Philosophers
31-524: A queen mother is a widowed queen consort who is also the mother of a reigning monarch. Queen mother , queenmother , or The Queen Mother may also refer to: Queen mother Works A queen mother is a former queen, often a queen dowager , who is the mother of the reigning monarch . The term has been used in English since the early 1560s. It arises in hereditary monarchies in Europe and
62-404: A queen mother, being a male former monarch or consort who is the father of the reigning monarch, is sometimes known as the "king father" or another variation based on the title of the monarch or consort. If a king abdicates and passes the throne to his child, or if a reigning queen abdicates or dies and is survived by her husband, he might acquire a substantive title. The following individuals hold
93-689: A similar role as mothers or fathers of their country's reigning monarchs: List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire The sultans of the Ottoman Empire ( Turkish : Osmanlı padişahları ), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to its dissolution in 1922. At its height, the Ottoman Empire spanned an area from Hungary in
124-411: A title. There is no male equivalent to a queen mother (i.e. "king father"). This would occur only if the husband of a queen regnant outlived 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
155-459: Is also used to describe a number of similar yet distinct monarchical concepts in non-European cultures around the world. The rank does not go to all mothers of monarchs though. A mother of a ruling monarch may only be referred to as queen mother if she was a queen consort as opposed to a princess consort . " The Queen Mother" usually, in English, refers to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (queen consort, 1936–1952; queen mother, 1952–2002), who
186-519: Is important at festivals such as the annual reed dance ceremony. In Lesotho, Queen Mamohato Bereng Seeiso became Queen mother when her son King Letsie III became King. She served as Queen Mother until her death. There are many other queen mothers in Africa's tribal monarchies, most of whom have served as regents to their sons. In many matrilineal societies of West Africa , such as the Ashanti ,
217-559: Is only one monarch, there can only be one queen mother. 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 ,
248-533: The padishah ( Ottoman Turkish : پادشاه , romanized : pâdişâh , French : Padichah ). In Ottoman usage the word "Padisha" was usually used except "sultan" was used when he was directly named. In several European languages, he was referred to as the Grand Turk , as the ruler of the Turks, or simply the "Great Lord" ( il Gran Signore , le grand seigneur ) especially in the 16th century. Names of
279-473: 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 [vaː.liˈde] . 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
310-460: The Ottoman Empire . Despite being barred from inheriting the throne, women of the imperial harem —especially the reigning sultan's mother, known as the valide sultan —also played an important behind-the-scenes political role, effectively ruling the empire during the period known as the Sultanate of Women . Constitutionalism was established during the reign Abdul Hamid II , who thus became
341-480: The empire's last absolute ruler and its reluctant first constitutional monarch. Although Abdul Hamid II abolished the parliament and the constitution to return to personal rule in 1878, he was again forced in 1908 to reinstall constitutionalism and was deposed. Since 2021, the head of the House of Osman has been Harun Osman , a great-grandson of Abdul Hamid II . The table below lists Ottoman sultans, as well as
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#1732773408973372-434: The fittest , not eldest, son": when a sultan died, his sons had to fight each other for the throne until a victor emerged. Because of the infighting and numerous fratricides that occurred, there was often a time gap between a sultan's death date and the accession date of his successor. In 1617, the law of succession changed from survival of the fittest to a system based on agnatic seniority ( اکبریت ekberiyet ), whereby
403-402: 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. In the Ottoman Empire , valide sultan ( Ottoman Turkish : والده سلطان ) or sultana mother was the title held by the mother of a ruling Sultan . The title was first used in
434-424: The last Ottoman caliph, in chronological order. The tughras were the calligraphic seals or signatures used by Ottoman sultans. They were displayed on all official documents as well as on coins, and were far more important in identifying a sultan than his portrait. The "Notes" column contains information on each sultan's parentage and fate. Early Ottomans practiced what historian Quataert has described as " survival of
465-462: The mother of the current monarch. For example, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was "the queen's mother" when her daughter Victoria became queen regnant, but she was not "queen mother" as her husband was never a king. The title in British usage is purely a courtesy title . While the wife of a king is called "queen", there is no constitutional or statutory recognition of "queen mother" as
496-405: 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
527-538: The north to Yemen in the south and from Algeria in the west to Iraq in the east. Administered at first from the city of Söğüt since before 1280 and then from the city of Bursa since 1323 or 1324, the empire's capital was moved to Adrianople (now known as Edirne in English) in 1363 following its conquest by Murad I and then to Constantinople (present-day Istanbul ) in 1453 following its conquest by Mehmed II . The Ottoman Empire's early years have been
558-610: The official title to all land. Osman (died 1323/4) son of Ertuğrul was the first ruler of the Ottoman state, which during his reign constituted a small principality ( beylik ) in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire . After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed II , Ottoman sultans came to regard themselves as the successors of the Roman Empire, hence their occasional use of
589-474: The queen grandmother. Savang Vadhana of Thailand was known by this style. 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 . The title also distinguishes former queens consort from those who are simply
620-642: 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
651-628: 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. These mothers of monarchs, and others, albeit not always officially so titled have also been considered equal to queen mothers: The male equivalent of
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#1732773408973682-526: The reigns of 36 sultans. The Ottoman Empire disappeared as a result of the defeat of the Central Powers , with whom it had allied itself during World War I . The partitioning of the Empire by the victorious Allies and the ensuing Turkish War of Independence led to the abolition of the sultanate in 1922 and the birth of the modern Republic of Turkey in 1922. The sultan was also referred to as
713-557: The role of the valide sultan to new heights. 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. 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
744-576: The subject of varying narratives, due to the difficulty of discerning fact from legend. The empire came into existence at the end of the 13th century, and its first ruler (and the namesake of the Empire) was Osman I . According to later, often unreliable Ottoman tradition, Osman was a descendant of the Kayı tribe of the Oghuz Turks . The eponymous Ottoman dynasty he founded endured for six centuries through
775-589: The sultan in languages used by ethnic minorities : The Ottoman Empire was an absolute monarchy during much of its existence. By the second half of the fifteenth century, the sultan sat at the apex of a hierarchical system and acted in political, military, judicial, social, and religious capacities under a variety of titles. He was theoretically responsible only to God and God's law (the Islamic شریعت şeriat , known in Arabic as شريعة sharia ), of which he
806-477: The sultan's powers were limited in practice. Political decisions had to take into account the opinions and attitudes of important members of the dynasty, the bureaucratic and military establishments, as well as religious leaders. Beginning in the last decades of the sixteenth century, the role of the Ottoman sultans in the government of the empire began to decrease, in a period known as the Transformation of
837-400: The throne went to the oldest male of the family. This in turn explains why from the 17th century onwards a deceased sultan was rarely succeeded by his own son, but usually by an uncle or brother. Agnatic seniority was retained until the abolition of the sultanate , despite unsuccessful attempts in the 19th century to replace it with primogeniture . Note that pretenders and co-claimants during
868-453: The titles caesar ( قیصر qayser ) of Rûm , and emperor , as well as the caliph of Islam. Newly enthroned Ottoman rulers were girded with the Sword of Osman , an important ceremony that served as the equivalent of European monarchs' coronation. A non-girded sultan was not eligible to have his children included in the line of succession. Although absolute in theory and in principle,
899-416: 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
930-423: Was the chief executor. His heavenly mandate ( Kut ) was reflected in Islamic titles such as "shadow of God on Earth" ( ظل الله في العالم ẓıll Allāh fī'l-ʿalem ) and "caliph of the face of the earth" ( خلیفه روی زمین Ḫalife-i rū-yi zemīn ). All offices were filled by his authority, and every law was issued by him in the form of a decree called firman ( فرمان ). He was the supreme military commander and had
961-466: Was the mother of Queen Elizabeth II and one of the few people to use the term as an official style. However, it is also used as an official title in Thailand where Sirikit , the mother of the present king , is officially styled "The Queen Mother". A queen mother is often a queen dowager , a widow of a king, who is simultaneously a former queen consort and the mother of the current monarch. As there