Queen mother

Status

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, 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 the queen grandmother. Queen Sri Savarindira of Thailand was known by this style.

United Kingdom

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.

There is no male equivalent to a queen mother (i.e. "king father"). This would occur only if the husband of a queen regnant were to outlive 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 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.

Ottoman Empire

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 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 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 the role of the valide sultan to new heights.

India

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.

Africa

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 is important at festivals such as the annual reed dance ceremony.

In many matrilineal societies of West Africa, such as the Ashanti, 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 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.

Historical examples

These mothers of monarchs, and others, albeit not always officially so titled have also been considered equal to queen mothers:

Adela of Champagne (1180–1206) France

Adelaide of Aquitaine (996–1004) France

Adelaide of Burgundy (973–983) Germany and Italy

Adelaide of Maurienne (1137–1154) France

Adelaide of Paris (898–901) West Francia

Ageltrude (894–898) Italy

Agnes of Aquitaine (1137–1159) Aragon

Agnes of Brandenburg (1286–1304) Denmark

Agnes of Poitou (1056–1077) Germany, Italy, and Burgundy

Alexandra of Denmark (1910–1925) United Kingdom

Alice of Champagne (1218–1246) Cyprus

Alice of Ibelin (1358–1369, 1382–1386) Cyprus

Aliya bint Ali (1939–1950) Iraq

Amalie Auguste of Bavaria (1873–1877) Saxony

Amarindra (1810–1826) Siam

Amélie of Orléans (1908–1910) Portugal

Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1947–1952) Denmark

Anastasia of Kiev (1063–1074) Hungary

Exceptional cases

Ingeborg of Norway (1301–1361), Duchess of Södermanland, acted and ranked as if she were a queen regnant for a year before the Swedish reign of her son, King Magnus IV, and thereafter as if she were his queen mother, serving intermittently on his board of regents. However, though she has been called the King Mother in biographical literature, she was never officially recognized as queen or queen mother.

Her granddaughter-in-law Margaret (1353–1412), who ruled all of Scandinavia as the mother of one king and the adoptive mother of another, held a similarly complicated unofficial position but for much longer, and in traditional history is given the title of Queen. Early in her career, she had been Queen consort of Norway for seventeen years and of Sweden for one year.

Jijabai (1598–1674) was neither consort of a ruling king nor a ruling queen or regent. In practical terms, her husband Shahaji was a nobleman under other rulers, but her son founded an independent empire and became its sovereign. Hence she is given the title Queen Mother – Rajmata in Hindi.

Sadijé Toptani (1876–1934), mother of King Zog I of Albania: after her son became king in 1928, she was raised to the title Queen Mother of the Albanians (Nëna Mbretëreshë e Shqiptarëve) with the style of Her Majesty, a position she held from 1 September 1928, until her death.

Helen of Greece and Denmark was the wife of the future Carol II of Romania from 1921 to 1928, and mother of King Michael of Romania. Michael first ruled from 1927 to 1930, before his father was king, and again after his father abdicated. When in 1930 Carol returned to Romania and assumed the throne, he actually retrodated his reign to 1927, the year his father (King Ferdinand) died. As Helen had not yet divorced her playboy husband at the time (that was to happen in the following year), he unwittingly granted her the retroactive title of queen. Thus, in 1940, after his abdication and the second accession of their son, she rightfully became the queen mother of Romania.

Similarly, Gayatri Devi, Maharani of Jaipur (1919–2009) was the third wife of her husband, the monarch, but not the mother of his successor, a son by the king's first wife. However, she has been accorded the title of queen mother (Rajmata) anyway.

King father

The male equivalent of 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.

Examples

King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia was styled as "His Majesty King Father Norodom Sihanouk" when he abdicated the throne in favour of his son, Norodom Sihamoni.

Jigme Singye Wangchuck became the king father of Bhutan following his abdication in favour of his son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.

Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani became the "Father Emir" of Qatar following his abdication as emir in favour of his son, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

After King Albert II of the Belgians abdicated in 2013, his style was shortened to His Majesty King Albert (as did King Leopold III); he is the father of King Philippe of Belgium.

After Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III of Brunei abdicated, his style became "His Majesty The Sultan-Father" (Malay: Duli Yang Teramat Mulia Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan).

Francisco, Duke of Cádiz, the king consort of Isabel II of Spain, was king father to Alfonso XII of Spain.

Ferdinand II of Portugal, jure uxoris king to Maria II of Portugal, was king father to Pedro V of Portugal and Luís I of Portugal.

Following his abdication, Ludwig I of Bavaria was king father to Maximilian II of Bavaria.

In the former Chinese Empire, a living monarch who passed the throne to his son was called Taishang Huang. This title was last bestowed upon Qianlong Emperor.

Current comparisons

The following individuals hold a similar role as mothers or fathers of their country's reigning monarchs:

Ntfombi, Ndlovukati of Eswatini (from 1986)

Queen Norodom Monineath of Cambodia (from 2004)

Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands (from 2013)

Moza bint Nasser (from 2013)

Queen Paola of Belgium (from 2013)

Queen Sofía of Spain (from 2014)

Empress Emerita Michiko of Japan (from 2019)

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (from 2024)

Queen Sonja of Norway (from 2026)