WOMEN HISTORY FORGOT

by

MADELINE HARTMANN

Universal Publishers/uPUBLISH.com

USA • 1999

Copyright © 1999 Madeline Hartmann

All rights reserved

published by

Universal Publishers/uPUBLISH.com

USA • 1999

ISBN: 1-58112-818-5

www.upublish.com/books/hartmann.htm

To Gillian----alas too soon----

INTRODUCTION

Half the world's population a powerless minority? Really! Who? Women! Of course! Yet some broke through the restrictions, customs, rules and did amazing things. History has forgotten them. Maybe history doesn't want to remember them.In this book I tell a few of their stories.

Women in the system and many out of the system. Some, to have a voice, were rebels and activists. But it is all their struggle that I hope to show.

In my research, I was constantly amazed at what I found. It was especially surprising to find powerful women in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Westerners think of these cultures as keeping women down. They do to a large extent but some women beat the system. Perhaps I have stressed these areas but it was because what I found did not fit our perception of those cultures.

There are women whose names have become household words; Queen Elizabeth I of England, Mary, Queen of Scots, Isabella of Castile, Queen Victoria of Great Britain, Florence Nightingale and of course Joan of Arc. These are a few of the remembered ones. But there are many more, many, many more, who became footnotes in history or were just plain forgotten.

Abigail Adams is remembered as the wife and mother of presidents. But less well known is her comment to her Congressman husband, co-author of the Declaration of Independence;

'In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power in the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to forment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.'

Sorry, Abigail , it took a long time but it did come.

Lady Nancy Astor known for her acid tongue, once told Winston Churchill, "Winston, if you were my husband, I'd give you poison." To which he relied, "Nancy, if I were your husband I'd take it." Yet forgotten is that this Virginia born woman was the first female to sit in the British Parliament. Not elected to...check the text. This was also a surprise.

Jane Addams 1860 to 1935 was the founder of Hull House, a settlement house for the poor. Less known is that she shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 with Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Colombia University.

This is a collection of essays or paragraphs of forgotten women. I have not included actresses since that was the usual venue for woman to a career in a time when few choices were open to them. I have generally omitted courtesans and royal mistresses unless they were unusual and forgotten, such as Diane de Poiters.

For some women it was easy to find information. For others especially in Asia and Africa, there are no surviving records or just fragments of documents. Wars, time, natural disasters all tend to be hard on such records. So in some cases all I had were names, some dates, and countries. I thought these women important enought to include with so little data.

I tried, I hope successfully to be mindful of Canon William Greenwell's--1820 to 1918---comment, "Never mind the theories, just collect the facts."

Please enjoy this tribute to the forgotten women of history. I know that there are many more but....

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ROYALS, RULERS AND REGENTS

EUROPE

Europe has had queens throughout its history. Today there are three reigning women, the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Netherlands. It is not unusual for the Netherlands which has had a ruling queen for almost 100 years--three generations plus a queen regent. Sweden's next ruler will be a woman. Crown Princess Victoria will be the reigning monarch on the death of her father.

In early times, several British tribes had warrior queens. One famous for fighting the Romans was Boadiccea in ca. 60 AD.

Other famous women rulers were Asa, queen of Norway in the ninth century, Margaret queen of Denmark and Norway from 1375 to 1412 and Queen of Sweden from 1389 to 1412. The Salic Law of France forbade women to inherit so the French had no ruling queens but many regents who were women of great power even if they did not have the title. More famous and sometimes as powerful were the royal mistresses.

Poland had a famous queen, Jadwiga, 1384 to 1399. Hungary had its share of women rulers and Naples had several. Russian empresses are relatively famous, with Catherine the Great leading the list. She was not Russian but a minor German princess who took power after her husband was murdered apparently with Catherine's help

The Byzantine Empire with its capital in Constantinople had a few empresses and regents. Some of these were very tough ladies. The most famous was probably Theodora, wife of the Emperor Justinian. She had trained bears and performed in the circus before her marriage. It is said she earned some extra cash in a time honored profession. Who knows.

Isabella of Castile, of Columbus time, was the most famous Spanish queen but there were others. Portugal had women rulers. One in the last century had the wonderful name of Maria da Gloria.

BLANCHE OF CASTILE, queen, regent of France 1226 to 1236 and again from 1248 to 1252.

Eleanor of Aquitaine is famous in books, plays and she even had a movie made about her. But Blanche, her granddaughter, the Queen of France who was as capable as grandma but is almost unknown.

Burgos, Spain, the capital of Castile in January 1200 had an eighty year old visitor. The Duchess of Aquitaine, Countess of Poiters once Queen of France, now Queen of England. That fabled lady, Eleanor. She had crossed the Pyrennes in winter on a diplomatic mission to make peace between Philip Augustus of France, son of her former husband, and John Plantagenet of England, her son. The way this peace was to be made was through a marriage. She would carefully inspect the two little princesses of Castile ages 13 and 12, her granddaughters, and would chose one to be the future queen of France. Berengaria the elder was a little prettier than her sister but the name would be difficult for the French. So Blanche, 12, was selected. The two, grandmother and granddaughter, crossed the Pyrennes arriving in Bordeaux, France in time for Easter.

Blanche 12 and Louis, 13, the French dauphin were married in May of the same year. Surprisingly the marriage was a happy one. One courtier wrote, 'Never queen so loved her lord. They were so attached to each other that they were always seen together."

Louis, to help his young wife overcome her homesickness asked an English bishop in France on a pilgrimage to call on her. This churchman had shocked his fellow clerics by allowing women to sit at his side at dinner and considered wives as honorable as virgins. Unheard of! The good bishop gently helped Blanche to forget her grief and depression. 'Her happiness was reflected in her face.'

In the 26 years of their marriage Blanche gave birth to 12 children. Five survived including her fifth born and first to live, the future Louis IX. A good mother, she saw to it that her children could read and write. Louis was even fluent in Latin, most unusual for royals in that age.

Even as a crown princess without any real power, she was not to be cowed. When her husband landed in England with a small army to help the rebel nobles against his wife's uncle, King John, Louis needed help from his father, King Philip Augustus. That monarch was unwilling to send more troops into the English battle.

Blanche confronted her father-in-law. "Will you let my lord, your son, die in a strange land? Sire, in God's name he is to reign after you, send him what he needs. At least the revenues of his patrimony."

The king was not impressed.

"Then I know what I will do. By the Blessed Mother of God, I have fair children by my lord. I will pawn them and see what I can raise on them."

Philip Augustus relented. The rebels won, forcing John to sign the Magna Carta, that fundamental document of people's rights.

In 1223 Louis and Blanche were crowned King and Queen of France in the Cathedral of Rheims. They assumed residence in the ancient royal palace on the Isle de le Cite in the heart of Paris.

French law based on the Salic Law of the Frankish tribes, forbade women to inherit money or land. In spite of that, it was the French queens who regularly supervised the royal treasury. The queens awarded the knights their yearly gifts which were actually salaries. Queens controlled the purse strings. Blanche, as her predecessors had been, was the treasurer of France.

Louis would have a short reign. Three years after the coronation the King was returning from the first Albigensian Crusade when he contracted dysentery. Blanche and her children had ridden out to meet him. Instead, the new king, 12 year old Louis met his mother with the tragic news. He also told her that his father had dictated his last command. The queen was to be his successor until his son's majority.

There was no time to grieve. Ambitious barons saw this as a God given chance to seize land and power. With a woman and a child in control, it should be easy. Blanche quickly ordered her son's coronation at Rheims Cathedral. This would make him the anointed king of France with the Church's blessing. On the way to the ancient city the boy was knighted.

A number of nobles including the powerful Thibaut of Champagne stayed away from the ceremonies. Blanche rewarded the faithful who came. She made treaties with them, took their oaths of allegiance and promises of peace. Three powerful barons started a revolt against her and the new king. She raised an army, then gave the leader, young Count Thibaut, a royal grant. He pledged his allegiance and the plot collapsed.

The count aged 16 fell totally in love with the queen, age 39. Once he wrote, "My faith, Madame, my heart and my body and all my lands are at your command. There is nothing that might please you that I would not do, never, God willing, shall I oppose you or yours again."

But the danger was not over. Barons continued to test Blanche's resolve. An even greater threat came from her cousin Henry III of England who had the support of the Breton and Norman nobles. With the treat of invasion looming, Blanche rebuilt the obsolete castle of the Counts of Anjou by demolishing churches, houses, clearing cemeteries, cutting down trees and vineyards. All the while the bishops and the canons protested loudly, which she ignored. She even seized the stones and plaster they had gathered for the new cathedral. They screamed even louder but in vain. An almost bloodless war followed but her strong action stopped the rebels and her English cousin. Blanche won the day.

Other challenges to her rule were met with equal force and sometimes guile. Her relations with the bishops was not always peaceful especially after the affair of the castle. Ultimately she won the settlements she wanted from them.

Another incident took place in the spring of 1229 when a group of students at the University of Paris took part or caused a tavern riot. Not unusual spring behavior for students then or now. The next day they returned with reinforcements to continue the fray. Blanche ordered the police chief to suppress the riot. Many students were killed and wounded. Several were thrown into the Seine River and drowned. Faculty and students were furious. The masters of the University closed down their lectures. When Blanche refused to budge, they left Paris for other French universities and some migrated to Oxford, England. Finally she made peace overtures and within two years students and masters returned to Paris. She won that round too.

The matter of a wife for young King Louis was important. The count of Provence, an important and powerful noble, had four lovely daughters. Marguerite, 13, the eldest was chosen for the 19 year old Louis. The marriage celebration lasted three days. The king's party was dressed in purple, scarlet and green trimmed with fur. The bride wore a gold crown of great worth.

Although Blanche had chosen Marguerite she was still jealous of the young woman. She tried to keep the pair apart as much as possible which was interesting in that France needed an heir. That was the whole point of the marriage. Many children were needed since infant mortality was so high.

Once the young queen was very ill, Louis was at her side when Blanche came in and took the young king away. At that Marguerite cried out, "Alas, whether I live or die, you will not let me see my husband." She fainted, always effective. The King hurried back to his wife's side. With great effort the young queen was revived.

Blanche remained the real power. Louis did nothing without her help and advice. She went everywhere with him. Royal agents went to her before they went to the king.

In 1248 Louis left on a Crusade to the Holy Land. Blanche in her 60's was again in total control. She accompanied her son and his party which included Queen Marguerite south for three days. He begged her to return to Paris. He had left his kingdom and his children in her care. She must return to Paris to rule. In saying farewell she collapsed from emotion. He lifted her up and kissed her. They parted, never to see each other again.

The Crusaders had a terrible time. They got scurvy and dysentery. The Saracens overran their army, led by a woman, Spray of Pearls. Robert, Blanche's second son was killed. The Crusaders were defeated at al-Mansurah and Louis was captured. Marguerite expecting a baby asked an elderly knight to kill her if the city fell. The city was not overrun and a son was born. Marguerite's courage was equal to her mother-in-law's and she inspired the troops to continue fighting. In Louis' name ransom money was borrowed to pay for his freedom and return to France.

Blanche reigned while her son was gone, but the death of one son, the capture of the other and the wounding of a third was a terrible burden for the aging queen.

On November 1252 in Metun her heart began to pain her. She returned to Paris and took to her bed. She received communion and donned the habit of a Cistercian nun.

On her death, royal vestments were put over her nun's habit, her crown over her veil. Her body was carried through the streets of Paris to St. Denis where she was buried with other French kings. Louis returned to France two years later.

A modern French scholar wrote 'To all intents and purposes she may be counted among the kings of France.' The great kings?

As dowager queen Blanche had an independent fortune. From this she gave alms to the poor. She provided dowries for poor girls, daughter and sisters of her servants and strangers. Also of course she made donations to religious establishments.

Blanche was part of an amazing family. Eleanor, her grandmother, Henry II of England, her grandfather, Richard the Lion Hearted her uncle. Another uncle was King John of Magna Carta fame.

One of Eleanor's daughters was Queen of Castile. Another, Matilda, married Henry the Lion, Duke of Brunswick, Germany, one of the legendary figures of the time. And the founder of the city of Munich, Germany.

Blanches' son was canonized as Saint Louis, a rarity for a king to be made a saint.

Blanche's sister? With the name that the French might not like? Berengaria? She became queen of Castile upon her brother's death and married Alfonso IX the king of Leon, uniting those two kingdoms at least for a time.

DIANE DE POITERS Duchess de Valentinnois, Countess de Maulevrier, defacto co-ruler of France. 1499 to 1566.

Madame du Barry mistress of King Louis XV of France was the virtual ruler of the country. Madame de Pompadour was almost as powerful. Both are legends.

Earlier, lesser known and perhaps more unlikely was Diane de Pouters, mistress of King Henry II. She lived in that amazing period of history which marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of our modern times. The period of the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Age of Exploration.

Among close contemporaries were King Henry VIII of England, Queen Elizabeth I, Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. (Perhaps the most important man of the time was Johann Gutenberg the inventor of the printing press.)

Diane was born to a noble family and was married at 16 to Count Louis de Breze, 56, grandson of a French king on the wrong side of the blanket, that is illegitimate. He was recognized by the king as his son. (Monarchs in those days were generally good about acknowledging their bastards and doing something for them.)

After 16 years of a relatively happy marriage and two daughters, de Breze died. In his memory, Diane wore black or white in mourning for the rest of her life. Black and white in silk and lace. By making them her colors she made them fashionable. She had been a faithful wife and would be a faithful widow.

Very different from the other famous royal mistresses, she was not beautiful instead she was high born, faithful and well educated. She had good sense, good manners, a great wit and was a woman with a mind as well as a body. Bodies were easily available but not good minds. (Things have not changed much.)

At Valois, a city in France, while she was lady-in-waiting to the queen, his mother, she first met Henry, a boy of seven. The king of France, Francis, had been captured by the Spanish in a battle and to secure his release he offered his two young sons as hostages. France was not much of a power at that time. As the transfer was being made, Diane comforted the frightened child. He did not forget her or her kindness.

The two children were hostages for four years during which time they were badly treated, neglected, not educated and given little or no care. When they were released Henry and his older brother spoke better Spanish than French.

On Henry's return home, he was married to Catherine de Medici of Florence. Such political marriages had no concern for the feeling of the two involved and certainly had nothing to do with love. The de Medici banking family had money and power even though it was not considered high born. But it was very rich. And Catherine would bring a good dowery. Since Henry was a second son, it did not matter that his wife was not top drawer. His brother was the heir. That was who the family was concerned with. But nice to get the de Medici money.

Poor little Henry. The king was most impatient with him. In his eyes, the boy lacked initiative and spirit. Francis complained to Diane about all this and her remedy --the boy should fall in love. She could do that. Which was fine with the king.

Tradition has it that Diane was engaged to teach the young prince the fine points of fencing. A woman teach fencing? This was Diane de Poiters. She could teach fencing. He was 17. She was 37, her hair was turning gray and wrinkles were beginning to show. Still she was famous for her complexion attributed to washing in cold water every morning and riding horseback in the fresh morning air. After the early exercise she went back to bed and read until noon.

At first their relationship was that of student to instructor with Diane quiet, tender, caring and comforting. In a few years they became lovers. It was a grand passion, a great love complete with the love poems of real excellence which he wrote to her. The affair would last a lifetime.

Diane's prescription worked because the Venetian ambassador reported back to his city state that Henry at 23 had greatly changed, no longer was he melancholy, he was energetic, courageous and enterprising and in very good health. Love is good for the body and the soul it would seem. Love with Diane at any rate.

And his wife, Catherine de Medici? For ten years she had no children and finally offered to withdraw to a convent so that he could marry a woman who could give him an heir. Diane though encouraged Henry to continue to sleep with his wife. Gossip at the court had it that "...it is she (D) who exhorts the king to go and sleep with the Queen." It was his duty. As a result Catherine finally bore ten children, including Francis II who would marry Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth who would be the Spanish queen of Philip II. Seems he did his duty.

Henry dined with his wife, spent his evenings with her, slept with her and loved Diane. Even with ten children, Catherine remained relatively obscure. She was busy having babies. But it was Diane that engaged the nurses and tutors and played with the children. So who was the real mother?

Diane got more than love poems. She was made Duchess of Valentinois which gave her the highest rank in the country outside the royal family. She got a fine collection of jewelry and better yet, rich estates, including Chenonceaux, one of the loveliest chateau in France and a perfect example of the Renaissance style. It has elegant gardens, productive farmlands and forests rich with game. From her, Henry got love and understanding. She prepared him to be king and gave him the confidence to remain so.

Monarch though he was, he wrote begging to be her slave for life. Better than that he gave her the right of confirmation of office which meant that anyone who bought a job in France like army officers, judges, governors paid her a percentage. Nearly all appointments were in her power so naturally she put her men into key positions. He gave her the 400,000 thaler which the last king had set aside to help the Protestants of Germany, against their old enemy, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The French king remained a Catholic and wanted no Protestants in his country. Yet it was the old principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But in this case the German Protestants got short changed. Diane got their money.

With the cash, Diane rebuilt her late husband's house into a great chateau. It became the second home of the king, a museum of arts and a gathering place for poets, artists, diplomats, aristocrats, officers, cardinals, philosophers and the mistresses of all of them. In effect Diane was prime minister of France. Everywhere in her chateau was the coat of arms of two D's back to back with two feathers intertwined for Henry.

The couple had a daughter, Diane de France, raised with the Diane's two daughters from her marriage. Also in Diane's household, were Henry's daughter from a brief fling with an Italian woman plus his child from Mary Fleming, the governess of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, his daughter-in-law, who was raised in the French court.

Apparently this birth was a set-up. Diane was ill and sent Henry home alone. Catherine greeted him with young pretty girls throwing flowers and singing. Among them was the blond very charming Mary. The queen hoped someone younger would make him forget Diane. Fleming was, after all, the illegitimate daughter of the last Scottish king and thus a half sister to the queen. Not a no body. After all it is one thing for a mature woman to seduce a very insecure man of 17. Quite another thing to hold him when she was fifty and he a virile 30. But the affair with Mary was very fleeting. Henry went back to Diane.

Court gossip had it that Catherine so wondered at the charm of her rival that she had holes bored into the floor of her bedroom which was directly above Diane's. The queen and her lady in waiting lay flat on the floor and watched the action going on beneath them. Seems the lovers played for some time and then moved to a thick rug on the floor. It was summer and hot. The rug was cooler. Perhaps too the action was hot. Catherine realized he did not do those things with her. With her it was state duty.

Diane and Henry lived in the early days of the Protestant Reformation. Feelings on religion ran high. The two were on the side of orthodoxy and the Catholic church even though Henry's deep passionate hatred of the Emperor Charles V of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire led him to support the German Protestants. Sometimes, when he did not give the money to Diane.

After fighting Charles for years Henry agreed to give the future king Philip of Spain the French princess in marriage. Philip was a widower after the death of his wife Queen Mary of England, daughter of Henry VIII. A wedding between two such powerful countries and families had to be celebrated with great festivities. Many entertainments were planned including a tournament. Henry, now 40, insisted on entering it himself.

His opponent broke his lance against Henry's helmet. A piece of the wood passed under the king's visor piercing his eye and entering his brain. He lay unconscious for ten days. Diane was not allowed near his bedside. But messengers from Catherine came demanding her jewels.

"Is the King dead?"

"No, Madame, but he cannot linger long."

Diane drew herself up, she was six feet tall.

"So long as there remains in him a finger of life, I wish my enemies to know that I fear them not and that I will not obey them--so long as he is alive. I am still of invincible courage. But when he is dead, I wish not to live after him and all the bitterness that one could wish me will be but sweet beside my loss. And this, my king live or dead. I fear not my enemies."

Her jewels and Henry's gifts were given over to the new Queen, Mary Stuart of Scotland. Catherine would have more revenge. Chenonceax was confiscated and all the decorations with the Diane-Henry coat of arms were turned into Catherine-Henry coat of arms. Diane retired to the Chateau d'Anet in Normandy which belonged to her husband. Catherine could not take that. She lived on until 1566 again in mourning.

Diane was never quite royal although she in effect was the co ruler of France. Some of her descendants were the kings Louis XV, Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, and Charles X. They were very royal.

Diane and Henry's love story lives on and their passion can still felt in Chateau Chenonceax in the Loire Valley.

ROXELANA Ottoman Empire ca 1500-1558

The daughter of a Russian Orthodox priest, she was captured in a Turkish slave raid in what today is the Ukraine. She became the wife of Sulieman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and perhaps the most powerful man in the Western world at that time. And he was totally dominated by this Russian peasant slave.

Sultans did not have wives. They had harems with many women. Some of them were gifts from other rulers or highly placed officials but mostly the women were slaves selected for their beauty and charm.

Sulieman had a modest harem, perhaps only 200 females some still children. (Some sultans kept harems of as many as 800 to 900 women.) Also if a woman did not attract him by the time she was 25, she was married off to a government official or officer.

Harems were ruled over by the sultan's mother. Sulieman's harem was under the command of Hofiza, the widow of Sultan Valideh. She had not been a slave but the daughter of the Khan of the Crimean Tatars and a gift to the sultan.

Before becoming Sultan, Sulieman had as his favorite, a Montenegrin girl captured in a raid. She was named Gulbehar--'Flower of the Spring"- because of her great beauty. Apparently the young man was in love with her and was relatively faithful. More important he had a son by her.

Then a new recruit came to the harem, a Russian girl named Khurrem. The Laughing One or the Smiling One. Small, fair, not beautiful but with a radiant smile, charm, intelligence and as it would turn out, a will of steel. Rumors of her ascendancy over the Sultan spread quickly even outside the harem. The Europeans of Constantinople called her La Russelane for her Russian birth. This was corrupted to Roxelana, her name in history.

Power in the Ottoman Empire was almost entirely in the hands of the Sultan. He had a palace guard, the Janissaries, whom he had to keep happy--a bit of war--a few spoils--some booty--a few women. Sulieman also had a Grand Vizier, Ibrahirm, born a Greek Christian and taken as a slave when he was a child, he became the Chief Falconer for the sultan, then the Grand Vizier. This was the power position. Once he boasted to an Austrian diplomat, "Although I am the Sultan's slave, whatsoever I want done is done. I can make a stable lad a pasha. I can give kingdoms and provinces to anyone I like. My master will say nothing to stop me. Even if he has ordered something, if I do not want it to happen, it is not done, and if I command that something should be done and he happens to have commanded to the contrary, it is done. The Sultan is no better dressed than I am, and what is more he pays all my expenses, so that my fortune never decreases. He trusts his power to me, his kingdoms, his wealth, everything both great and small and I can do what I like with them."

The Austrian was amazed but what the Grand Vizier had said was true. But as an Italian living in Constantinople commented, "If one day the Sultan should choose to send one of his scullions to slay Ibrahirm Pasha there is no way to prevent the killing."

Ibrahirm held power for ten years. But a rival was emerging...one who had no intention of sharing power. And she had three sons.

In 1533 Sulieman's mother died. The old lady had ruled the harem for many years. Gulbehar was next in line. But within a year she was 'exiled' from Constantinople.

Next Roxelana convinced the Sultan that it was unfair to keep so many pretty girls about since he slept only with her. These extras were married off. Only one person stood between her and supreme power.

Sulieman had left the whole business of government to his Grand Vizier while he was the country gentleman---hunting, riding and enjoying Roxelana's favors.

When war broke out with Persia the Sultan ordered the Grand Vizier to take command. He would join the army later. This did not please the Turks who liked a Sultan -warrior. An atmosphere of resentment and jealousy was building.

Ibrahirm should have been worried but he had had power so long, he began to sign papers as 'Sultan' There were accusations of embezzling funds. When the Grand Vizier returned to the capital he was invited to dine at the Palace. The next morning his body was found at the palace gate, strangled after a fierce struggle. He was buried in an unmarked grave. (End of rival.)

Another amazing feat of this Russian woman was that Sulieman married her, something six generations of Turkish sultans had not done.

The next three viziers were men of extremely limited abilities and disappeared from the scene fast. Then Rusten Pasha a Bulgarian who had married Roxelana's daughter was appointed Grand Vizier. Now Roxelana was almost the government.

One thing stood between her and complete power. Mustafa, the son of her rival concubine, and heir apparent. Popular, handsome, intelligent, able, he would be a capable successor to his father. He would also put her sons to death. Such were the customs of the Ottoman court.

Sulieman was growing more and more paranoid. Would Mustfa wait for his father's natural death. Sulieman had hastened his own father's death. Would history repeat itself?

Roxelana's chance came when the Turks again invaded Persia. The Sultan nearly sixty stayed home. Mustafa led the army. Letters arrived telling how the troops thought the Sultan was too old. Sulieman was in a quandary. What was his son up to? How should he deal with this treason?

The Sultan left for Persia and took command of the army. Mustafa entered the tent apprehensively. There were no soldiers. Nothing to fear. But there were strong mutes who attacked the prince. He fought hard but was strangled. The army was furious but had no one to lead a revolt.

Now Roxelana's sons were the apparent heirs but which one? Selim, now 29 was short, fat, ugly and incompetent. Bayezid, tall, handsome, talented and popular. Roxelana's heart was with Selim.

When Roxelana died her husband was shattered. He wept, fasted, withdrew to his grief. Many were happy that she was dead. But the storm she had set into motion had gone too far to be stopped. The two brothers hated each other. Now they went to war. Bayezid was badly defeated and fled to Persia. Finally he returned to his father's emissaries; he and his son were strangled.

Selim II the Sot began the long slow decline of the Turkish empire which his father had raised to the greatest power of the time. Roxelana had triumphed, a bittersweet triumph

The Ottoman Empire spanned both Europe and the Middle East. Its capital, Constantinople, was in Europe.

QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN--1626 to 1689

At the age of six she became Christina, by the Grace of God, Queen of the Swedes, Goths and Vandals, Great Princess of Finland, Duchess of Estonia and Carelia, and Lady of Ingria. A tall order for a six year old child. But there was more. She was the daughter of Il Re d' Oro, the Golden King whose hair was the color of honey, King Gustavus Adolfus of Sweden, one of the most brilliant generals of his time. Dead on the battlefield in the fourteenth year of the Thirty Years War, his death was bad news for the Protestant cause and for Sweden which now had a child as ruler.

This war would ravage Europe for another sixteen years. It would kill two thirds of the population in some countries and leave parts of Europe devastated for over a hundred years. It was a war of religion which turned into a war for territory, power and greed. A Protestant army would enter a city and kill all the Catholics it could find. A month later a Catholic army would enter the same city and kill all the Protestants it could find. In the end no one was sure who was friend and who was foe. For the people it was a no win situation.

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