It is a cliché among many: before the women’s rights movement of the early 20th century, women were property and never held any power.  They were treated as breeding stock in a male-dominated patriarchy that exists today.  Women were never allowed to hold any formal power except through their husbands.

Allow me to shatter that myth.

Between 1700 and 1914, a woman ruled one of the “Great Powers” of Europe for 151 of the 214 (70%) years in this period.  Great Britain, Austria, Spain, and Russia all had female rulers.  Prussia and France did not have a female ruler in this period.

            Britain
            Queen Anne I: 1707-1714 (12 years)
            Queen Victoria I: 1837-1901 (64 years)

            Russia
            Empress Catherine I: 1725–1727 (2 years)
            Empress Anna: 1730-1740 (10 years)
            Empress Elizaveta Petrovna: 1741–1762 (21 years)
            Empress Catherine II (Catherine the Great): 1762–1796 (34 years)

            Austria (Holy Roman Empire)
            Empress Maria Theresa: 1740–1780 (did not formally become empress until later) (40 years)
           
            Spain:
            Queen Isabella II (Regnant): 1833–1868 (35 years)
           
There of these women, Victoria I, Catherine the Great, and Maria Theresa, were some of the most powerful rulers in history.  They were ruled vast empires and waged global wars with kings and emperors centuries before the suffragette movement.

Throughout European history, few conflicts were as epic as the struggle between Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and Frederick the Great of Prussia.  They fought over control of the rich Polish land of Silesia, and the conflict bled over into North America for various reasons, culminating in the French and Indian War (in Europe called the Seven Years War).  While George Washington was battling it out against the French as an officer on General Braddock’s staff, Maria Theresa and Frederick were marshaling massive armies against each other and engaging in immense intrigue that determined the fate of nations.

Maria Theresa was the more conservative of the two: a devout Catholic, she centralized the disorganized Holy Roman Empire and brought the might of dozens of different ethnicities and nationalities into a potent weapon.  Managing a government and army is not easy when the courtiers and soldiers speak German, Polish, Latin, Italian, French, Czech, Dutch, Hungarian, Slovene, Serbian, Croatian, Romanian...you get the idea.

It is interesting to note that throughout this period of conflict, both Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa sold their personal jewelry to fund their nation's military operations.  I doubt today’s leaders would sacrifice their overpriced electric vehicles so our soldiers could eat.

Catherine the Great did not have sex with horses, but she did have sex with men if it would advance her power and benefit Russia.  A woman whose Russian Machiavellianism could make Nikita Khrushchev blush, she not only assassinated her husband (the weak Peter III), but brutally suppressed rebellions and expanded Russian territory at the expense of the Ottoman Turks, the major Muslim power at the time.

Seeing Russia fall behind the other Great Powers of Europe, she continued Peter the Great’s efforts to modernize the country.  These efforts ranged from education to land reforms and played a key role in Tsar Alexander I’s victory over Napoleon in 1812.

Queen Victoria I of Great Britain (and empress of India) has been the subject of much media.  The “Victorian Era” stands out in history as Britain’s Imperial Century, where it truly surpassed Rome in relative influence and power.  By the end of her reign, one in four human beings on Planet Earth was a British citizen or subject.

The Handmaid’s Tale myth of history is more suited to the convenience of the 21st-century activist than the serious individual.  It is a myth that feeds into the far-left fantasy: “Before activists like me showed up, the world was terrible,” combined with “Nobody from the past has anything to teach us.”

If any of the female rulers on this list thought that way, she likely would have been deposed by courtiers looking for weakness, some of whom may have had a grievance with her sex.  In the end, such attitudes are not only stupid, but not of people fit to rule.

Julian R. Sinclair Twitter: @sinclairjulianr.

Image via Flickr, public domain.