Long may she reign

Wetamoo is often unknown to most people in American history, probably because she was around just after the far more famous Pocahontas. Weetamoo grew up knowing she would lead her tribe, but English settlers were making the world a much more dangerous place, bringing sickness and war, causing her to go head to head with them at the head of an army. come and learn about the most famous warrior and...

Mary Boleyn was Anne Boleyn's elder sister, and while she didn't lose her head, she still had a hell of a life. As the eldest daughter of a rising family in the Tudor court, she was expected to keep her head down, marry well and advance her family, but much like her sister, she took her own path in life, and it led to scandal. Hear her story on today's episode. This podcast is sponsored by Common...

Agrippina the Elder was the imperial princess of Rome who did everything right. She married who she was told, keeping her family line going and effortlessly maintaining her family's perfect image. However, Roman politics are tough, and not even she could outmaneuver betrayal and bloodshed. Join me on this episode to learn about the infamous grandaughter of Augustus. This podcast is sponserd by Com...

Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, is often not given her due credit for how influential she was in the crushing of the Viking Age. Æthelflæd was raised by Alfred the Great, who would have been a fine model for her future leadership. When she married the Lord of Mercia, she showed she was her father's daughter by teaming up with her brother to drive Vikings from England, and securely handing her thr...

Olga of Kyiv started out life as an obscure Rus noblewoman until she was thrust onto the centre stage by marrying the most powerful man in Eastern Europe. Soon enough, she was faced with a crisis when that man died, and she was left regent of a whole principality with a baby son and no protection. However, she rose to the occasion kicking asses and taking names and making sure no one would forget...

Empress Josephine was one of the most fascinating women of the French Revolutionary period. Little Jo started out as the oldest daughter of a French noble family in the Caribbean with plenty of clout but not enough cash, so she was soon married off to her first husband, who provided her with the cash she needed but not the love. The French Revolution turned her life upside down, and in the fight f...

Welcome to the season six finale! On today's episode, we go out with a bang and discuss Queen Nzinga, one of the most badass African warrior queens in history. Nzinga was trained to be a warrior and a diplomate from the time she was small, which came in handy when negotiating with the Portuguese at first for her wimp of an older brother and even more so when she became queen in her own right. Nzin...

What do you get when you take a French noble women and marry her to a Scottish king? A headache for the English. At just twenty-two, Yolande was thrust into the world of Scottish politics when she was married to the ageing king of Scotland, who had unfortunately lost almost every heir he had. Yolande's story had everything a dramatic death, a theory of an imposter baby, and, well, the English tryi...

Being queen is never easy, and no one knew that better than Queen Min. At only eight years old, she was left without a father, but funnily enough, her lack of ambitious male relatives made her the perfect candidate for queen to the irresponsible and impressionable King of Korea. Min bided her time under the thumb of her overbearing father-in-law until she was able to outsmart him and take over the...

Mary Todd Lincoln does not have the best reputation amongst first ladies. She was remembered in her time as a mentally unstable overspender who had questionable ties to the Confederacy. However, in this episode, I want pepole to learn about the bright and independent young woman who tried to make the best of every situation she was in and suffered more tragedy than anyone could understand. Join me...

Many pepole know Alexander the Great. After all, he conquered most of the known world before the age of twenty-five and was considered a military genius, but few know about his little sister, who contributed to his success. Cleo grew up in a chaotic household with two parents constantly at each other's throats and living in the shadow of her golden child brother. However, when she married into...

Berengaria of Castile spent much of her life as a political pawn with a throne just in her grasp, only to have it taken away from her time and time again because of her gender. Despite all that, she became an amazing politician who actively contributed to her kingdom's future, whether she was on the throne or not. In her time, she tried to find a balance between a strong politician and a demur...

Queen Boudicca of the Iceni is by far one of the most impressive queens I have ever read about. Boudicca grew up in a time before the Romans came to Britain, but in her adult life, she had to deal with constant Roman oppression against her pepole. When the Romans refused to honour the will of her husband and attacked her and her daughters, she called upon her fellow Celts. She started one of the m...

Ahilybai Rani of Indore is often remembered as one of India's greatest female rulers. At only eight years old, she married far above her station, and due to many unfortunate deaths, she ended up in charge of a key state in the Maharathi confederacy and started a golden age of rule lasting over thirty years. join me today to learn about her incredible story. Bibliography New World Encyclopedia....

It’s Pride Month, and I thought what a great time to talk about the other half of one of the most infamous pirate duos in history: pirate queen Mary Read. We don't know a ton for sure about Mary's life before she became a pirate. However, we do know that Mary had wild adventures disguised as a boy in the military before she ever took up a life of privacy with her girlfriend, Anne Bonney and Anne B...

Matilda of Scotland has often been overshadowed in her accomplishments because of her saintly mother and empress daughter, but it was because of her mother that she became who she needed to be to make sure her daughter could be even better. Matilda had a rough but pretty normal Scottish royal childhood with a lot of murder and succession crises, but it hardened her to make her an astute politician...

Many forget that Johnny Cash had a first wife, and if they do remember her, they think of her as a vindictive shrew who hated his career. Vivian Liberto Cash has been horribly misrepresented in popular culture, but she supported her husband throughout much of his early career and dealt with anxiety and depression from her husband's drug use and from attacks by the KKK concerning her non-European a...

China has had many influential and ambitious Empresses in its history, such as Empress Wu, but Zhao Feiyan certainly gives them all a run for their money. Zhao Feiyan was born into a relatively poor family, but due to her talent as a dancer, she was able to get the attention of the emperor, and from there, hijinx ensued. Join me on today’s episode to learn about China’s most underrated and controv...

As a longtime Swiftie, I was elated when I found out that Taylor Swift had a new song named after Clara Bow, and I thought, what better time to help people who may not know her story get to know her better? Clara was born desperately poor in early 1900s New York and suffered from a bad home life with an alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother. However, by the time she was a teenager, she won a...

If you have not heard of Arsinoe II, you are missing out on a great story. Arsinoe started out as the daughter of the first Ptolemaic pharaoh of Egypt and, through her own grit, determination and political savvy, managed to survive the disastrous political consequences of her first husband's death and come back to her home country as its queen. Join me in learning about the women who set the stand...

Killers of the Flower Moon has brought the world's attention to one of the most vile murder cases in American history, and at the center of it all was Mollie Kyle-Burkhart. Mollie would have grown up in the traditional way of her Osage ancestors, but by the time she was an adult, her family was wealthy, and she lived in a big home with white servants and with a white husband. Mollie lost all o...

If I had an award to give out for the messiest Queen of England, I’m sure Isabella of Angoulême would be in the running. Isabella started out as a young child heiress in France and had the unfortunate experience of being married to bad King John. It gets worse from there. Come join me this week to hear her crazy story. Bibliography Rebecca Starr Brown. “A Legacy of Destruction: King John & Isa...

Welcome to the second special episode of black history month, where we will be discussing one of the South's wealthiest black women, Amanda America Dickson. Amanda, like many mixed people in the South before the Civil War, was a product of an assault, but unlike most mixed-race children, she was raised in white society. She would go on to inherit her father's vast estate and become one of Georgia'...

Happy Black History Month everybody. To kick off this month I wanted to start with a story of one of my favourite African queens Yaa Asantewaa. Yaa Asantewaa was not born to be a leader but when her brother appointed her to the important position of queen mother it thrusted her into a world of complicated politics and a war against the British. Today she’s remembered in the modern nation of Ghana...

Very recently, I’ve become obsessed with the HBO TV show the Gilded Age and it has led me to a new appreciation for this time. And what a better way to explore it, then to talk about the queen bee of the Gilded Age Caroline Astor. Caroline set the standard for gilded age New York society and she had to be petty to keep society the way she thought it ought to run. Join me on my season, premiere and...