'Our Greatest Queens' with Anita Rani and Lady Antonia Fraser, Alison Weir, Kate Williams, Tracy Borman and Jung Chang

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the nation celebrates the Queen’s 70 year reign this jubilee weekend we have our own tribute to Her Majesty with a special programme to champion some of the other great Queens in history. Anita Rani brings five eminent historians together to champion their candidate including Lady Antonia Fraser on Marie Antoinette, Kate Williams on Liliʻuokalani the last Queen of Hawaii, Tracy Borman on Elizabeth I, Jung Chang on Empress Dowager Cixi from China and Alison Weir on Eleanor of Acquitaine. They consider what each brought to their reign and the nature of Queenship. What traits do all queens share including Elizabeth II ? and what impact will the changes to primogeniture mean for future British monarchs? Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Lisa Jenkinson and Flora McWilliam Studio Engineer: Duncan Hannant

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:05.2	Hello, I'm Anita Rani and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4.
0:10.3	Hello and welcome to Woman's Hour, yes the Queen's celebrating 70 years on the throne
0:15.4	this Jubilee weekend. According to our reckoning, she's only the 16th Platinum Monarch in History
0:21.4	to reach this milestone and the only woman to do so.
0:25.8	Previous Jubilies in History have been celebrated with week-long jostles and processions of
0:30.8	trumpeteers.
0:31.8	Music Radio Podcasts
0:37.3	Well, there are the trumpets and we're about to have a jost of sorts with a Woman's Hour
0:42.6	Twist.
0:43.6	We thought we'd mark the occasion and pay tribute to her majesty with a look at some of the
0:47.7	other great queens in history to help me do that. I'm joined today by five great historians.
0:54.1	Each has nominated their favourite candidate from history, which we'll get to shortly.
0:57.8	But first let me run you through a few of the amazing women they could have picked.
1:01.2	How about Catherine the Great who began life as a penniless, press and princess who went
1:05.0	on to rule Russia and expand its empire and fortunes?
1:08.2	One of my favourites, the Rani of Jansi, a symbol of Indian resistance she fought the
1:13.1	British to protect her realm and died in battle.
1:16.1	Or how about Empress Suika, Japan's first Empress ruling from 592 to 628?
1:21.9	She established Buddhism as the country's official religion and introduced Japan's first
1:26.6	constitution, which focused on the morals and virtues of government officials.
1:31.3	I could go on, but it's time to get on with the programme and introduce our historians.
	...

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