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Of course I realize depending on where she ruled a Queen or Empress would have varying levels of power and influence an Kings and Emperors usually declared war. However, I was curious if there have ever been any instances where a Queen and another Queen or Empress have ever waged war against each other?
Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots perhaps? And they were sisters (half sisters?) too.
Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots were cousins (first once removed) and in any event neither sent arms against the other.
Queen Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Queen Catherine of Aragon was Elizabeth's half sister. King Harry threw Mary's mother over for the "king's goggle eyed *****" (Anne Boleyn) who was mother of Elizabeth.
Of course I realize depending on where she ruled a Queen or Empress would have varying levels of power and influence an Kings and Emperors usually declared war. However, I was curious if there have ever been any instances where a Queen and another Queen or Empress have ever waged war against each other?
Would have to research but far as Europe is concerned would highly doubt it. The number of reining queens (not consorts) who were rulers in their own right are few enough. Fewer still would be those ruling at a time when another female monarch was also on a throne somewhere else in Europe.
Would have to research but far as Europe is concerned would highly doubt it. The number of reining queens (not consorts) who were rulers in their own right are few enough. Fewer still would be those ruling at a time when another female monarch was also on a throne somewhere else in Europe.
I agree - statistically, it's just unlikely since there were so few queens regnant ruling at the same time, not necessarily because women are less likely to wage war, or female rulers are more likely to find more peaceful ways of solving problems, if that's what the question was trying to determine.
Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots were cousins (first once removed) and in any event neither sent arms against the other.
Queen Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Queen Catherine of Aragon was Elizabeth's half sister. King Harry threw Mary's mother over for the "king's goggle eyed *****" (Anne Boleyn) who was mother of Elizabeth.
In which case perhaps the answer would be Elizabeth I and Mary I? Mary I plotted against Elizabeth and eventually Elizabeth (reluctantly) had her head cut off.
In which case perhaps the answer would be Elizabeth I and Mary I? Mary I plotted against Elizabeth and eventually Elizabeth (reluctantly) had her head cut off.
You are confusing your queen Marys again...
Mary I may or may not (depending upon which version of history you want to believe) wanted her half sister "out of the way" so to speak. Mary I *NEVER* put her hand to any paper specifically calling for the death of princess Elizabeth. PE however was caught up in several scandals and plots of treason which caused Mary I to have her locked away for periods, but nothing ever could be proven she was guilty. More it was just the same; circumstances.
Mary Queen of Scots is another matter. Upon her ill advised landing in England Elizabeth had her royal cousin basically put under house arrest. This dragged on for years as Elizabeth and her ministers/court sorted out what to do with their prize.
When it was finally "decided" that Mary, Queen of Scots "had to go" Elizabeth was extremely reluctant for various reasons to order the execution of an anointed monarch. So Mary QofS was kept locked up in a series of more dreary and harsher castles/conditions (perhaps with the hope the damp and such would kill her off), but no such luck. Meanwhile fifteen years were dragging on and the presence of Mary QofS in England along with Elizabeth's failure to marry and produce heirs was causing trouble.
How much of the Babington plot Mary QofS knew and or was involved in still is debated today. Some claim the letters were a forgery hatched to bring the Scottish queen to trail with a certain outcome and thus give Elizabeth and "out" in taking another monarchs life.
OTOH there are those who feel Mary Queen of Scots had every right to plot against Elizabeth if for nothing else to gain her freedom. She had committed no crime against her cousin and came to her for aid in being restored to her throne. Instead she was locked up for what turned out to be twenty years or so.
By the time all this was playing out Mary I of England was long in her grave.
Queen Isabella of Castille was the only one I know of who waged war and that was against the Moors.
Guess Tsarina Catherine of Russia waged war but that was against the Ottoman's Frederich etc. not another woman
Catherine the Great was one of the first people I thought of when I saw the OPs question. She was ruler of Russia while at the same time Maria Theresa was the ruler of Austria (the future Austria-Hungary).
But after doing a quick check and for purposes of this thread - Alas! There was no war between Catherine and Maria Theresa. Russia and Austria were Allies for most of the 1700s and into the 1800s. It was only in the mid 1800s that Russian and Austrian relations declined and that helped set the stage for WW1.
Maria Theresa was well known for promoting "marriage diplomacy" by having members of the Hapsburg marry other members of the reigning European royal families.
Needless to say, it seemed feasible on paper, but being related by blood or marriage seldom trumped nationalism. Marie Antoinette, who married who would become King Louis XVI of France, wasn't popular with her husband's subjects due to her Austrian birth.
On the eve of World War I, King George V of England, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Czar Nicholas II of Russia were cousins but this didn't keep these nations from having tensions and eventually going to war.
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