The Role of Women in Royal Succession in Europe and Beyond

This book examines the various roles women played in royal succession from ancient Western Asia to the modern United Kingdom. It argues that royal succession, from antiquity to modernity, has rarely, if ever, been self-evident. In many ways, a period of succession is a time of crisis, one in which royal women often play important roles. Regardless of whether the monarch has died after a period of illness, been killed in war or in a plot, succumbed to an accident when jousting, or been deposed, imprisoned, or forced into exile, a power vacuum ensues. Successions, whether anticipated or unforeseen, thus pose problems that call for various considerations; a wide array of stakeholders, including powerful women, are affected by the consequences and seek to influence succession.