What happened in the first chapter of the Book of Esther?

Answer 1

Chapter 1 of the Book of Esther begins by telling us that in the third year of the reign of King Ahasuerus of Persia, he held a feast in his palace. His wife, Queen Vashti made a feast for the women in the royal house. On the seventh day of the feast, the king commanded that Vashti be brought before him to show to the people, but she refused to come. Troubled, Ahasuerus asked his wise men what he should do. They said that unless he divorced Vashti, all the women in the empire would begin to disobey their husbands.

The name Ahasuerus is universally believed to be the Hebrew name for King Xerxes, who ruled Persia from 486 to 465 BCE. However, Xerxes' wife at the time was not Vashti, but Amestris. Amestris remained queen well beyond the third year of Xerxes' reign, so there can have been no Queen Vashti nor, it seems, a Queen Esther.