Queen mother
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Queen mother is a title or position reserved for a widowed queen consort (a queen dowager) whose son or daughter from that union is the reigning monarch.[1] The term has been used in England since at least 1577.[2] Another type of queen mother is produced when a queen regnant abdicates in favor of her heir apparent. Queen Juliana of the Netherlands is an example: after her abdication she was officially styled as Her Majesty Juliana, Queen Mother of the Netherlands, but she wished to be known as HRH Princess Juliana of the Netherlands.
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[edit] Recent British Queen mothers
The following queens became queen mothers, though not all chose to use that style.
- Queen Alexandra (1844–1925) — widow of Edward VII and mother of George V.
- Queen Mary (1867–1953) — widow of George V and mother of kings Edward VIII and George VI. Queen Mary never used the title Queen Mother, choosing instead to be known as "Queen Mary" and that style was used to describe her in the Court Circular. But she was a queen mother just the same, and when her granddaughter acceded to the throne as Elizabeth II became monarch in 1952, she became dowager queen mother[citation needed].
- Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (1900–2002) — the widow of George VI and mother of Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Elizabeth was so enormously popular she was often referred to as the Queen Mum, and the term "Queen Mother" remains associated with her after her death. She is the only person to have been accorded the official title of "Queen Mother"
[edit] Other Queen mothers
The title queen mother has been widely used. Other well-known queen mothers include:
- Blanche of Castile — Queen mother of France (1226–1252)
- Bona Sforza - Queen mother of Poland-Lithuania (1548– 1557)
- Catherine de' Medici — Queen mother of France (1559–1589)
- Maria of Medici — Queen mother of France (1610–1642)
- Anne of Austria - Queen mother of France (1643–1666)
- Margaret of Savoy — Queen mother of Italy (1900–1926)
- Maria Christina of Austria — Queen mother of Spain (1906–1929)
- Ingrid of Sweden — Queen mother of Denmark (1972–2000)
[edit] Exceptional cases
- Elena of Greece — wife, from 1921–1928, of the future Carol II of Romania, and mother of King Michael of Romania. In circumstances that read like a soap opera, Michael first ruled from 1927–1930, before his father was king (and again after his father abdicated), and gave his mother the title. Thus, she became queen mother without having been queen. She subsequently divorced playboy Carol in 1928, before he became king in 1930.
- Similarly, Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur was the third wife of her husband, the monarch, but not the mother of his successor, a son by the king's first wife. She however has been accorded the title of Rajmata, or queen mother anyway.
- The Valide Sultan, the mother of an Ottoman Sultan, is sometimes referred to as queen mother.
[edit] Mistaken identity
- Queen Noor of Jordan is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the queen mother of Jordan. But while she is the widow of King Hussein and was his fourth wife, the current king, Abdullah II, is not her son; he's her step-son. His mother is Princess Muna al-Hussein (mentioned above).
[edit] King Mother
Diana, Princess of Wales reportedly once suggested to journalist Andrew Morton (author of Diana: Her True Story) that when her son, Prince William of Wales became king, she would be known as King Mother.[3]. No such designation has ever officially existed, nor is there independent evidence that such terminology was ever considered. Queen mother means "queen who is mother to the current monarch", not "mother of the queen"; "King Mother" is a contradiction in terms.
However, of note, and possibly Diana's basis for the idea, is the style, held by Lady Margaret Beaufort during her son Henry VII's reign, My Lady The King's Mother.
[edit] References
- ^ A queen mother is defined as "A Queen dowager who is the mother of the reigning sovereign" by both the Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's Third New International Dictionary.
- ^ O.E.D.
- ^ Source: Andrew Morton, interviewed by Gay Byrne on the Late Late Show on RTÉ
he:המלכה האם no:Dronningmor pt:Rainha Mãe
