British queen mothers

Queen Elizabeth was styled "Queen Mother" during her widowhood.

Queen mother is defined as "a queen dowager who is the mother of the reigning sovereign". The term has been used in English since at least 1560.^[1][2]

Definition

A queen mother is a person satisfying the following criteria:

• She is the mother of the current monarch.
• She is a queen dowager.

Queen mother does not mean mother of the Queen; it applies whether the current monarch is queen or king.

As a queen, a queen mother retains the style of Her Majesty.

List of queen mothers

Following is a list of women who can be classified as as queen mother at some point in their lives.

English Queen Mothers (although title not used)

• 978–1000 Ælfthryth, (the first king's wife known to have been crowned and anointed as Queen of the Kingdom of England), mother of Æthelred the Unready.
• 1042–1052 Emma of Normandy, mother of Edward the Confessor by her first husband Æthelred the Unready and Harthacnut by her second husband Cnut the Great.
• 1189–1204 Eleanor of Aquitaine, mother of Richard I and King John
• 1216–1246 Isabella of Angoulême, mother of Henry III
• 1272–1291 Eleanor of Provence, mother of Edward I
• 1327–1358 Isabella of France, mother of Edward III.
• 1422–1437 Catherine of Valois, mother of Henry VI
• April–June 1483 Elizabeth Woodville, technically queen mother during the 86 day reign of her son Edward V, until he was deposed by Richard, Duke of Gloucester and later killed as one of the Princes in the Tower.
• 1660–1669 Henrietta Maria of France (became queen mother in 1649 measured from the execution of her husband, Charles I), mother of Charles II and James II (reigned after her death).

British Queen Mothers

• 1910–1925 Alexandra of Denmark (though she preferred not to use the title), mother of George V.
• 1936–1952 Mary of Teck (who also preferred not to use the title), mother of Edward VIII and George VI.
• 1952–2002 Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, mother of Elizabeth II; her fifty years is the longest that anyone has held the status of queen mother.

References

Sources

• Dictionary of National Biography
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Chambers Biographical Dictionary
• Encyclopædia Britannica