The most influential Queens of Great Britain

BOUDICA C.30-60/1 AD
1.
Boudica was the wife of Prasutagus, the King of the Iceni – a tribe based in East Anglia. When Prasutagus died, the Romans seized his kingdom and Boudica, who was a giant of a woman with flowing fair hair, responded to these outrages with violence. Riding up and down her lines in a chariot, Boudica spurred her troops on, but they were no match for the Romans’ ordered discipline. The result was a bloodbath, with the queen reputedly poisoning herself when she realised her defeat.

Alfred The Greatest 848-899
2.
Alfred The Greatest was the Saxon King of Wessex, won a great battle against the Danes in 878, and forced them to agree to peace. Much of Britain was divided into Danish land (the Danelaw) and Anglo- Saxon Land (England). He was the king for 28 years. In his time, English people made a lot of new schools, began to write the first books in English.

QUEEN ELIZABETH I (1533-1603)
6.
Queen Elizabeth I was determined to rule alone, presiding over a period marked by exploration and advances in the arts and technology. With her Religious Settlement of 1559, Elizabeth also helped to create the modern Church of England. Her greatest moment came as she surveyed her troops at Tilbury during clashes with the Spanish Armada in 1588. With this crushing defeat of Spain, she ruled for nearly 15 more years as ‘Gloriana’.

QUEEN ANNE (1665-1714)
7.
Queen Anne modelled herself on Elizabeth I when she came to the throne in 1702. The last monarch of the House of Stuart was, by that stage, middle aged and disabled by 17 pregnancies – her only child to survive past the age of two, the Duke of Gloucester, died aged 11. Nonetheless, the first Queen of Great Britain ruled during a period of great expansion in British prestige, with the Duke of Marlborough’s victories in the War of the Spanish Succession particularly notable.

QUEEN VICTORIA (1819-1901)
8.
Victoria holds the record as England’s longest-reigning monarch. After enduring a strict childhood, she was determined to enjoy herself when she came to the throne at the age of 18, recalling in one letter that “I have been dancing till four o’clock this morning”. She soon married her cousin, Prince Albert, to whom she was devoted; she remained black-clad after his early death. She became Empress of India in 1876, and it was said that the sun never set on her empire.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II (B.1926)
9.
Queen Elizabeth II will overtake her great-great-grandmother as longest-reigning monarch this September. She became heir to the throne unexpectedly in 1936, with the abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII. Her Majesty was visiting Kenya when she heard the news that she was to become Queen in 1952, and her reign was romantically hailed as a ‘New Elizabethan Age’. Over the years she has devoted herself to her duties as a constitutional monarch and has weathered many storms, most notably the marital difficulties of her children, the 1992 Windsor Castle fire and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997. Now approaching 90, the Queen remains one of the most popular Royal Family members.