Intrepid Queens

Course Code: HUM2616

Start Date: 25/02/2026

Day of the Week:

Wednesday

Session: Morning

Delivery method: Centre Only

Length in weeks: 5

Time: 10am-12pm

Price: £

In this course we will consider aspects of English history through a largely female lens. We have had eight queens who ruled in their own right and over twenty who have been designated queens because of their relationship to a male monarch. Women who gained power often did so because their husbands were occupied ruling English lands abroad, became mentally ill or were even murdered. Queens themselves were sometimes embroiled in civil war.

We will range from the granddaughter of William the Conqueror, though the mother of a feisty, fighting brood  to those who Shakespeare castigated as She-Wolves. We conclude with the terrifying scenario of the Tudors,  where finally the only choice for a ruler was but “a weak and feeble woman”.