All this month we've been thinking about Queenship, but we've inevitably focused almost exclusively

on European queens. Yet if we're flexible about the word queen, which as we'll discover

as rather problematic in itself, then the role of a female monarch as a consult or a ruler

is actually much more common globally than we might assume.

So in today's episode, we're drawing on examples from all over the globe to explore the

nature of Queenship, a woman's roots to power, her marital strategies and co-rule. We'll

think about the nature of women's political and diplomatic power, about warrior queens

and queenly peacemakers, and we'll consider reputations and legacy. Above all I suppose

we're asking are there constants of Queenship that transcend geography and culture? And

in this episode we'll be rounding up many of the themes that have come out over the course

of this month. My guest is Dr. Elena Woodaker, senior lecturer in early modern European history

at the University of Winchester. She's the author of the Queen's Regnant of Navar, succession

politics and partnership, 1274 to 1512, and Queen's and Queenship, a study of global

Queenship. She's also edited several collections, including a companion to global Queenship and

is editor in chief of the Royal Studies Journal.

Thank you so much for joining me to talk. I'm not just a student about Queenship, we're

spending the whole month talking about Queenship, but I really wanted to speak to you because

of your work on your companion to global Queenship and thinking about it in this kind of sense

across the world and doing so much comparative work. So thank you so much for coming on.

I'm absolutely pleasure, this great sphere. May I start by asking you a rather impertinent

question, and I'm really kind of turning the tables here because it's the sort of thing

I get asked a lot because I'm writing about Henry VIII's Queen's. Queen's and Queenship

...