan, nin. (various references)

Latin500 BCE-Modern

regina. (various references)

Old English450-1100

cwen. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Bible Trace: Queen

LanguageDateSourceActs Chapter 8, Verse 27
Greek (transliterated)250 BCSeptuagintKai anastaV eporeuqh kai idou anhr aiqioy eunoucoV dunasthV kandakhV thV basilisshV aiqiopwn oV hn epi pashV thV gazhV authV oV elhluqei proskunhswn eiV ierousalhm
Latin405VulgateEt surgens abiit et ecce vir aethiops eunuchus potens Candacis reginae Aethiopum qui erat super omnes gazas eius venerat adorare in Hierusalem
Middle English1395WyclifAnd he roos, and wente forth. And lo! a man of Ethiopie, a myyti man seruaunt, a yelding of Candace, the queen of Ethiopiens, which was on alle her richessis, cam to worschipe in Jerusalem.
Renaissance English1526TyndaleAnd he arose and wet on. And beholde a man of Ethiopia which was a chaberlayne and of grete auctorite wt Cadace quene of ye Ethiopias and had ye rule of all her treasure came to Ierusalem for to praye.
Jacobean English1611King JamesAnd he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,
Victorian English1833WebsterAnd he arose, and went: and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem to worship,
Basic English1964OgdenAnd he went and there was a man of Ethiopia, a servant of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, and controller of all her property, who had come up to Jerusalem for worship;

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Matched Bible Translations: Queen

LanguageActs Chapter 8, Verse 27
AlbanianAi u ngrit dhe u nis; dhe ja, një njeri Etiopas, eunuk, një zyrtar i lartë i Kandaces, mbretëreshës së Etiopisë, përgjegjës i të gjitha thesareve të saj, i cili kishte ardhur në Jeruzalem për të adhuruar.
CebuanoUg si Felipe mitindog ug miadto. Ug tan-awa, usa ka Etiopiahanon nga eunoco ug alagad ni Candace, ang rayna sa mga Etiopiahanon, nga maoy gitugyanan sa tanang bahandi niini, miadto sa Jerusalem sa pagsimba didto,
CroatianOn usta i poðe. Odjednom eto nekog Etiopljanina, dvoranina, visokog dostojanstvenika kandake, kraljice etiopske koji bijaše nad svom njezinom riznicom.
DanishOg han stod op og gik. Og se, der var en Æthioper, en Hofmand, en mægtig Mand hos Kandake, Æthiopernes Dronning, som var sat over alle hendes Skatte; han var kommen til Jerusalem for at tilbede.
DutchEn hij stond op en ging heen; en ziet, een Moorman, een kamerling, en een machtig heer van Candace, de koningin der Moren, die over al haar schat was, welke was gekomen om aan te bidden te Jeruzalem;
FinnishJa hän nousi ja lähti. Ja katso, siellä kulki etiopialainen mies, Etiopian kuningattaren Kandaken hoviherra, mahtava mies ja koko hänen aarteistonsa hoitaja; hän oli tullut Jerusalemiin rukoilemaan
FrenchIl se leva, et partit. Et voici, un Éthiopien, un eunuque, ministre de Candace, reine d`Éthiopie, et surintendant de tous ses trésors, venu à Jérusalem pour adorer,
GermanUnd er stand auf und ging hin. Und siehe, ein Mann aus Mohrenland, ein Kämmerer und Gewaltiger der Königin Kandaze in Mohrenland, welcher war über ihre ganze Schatzkammer, der war gekommen gen Jerusalem, anzubeten,
Haitian CreoleFilip leve, li pati. Antan l' sou wout la, yon nonm parèt devan l'; se te yon moun peyi Letiopi, yon nèg konfyans. Li te yon gwo chèf nan peyi Letiopi. Se li menm ki te reskonsab tout richès Kandas, larenn peyi a. Li te moute lavil Jerizalèm pou adore Bondye.
HungarianÉs felkelvén, elméne. És ímé egy szerecsen férfiú, Kandakénak, a szerecsenek királyasszonyának hatalmas komornyikja, ki az õ egész kincstárának felügyelõje vala, ki feljött imádkozni Jeruzsálembe;
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hariMaka Filipus pun berangkatlah. Pada waktu itu ada seorang pegawai istana Etiopia yang sedang dalam perjalanan pulang ke negerinya. Orang itu seorang pegawai tinggi yang bertanggung jawab atas semua kekayaan Kandake, ratu negeri Etiopia. Orang itu telah pergi ke Yerusalem untuk berbakti kepada Allah dan sekarang sedang kembali dengan keretanya. Sementara duduk di dalam kendaraannya itu ia membaca Buku Nabi Yesaya.
Indonesian-Terjemahan LamaLalu bangkitlah ia, serta berjalan pergi. Maka seorang Habsyi, yaitu sida-sida, menteri besar Kandake, permaisuri negeri Habsyi, yang memerintahkan segenap perbendaharaannya, pergi ke Yeruzalem sembahyang.
MaoriWhakatika ana ia, haere ana: na ko tetahi tangata o Etiopia, he unaka, he tangata nui na Kanarahi, kuini o nga Etiopiana, ko te kaitiaki ia o ana taonga katoa, i haere ki Hiruharama ki te karakia;
NorwegianHan stod da op og gikk dit; og se, der var en etioper, en hoffmann, en høi embedsmann hos Kandake, etiopernes dronning, en som var satt over hele hennes skatt; han var kommet til Jerusalem for å tilbede,
PortugueseE levantou-se e foi; e eis que um etíope, eunuco, mordomo- mor de Candace, rainha dos etíopes, o qual era superintendente de todos os seus tesouros e tinha ido a Jerusalém para adorar,   
RumanianFilip s`a sculat wi a plecat. Wi iatq cq un Etiopian, un famen cu mare putere la kmpqrqteasa Candace a Etiopienilor, wi kngrijitorul tuturor vistieriilor ei, venit la Ierusalim ca sq se knchine,
ShuarTutai Jiripisha wémiayi. Jintiá wesa Itiupianmaya aishmankan Wáinkiamiayi. Nú aishmansha Itiupia nunka akupniurin, ni naari Kantasen takarniuyayi. Kantaseka Núwauyayi. Tura nu aishman ti neka asa nuna Kuítrin iirniuyayi. Nú aishmansha Yúsan áujsataj tusa Jerusarénnum wéu Wáketmiayi.
SwahiliBasi, Filipo akajiweka tayari, akaanza safari. Wakati huohuo kulikuwa na Mwethiopia mmoja, towashi, ambaye alikuwa anasafiri kuelekea nyumbani. Huyo mtu alikuwa ofisa maarufu wa hazina ya Kandake, malkia wa Ethiopia. Alikuwa amekwenda huko Yerusalemu kuabudu na wakati huo alikuwa anarudi akiwa amepanda gari la kukokotwa.
SwedishDå stod han upp och begav sig åstad. Och se, en etiopisk man for där fram, en hovman som var en mäktig herre hos Kandace, drottningen i Etiopien, och var satt över hela hennes skattkammare. Denne hade kommit till Jerusalem för att där tillbedja,
Uma

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Queen

Derivations

Words beginning with "queen": queendom, queendoms, queened, queening, queenlier, queenliest, queenliness, queenlinesses, queenly, queens, queenship, queenships, queenside, queensides. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Queen" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: auen, gueen, qean, Qedn, qeen, qeue, Qiagen, Qifeng, qoen, qreen, quae, quaeh, quaen, quain, quan, quane, quea, queam, queant, queany, queap, quearn, queaz, quebe, quece, quede, quee, queeb, queec, queed, queef, Queeg, queek, Queel, queem, queena, queene, queenn, queeny, queep, quees, queet, queev, queex, queey, queez, quef, quefe, quege, quehn, quei, quein, queing, queje, quelen, Quelene, quen, qu'en, quena, quenc, quene, quenn, quent, queon, quepe, querent, quese, queve, quewe, quewn, queye, queze, quian, quiea, quieb, quief, quiel, quiem, quien, quient, quieren, quiev, quiex, quiey, quiln, quiten, quiven, qule, quoe, quone, qupen, quree, quse, quy, Quynh. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Queen"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "queen" (pronounced kwē"n)
3-w ē" nbetween, wean.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Queen

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "e-e-n-q-u"

-2 letters: nee.

-3 letters: en, ne, nu, un.

 Words containing the letters "e-e-n-q-u"
 

+1 letter: equine, queens.

 

+2 letters: enquire, equines, queened, queenly, quieten, sequent.

 

+3 letters: eloquent, enquired, enquires, equinely, frequent, henequen, henequin, heniquen, queendom, queening, queering, quenched, quencher, quenches, quenelle, quercine, queueing, quietens, sequence, sequency, sequents, sequined, squalene, squireen.

 

+4 letters: banqueted, banqueter, banquette, conquered, eloquence, enquiries, equinoxes, equipment, frequence, frequency, frequents, henequens, henequins, heniquens, inquieted, queendoms, queenlier, queenship, queenside, queerness, quenchers, quenelles, quercetin, quickened, quickener, quiescent, quietened, quietness, quintette, reconquer, sequenced, sequencer, sequences, sequinned, squalenes, squeezing, squireens, technique, unequaled, unquieter.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern 		5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Slideshow
7. Images: Photo Album
8. Images: Digital Art 		9. Sounds
10. Quotations: Familiar
11. Quotations: Historic
12. Quotations: Fiction 		13. Quotations: Non-fiction
14. Quotations: Spoken
15. Quotations: Speeches
16. Usage Frequency 		17. Names: Frequency
18. Names: Derived from
19. Expressions
20. Expressions: Internet 		21. Translations: Modern
22. Translations: Ancient
23. Bible Trace
24. Abbreviations 		25. Acronyms
26. Derivations
27. Rhymes
28. Anagrams 		29. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.