Mini-Biographies of Medieval Queens

Queen Margaret of Scotland
Margaret of Scotland—beautiful, strong-willed and devout—was descended from England's early Saxon kings, progenitor of a long line of Scottish kings and an influential queen in her own right...

Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine
She was beautiful, highborn, powerful, tireless, intelligent, ambitious. For eighty years Eleanor occupied center stage of medieval Europe...

Queen Constance of Germany and Sicily
Constance de Hauteville was a royal personage many times over: a queen and the daughter, wife, cousin, aunt and mother of kings. Yet not until her fortieth year did she assert herself in a truly regal manner...

Queen Berengaria of Navarre
Berengaria, the Basque princess who married Richard the Lionheart, is faced with an indifferent husband, an imperious mother-in-law, and the ruthless power players of medieval Europe...

Queen Joanna of England
Engaged to William II of Sicily at age 11, Joanna encountered love, happiness and adventure; suffered loss and rejection; and finally found peace. She died at age 33 in a convent, two days after giving birth.

Queen Ingeborg of Denmark
A marriage not of her wishing, a husband who repudiated her, a divorce she did not ask for and a lifelong determination to take her position as true wife and queen: such was the tortured tale of Ingeborg of Denmark...

Queen Isabella of Angoulême
Isabella, a luscious 14-year-old, jilts the French count to whom she's betrothed and marries King John of England instead...

Queen Eleanor of Provence
Strong-willed, ambitious and practical, she played a major role in ruling the kingdom during the volatile thirteenth century. So why is Eleanor of Provence so little remembered in the roster of medieval queens?...

Queen Eleanor of Castile
Eleanor of Castile, who married King Edward I of England, was never content to play the part of a passive queen. For thirty-six years she was an active queen-consort to her equally strong-minded husband...

Queen Isabella of Castile
As heiress to the throne of Castile Isabella had her pick of royal suitors. In 1469 she chose Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Aragon. Thus began the thirty-five year joint rule of a unified Spain by the Catholic Monarchs...

Keep checking back — more medieval queens are being added regularly!