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The daughter of a great queen, Padishah Khatun (1256–1295) fought for her rights and proved herself to be a capable and determined ruler.

A strategic alliance

Padishah was the daughter of Qutb al-Din Mohammad, a member of the Qutlugh-Khanid dynasty, which was loyal to the Mongol Empire, and his wife, Qutlugh Turkan. After Qutb al-Din’s death in 1257, Turkan seized power, ruling Kerman (modern-day Iran) in her own name.

Padishah, her mother’s favorite child, received an exceptional education and excelled in poetry and calligraphy. In 1272, she married Abaqa Khan, the ruler of the Ilkhanate. Her marriage came with a grand household, and she frequently met with her mother and acted as her representative at court. This position was vital for defending her mother’s interests and maintaining her rule over Kerman

A wronged daughter

The death of Abaqa Khan in 1282 changed everything. His successor, Tegüder Ahmad, deposed Turkan and handed the throne of Kerman to Turkan’s stepson, Suyurghatmish. Soon after, Turkan passed away. Padishah chose not to accompany her mother’s remains back to Kerman, instead remaining at court to safeguard her interests. However, she sent her sister, Bibi Terken, to represent her in Kerman.

Tegüder’s reign was short-lived. In 1284, his successor Argun summoned Suyurghatmish to court and divided Kerman between Padishah and her rival. Unsurprisingly, Padishah was disappointed by this decision. Meanwhile, Suyurghatmish strengthened his position by marrying a Mongol princess, Kurdujin Khatun, eventually regaining full control of Kerman.

Padishah later married Argun’s brother, Gaykhatu. Although she managed to recover her personal domain of Sirjan in 1289, she had to wait patiently for the tides to shift in her favor.

Queen at last

Argun’s death in 1291 paved the way for Padishah’s return to power. Gaykhatu, now head of the Ilkhanate, reinstated Padishah as ruler of Kerman in 1292. She adopted the title Safwat al-Dunya wa al-Din (“Purity of the World and the Faith”) and also referred to herself as Ḵodāvand-e ʿĀlam (“Lord of the World”), a title that appeared on her coins.

Her first act was to neutralize her opposition. She imprisoned Suyurghatmish, and, doubting his loyalty, had him strangled.

Like her mother, Padishah’s reign was marked by justice and a dedication to the welfare of her people. She encouraged charitable works and extended her influence to nearby regions. Writing under the pen name Lāla Ḵātun, she composed poetry and supported scholars and poets.

Cycle of revenge

The assassination of her husband Gaykhatu in 1295 by his successor, Baydu, placed Padishah in a precarious position. Baydu was married to Shah ʿAlam, Suyurghatmish’s daughter, who sought revenge for her father’s death. Suyurghatmish’s widow, Kurdujin, was also ready to act.

Although Padishah remained in Kerman, many of her supporters abandoned her. She sought alliances but found none. Kurdujin, with the backing of loyal amirs, besieged Kerman, forcing Padishah to surrender.

Padishah was taken to court and eventually assassinated, likely at the instigation of Kurdujin and Shah ʿAlam. Her remains were returned to Kerman, where she was buried in the seminary built by her mother.

Though Kurdujin emerged victorious, she was never formally crowned ruler of Kerman, and her triumph was short-lived. She later became queen of Shiraz in 1319 and was succeeded by her niece, Sultan Khatun, upon her death. Their authority appears to have been more symbolic than political and limited to the city.

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Further reading 

De Nicola Bruno, Women in Mongol Iran: The Khatuns 1206-1335

Lambton Ann K. S., Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia Aspects of Administrative, Economic, and Social History, 11th-14th Century

Mernissi Fatima, The Forgotten queens of Islam

“PĀDŠĀH ḴĀTUN”, Encyclopaedia Iranica

[historicwomendaily]

Though Qutlugh Turkan (c. 1208/1213–1283) began her life as a slave, she rose to become a ruler in her own right, ushering in a golden age for her lands.

A resourceful wife

Qutlugh Turkan was likely born in Transoxania between 1208 and 1213. She was enslaved as a child, purchased by a merchant from Isfahan, and given an excellent education. In 1235, she married Qutb al-Din Muhammad, the nephew of Buraq Hajib, the founder of the ruling dynasty of Kerman (in present-day Iran), a local power that emerged after the Mongol invasions.

After Buraq’s death, the Mongol Great Khan Ögedei granted Kerman to Buraq’s son, prompting Turkan and her husband to move to Transoxania. During this period, her intelligence and resourcefulness proved vital to her husband’s survival, earning him the of the local nobility.

In 1252, Qutb al-Din was installed as the ruler of Kerman. When he died five years later, it was time for Turkan to step into power.

Queen of a golden age

Turkan assumed control of Kerman in 1257, even though her husband’s male heirs were alive. The transition appears to have been smooth, with little opposition to a woman ascending the throne. She quickly established her authority, dispatching gifts to secure recognition of her rule.

Initially, Hulegu Khan granted her authority only over civil affairs, but Turkan’s persistence won her full control, including military oversight. She ruled independently for 26 years, a period celebrated as a golden age for the region of Kerman. The khutbah (Friday sermon) was proclaimed in her name in mosques, and her name appeared on coins.

Her reign brought stability and economic prosperity. Turkan was known for her equitable administration of justice and her benevolence. During times of famine, she opened the granaries to feed her people. She also initiated major building projects, including a madrasa, a hospital, a mosque, and fortified borders with new fortresses.

Coin minted during Turkan's reign

Challenges and Deposition

Turkan forged alliances with the Mongols, even marrying her daughter Padishah Khatun to Abaqa Khan, the ruler of Iran starting in 1265. She also sent troops led by her stepson (or possibly her biological son) Hijaj Sultan to support Abaqa.

However, Hijaj turned against her, publicly mocking her with this verse:

Young are your destiny and star, but old is your fortune; the one that is old should make way for the young.

Turkan sought Abaqa’s support and was reaffirmed as the ruler of Kerman. Hijaj’s attempt to depose her failed, forcing him to flee to Delhi, where he died a decade later.

Turkan’s fortunes changed with Abaqa’s death. His successor, Tegüder Ahmad, granted Kerman to her stepson, Suyurghatmish, ending her rule in 1282. Her efforts to reclaim the throne were unsuccessful and she died shortly afterward in a city in northern Iran.

Turkan’s daughter, Padishah Khatun later reclaimed the throne and ruled Kerman in her turn.

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Further reading 

De Nicola Bruno, Women in Mongol Iran: The Khatuns 1206-1335

Mernissi Fatima, The Forgotten queens of Islam

“QOTLOḠ TARKĀN ḴĀTUN”, Encyclopedia Iranica

[historicwomendaily]

"The remarkable thing about [Gerberga of Saxony's] widowhood is that she seems to have carried on exercising her queenly status without open challenge more or less until her death in 969, and without an obvious break when her son reached majority. As well as making regular appearances as petitioner in royal charters, she is also referred to consistently and unproblematically by Flodoard as ‘queen’. In this respect, she was arguably the most politically active royal widow since the late ninth-century Italian empress Engelberga. The fact that Gerberga retained such a high profile should not be taken for granted. The participation of royal widows in the public life of the kingdom was extremely vulnerable to criticism because (unlike kings, who remained kings until death regardless of how many wives predeceased them) they were not automatically categorized as political actors—their roles usually had to be justified and rationalized. Because of the peculiar role of queens in articulating the shape of royal dynasties, widowhood was conceptualized as a specific state onto which various ideologies could be projected. The Ottonians are thought to have developed a distinctive approach to this problem by turning royal widows who played crucial political roles into saints.

[The charter Gerberga issued in 959 for the monastery of Homblière exemplifies her prominent role]. The ‘gratia Dei (by the grace of God)’ clause is particularly striking, implying that her status derived not from a husband or son but, like a king’s, directly from God. In fact, there are very few surviving charters of any kind issued by queens before the twelfth century, a pattern that cannot be dismissed as an accident of survival. Those we have were mostly composed for queens who were, like Gerberga, widows. But in contrast to Gerberga’s case, the status of these queens was carefully framed in reference to the authority of their late husbands, often using the past tense. Thus two charters recording gifts made to the monastery of Gorze in 910 by Richildis, widow of Charles the Bald (840–77), refer to her as ‘former queen’ (‘quondam regina’). Similarly, the testament of Ageltrude, widow of one dead Italian king and mother of another (respectively Guy, 889–94, and Lambert, 894–8), describes her as ‘former empress’ (‘olim imperatrix augusta’) and invokes the authority of both men in claiming her right to dispose of her property. Even the Empress Engelberga, one of the most powerful queens of the ninth century and someone who was able to exercise independent power in Italy after the death of her husband Louis II in 875, shrouded her public persona in this kind of rhetoric. Her testament, which dates from 877, is an impressive statement of her power and connections, but opens by establishing that she was, above all, ‘former wife and august empress of the most pious emperor Louis of blessed memory’, and goes on to emphasize that she was even now acting on his authority. Compare Gerberga’s charter of 959, in which her late husband Louis IV is conspicuous by his absence and it is the queen herself who is rhetorically inserted into the role of ruler.”

— Simon MacLean, Ottonian Queenship

[historicwomendaily]

Beyond Zelda: Fitzgerald's Other Loves + Muses

Ginevra King: The first love. The king's daughter, the golden girl. The real-life inspiration for Daisy Buchanan (and virtually every other woman he ever wrote about). Rosalinde Fuller: The whirlwind. Met at the Plaza and had sex in a hansom cab while riding through Central Park. Probably the reason why Nick Carraway didn't get home till 2 AM after his own Plaza rendezvous with Jordan Baker. "Our love affair lasted only a short time, but often in his stories I think I can see bits of myself dressed up in other situations." Lois Moran: The starlet. Immortalized as Rosemary Hoyt in Tender Is the Night: "A fairy tale, though a beautiful one." Sheilah Graham: The last love. He turned her into Kathleen Moore in The Last Tycoon. She repaid the favor by trying to revive his dead body with brandy.

[historicwomendaily]

Agatha All Along

╰─▸ Historical Inspiration(s)

[historicwomendaily]

"I know that frivolity captures men more than real merit. I wish to show myself to him in my true colors. I should blush to owe nothing to his heart but a perpetual lie of my whole being." - Ninon de l'Enclos, Life, Letters, and Epicurean Philosophy of Ninon de l'Enclos

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Wolf Hall + Art Anne of Cleves by Bartholomaeus Bruyn the elder

The portrait was purchased in c.1734 by the then President and major benefactor of St John’s, William Holmes, for his private collection, and then acquired for the College by his successor as President, William Derham, in 1748. The sitter was only identified in print as Anne of Cleves as late as 1855, in J. W. Burgon’s Arms of the Colleges of Oxford. The date and authorship of the painting long remained debatable. Following major conservation work on the portrait in 1989/90, the conservator Candy Kuhl and the then Keeper of Pictures at St John’s, Professor Peter Hacker, persuasively argued in the Burlington Magazine for the date in the 1530s at the court of Cleves, before Anne came to England to marry Henry. (source)

link (wolf hall + art series)

thanks to @english-history-trip to point it out.

[historicwomendaily]

Wolf Hall + Art reference to Holbein's portrait of Anne of Cleves Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light | Episode Five 'Mirror'

[historicwomendaily]

FOUR WIVES OF LADISLAUS JAGIELLO

↪ elizabeth of pilica

“the attitude towards the queen was still unfriendly and in some court circles even hostile. the court was shaking with gossip and prophecies of various misfortunes that this inappropriate marriage would bring to the kingdom. the notary of the office, stanislaus ciołek, wrote satire and many poems full of mocking and disgracing words towards the queen. he wrote that “this sow, exhausted by the great number of childbirth, having lied to the lion, fraudulently gained the marriage with alleged treasures that she dug up from the ground with her snout.” ciołek had to leave the court, but elizabeth's life was not easy. lords of the kingdom, who wanted a wife for the king with great european connections, did not respect the queen who was one of them, and no one could forgive her for raising herself and her family above other noble families.”

[historicwomendaily]

katheryn's blue dress ꪆৎ

wolf hall: the mirror and the light

i had to draw this blue dress ‹𝟹

ꪆৎ my art ig: amberflosart

[historicwomendaily]

The Empress also demonstrated her preference for Hungary in the next few years to such an extent that it was close to a provocation. Thus, she ordered that a mass be said on the name day of St. Stephen, the patron saint of the Magyars, in, of all places, the parish church of Bad Ischl. Landgravine Fürstenberg: “this little demonstration was attended by no one else in the family, elle seule et ses fidèles” [only she and her trusty cohorts]. According to the Landgravine, the occasion provided the people of Bad Ischl “with the greatest amusement, especially because there is no Sunday or holiday that she attends the parish church.”

— Brigitte Hamann. The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (trans. Ruth Hein)

[historicwomendaily]

Although most of her writing has not survived, Pamphile (or Pamphila) of Epidaurus (fl. mid-1st century CE) deserves recognition. She is one of the earliest known female historians and the only ancient Greek woman historian about whom we have significant information. Additionally, she was a key figure in developing the genre of “miscellaneous history,” where authors retold anecdotes from earlier works.

A pioneer of historical writing

Pamphile stands among the earliest known female historians, alongside the Chinese scholar Ban Zhao (c. 40–45 – c. 117–120). This does not mean, however, that she was the first or only female historian of her time. For instance, there are references to a woman named Nicobule, who reportedly wrote a biography of Alexander the Great between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE.

According to Photios, Pamphile was a mature woman during the reign of Nero (54–68 CE). Conflicting accounts exist regarding her origins: Photios claimed she and her family were from Egypt, while the Suda, a Byzantine encyclopedia, stated that she and her father, Soterides, were from Epidaurus.

Pamphile was a polymath, likely with access to an extensive library. She attributed her knowledge to her own readings, her husband and the conversations she overheard from his visitors.

Pamphile’s Work and Influence

Pamphile’s main work, Historical Commentaries, survives only in fragments—eleven excerpts from the original 33 books, preserved in paraphrases by authors like Diogenes Laërtius, Aulus Gellius, and Photios. Her Historical Commentaries is considered the earliest known example of “miscellaneous history”. Later writers seem to have emulated her work and style.

In addition to this, Pamphile is credited with other works, including a collection of apophthegms, lectures, debates, and discussions on poetry. She also wrote an epitome of Ctesias in three books. According to the Suda, she authored a work titled On Controversies and a sexual manual called On Sexual Pleasure.

Deborah Levine Gera speculates that Pamphile might also be the author of Tractatus de Mulieribus Claris in Bello (Treatise on Women Distinguished in Wars), which recounts the deeds of powerful women from history, such as Tomyris and Artemisia I of Caria.

Pamphile described her work as poikilia, meaning a “tapestry” woven together from various sources and genres. She chose this approach to make her writing more engaging and enjoyable for her readers.

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Further reading 

Anonymous, Tractatus de Mulieribus Claris in Bello

MacDaniel Spencer, Pamphile of Epidauros: A Female Ancient Greek Historian

Plant Ian Michael (ed.), Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome : An Anthology

Photios, Bibliotheca

[historicwomendaily]

Progress on my Cleopatra & Livia painting :D

I’m shockingly happy with how this is progressing. When I finish it, I’ll write an extended analysis about the parallels in their lives to go along with it

[historicwomendaily]

"In celebration of Mary’s birth, Henry’s coat of arms depicted a little Tudor Rose (Mary) emerging from a Pomegranate, (the symbol of the house of Aragon, Mary’s mother). The stone feature originally adorned the gatehouse of Beaulieu Palace, now residing in the Chapel at New Hall School."

[historicwomendaily]

I agree that Anne Boleyn didn’t have black hair–but calling her a “redhead” rubs me the wrong way. Thomas Wyatt caked her brunet, which comes from the French word “brun” meaning brown; to say it meant something else without any evidence is greatly annoying and ignoring the etymology of the word.

The NPG portrait has dark brown hair, perhaps with red tones, but to characterize that as red hair would make me a redhead (and I have black hair with red tones).

She was also described as “swarthy” in her lifetime, which doesn’t negate her having red hair, per se, but it seems more likely that she was darker haired. Though Wolsey calling her Night Crow doesn’t necessarily mean anything about her appearance.

In so far as Elizabeth’s ring, I generally take it to mean that Anne’s hair wasn’t pitch black–not that her hair was red. What we see is also the gold of the ring, which could have been just an accent in the image. I’m not saying that’s the case, but that’s personally how it seems to me.

For the Hoskins miniature, she does have red tones, but she’s also made paler–the image appears somewhat prettified. Not even to mention that red tones=/=redhead. There are also the multitude of the B type portraits from Elizabeth’s reign, many of which show darker hair, obviously take those with a grain of salt–but they would have had to come from a sort of “master portrait” (possibly a Holbein).

The Brandon wedding portrait is most certainly not contemporary to their wedding–most likely it was painted after Mary’s death, and possibly painted over a few times.

Essentially, I’m a whiny baby who doesn’t think Anne Boleyn is most accurately a “redhead” and instead fits better into the category of “brunet,” though I think we can all agree–she certainly wasn’t blond.

[historicwomendaily]

"I have your ring on my finger and your flowers on the table."

Engagement ring of gold and almandine, given to Fanny Brawne by John Keats in the autumn of 1819. She did not take it off until her death in 1865.

[historicwomendaily]

Anne's girlhood has been overlooked in the popular imagination. It is also a period that has been misrepresented, reduced to the upper-class equivalent of reform school. But Anne Boleyn's French girlhood was neither a punishment for bad behaviour nor a hotbed of flirtation.

Instead, the girl-centred atmosphere of the French court was a quiet and intimate world defined by close bonds with other women, forged over the performance of music, shared religious beliefs, and love of learning.

During the years Anne Boleyn spent in France, she participated in female friendships that extended across nations as well as generations.

- Deanne Williams, Girl Culture in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Performance and Pedagogy