Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer (1526–1588) was a wood merchant of Haarlem, Netherlands She was the daughter of Simon Hasselaer and Grietje Koen. When the city was besieged by the Spanish, she led a company of women in defence of the city, b...

Margaret, Duchess of Parma, Governor of the Netherlands from 1559 to 1567 and from 1578 to 1582, was the illegitimate daughter of Charles V and Johanna Maria van der Gheynst. She was a Duchess consort of Florence and a Duchess consort of Pa...

Catherine Howard (born between 1520 and 1525; died February 13, 1542) was the fifth queen consort of Henry VIII of England (1540-1542), and sometimes known by his reference to her as "the rose without a thorn." Her birth date and place of b...

Catherine de' Medici was born in Florence, Italy, as Caterina Maria Romula di Lorenzo de' Medici. Both of her parents, Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne, Countess of Boulogne, died within weeks of h...

Mary I was the Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death. She is best known for her aggressive and bloody attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, Henry VIII. Her pursuit...

Anne of Cleves was Henry VIII’s fourth wife. Anne was from the small north German state of Cleves. Her brother, William, ruled Cleves but realised that his sister's marriage to the king of England would greatly enhance his status. After...

Catherine Parr was born around 1512. She was Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife. Catherine had already been married to a man called Lord Borough. She was in her teens and he was in his sixties when they married. Lord Borough soon died but C...

Jane Seymour was Henry VIII’s third wife. Jane married him just eleven days after Anne Boleyn was executed. Jane was born between 1507 and 1509. The marriage between Jane Seymour and Henry was on May 30th 1536. In October 1537, Jane gave b...

Juliana of Stolberg was the mother of William 1 of Orange (Willem van Oranje), also known as William the Silent (Willem de Zwijger). Juliana was the daughter of Botho VIII of Stolberg-Wernigerode and Anna of Eppstein-Königstein. Her first m...

Mary of Austria, also known as Mary of Hungary, was queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia as the wife of King Louis II, and she was later Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands. The daughter of Queen Joanna of Castile and King Philip I of C...

Isabella of Portugal was a Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Spain, Germany, Italy, Naples and Sicily and Duchess of Burgundy by her marriage to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and regent of Spain during the absences of her husband during 1529-...

Isabella of Austria (also known as Isabella or Elisabeth of Burgundy, of Habsburg, or of Castile), Archduchess of Austria, Infanta of Castile and Princess of Burgundy by birth and Queen of Denmark, Sweden and Norway by her marriage to King...

Anne Boleyn, Marchioness of Pembroke and Queen Consort of England (1505/1507 – May 19, 1536) was the second (of the six) wife and queen consort of Henry VIII and the mother of Elizabeth I of England who would become Queen. Born into the Eng...

Eleanor of Austria, also called Eleonor of Castile, was born Archduchess of Austria and Infanta of Castile from the House of Habsburg, and became subsequently in turn Queen consort of Portugal (1518–1521) and of France. She also held the Du...

Catherine of Aragon was Queen of England from 1509 until 1533 as the first wife of King Henry VIII; she was previously Princess of Wales as the wife of Prince Arthur. The daughter of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of A...