Women Who Ruled the World

5000 Years of Female Monarchy
A fascinating history of female rulers across time and across the world

A BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025

'A breath-taking history of female sovereignty' -- Alison Weir
'Gripping and beautifully crafted' -- Tracy Borman
'Filled with fascinating figures from history' - Gareth Russell


These are the stories of the female kings: women who risked everything, sometimes unwillingly, to find their place in a man's world.

Female kings have always been a rarity, an oddity, or an undesirable outcome. In almost all places throughout the world a male ruler was preferred to a woman, with female inheritance vanishingly rare and frequently disputed. In spite of this, women have secured crowns - or fought for them - over several millennia.

From the lush oases of Ancient Egypt to the cherry blossomed lands of Japan, the machinations of the Tudor court to the far reaches of Pacific Island kingdoms, Women Who Ruled the World is an expansive and comprehensive history of female royal power.

Covering five millennia of global history, renowned historian Elizabeth Norton weaves together the stories of women rulers throughout the ages. Establishing beloved and already celebrated figures amongst those who have been left in the margins of history, Norton peels away the layers of time, geography and culture to reveal what it was to be a woman who ruled.

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