A queen mother is a former queen consort, often a queen dowager, who is the mother of the reigning monarch. The term's usage in English dates back to the early 1560s. It arose in hereditary monarchies in Europe and is also used to describe a number of similar yet distinct monarchical concepts in non-European cultures around the world.
" Queen Mother" usually, in English, refers to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (queen consort, 1936–1952; queen mother, 1952–2002), who was the mother of Queen Elizabeth II and one of the few people to use the term as an official style. However, it was also used as an official title in Thailand where Sirikit, the mother of King Vajiralongkorn, was officially styled "The Queen Mother".
Status It is unclear if a queen consort whose husband abdicates the throne, or a queen regnant who abdicates, and is the mother of the current monarch would be the queen mother. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, a monarch loses the title of king or queen after abdication. For example, Juliana of the Netherlands, who abdicated in favor of her daughter Beatrix, was sometimes colloquially referred to as the queen mother despite declining the title and having reverted to being a princess. Queen Paola of Belgium, whose husband Albert II abdicated but retained the title of king, has generally been referred to as the queen mother of Philippe despite not being a queen dowager.
A former queen consort who is the grandmother of the reigning monarch is sometimes called the queen grandmother. Queen Sri Savarindira of Thailand was known by this style.Finestone, Jeffrey. The Royal Family of Thailand: The Descendants of King Chulalongkorn. Bangkok : Phitsanulok Publishing, 1989, p. 64
United Kingdom
The title "queen mother" evolved to distinguish a queen dowager from all other queens when she is also the mother of the reigning sovereign. Thus, upon the death of her husband, King George V, Queen Mary became queen mother, retaining the status throughout the reigns of her sons, Edward VIII and George VI.
There is no male equivalent to a queen mother (i.e. "king father"). This would occur only if the husband of a queen regnant were to outlive the queen and was thereafter father to the new king or queen. Such a situation has never occurred. Since the title "queen mother" derives from the woman's previous title of "queen", it would also be incongruous to call such a father of a monarch the "king father", as the husbands of queens regnant are not given the title "king", but rather titled as a prince. The exact title such a person would assume has not been clarified by royal lineage experts. "Prince father" is a possibility.U.S. National Archives, "When Queen Elizabeth Dies", Prologue Magazine, Summer 1998
Ottoman Empire
In the Ottoman Empire, valide sultan () or sultana mother was the title held by the mother of a ruling Sultan. The title was first used in the 16th century for Hafsa Sultan, consort of Selim I and mother of Suleiman the Magnificent, superseding the previous title of mehd-i ülya ("cradle of the great"). The Turkish pronunciation of the word Valide is .
The second position the most important position in the Ottoman Empire after the sultan himself and being more powerful in the hierarchy than Haseki sultan. As the mother to the sultan, by Islamic tradition ("A mother's right is God's right"), the valide sultan would have a significant influence on the affairs of the empire. She had great power in the court and her own rooms (always adjacent to her son's) and state staff. In particular during the 17th century, in a period known as the "Sultanate of Women", a series of incompetent or child sultans raised the role of the valide sultan to new heights.Peirce, Leslie P., The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire, Oxford University Press, 1993, (paperback)
India In India, a queen (usually styled rani, or in the Muslim tradition, begum) who becomes queen-mother was known in Sanskrit and Hindi as a rajamata - literally, mother of the king/monarch.
Africa
In Eswatini, the queen mother, or Ndlovukati, reigns alongside her son. She serves as a ceremonial figurehead, while her son serves as the administrative head of state. He has absolute power. She is important at festivals such as the annual reed dance ceremony.
In many matrilineal societies of West Africa, such as the Ashanti, the queen mother is the one through whom royal descent is reckoned and thus wields considerable power. One of the greatest leaders of Ashanti was Nana Yaa Asantewaa (1840–1921), who led her subjects against the British Empire during the War of the Golden Stool in 1900.
In more symbolically driven societies such as the kingdoms of the Yoruba peoples, the queen mother may not even be a blood relative of the reigning monarch. She could be a female individual of any age who is vested with the ritual essence of the departed queens in a ceremonial sense, and who is practically regarded as the monarch's mother as a result. A good example of this is Oloye Erelu Kuti I of Lagos, who has been seen as the iya oba or queen mother of every succeeding king of that realm, due to the activities of the three successors to her noble title that have reigned since her demise.
Historical examples These mothers of monarchs, and others, albeit not always officially so titled have also been considered equal to queen mothers: Adela of Champagne (1180–1206) France Adelaide of Aquitaine (996–1004) France Adelaide of Burgundy (973–983) Germany and Italy Adelaide of Maurienne (1137–1154) France Adelaide of Paris (898–901) West Francia Ageltrude (894–898) Italy Agnes of Aquitaine (1137–1159) Aragon Agnes of Brandenburg (1286–1304) Denmark Agnes of Poitou (1056–1077) Germany, Italy, and Burgundy Alexandra of Denmark (1910–1925) United Kingdom Alice of Champagne (1218–1246) Cyprus Alice of Ibelin (1358–1369, 1382–1386) Cyprus Aliya bint Ali (1939–1950) Iraq Amalie Auguste of Bavaria (1873–1877) Saxony Amarindra (1810–1826) Siam Amélie of Orléans (1908–1910) Portugal Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1947–1952) Denmark Anastasia of Kiev (1063–1074) Hungary Anna Pavlovna of Russia (1849–1865) Netherlands Anne of Austria (1643–1666) France Anne of Kiev (1060–1075) France Athaliah ( – 841 BCE) Judah Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1888) Prussia Bathsheba (11th century BC) Israel and Judah Bertha of Swabia (937–966) Burgundy Bertrada of Laon (768–783) Francia Beatrice of Castile (1279–1303) Portugal Beatrice of Castile (1357–1359) Portugal Berengaria of Castile (1217–1246) Castile Blanche of Castile (1226–1252) France Blanche of Namur (1343–1362) Norway Bona Sforza (1548–1557) Poland Best Olimi Kemigisa of Tooro ( 1987- 2026 ) Uganda Carlota Joaquina of Spain (1825–1830) Portugal and Brazil Catherine Cornaro (1473–1474) Cyprus Catherine de' Medici (1559–1589) France Catherine of Lancaster (1406–1418) Castile Catherine of Valois (1401–1437) England Charlotte of Savoy (1483) France Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (1699–1714) Denmark and Norway Christina Hvide (1195–1200) Sweden Christina of Denmark (1167–1170) Sweden Christina of Holstein-Gottorp (1611–1625) Sweden Christina of Saxony (1513–1521) Denmark and Norway Clementia of Hungary (1316) France Constance of Aragon (1204–1205) Hungary Constance of Arles (1031–1032) France Constance of Hungary (1230–1240) Bohemia Constance of Portugal (1312–1313) Castile and León Constance of Sicily (1285–1302) Aragon and Sicily Damit binti Abdul Rahman (1967–1978) Brunei Désirée Clary (1844–1859) Sweden and Norway Divyeshwari (1911–1933) Nepal Dorothea of Brandenburg (1481–1495) Denmark and Norway Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg (1559–1571) Denmark and Norway Eadgifu of Kent (939–955) Wessex Eadgifu of Wessex (936–951) West Francia Ealhswith (899–902) Wessex Eleanor of Alburquerque (1416–1435) Aragon Eleanor of Anjou (1337–1341) Sicily Eleanor of Aquitaine (1189–1204) England Eleanor of Aragon (1369–1382) Cyprus Eleanor of Aragon (1438–1445) Portugal Eleanor of England (1214) Castile Elizabeth of Poland (1342–1380) Hungary Eleanor of Provence (1272–1291) England Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg (1705–1720) Hungary and Bohemia Elena of Montenegro (1946) Italy Ælfthryth (978–1000) England Elisabeth of Bavaria (1934–1951) Belgium Elisabeth of Bavaria (1254–1268) Jerusalem and Sicily Elisabeth Farnese (1759–1766) Spain Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1745–1750) Hungary and Bohemia Elizabeth of Austria (1492–1505) Poland Elizabeth of Bosnia (1382–1387) Hungary and Croatia Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1952–2002) United Kingdom: the widow of King George VI and mother of Queen Elizabeth II. In some of the British media, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was often referred to as the Queen Mum, and the term "Queen Mother" remained associated with her after her death. Elizabeth of Carinthia (1342–1352) Sicily Elizabeth the Cuman (1272–1290) Hungary Elizabeth of Luxembourg (1440–1442) Bohemia and Hungary Elizabeth of Aragon (1325–1336) Portugal Elizabeth Woodville (1483) England Emma of Italy (986–987) West Francia Emma of Normandy (1035–1052) Denmark and England Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont (1890–1934) Netherlands Ermengard of Italy (887–897) Provence Ermengarde de Beaumont (1214–1233) Scotland Estrid of the Obotrites (1022–1035) Sweden Euphrosyne of Kiev (1162–1193) Hungary Frederica of Hanover (1964–1973) Greece Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (1797–1805) Prussia Gayatri Rajapatni (1309–1350) Majapahit (Indonesia) Gerberga of Saxony (954–984) West Francia Gisela of Swabia (1039–1043) Germany, Italy, and Burgundy Giovanna of Italy (1943–1946) Bulgaria Gorakshya Rajya Lakshmi Devi (1816) Nepal Gunnhild, Mother of Kings (961–970) Norway Hafsa Sultan (1520–1534) Ottoman Empire Hamida Banu Begum (1556–1604) Mughal India Handan Sultan (1603–1605) Ottoman Empire Halime Sultan (1617–1623) Ottoman Empire Halaevalu Mataʻaho ʻAhomeʻe (2006–2017) Tonga
Hedvig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp (1660–1697) Sweden Helen of Greece and Denmark (1940–1947) Romania Helena of Serbia (1141–1146) Hungary Helvig of Holstein (1290–1318) Sweden Helvis of Brunswick-Grubenhagen (1398–1421) Cyprus Henrietta Maria of France (1649–1669) England and Scotland Hortense de Beauharnais (1810) Holland Huzaima bint Nasser (1933–1935) Iraq Ingeborg of Denmark (1280–1287) Norway Ingrid of Sweden (1972–2000) Denmark Isabeau of Bavaria (1422–1435) France Isabella II of Spain (1874–1885) Spain Isabella of Angoulême (1216–1246) England Isabella of France (1327–1358) England Isabella of Ibelin (1284–1324) Cyprus and Jerusalem Isabella of Portugal (1474–1496) Portugal Jadwiga of Kalisz (1333–1339) Poland Joan Beaufort (1437–1445) Scotland Jezebel (c. 852 – 842 BC) Israel Josephine of Leuchtenberg (1859–1876) Sweden and Norway Jijabai (1598–1674) Maratha Empire (India) Juana Manuel (1379–1381) Castile and León Judith of Bavaria (940–943) West Francia Kanti Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah (1955–1972) Nepal Keōpūolani (1778–1823) Hawaii (United States) Kesang Choden (1972–2006) Bhutan [current Queen Grandmother] Kösem Sultan (1623–1648) Ottoman Empire Kunigunda of Halych (1278–1285) Bohemia Louisa Ulrika of Prussia (1771–1782) Sweden Louise of Sweden (1912–1926) Denmark Luisa de Guzmán (1656–1666) Portugal 'Mamohato Bereng Seeiso (1990–1995, 1996–2003) Lesotho Atossa (520–486 BC) Iran Amestris (424 BC) Iran Parysatis (404 BC) Iran Musa of Parthia (2 BC – 4 AD) Shapurdukhtak (274–293) Iran Ifra Hormizd (c. 309 AD – c. 325 AD) Iran Sayyida Shirin (1028) Iran Terken Khatun (1092–1094) Iran Zubayda Khatun (1056) Iran Terken Khatun (1172–1200) Iran Makhdum Shah (1318–1384) Iran Sara Khatun (1457–1478) Iran Seljuk Shah Begum (1452–1490) Iran Terken Khatun (1156–1172) Iran Tajlu Khanum (1504–1524) Iran Sultanum Begum (1524–1576) Iran Anna Khanum (1647) Iran Nakihat Khanum (1666–1694) Iran Asiye Khanum Ezzeddin Qajar (1797–1834) Iran Galin Khanum (1834–1848) Iran Malek Jahan Khanom (1848–1873) Persia