queen dowager

Princess Mother redirects here, for Princess Mother Srinagraidra of Thailand see Srinagarindra

A Queen Dowager or Dowager Queen (AKA Princess Dowager, Dowager Princess, or Princess Mother) is a title or status generally held by the widow of a deceased king. Its full meaning is clear from the two words from which it is composed: queen indicates someone who served as queen consort (i.e. wife of a king), while dowager indicates a widow who holds the title from her deceased husband.

A Queen Mother is a particular type of queen dowager who is simultaneously a former queen consort and the mother of the current monarch.¹ Therefore, every queen mother is by definition also a queen dowager. However, not all queen dowagers are queen mothers (i.e., the mothers of the reigning monarch). For example, a queen dowager may be the widow of the older brother of the reigning monarch.

Not every mother of a reigning monarch is a queen mother or a queen dowager. For example, the mother of Queen Victoria of Great Britain, the Duchess of Kent, was never a queen dowager because her late husband, the Duke of Kent, had never been king. Similarly, the mother of King George III of the United Kingdom, the former Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, was not a queen dowager because her husband, Frederick, Prince of Wales, was never king. Instead, she held the title of Dowager Princess of Wales.

Finally, it is entirely possible for there to be a queen mother and one or more queen dowagers alive at any one time. This situation occurred in the United Kingdom in the period between the ascension of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952 and the death of her paternal grandmother on 24 March 1953. For slightly over a year, there were three queens in Great Britain:

• Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch.
• Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the widow of the recently deceased King George VI and the mother of the reigning queen. Queen Elizabeth, the former queen consort, specifically adopted the appellation "Queen Mother" to distinguish herself from her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II. She reportedly loathed being referred to as a "dowager Queen".
• Queen Mary, the widow of King George V, the mother of the former king Edward VIII (the then Duke of Windsor) and of the late King George VI. Queen Mary had been the queen mother between the death of her husband in 1936 and the ascension of her granddaughter in 1952. However, she continued to be titled and styled "Her Majesty Queen Mary."

A queen dowager continues to enjoy the title, style, and precedence of a queen consort. However, many former queen consorts do not formally use the word "dowager" as part of their titles.

British Queen Dowagers

The article on English and British Queen Mothers provides a list of former British queen consorts who became queen mothers. However, there were several former queen consorts of England, Scotland, and later the United Kingdom, who were never queen mothers. The following queens were dowagers between the given dates, whether Queen mothers or not:

• Adeliza of Louvain 1 December 1135—23 April 1151, wife of Henry I of England; remarried to William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel in 1139.
• Eleanor of Aquitaine 6 July 1189—1 April 1204, wife of Henry II of England; queen mother to Richard I and John.
• Berengaria of Navarre 6 April 1199—23 December 1230, wife of Richard I of England.
• Isabella of Angoulême 18/19 October 1216—31 May 1246, wife of John of England and queen mother to Henry III of England. Remarried to Hugh X of Lusignan 1220.
• Eleanor of Provence 16 November 1272—24 June 1291, wife of Henry III of England and queen mother to Edward I of England.
• Marguerite of France 7 July 1307—14 February 1317, wife of Edward I of England and stepmother to Edward II of England.
• Isabella of France September 1327—22 August 1358, wife of Edward II of England and queen mother to Edward III of England, from her husband's deposition 20 January 1327.
• Isabella of Valois 14 February 1399—13 September 1409, wife of Richard II of England; ceased to be Queen consort with Richard's deposition on 30 September 1399. Remarried to Charles I de Valois, Duke of Orléans 29 June 1406.
• Joanna of Navarre 20 March 1413—9 July 1437, wife of Henry IV of England and stepmother to Henry V of England.
• Catherine of Valois 31 August 1422—3 January 1437, wife of Henry V of England and queen mother to Henry VI of England. Remarried to Owen Tudor 1428 or 1429.
• Margaret of Anjou 21 May 1471—25 August 1482, wife of Henry VI of England.
• Elizabeth Woodville 9 April 1483—8 June 1492, wife of Edward IV of England and queen mother to Edward V of England until the latter's deposition and death in 1483.
• Anne of Cleves survived her marriage to Henry VIII until her death 16 July 1557, but since her marriage had been annulled 9 July 1540, she was not considered a Queen dowager.
• Catherine Parr 28 January 1547—5 September 1548, sixth and last wife of Henry VIII of England and stepmother to his children King Edward VI, Princess Mary and Princess Elizabeth.² Remarried to Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley 4 April 1547.
• Henrietta Maria of France 30 January 1649—10 September 1669, wife of Charles I of England and queen mother to Charles II of England.
• Catherine of Braganza 6 February 1685 - 30 November 1705, wife of Charles II of England.
• Mary of Modena 16 September 1701—7 May 1718, wife of James II of England; ceased to be Queen consort with his deposition on 12 February 1689.
• Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen 20 June 1837—2 December 1849, wife of William IV of the United Kingdom.
• Alexandra of Denmark 6 May 1910—20 November 1925, wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom, queen mother to George V of the United Kingdom.
• Mary of Teck 20 January 1936—24 March 1953, wife of George V of the United Kingdom, queen mother to Edward VIII and George VI of the United Kingdom until the latter's death 6 February 1952.
• Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon 6 February 1952—30 March 2002, wife of George VI of the United Kingdom and queen mother to Queen Elizabeth II.

Other

Note that in some of the countries mentioned below it is unusual to indicate a former queen-consort as a dowager.

Hawaii

Dowager Queen Ka'ahumanu, favored wife of King Kamehameha

Spain

Maria Anna of Neuburg (28 October, 1667–16 July, 1740), second wife and widow of King Charles II of Spain and daughter of Philipp Wilhelm, Elector Palatine.

Louise Elisabeth of Orléans (9 December, 1709–16 June, 1742), wife of King Louis of Spain and daughter of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans.

Germany

Charlotte, Princess Royal of Great Britain and Ireland (29 September 1765 - 5 October 1828), second wife and widow of King Frederick I of Württemberg and stepmother of King William I of Württemberg.

Marie, Duchess in Bavaria (27 January 1805 - 13 September 1877), second wife and widow of King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony and the sister-in-law to King Johan of Saxony.

Belgium

In Belgium Dowager (or in French "Douairière") is not a usual term to indicate a queen-consort that survived her husband. Elizabeth of Belgium was not referred to as "Dowager Queen", although she survived her husband for many years. Neither is the term usual for Fabiola of Belgium after the death of her husband Baudouin.

Jordan

Lisa Najeeb Halaby (Noor Al'Hussein) (born 23 August 1951), the fourth wife and widow of King Hussein of Jordan and the stepmother of the current king, Abdullah II.

Trivia

• In the fictional chick lit book series The Princess Diaries, the character Princess Clarisse Marie Grimaldi Renaldo is the dowager princess of the principality of Genovia. In the film versions, where Genovia is portrayed as a monarchy, Clarisse is portrayed as Queen, or Dowager Queen.

Notes

¹ The Garter King of Arms proclamation of the styles and titles of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother at her funeral on 9 April 2002 illustrates her dual status as a queen dowager and a queen mother:

"Thus it hath pleased Almighty God to take out of this transitory life unto His Divine Mercy the late Most High, Most Mighty and Most Excellent Princess Elizabeth, Queen Dowager and Queen Mother, Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Lady of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Lady of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India, Grand Master and Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order upon whom had been conferred the Royal Victorian Chain, Dame Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Dame Grand Cross of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John, Relict of His Majesty King George the Sixth and Mother of Her Most Excellent Majesty Elizabeth The Second by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, Sovereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, whom may God preserve and bless with long life, health and honour and all worldly happiness."

² Catherine Parr continued to use the title Queen Dowager even after her remarriage to Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, the younger brother of the late Jane Seymour, Henry VIII's third wife.

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