8 Mighty Queens in History | Biography

[Music] Nefertiti is a definitely beautiful woman no one really knew who she was the whole was looking for her and then suddenly there she was in all her splendor rumored to be the most beautiful woman in Egypt during the 14th century BC Nefertiti means the beautiful woman has come what we do know about Nefertiti is that she was Egyptian and not a foreign princess tall thin and at least her husband wanted her to be portrayed as beautiful Nefertiti married Pharaoh Amenhotep the fourth around age 15 the couple was a formidable force in Egypt definitely we know Nefertiti was not her husband's sister which is rare enough in the Egyptian dynasties so hooray for genetic diversity together Nefertiti and Amenhotep established a new religion the cult of attend which shifted worship from the god Amun to the God Aten Nefertiti and a Menatep basically created their own religion they said this is the way it is we are in charge we are second to God the end so people were a little upset she changed her name to Nefer neferu Aten Nefertiti beautiful are the beauties of Auton a beautiful woman has come and with her husband now named Akhenaten they moved the court to a new city so essentially McNaughton was asking people to say if you want to be part of the government you have to move from your turf to my turf and play by my rules Nefertiti is depicted as being more powerful than previous Queens sometimes even pictured with the crown of a pharaoh Nefertiti and Amenhotep as a couple were kind of a 14th century BC power couple least that's how they're depicted in a lot of the artifacts and she was elevated to a position higher than any other Queen in Egyptian history all depictions and writings of Nefertiti mysteriously disappear after about 12 years there's a good argument to be made for the fact that she became a king if she was she was probably crowned only because this little boy to non-common was too young to rule on his own and she was afraid he wasn't going to be able to maintain the changes that they made the famous bust of Nefertiti was discovered by Ludwig Borchardt in 1913 launching her to modern fame that busts that iconic image gave us something to hang our hats on gave us something to put on tote bags and t-shirt than keychains that's why we talk about her Anne Boleyn was definitely born we're pretty sure of that at least anything else about her outside her marriage to Henry the eighth is a little fuzzy because we don't have very many primary sources from her life so what we do know of her is subjective depending on how the writer felt about Anne Henry and the Catholic Church Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn 1st Earl of Wiltshire and Lady Elizabeth Howard as a child of nobility she was sent during your tween years to learn how to survive living at court she spent two years learning French with Archduchess Margaret Regent of the Netherlands before graduating on to the court of Mary Tudor Queen of France when she returned to England in her early 20s everyone was like she was witty and smart and fiery and just like so cool and quickly caught the eye of Lord Percy but the real story begins when she catches the eye of Henry be a now we have to address the six finger in the room there are many many many accounts that talk about how Anne Boleyn looked descriptions of her range from like perfectly Pleasant looking to troll woman with a hideous neck Reuter and a sixth finger but all this back and forth hubbub around Anne's appearance tells us less about Anne and more about the long history of reducing a woman to her looks although even today people are like but Anne must have been super hot right or else why would a married King ditch his well-connected wife for some medium ranked noble um presumptuous first of all the thing the King wanted most was not a babe it was a baby a male baby to be his heir and his wife Catherine of Aragon couldn't do it for him and with olive skin dark hair and her swan-like neck was probably decent-looking enough but Henry went for her because of her personality and wit and presumed good fertility uh and step forward two steps back but Henry expressed interest in and she was smart about it her sister Mary had already been there done that and was tossed to the wind so Anne was like I'm into you but I'm not giving it up until I have some security so Henry generously offered her the prestigious position of his official one-and-only mistress he would only have relations with her not even his wife who by the way was still making all of his shirts but this still wasn't good enough for Anne she needed wife status so Henry who is ready to get this baby on the road needed to get the permission from the Pope for his annulment which should have been easy peasy but the Pope is team Catherine so after six or seven years of back-and-forth Henry was like you know what I'm the king of England so now I'm the king of the English church I'm gonna give myself a divorce seeyou Catholicism this made the Catholics not happy lots of people blame Dan obviously it's true that she showed some sympathies to Protestantism before pushing for reform and it's also true the Catholic Church getting in their way pushed her towards it so it's like a little chicken or the egg situation they finally get married in January 50 33 which was very important to Henry because Ann was six months pregnant and that baby needed to be born in wedlock they were so sure they were having a boy they'd even written out the birth announcements for their new Prince before she had even given birth and that boy's name was Elizabeth this is fine they're fine I'll have another kid it's fine it's fine it's fine it wasn't fine the feisty wit that attracted Henry to Ann was all fine and well for a mistress but as a wife not so cute anymore and had two stillborn children and a miscarriage which was a boy and Henry came to the only obvious conclusion and that seduced him by witchcraft and he was done didn't hurt that he had already moved on to Jane Seymour one of Anne's ladies Henry gave orders for Ann to be investigated her favorite musician was arrested and was tortured into saying they had an affair a King cheating on his wife expected a queen doing the same treason the list of names and supposedly had affairs with grew to five including her own brother George who was implicated by his own wife jealous of her husband's relationship with his sister it seems unlikely that Ann was actually guilty but true doesn't really matter to Henry and Anne was sentenced to death by beheading but Henry showed mercy and let her be beheaded by a sword instead of an axe what a good guy at her execution she was calm and poised giving a short speech accepting her fate and praying for Henry's long reign so was she a spiteful witch or forgiving obedient wife whatever you think about her it's undeniable that Ann left quite the impact on England changing the course of its history and religion oh yeah and giving birth to that useless daughter Elizabeth the first who would be remembered as one of the greatest leaders England has ever seen and who else can say that marry the first is known to most as Bloody Mary but to many of her contemporaries and to herself she was known as the most unhappy lady in Christendom I mean look at her face she was born in May of 1516 the only surviving child of King Henry the eighth and Catherine of Aragon it was really important to Henry to have a male heir his wife Catherine couldn't give him one so he divorced her and married Anne Boleyn in 1533 and then as if things couldn't get any worse her dad's new wife and gave birth to Elizabeth and just like that Mary became persona non grata in her own home and got Mary's legitimacy revoked by Parliament stripping her of her claim to the throne and then stepmama and Kappa headed Henry Mary Jane Seymour and they had a son Edward and Jane was actually kind of a nice stepmother encouraging Henry to rebuild his relationship with Mary but Henry wouldn't do it unless Mary admitted that his marriage to her mother was illegal at first Mary doesn't want to do it but then she's like okay fine I agree the marriage was legal and Henry is king of the English church and they made up and Henry put her back in his will making Mary the next successor in line after Edward her father died in 1547 and Edward took the throne as intended but Edward got sick and then he got sicker and then he died in 1553 at the age of 15 Edward had put forth an order before he died that made his cousin Lady Jane Grey his successor but according to Henry's will Mary was the true successor and Mary had the support of the people so she deposed Lady Jane Grey and took her seat as the rightful Queen of England far from being a despot Mary was at first beloved and supported by most of England she was seen as the rightful heir and the majority of the English were still practicing Catholicism or at the very least following similar doctrines but Mary had her heart set on restoring England to Catholicism which she pursued through Parliament but to sustain said restoration she had to produce a Catholic heir now we have one small problem she was a single childless woman of the seven so she hastily arranged to marry this super catholic king philip ii of spain ultimately what they settled on was Queen Mary's Marriage Act passed in April 15 54 which basically gave Philip the title of King but as far as ruling went it would be married but really she married him for nothing because she never had any kids all she got from him were some unwanted wars with France and some bad political advice like reinstating the heresy laws that allowed a number of Protestants to be executed and 800 to be exiled under her reign this act came to define her legacy and earned her the Bloody Mary nickname despite the fact that many other rulers including Henry and Elizabeth engaged in widespread religious persecutions she died on November 17th 15:58 of uterine cancer and Elizabeth ascends to the throne Mary Queen of Scots descendent of Mary Tudor and cousin to Elizabeth the first became Queen just six days after she was born when her father King James v of Scotland died in 1542 Queen baby Mary was too young to rule so her family shipped her off to France to grow up and be educated in the luxurious French courts while Regents ruled in Scotland on her behalf but from an early age Mary's marital prospects were on everyone's mind first Mary married Francis the son of King Henry the second in 1558 he ascended the throne one year later and died one year after that leaving Mary widowed at just 18 this was a huge bummer marrying loved France but it was decided that it would be best for her to return to Scotland which she did in 1561 Mary needed to remarry which shouldn't have been that hard she was known across Europe for her unparalleled beauty and physical stature standing 5 feet 11 inches tall but Mary married her cousin Henry Stuart who was as Mary put it the best proportion Longman she'd ever seen then she found out this man that she had married for his good looks turned out to be vain arrogant and a very angry drunk when she became pregnant he accused her of having an affair with her secretary David Rizzio and in 1566 along with a group of Protestant Nobles Stewart murdered him stabbing him 56 times in front of Mary who was six months pregnant but less than a year later Stewart turned up dead blown up in a mysterious explosion naturally suspicion was cast upon Mary and also on her close ally James Hepburn of Bothwell he was tried for Stewart's murder and acquitted then the rumors started to fly that he would marry the Queen and how did he get the Queen's hand in marriage he kidnapped her supposedly she was enroute to Edinburgh when Bothwell showed up with 800 of his closest soldiers and was like hey why don't you come back to my castle and Dunbar and she's like well doesn't look like I have a choice does it back then a common way to ensure a woman would marry you was to rape her and then be like well now you're dishonored so you kind of have to marry me to preserve your dignity we're not sure if this is the case with Mary but it is one of the theories behind why they got married on May 15th 1567 of course their marriage was controversial for a number of reasons political included and Scotland became divided Scottish Nobles rose up against her and Bothwell and imprisoned her and Loch Leven castle she was forced to abdicate her throne to her infant son she escaped the castle in 1568 attempted an uprising failed fled to England and sought help from her cousin Elizabeth the first but Elizabeth fearful of the Catholics who felt Mary had a rightful claim to the English throne and considering Mary's less than stellar reputation decided to instead imprison Mary in a tower for 18 years in 1586 Mary was accused of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth she was put on trial and found guilty of treason for which the punishment was being locked in a tower not just kidding it was death Mary was beheaded in fotheringhay castle On February 8th 1587 Elizabeth the first was a rainbow of characteristics she was cunning she was vain she was kind she was very smart and she was very manipulative the daughter of Henry the eighth and Anne Boleyn Elizabeth was born on September 7th 1533 Elizabeth the first childhood was tumultuous after her father executed her mother after her father and brother died Elizabeth's older sister Mary took the throne Mary's Catholic background and Elizabeth's Protestant background kind of created a situation where Mary just really couldn't trust Elizabeth she threw her in the tower for a while and let her live there Mary died in 1558 leaving Elizabeth Queen of England her father and her sister had created such turmoil between the Catholics and the Protestants falling into and out of favor people were now for sure what they should say that they believed in Elizabeth carefully rewarded the Book of Common Prayer and said if you're close enough to this it's good for England Elizabeth set the stage for the economy and the arts particularly fashion and theater to flourish because she's a female monarch she knows that she can use her appearance in court to create a kind of loyalty and affection to her from the core church not only through appearing in fantastic outfits but in being painted in fantastic outfits that symbolize her leadership of the state in 1567 Elizabeth arrested her cousin Mary Queen of Scots for her alleged involvement in several assassination attempts and had her executed in 1587 though Elizabeth's reign was solidified at 34 years old she had yet to marry and produce an heir it's very clear that she didn't want to do what her sister had done which was to marry a powerful European monarch who would regard himself as a co ruler it's also likely that she didn't want one of her own subjects to become her husband which would give him a kind of power and authority over her in 1588 Elizabeth's Navy defeated the invading Spanish Armada the most powerful force in Europe at the time the king of Spain who had thought that God was on his side and had told him to do this but God does not favor me I was wrong that's Elizabeth's triumph to really take the heart out of the king of Spain Elizabeth the first died on March 24th 1603 after ruling for 44 years her death and the succession of her cousin James the first of England and Scotland would end the 117 years of the Tudor dynasty Elizabeth the first should be remembered first of all as a brilliant survivor she had a lot of odds against her from the time of her birth onwards not only did she survive she survived with great success [Music] when the 15th child of Austrian Empress Maria Theresa Marie Antoinette was sent to France at age 14 to live her life as the future Queen when Marie Antoinette's and her husband Louis the sixteenth first met it was like hot girl and nerd she was bored by him and he was really afraid of her seven years into their marriage there still was no heir Marie Antoinette's mother grew concerned and sent joseph ii Marie Antoinette's brother to help the couple the problem was that louis xvi in Merion Toinette simply did not know how to have sex Joseph instructed his brother-in-law as to how to go about doing it and nany on Twitter got pregnant very soon thereafter as Queen Marie had a reputation for extravagance spending when peasants complained of the high price of bread she is falsely rumored to have said let them eat cake in 1789 Marie and Louise son and heir died of tuberculosis of the spine Mary on twineth was thrown into great depression by the death of Louie Joseph just before the outbreak of the French Revolution she couldn't understand why the death of the Doe found France was not being publicly mourned and for her it was a very serious blow on July 14 1789 nine hundred French revolutionaries took the Bastille prison and began the French Revolution on October 5th thousands of Parisian women stormed the palace at Versailles they ransacked the place and they killed a couple of her guards they then essentially took her and her family prisoners and brought them back to Paris where she would spend the rest of her very short life the royal family lived at the twin Lurie palace for two years while the French Revolution raged on outside their door after October 1789 Marie Antoinette becomes the central figure in French to revolution she conspires with powers abroad and with sympathizers within France attempting to reverse the French Revolution in 1792 a mob stormed the twee Lurie killing hundreds of guards and noblemen and took the royal family to the temple prison on December 26th lui was put on trial and executed she was in the worst depths of grief toward the end of their relationship they had gotten so much closer than they had been at the young ages of 14 when they first got married on October 14th 1793 Marie Antoinette was tried for treason two days later she was taken to the guillotine the last Queen of France was dead her trial was a mockery they had her eight-year-old son testify against her in court that she had interfered with him in an inappropriate way even as Marie Antoinette said is there any mother in this courtroom who would accept this knowing what a mother's love for her son is like even that couldn't save her and she was destined to go to the guillotine Queen Mother Elizabeth lived for over a century her lifetime witnessed the installment of electricity in homes the first and second world wars the invention of the television and the Internet she was born Elizabeth Angela Marguerite bowes-lyon on August 4th 1990 and fourth daughter of Lady and Lord Glamis 13th Earl of Strathmore and kinghorn Elizabeth bloomed into a beautiful and affable young woman capturing the hearts of many young men including Prince Albert the Kings second son and the second in line to the throne he was determined to marry her even Albert's father King George v famously said you'll be a lucky fellow if she accepts you eventually she married Prince Albert in 1923 becoming the Duchess of York and she happily took up her duties as a wife mother and Duchess in stride Albert was terribly shy and suffered from a stutter relying heavily on Elizabeth who made public appearances on his behalf and also encouraged him to get a speech coach a move that changed his political career forever together they had two daughters Elizabeth and Margaret and then in 1936 Prince Albert's father King George v died Prince Albert's older brother King Edward the eighth took the throne but he wanted to marry an American commoner named Wallace Simpson who was going on her second divorce and everyone was like absolutely not so Edward abdicated the throne to his brother Albert on May 12th 1937 after a reign of only 326 days but with Elizabeth by his side he rose to the occasion and so too did she this was no more evident than her firm position during World War two when England came under siege from German aircrafts on September 13 1942 Han Palace while the royal family was at home officials urged the Queen and her daughters to escape to North America until the war was over but the Queen refused saying the children will not leave unless I do I shall not leave unless their father does and the King will not leave the country in any circumstances whatsoever she took her role in life seriously which made her an exceptional leader and earned her one of the highest public approval ratings the royal family has ever seen her tenure went off without scandal or controversy she was good-natured one of the first of the royal family to actually smile in pictures and she was also poised and proper and maternal everything the public thought a queen ought to be but her loyalty to royalty meant she often prioritized peace and tradition over progress she was known to have harbored elitist and colonialist ideology in private she could be mocking offensive and even cruel and while we may not like that side of her we can admire her for her staunch belief and duty and sacrifice and even in her later years she refused to overshadow her daughter partially out of love and partially out of respect for the throne that Elizabeth ii would one day inherit her self-appointed nickname queen mother says it all who else would sacrifice everything for the love of her nation I think queen elizabeth's represents continuity between Britain's great past and it's more middling presence and future Queen Elizabeth the second was born Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary on April 21st 1926 in London few expected her to assume the throne as her father Prince Albert was the second son of King George the fifth and considered a longshot for the crown himself when she was just nine years old her grandfather passed away and her uncle Edward became King Edward the eighth he was forced to make a decision between love of his life an American woman who was twice divorced or the throne the earthquake that was the abdication of the Queen's uncle Edward the eighth in December of 1936 changed her life changed her family's lives radically her father became the king she would become the Queen during World War two Elizabeth was just 14 years old but she was already making a public appearance to make a live radio broadcast to basically reassure the children and adults that everything was going to be okay Queen Elizabeth and her mother and father became an enormous Lee important symbol for the British people they were out after the bombings every day touring making sure everyone was alright Queen Elizabeth and her sister Barbara rose put on uniforms and worked in hospitals and other places they rose to the occasion in 1947 Elizabeth married her distant cousin Philip Mountbatten and began a family with the birth of Prince Charles in 1948 and then Princess Anne in 1950 On February 6 1952 the Queen's father died and she automatically became Queen one of the very first things that Queen Elizabeth did differently was to televise her coronation in 1953 it's the first time that had ever been done and she actually began having weekly meetings with the Prime Minister and that actually continues to this day in all queen elizabeth ii had four children Prince Charles princess and Prince Andrew and Prince Edward it wasn't all red carpets and roses for the Queen her security was very much uppermost in people's mind in 1979 Lord Mountbatten a relative was murdered by an IRA bomb in 1982 shots were fired at the Queen as she rode on horseback at the trooping the colour they were blanks but nobody knew it at the time a man broke into her bedroom and sat on her bed smoking with his hand bleeding the early 1980s also brought the marriage of her son Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer who soon gave the Queen additional heirs to the throne with Prince William's birth in 1982 and Prince Harry's in 1984 1992 was a rather scandalous year and Queen Elizabeth referred to it often as Anna's horriblest it was the year that Charles and Andrew separated from their wives and Anne had actually divorced when Diana died in 1997 the Queen's image took a hit because she didn't say anything for what seemed like an unconscionably long time to the British public in 2012 queen elizabeth ii celebrates her Diamond Jubilee marking 60 years of rule as Queen only Queen Victoria ruled for a longer period I think the queen will be regarded by history as a steady hand on an unsteady tiller during her reign the Commonwealth changed substantially people's attitude toward the Royals changed substantially and she kept faith and kept it on a steady food [Music] you

Channel: Biography

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Keywords: mini biography, biography, full biography, bio, history, bio channel, biography channel, biography tv, celebrity, documentary, political, culture, biography documentary channel, the biography channel, full episode, marie antoinette, nefertiti, anne boleyn, mary tudor, bloody mary, elizabeth i, elizabeth ii, mary queen of scots, elizabeth the queen mother, mighty queens, monarchs, british, egyptian, french, powerful women, women in history, feminism, feminist, women's month, royal women

Id: XgktCiAHAds

Length: 27min 55sec (1675 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 31 2019