The Girls' Book of Famous Queens

Before women could vote or hold formal political power, these sixteen queens ruled empires. Lydia Hoyt Farmer's 1887 collection chronicles the most remarkable female rulers in history: Egyptian pharaohs, Russian empresses, English queens, and Chinese dowagers who wielded power when the world insisted it wasn't theirs to hold. From Nefertiti, who with her husband founded a city and a religion, to Elizabeth I, who transformed England into a naval superpower, to Tzu Hsi, who ruled China with ruthless pragmatism, Farmer presents women of staggering ambition and complexity. Some led their nations to greatness. Others were consumed by the machinery of power they could not control. Marie Antoinette lost her head; Mary, Queen of Scots, lost her crown; Catherine the Great changed the map of Europe. Written for Victorian-era girls, this book offers an unapologetically admiring portrait of female authority at a time when women were supposed to be ornamental. It's a time capsule and a testament in equal measure: proof that the desire to lead, to build, to conquer, has never belonged to one gender alone.