A

Aahhotep       see     Ahhopte I     or     Ahhopte II

Aaliyah – (1979 – 2001)
American actress and rhythmn and blues vocalist
Born Aaliyah Haughton in Brooklyn, New York, she was raised in Detroit, Michigan from 1984. She appeared on the stage from the age of six years, and began singing professionally from the age of eleven, but was later influenced by the singing style of R. Kelly, formerly a producer for vocalist Michael Jackson. Kelly produced her debut album with the popular sons ‘Back & Forth,’ and ‘At Your Best’ (You Are Love).
These hits were followed by ‘One in a Million’ (1996) and ‘If Your Girl Only Knew,’ whilst her third album entitled simply ‘Aaliyah’ (2001) reached no 2 on the charts. Her popular blend of rhythmn and blues and hip-hop styles, together with her sexily provocative film videos (in one she wrestled with a python) made Aaliyah an extremely popular performer. Before her early death (Aug 25, 2001) in a plane crash in the Bahamas, she made two films Romeo Must Die (2000) which featured her song ‘Try Again’ and the title role in Queen of the Damned (2001) based on the vampire novel of Anne Rice.

Aames, Angela – (1956 – 1988)
American film and television actress
Born (Feb 27, 1956) in Pierre, South Dakota, she attended university there prior to the beginning of her movie career in Hollywood, California. Her first appearances were in the films, Fairy Tales (1979) in which she played Little Bo-Peep, the nursery character, and H.O.T.S. (1979). Blonde, attractive, and curvily sexy, Aames appeared in such well known films as Scarface (1983), the fantasy adventure The Lost Empire (1983) directed by Jim Wynorski, Bachelor Party (1984) in which she appeared with Tom Hanks and is considered her most memorable role, and Basic Training (1985).
Aames also appeared in the B-grade horror flick Chopping Mall (1986). Her career mainly consisted of comic, sexy bit parts. Her television career included appearances in Cheers (1982), Night Court (1984) and The Dom DeLuise Show (1987) in which she played a physical fitness instructor. Angela Aames died (Nov 27, 1988) aged thirty-two, at West Hills, in the San Fernando Valley, California.

Aardema, Verna – (1911 – 2000)
American children’s author
Verna Norberg Aardema Vugteven was born (June 6, 1911) in New Era, Michigan. She studied journalism at the University of Michigan and was then employed as a school teacher for four decades (1934 – 1973). During this time she was a correspondent for the Muskegon Chronicle publication for two decades (1951 – 1972). Aardema was married and had children. Her first published work was the collection of stories for juveniles entitled Tales from the Story Hat (1960), and Aardema adapted children’s tales from variously folk-lores around the globe, such as Mexico and Bantu people of the African continent, some of which appeared in Behind the Back of a Mountain: Black Folktales from Southern Africa (1973).
Her work Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears (1975) received both the Caldecott Medal (1976) and the Brooklyn Art Books Children Award (1977) whilst Who’s in Rabbit’s House? (1977) was the winner of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award (1978). Aardema was the recipient of the Children’s Rading Round Table Award (1981). Her later work included Oh Kojo! How Could You! : An Ashanti Tale (1984), Bimwili & the Zimwi: A Tale from Zanzibar (1985), Traveling to Tondo : A Tale of the Knundo of Zaire (1991), and Anansi Does the Impossible! : An Ashanti Tale (1997). Verna Aardema died (May 11, 2000) aged eighty-seven.

Aarlof Aarbot – (c875 – 935)
Viking princess
Aarlof Aarbot was the daughter of Harald I Haarfarger, the Yngling King of Norway and his second wife Gyda of Hardaland. Her marriage (894) with Jarl (earl) Thorir the Silent, the elder half-brother brother of Duke Rollo of Normandy is recorded by the authors of the Orkneyinga Saga. Aarbot’s father gave her in marriage (894) to Thorir as compensation for a murder committed against Thorir’s family by King Harald’s sons, the brothers of Aarbot.
Harald also returned to Thorir the patrimony of his earldom of More. The saga refers to Aarlof as ‘Alof the Fecund’ a poetical allusion to the future fertility of this marriage, but in fact she bore her husband only one child, a daughter Bergliot Thorirsdotter, later the wife of Sigurd Hakonssen (died 962), Jarl of Lade by whom she left issue.

Aarons, Ruth Hughes – (1910 – 1980)
American sportswoman
Ruth Aarons was born in Stamford, Connecticut. Renowned as the best table tennis player of either sex to be produced in American, she had the distinction of never having lost a tournament match. Aarons remains the only American woman to win a World Championship singles title (1936), and she then helped the win the world team championship for America. She also won four national singles titles over a twenty-three years period (1934 – 1957).

Aaronsohn, Sarah – (1890 – 1917)
Jewish espionage agent
Sarah Aaronsohn was born in Zichron Yaakov in Palestine. She was sister to the famous botanist, Aaron Aaronsohn (1876 – 1919). She was raised in Constantinople from an early age and later returned to Palestine in order to escape an unwanted and unhappy marriage. Aaronsohn became disgusted by the mass murder instigated by the Turks against the Armenians, and became involved with the Jewish spy network known as the Nili, which was headed by her two brothers.
Sarah traveled the country and sent information to British agents via Egypt. She was finally arrested by the Ottoman government, which suspected her of spying for the British. She was apprehended with a code message, and was then tortured, before managing to commit suicide, in order to protect others. Sarah Aaronsohn shot herself with her own gun (Oct 9, 1917) aged twenty-seven, at Zichron Yaakov.

Aas Kaur – (c1776 – 1823)
Sikh princess
Aas Kaur was the daughter of Durdas Singh, ruler of Chattah in the Punjab, and became the wife (1792) of Sahib Singh, ruler of Patiala. Ambitious and manipulative, Aas Kaur managed to insinuate herself into her husband’s favour, after bearing him a son (1797), and succeeded in removing her powerful sister-in-law from the court. However, the princess became involved in a bitter property dispute with her husband, and eventually betrayed him to the British authorities, who removed Sahib Singh from power and placed Aas Kaur as regent for their son (1812).
With her husband’s death in 1813, her son requested that she remain at the head of the government of Patiala, and the British consented to this arrangement. However, just prior to her death, Aas Kaur quarrelled with her son, and was banished from the court to her dower estates.

Aasta Gronske – (c971 – 1020) 
Scandinavian queen
Aasta Gudbrandsdotter was the daughter of the nobleman Gudbrand. Sometimes called Astrid, she married firstly (c988) Harald Gronske, King of Vestfold (died 995) and secondly (c996) Sigurd Styr, King of Ringerike (c965 – 1018). By her first marriage, Aasta was the mother of King Olaf II Haraldsson (995 – 1030) (St Olaf), who was born posthumously.
Queen Aasta was ambitious for her son to become the supreme ruler of Norway, and she and her second husband managed to achieve this ambition for him in 1015. By her second marriage she left several other children, including the famous Norwegian king Harald III Hardraada (1015 – 1066).

A’at – (fl. c1850 – c1830 BC) 
Egyptian queen consort
A’at probably belonged to the family of King Amenemhet III (c1797 – c1870 BC). Her tomb was discovered during the re-examination of Amenemhet’s tomb, conducted by the Egyptologist D. Arnold (1976 – 1983). Queen A’at died aged around thirty-five, and her coffin, which resembled that of the king, was found in a newly uncovered adjoining chamber, together with that of another unidentified queen.
The chamber had been robbed, but some relics were recovered, including two mace-heads, one of rock crystal, the other of limestone, seven alabaster duck-boxes filled with meat and bones, an alabaster unguent jar, and some pieces of jewellery. Also discovered was the queen’s broken limestone canopic chest as well as one of her canopic jars.

Ab, Abb    see   Aebbe

Aba of Cilicia – (fl. c100 BC)
Greek queen of Olba
Aba was the daughter of Zenophantes, tyrant of Cilicia in Asia Minor. She became the wife of the king of Olba, and may have ruled independently, under the protection of Rome, for a period after her husband’s death. She was mentioned by the Greek writer Strabo in his Geographia and her tomb has survived at Canytella in Turkey. The Azerbaijani composer Farhang Huseinov produced the opera Queen Aba (2005) in her honour and the queen’s role was performed by Ozlem Shenormanlilar.

Aba of Auvergne (Ava) – (c865 – after 893)
Carolingian nun
Aba was the daughter of Bernard II Plantvelue (841 – 886), Count of Autun and Auvergne, and his wife Ermengarde of Chalons. She was either the sister or more probably the wife of Hector d’Auvergne, a powerful Carolingian vassal. Before her death Aba became a nun and was appointed as abbess of Sauxillanges.
Hector was an ancestor of the US President George Washington, of Charles VI the Mad of France (1380 – 1422), of Louis XVII, King of France (1793 – 1795) and many other notable historical persons. Their daughter (or her niece) Ava d’Auvergne (c890 – 942) was the wife of Count Geoffrey I of the Gatinais, Viscount of Orleans, and left descendants.

Aba of Hamelant     see    Ava of Hamelant

Abahai – (1590 – 1626)
Chinese Manchu empress consort
Abahai was the daughter of Mantai, the ruling Hulan prince of the Ula Nara tribe, and the granddaughter of Wangtai, Khan of the Hada. She became fourth wife (1601) to the Emperor Nurhaci (1559 – 1626) of the Jin Dynasty, and was mother to three of his sons Dorgon (1612 – 1650), Dodo (1514 – 1649), and Ajige (1605 – 1651). Abahai was married when she only eleven, but two years later with the death of the Empress Xiao Cigao, mother of emperor Hong Taiji, she received the title of Da Fei (1603).
Abahai was granted the title of Ta Fujin (1620), but with the death of Nurhaci (Sept 30) of wounds received at the battle of Ningyuan, Abahai was forced to commit suicide (Oct 1, 1626) by her stepsons, who feared her interference with the the Imperial succession. Abahai was posthumously granted the rank of empress twenty-five years later with the official title Xiao Lieh Wu Huang Hou (1650) by decree of her son Dorgon, who was regent for the young Emperor Shun-chih (1543 – 1661). This decree was rescinded by the emperor shortly after the death of Dorgon (Dec 31, 1650) when he assumed full Imperial power.

Abar – (fl. c750 – c730 BC)
Queen consort of Egypt
According to a surviving stela inscription discovered at Kawa, her unidentified mother was a sister of the Kushite ruler of Egypt, King Alara. The same inscription reveals that her father dedicated her to the temple at Kawa as a sistrum-player, and she is also mentioned on a stela from the city of Tanis.
Abar later became the second wife of King Piye (Piankhy) (c770 – 730 BC), to whom she may have been a sister or sibling of the half-blood. She was the mother of the Ethiopian ruler of Egypt, Tarhaka of Napata (c732 – 663 BC), and was probably the grandmother of King Atlanersa.

Abarca de Bolea, Ana Francisca – (1623 – after 1680)
Spanish religious author
Ana Abarca de Bolea was born at Casbas, and entered the Cistercian order as a novice at the age of three. She later served the community as abbess (1672 – 1676). Ana Francisca was the author of the pastoral novel, Vigilia y Ocataviano de San Ivan Baptista (Vigil and Octave Celebration of St John the Baptist) (1679), and also left poems and personal letters.

Abba – (d. c303 AD)
Graeco-Roman Christian martyr
Abba, or perhaps Alla, was killed in Africa, probably during the persecutions initiated by the emperors Maximian Daia and Diocletian. She perished with a great number of other Christians who refused to make the obligatory sacrifice to the pagan gods. Venerated as a saint her feast (May 7) is recorded in the Acta Sanctorum and the Martyrology of St Jerome.

Abba of Autun    see    Albana of Autun

Abba, Marta – (1900 – 1988)
Italian stage and film actress
Marta Abba was born in Milan, Lombardy (June 25, 1900), and was the elder sister to actress Cele Abba. Her film roles included the the role of La Rossa in Il Caso Haller (1933), directed by Alessandro Blasetti, and the lead in Teresa Confalonieri (1934), directed by Guido Brignone. Abba was particularly famous for her personal relationship with the famous Nobel Prize winning writer Luigi Pirandello (1867 – 1936) whose artistic muse she became.
Abba often played the lead role in several of his works. After his death she resided in Cleveland, Ohio, in the USA for fifteen years (1938 – 1952), where she married an American manufacturer, whom she ultimately divorced. She then returned to Italy. She conducted a lengthy correspondence with Pirandello, much of which has survived, including over 550 letters from Pirandello to her, and nearly three hundred of Abba’s return letters. With her death in Milan, at the age of eight-eight (June 24, 1988) they were bequeathed to the University of Princeton, which caused them to be published (1994).

Abbadia, Luigia (Louisa) – (1821 – 1896)
Italian mezzo-soprano
Luigia Abbadia was born in Genoa, the daughter of the composer and teacher Natale Abbadia, under whom she studied. Abbadia made her stage debut at Sassari in 1836, and in Vienna in 1840, she appeared in the role of Corilla in Donizetti’s Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali. Luigia created the roles of Giulietta in Verdi’s Un giorno di regno (1840) and Inez in Donizetti’s Maria Padilla (1841). After retiring she became a vocal trainer and teacher in Milan. Luigia Abbadia died in Milan.

Abbadie, Marie d’ – (1657 – 1707)
French dynastic figure
Marie was born at Sireix, the daughter of Doumenge IV d’Abbadie (died c1670) and his cousin wife Marie d’Abbadie, the daughter of Doumenge III d’Abbadie. Marie was married (1671) at Sireix to Doumenge Habas d’Arrens (c1651 – c1698) to whom she bore several children. As a widow Dame Marie became the lay abbess of the convent of Sireix held by the Abbadie family, a position filled by her widowed mother and maternal grandmother before her.
Dame Marie died (Dec, 1707) at Sireix aged fifty. Her daughter Marie d’Abbadie de Sireix (1694 – 1752) became the wife of Jean de Saint-Vincent of Pau in Navarre. Through this daughter Marie d’Abbadie became the maternal great-grandmother of the famous Napoleonic general, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte (1763 – 1844) who became King of Sweden as Karl XIV (1818 – 1844) who left descendants.

Abbaka Rani – (c1515 – 1568)
Indian ruler and heroine
Abbaka Rani was a member of the Chowta dynasty of Mudabidri, and personally led the resistance against encroaching Portugese interests in her kingdom of Tulu Nadu in Karnataka. She was later captured by her enemies, and was taken into captivity, dying soon afterwards. Abbaka Rani was revered to the present day as a warrior heroine.

Abbasa – (fl. c770 – c790)
Abbasid princess
Princess Abbasa was the daughter of Al-Mahdi, Caliph of Baghdad (775 – 785) and was sister to Harun al-Rashid. She maintained her own household in a villa within the grounds of her father’s palace in Baghdad. Abbasa was said to have conducted an illicit liasion with the Barmakid prince Jafar, which had serious political overtones, and led to the downfall of that prominent clan. The story of Abbasa’s relationship with Jafar was often recounted by later writers who added their own elaborations and details.
Some versions relate that Abbasa gave birth to an illegitimate child which was sent to Mecca to be raised, but that the whole story was revealed to her brother Rashid by a maidservant. Rashid tracked down the child, confirmed the truth, and had Jafar executed.

Abbatissa – (fl. c1070 – c1100)
Spanish virgin saint
Abbatissa became a nun and was appointed as the first abbess of the convent of the Order of the Holy Ghost in Salamanca, Castile, after the Moors were driven from the region (1055). Regarded as a saint, she was worshipped locally though the date of her veneration is now lost.

Abbema, Louisa – (1858 – 1927)
French painter and portraitist
Louise Abbema she claimed illegitimate descent from King Louis XV (1715 – 1774) and dressed in the uniform of a dragoon captain, complete with tricorne hat. She was the long time friend to the actress Sarah Bernhardt, whom she painted (1876) and (1922). Though her early works were not without artistic talent, Abbema was known more for her colourful lifestyle and appearance. Despite this fact, her work was recognized by many awards, and she was made a chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur. Her work, Lunch in the Hothouse, is preserved at the Museum of Pau, in Navarre.

Abbie, Ruth Heighway – (1907 – 1963)
Australian gynaecologist
Born Frieda Ruth Heighway, in Sydney, New South Wales, she was educated at the Methodist Ladies’ College, at Burwood, and at the University of Sydney, where she eventually graduated as a physician (1939). Ruth travelled to England, spent two years at St Mary’s Hospital, in Lancashire, as resident physician, and then married (1934) the British anatomist and anthropologist, Andrew Smith Abbir (1905 – 1976).
Returning to Australia after her marriage, Abbie set up her own practice at Burwood, and Macquarie Street, in Sydney. She gained honorary appointments with the Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children in Crown Street, Sydney. Abbie removed to Adelaide, in South Australia, after her husband was appointed to the Elder chair of anatomy and histology at the University of Adelaide (1944). There she set herself up in practice and worked at the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital, whilst holding appointments at the Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth hospitals. Abbie was later appointed a fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (1958). Ruth Abbie died (Dec 30, 1963) aged fifty-seven, of ovarian cancer, at North Adelaide.

Abbot, Ellen – (fl. 1869 – after 1885)
British mountaineer
Born Ellen Pigeon, in south London, together with her sister Anna Pigeon she was a fearless and intrepid mountaineer for seven years (1869 – 1876). Abbot and her sister completed over sixty major climbing feats, including the Matterhorn, which climbed twice, Dom, Mont Blanc, and seventy other Alpine passes. The sisters were the first women to climb the Matterhorn from Breuil to Zermatt (1873) and the only the second female team to cover the notoriously dangerous Sesia Joch from Zermatt to Alagna (1869). They co-wrote the basic and unaffected Peaks and Passes (1885), which was written for private circulation.

Abbott, Berenice – (1898 – 1991) 
American photographer
Berenice Abbott was born in Springfield, Ohio (July 17, 1898), the daughter of Charles E. Abbott. Berenice studied firstly at Ohio State University with the intention of becoming a journalist, before moving to New York (1918) and from there to Europe (1921) where she studied sculpture under Brancusi and Bourdelle. Employed from 1923 – 1925 as the assistant to the American photographer Man Ray in Paris, she opened her own portrait studio there (1926).
Her work was firstly exhibited at the Au Sacre du Printemps gallery in Paris (1926) and has had wide distribution throughout the world, including exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago (1951) and at the Smithsonian Institution (1969). Berenice returned to the United States (1929) becoming a professional photopgrapher until 1934 when she gave up practice for teaching. The lifetime companion of art historian Elizabeth McCausland, Berenice settled eventually in Main (1968).
Berenice Abbott was well known and admired for the diversity of her work, notably her project Changing New York (1929 – 1939) and also for her promotion and curatorship of the work of the French photopgrapher Rugene Atget (1856 – 1927), most of whose work she managed to purchase (1928) and place in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her other written works include, The View Camera Made Simple (1948), The World of Atget (1964) and Photographs (1970). Berenice Abbott died in Monson, Maine.

Abbott, Edith – (1876 – 1957)
American social reformer and author
Edith Abbott was the elder sister of Grace Abbott, and was born in Grand Island, Nebraska. She was edcuated at Brownell Hall, Omaha, the universities of Nebraska and Chicago, from which she graduated (1905) follwed by further study abroad in England at the London School of Economics. Edith joined the staff of the Chicago School of Civics and Anthropology (1908), and then resided for the next decade with her sister at the Hull House project, fully involved with social reform for young adults.
Abbott herself founded the Social Services review (1927) which she edited until her death. Her best known works were, Women in Industry (1910), The Delinquent Child and the Home (1912), and she co-wrote The Tenements of Chicago (1936) with her sister. Edith Abbott died (July 28, 1957) aged eighty, at her home in Grand Island aged eighty.

Abbott, Eleanor Hallowell – (1872 – 1958)
American romantic novelist and memoirist
Eleanor Abbott was born (Sept 22, 1872) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the daughter of an editor. She was granddaughter of the children’w writer, Jacob Abbott (1803 – 1879). She attended Radcliffe College and was employed as a schoolteacher. She was married (1908) to Fordyce Coburn, a physician. Her most important work was Molly Make-Believe (1910), and the reminiscences, Being Little in Cambridge When Everyone Else Was Big (1936). She wrote articles for the Ladies’ Home Journal and the Harper’s Monthly Magazine.
Her other works included The White Linen Nurse (1913), The Indiscreet Letter (1915), Peace on Earth, Good-will to Dogs (1920), and the collection, But Once A Year: Christmas Stories (1928). Eleanor Hallowell Abbott died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Abbott, Emma – (1850 – 1891)
American soprano
Emma Abbott was born in Chicago, Illinois. Emma studied singing in New York before travelling to Europe in 1872. There she trained under Mathilde Marchesi and Delle Sedie in Paris. Emma made her debut in London (1876) and in New York in (1877). Later she formed a touring opera company which helped popularize opera in America and Canada. Her favourite role was said to have been that of Margeurite in Theodore Gounod’s Faust. Emma Abbott died in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Abbott, Gertrude – (1846 – 1934)
Australian founder and reformer
Born Mary Jane O’Brien in Sydney, New South Wales, she was the daughter of schoolmaster Thomas O’Brien and his wife Rebecca Matthews. The family lived in Dry creek, South Australia from 1848, and twenty years later Mary Jane entered the Order of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (1868) founded by Mary Mackillop, taking the religious name of Sister Ignatius of Jesus.
Forced to leave the order when a fellow nun was accused of faking visions (1872), she left the convent and came to Sydney, where she took the name of Gertrude Abbott. She gathered around her in Surry Hills a community of women who made their living by dressmaking, and desired to establish an order of contemplative nuns.
Her organization of St Margaret’s Maternity Home in Elizabeth St, Surry Hills (1894) stemmed from her experience of caring for a deserted pregnant girl who was brought to her by a concerned policeman. The home cared for both married and unmarried women, and trained nurses in obstetrics and was run by Gertrude for forty years. The home began treating specifically female diseases from 1904, and an outpatients department was established. She later brought property in Bourke Street, Surry Hills and transferred the hospital there, where it remains. At the time of her death it was the third largest obstetrics hospital in Sydney.

Abbott, Grace – (1878 – 1939) 
American social reformer and author
The younger sister to Edith Abbott, she was born in Grand Island, Nebraska. Grace graduated from Grand Island College (1898), and took her master’s at the University of Chicago (1909).
In 1908 she joined her sister at the Hull House social development organized by Jane Addams, and was appointed the director of the newly established Immigrants’ Protective League, where from 1917 – 1919 she was served as director of the child labour division, the US Children’s Bureau.
Her later appointments included secretary of the Illinois State Immigrants’ Commission (1919 – 1921), and chief of the US Children’s Bureau (1921 – 1934), being particularly involved with the administration of the Maternity and Infancy Act (1922 – 1929). Appointed as the American delegate to the International Labour Organization (1935 and 1937), Grace Abbott was also professor of public welfare at the University of Chicago from 1934 until her death. Her written works include The Immigrant of Massachusetts (1915), The Immigrant and the Community (1917), The Child and the State (2 vols, 1938), and From Relief to Social Security (1940). She co-wrote, The Tenements of Chicago (1936) with her sister. Grace Abbott died (June 19, 1939) in Chicago.

Abbott, Inez – (1896 – 1957)
Australian painter
Inez Abbott studied art under Woodward in Bendigo, Victoria, before travelling abroad to complete her studies at Marseilles, in Provence, France. Most of her working career was spent in France, where she spent most of her working career, and examples of her work are preserved at the Jeu de Paume in Paris. Abbot held several exhibitions of her work in Paris, notably of watercolours and nudes, and successfully represented the Australian section of the Paris Spring Salon (1932).

Abbott, Joan Stevenson – (1899 – 1975)
Australian nursing sister
Joan Abbott was born at Normanby Hill, Queensland, the daughter of an engine driver. She began her nursing career at Brisbane General Hospital in 1920, and obtained her midwife’s certificate, working in infant clinics and private hospitals before travelling to Britain in 1937. Joan saw active service during WW II, being appointed matron of the 2nd/6th Australian General Hospital, after she joined the Royal Australian Nursing Service.
Abbott took fifty nurses to Greece in 1941, but the German advance forced the group to evacuate to Alexandria, Egypt. Joan Abbott and her nurses remained in Gaza and Jerusaalem from 1941 – 1942, running a hospital with 1500 beds, being awarded the Royal Red Cross for her service. Finishing her war service in 1944, and after further study in London, Joan was appointed principal matron of the Citizen Military Forces, and from 1954 – 1956 she as president of the Australasian Trained Nurses’s Association. Awarded the Florence Nightingale medal (1957), in 1962 she was appointed honorary colonel of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps. Joan Abbott died (Nov 27, 1975) aged seventy-five, at Corinda, Queensland.

Abbott, Margaret (1) – (fl. c1620 – 1659)
English polemicist
For more than thirty years of her life she remained an adherent of the Roman Catholic faith. However, her conversion to Protestantism by Baptist preachers is best expressed in her Testimony Against the False Teacher (c1659), in which she celebrates the freedom allowed her in worship by the Protestants.

Abbott, Margaret (2) – (1878 – 1955)
American golfer
Margaret Abbott was born in Calcutta, India to an upper class family. She studied art in Paris, where her interest in golf began as an amusement, and where she entered a nine-hole tournament being held there (1900). Upon her subsequent return to the USA, Abbott married the political satirist, Finley Peter Dunne (1867 – 1936) and continued her interest in golf, obtaining coaching from male amateur players.  Known for her personal style and extremely effective backswing, she was posthumously awarded a gold medal for her previously unknown participation in the Olympic Games (1900). Margaret Abbott died (June 10, 1955) aged seventy-six.

Abbott, Margaret Evans – (1896 – 1976)
American educator and poet
Margaret Evans was born in Galesburg, Illinois, and married author O. Lawrence Abbott. Awarded numerous prizes for her poetry, her work was widely published in newspapers and periodicals such as the Chicago Tribune, the Diplomat and the Denver Post. Abbott was employed for a decade as editorial consultant to Peninsula Poets, which was published by the Poetry Society of Michigan, and co-wrote two novels with her husband Matched Pair and Beyond Now. Margaret Evans Abbott died aged seventy-nine.

Abbott, Maude Elizabeth Seymour – (1869 – 1940) 
Canadian cardiologist and promoter of medical education for women
At first refused entry to the medical school at McGill University in Montreal, from which she had gained her degree, on the grounds of her sex, she was admitted instead to Bishop’s College, where her training continued. Maude spent three years travelling, training, and observing medical procedures in Europe, and, upon her return to Canada, was eventually appointed assistant curator (1898) of the medical museum at McGill, her old alma mater.
It was while she was at McGill that Maude developed the Osler Catalogue of the Circulatory System, and she later both organized and edited the Bulletin of the International Association of Medical Museums (1907). From 1923 – 1925, Maude Abbott served as a visiting professor of pathology and bacteriology to the Women’s Medical College in Pennsylvania, and was later a lecturer on the subjects at McGill, which granted her honorary degrees in belated recognition of her vitally important contributions to medicine. She was also the author of the Atlas of Congenital Cardiac Disease.

Abbott, Wenonah Stevens – (1865 – 1950)
American novelist
Wenonah Abbott was born in Tionesta, Pennsylvania, and produced several highly popular novels over a four decade period. Her published works included Love’s Legacy (1892), A Jealous Father (1894) and From Pilgrimage to Pilgrimage (1934). Wenonah Stevens Abbott died (March 16, 1950) aged eighty-four.

Abda – (d. c303 AD)
Graeco-Roman Christian martyr
Abda was killed in Africa, probably during the persecutions arranged by the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian Daia. Her feast (March 31) is recorded in the Acta Sanctorum. Abda was mentioned in the Martyrologium Rhinoviense.

Abda of Navarre – (fl. c980 – c990)
Spanish royal
Abda was the illegitimate daughter of King Sancho II of Navarre, and of a mistress and was surnamed ‘Las Vascona’ (the Magpie), which was possibly an allusion to a dark complexion.
Her father caused Abda to be married to the Moslem ruler, the Amir Al-Mansur Inb Abi, the vizier of Cordoba. King Sancho could not overthrow Al-Mansur with military might, so he visited the Cordova laden with gifts, and granted him Abda in marriage to seal the alliance.
Abda was the mother of Abd-al-Rahman Sanchuelo (983 – 1009), the heir to the caliphate of Cordova, who was born and died a Christian, due to the influence of his mother and grandfather. After the birth of her son, Princess Abda separated from her husband and entered a convent where she was veiled as a nun.

Abdila – (1879 – 1930)
Queen consort of Iraq (1916 – 1924)
Abdila was the daughter of Salih Bey, and became the the second wife (1894) of King Husain ibn Ali (1853 – 1931).Abdiya accompanied her husband into exile to the island of Cyprus (1924 – 1930), where she died. She was the mother of Prince Zeid (1898 – 1970) the official Head of the Royal House of Iraq (1958 – 1970) after the assassination of King Faisal II. Her younger daughter Princess Sara bint Husain became the wife of of Atta Beg Amin, the Turkish governor of the Sanjak of Iskenderun.

Abdiya – (1907 – 1958)
Hashemite princess of the Hijaz
Abdiya was born in Constantinople, Turkey, the eldest daughter of Ali ibn Husain (1879 – 1935), King of the Hijaz and the Grand Sharif of Mecca (1924 – 1925) and his wife Nefissa, the daughter of Abd al-Ilah Pasha, the Great Sharif of Mecca. She was sister to Abd al-Ilah, the Regent of Iraq for his nephew, King Faisal II (1939 – 1953).
Abdiya never married and remained a member of the Iraqi court. Princess Abdiya was murdered in Baghdad (July 14, 1958) with King Faisal II, her mother Queen Nefissa, and several other members of the royal family, in a military coup which saw the end of the monarchy in Iraq and the establishment of a republican government.

Abdy, Maria – (1788 – 1867) 
British poet
Maria Smith was born in London, the daughter of Richard Smith, a solicitor to the Board of Ordinance, and and was the younger sister of the poet Horace Smith (1779 – 1849). Maria was married the Reverend J. Channing Abdy. She began writing poetry in childhood, and was encouraged to contribute poetry to the New Monthly Magazine and the Metropolitan. She also contributed work to periodicals such as The Keepsake and the Book of Beauty.
Her first volume, Poetry, was published privately in 1834 and this was followed by seven others, written during a twenty-four year period (1838 – 1862). Her longest poem, An Appeal on Behalf of Governesses, appeared before 1856. Her poetry is characterized by a slight feminist slant, and witty sardonic humour.

a’Beckett, Ada Mary – (1872 – 1948)
Australian biologist and university lecturer
Born Ada Mary Lambert, in Adelaide, South Australia, she attended the Advanced School for Girls in Adelaide, and graduated from the University of Adelaide (1897), having taught science whilst completing her degree. She lectured in biology at Melbourne University (1898 – 1901) then married and produced a family. Two decades later, with her children grown a’Beckett resumed her former career as a teacher and was appointed to head the biology department at Scotch College, in Melbourne (1921 – 1937).
Interested in the education of young children, a’Beckett also served as the president of the Victorian Free Kindergarten Union for over twenty years (1916 – 1939). She was also the president of the Kindergarten Training College at Kew, in Melbourne, which she had helped to found. Ada a’Beckett died (May 20, 1948) aged seventy-six, in Melbourne.

Abel, Sherry Goldman – (1904 – 1992)
American editor
Sherry Goldman was born in Chicago, Illinois, and graduated from the University of Chicago. She married twice, her second husband being the dramatist and author Lionel Abel, from whom she was divorced (1964). Abel held various literary jobs, including compiling a Yiddish encyclopedia, working for Time magazine, and editing a volume on the cinema, before joined Commentary magazine as an editorial manager (1950). She was eventually appointed managing editor and retired not long after her divorce. Sherry Abel died (May 28, 1992) in Manhattan, New York.

Abell, Lydia – (1872 – 1959)
Australian nurse
Lydia Abella was born in Wallsend, New South Wales, the daughter of Elijah Abell. After completing her nursing training at Newcastle Hospital, NSW, Lydia became a foundation member of the Australian Trained Nurses Association in 1915. She also worked as a volunteer with Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Nursing Service and the Royal Red Cross during WW I. From 1921 until her retirement in 1933, Lydia was a staff member at Lady Davidson Hospital at Turramurra, in Sydney. She remained unmarried. Lydia Abell died at Concord, in Sydney.

Abella of Salerno – (c1330 – c1380)
Italian medical writer
Abella was a teacher at Salerno in Sicily, and her areas of expertise were insanity and childbirth. She wrote medical treatises on both these subjects which have survived De atra bile is on madness (which Abella terms ‘black bile’) and the other on childbirth De Natura seminis.

Abel Smith, Henrietta Alice Cadogan, Lady – (1914 – 2005)
British courtier
Henrietta Cadogan was the daughter of Commander Francis Charles Cadogan of the Royal Navy, and his wife Ruth Evelyn Howard, the widow of Captain Gardner Bazley. She was married firstly (1939) to Sir Anthony Frederick Palmer, to whom she bore two children. Palmer was killed in action during WW II (1941) and Henrietta remarried (1953) to Sir Alexander Abel Smith, KCVO (1904 – 1980) to whom she also bore two children.
Lady Abel Smith served at court as lady-in-waiting to the Princess Elizabeth (1949) and continued in that capacity after her acession to the throne (1953). She served the queen for almost forty years and was made a Commander of the Victorian Order (CVO) (1964) and a Dame Commander of the Victorian Order (DCVO) (1977). She retired from full time service in 1987, but the queen retained her services as an extra lady-in-waiting for several years afterwards. Apart from her court duties, Lady Abel Smith served the community as a Justice of the Peace, being appointed as such for Tunbridge Wells in Kent (1955) and later for the county of Gloucestershire (1971). Lady Abel Smith died (May 3, 2005) aged ninety.

Abel Smith, May Helen Cambridge, Lady – (1906 – 1994)
British royal and courtier
Princess May of Teck was born (Jan 23, 1906) at Claremont, in Esher, Surrey, the daughter of Prince Alexander of Teck, the brother-in-law to King George V (1910 – 1936) whose family took the surname of Cambridge and the earldom of Athlone in lieu of their former princely titles becoming Lady May Cambridge (1917).  Her mother was Princess Alice of Albany, the daughter to Prince Leopold, and granddaughter to Queen Victoria.
Lady May was bridesmaid at the wedding of the future George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyons (1923). May was married (1931) at Balcombe in Sussex to Colonel Sir Henry Abel Smith (1900 – 1993), who served as governor of Queensland in Australia, to whom she bore three children. She was the first royal bride to omit the word ‘obey’ from the marriage service. Due to her work with the establishment and organization of military hospitals during World War II, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem (CStJ).
Throughout her later years she formed a trusted member of the court that surrounded Queen Elizabeth, the widow of King George VI and resided at Barton Lodge at Winkfield, near Windsor in Berkshire, and in London. Lady Abel Smith died (May 29, 1994) aged eighy-eight at Barton Lodge. She was the last surviving great-grandchild of King George III (1760 – 1820).

Abenberg, Stilla von – (c1110 – c1140)
German virgin saint
Stilla was born at Abenberg, Bavaria, the daughter of Count Wolfgang II von Abenberg. Stilla built the church of St Peter near her home (1136), and then took a vow of virginity in the prescence of Otto, Bishop of Bamberg, living a life of prayer and meditation in her father’s home. When Stilla died, her brothers wanted to bury her at Heilsbronn, but the two horses drawing her funeral cortege refused to pull in that direction, turning always towards the church of St Peter, where they finally allowed her to be interred. Her tomb became a centre for pilgrimage and in 1897 the Bishop of Eichstatt was able to establish that the veneration of Stilla had been prominent in the region for well over three hundred years since (c1534). Her cult as a beata was confirmed (1927) and her feast was observed (July 19).

Abendroth, Irene – (1872 – 1932)
Austrian soprano
Irene Abendroth was born in Lemberg. A child prodigy, she entered the Vienna Conservatory in 1885, and then studied at Milan. Possessing a very powerful voice, Irene made her debut in Vienna in 1889. Before retiring in 1908, she had a repertoire of over seventy operatic roles, including coloratura and dramatic parts. Some recordings of her voice made in 1902 survive. Irene Abendroth died at Weidling, Vienna.

Aberconway, Laura Elizabeth Pochin, Lady – (1852 – 1933)
British political activist, feminist, and writer
Laura Elizabeth Pochin was the daughter of the noted industrialist, Henry Davis Pochin. She was married (1877) in Westminster, London, to Sir Charles Bright MacLaren (1850 – 1934), who was later created the first Baron Aberconway, whereupon she became the Baroness Aberconway (1911 – 1933). Lady Aberconway founded the Liberal Women’s Suffrage Union, and performed valuable volunteer work for the war effort, organizing comforts and hospital units for the troops. She also turned her house in London into a hospital for servicemen. In recognition of this work was created D.G.St.J (Daughter of Grace of St John of Jerusalem) and CBE (Commander of the British Empire) by King George V (1918).
Her published works included, The Women’s Charter or Rights and Liberties (1909), and, The Prime Minister and Women’s Suffrage (1913). Lady Aberconway was a friend to the noted American painter, James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 – 1903), who resided for some years at Chelsea in London, and was herself a talented horticulturalist, organizing additions to the Bodnant Garden, which had been established by her father. Lady Aberconway died (Jan 4, 1933) aged eighty, at Antibes, France. Her children were,

• Hon. (Honourable) Henry Duncan McLaren (1879 – 1953). He succeeded his father as the second Baron Aberconway (1934 – 1953). He was married and left descendants.
• Hon. Elsie Dorothea McLaren (1880 – 1973). She became the wife of Colonel Sir Edward Alexander James Johnson-Ferguson (died 1953), second Baronet, and left issue.
• Hon. Florence Priscilla McLaren (1883 – 1964). She was married to Sir Henry Norman (1858 – 1939), first Baronet, and left issue.
• Hon. Francis Walter Stopford McLaren (1886 – 1917). He was married and left issue, but was killed in action during WW I.

Abercorn, Mary Kathleen Crichton, Duchess of – (1905 – 1990)
British courtier
Mary Kathleen Crichton was the only child of Henry William, Viscount Crichton, who was the eldest son and heir of John Henry Crichton, fourth Earl of Erne. Her mother was Lady Mary Cavendish Grosvenor, the daughter of Hugh Grosvenor, first Duke of Westminster, who remarried to Hon. (Honourable) Algernon Stanley. Queen Mary, the consort of George V (1910 – 1936) stood as sponsor at her christening.
Lady Mary Crichton was married (1928) to James Edward Hamilton (1904 – 1979), the fourth Duke of Abercorn, to whom she bore three children, including James Hamilton (born 1934), the fifth Duke. The Duchess served as Mistress of the Robes to HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, the widow of George VI, from 1964 and was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO). The Duchess of Abercorn died (Feb 2, 1990) aged eighty-four.

Aberdeen, Ishbel Maria Majoribanks, Marchioness of – (1857 – 1939)
British campaigner for women’s rights
Ishbel Majoribanks was the daughter of Sir Dudley Coutts Majoribanks, Lord Tweedmouth, and his wife Isabella Weir-Hogg. Educated privately, she married (1877) John Campbell Gordon, first marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, to whom she bore five children. Lady Aberdeen was devoted to religious and philanthropic causes, her interest in liberalism having been fostered by her mother and the influence of William Gladstone. She set up cottage and village industry in Ireland under the Irish Industries Association, and also founded the Women’s National Health Association (1907), which did valuable pioneer work in the field of mother and child welfare.
Whilst Lord Aberdeen served as governor-general of Canada (1893 – 1898), Lady Aberdeen became interested in the work of the National Council of Women, and was appointed president of the International Council of Women (1893). She introduced the Onward and Upward Association, and in Canada she founded the Victorian Order of Nurses (1898). Her work was acknowledged by George V when she was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the British Empire (GBE) (1931) and she received honorary doctorates from Aberdeen University and the Queen’s University, in Kingston, Ontario. Lady Aberdeen died (April 18, 1939) aged eighty-one, in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Abergavenny, Elizabeth de Beauchamp, Lady – (1415 – 1448)
English Plantaganet heiress and peeress
Lady Elizabeth de Beauchamp was born (Sept 16, 1415) at Hanley Castle, Worcestershire, the daughter and co-heiress of Richard de Beauchamp, second Baron Abergavenny, and his wife Isabel le Despenser, the daughter of Thomas le Despenser, fifth Baron le Despenser and his wife Constance of York, the granddaughter of King Edward III (1327 – 1377). Through both her parents was Elizabeth descended from King Edward I (1272 – 1307) and his first wife Eleanor of Castile, and thus a descendant of the the Emperor Charlemagne (800 – 814) and of the Merovingian kings.
Elizabeth was married (1424) to Sir Edward Neville (died 1476), the grandson of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and his third wife Katherine Swynford. Elizabeth became the third holder of the feudal barony of Abergavenny (1424 – 1448) and after her death her husband was summoned to Parliament as Baron Abergavenny in her right until his death. Their marriage was not apparently a contented one as during her lifetime Lord William cohabited with his mistress Katherine Howard, the granddaughter of Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, and who later became his second wife. Lady Abergavenny died (June 18, 1448) aged thirty-two, and was interred within the convent of the Carmelites in Coventry. Her children included Sir George Neville (1435 – 1492) who succeeded his father as fourth Baron Abergavenny (1476 – 1492) and her descendants included Kellemn Throckmorton who went on the first expedition to Jamestown, Virginia, and died there (1607).

Abergavenny, Frances Manners, Lady – (c1530 – 1576)
English devotional writer
Lady Frances Manners was the daughter of Thomas Manners, first Earl of Rutland and his second wife Eleanor Paston, the daughter of Sir William Paston (c1479 – 1554) of Norfolk. She became the wife of Henry Neville (c1525 – 1587), sixth Baron Abergavenny. Their daughter Mary Neville (1554 – 1626) became suo jure Baroness le Despenser and by her marriage with Sir Thomas Fane (died 1611), Lady Frances was ancestress of the Earls of Westmorland.
Lady Abergavenny wrote religious prose and composed the collection entitled Prayers made by the Right Honorable Lady Frances Aburgavennie (1572) several years before her death, which was dedicated to her daughter and later appeared in Thomas Bentley’s work Monument of Matrones (1582).

Abergavenny, Mary Patricia Harrison, Marchioness of – (1915 – 2005)
British courtier
Mary Harrison was the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel John Fenwick Harrison, and his wife Margery Olive Edith Lawson, the daughter of the third Baron Burnham. She was married (1938) to John Henry Guy Nevill, the fifth Marquess of Abergavenny to whom she bore five children. Lady Abergavenny served at court as an extra lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II (1960 – 1966), and then as a more permanent lady-in-waiting for two decades (1966 – 1987). Finally, aged over seventy, she retired and took on the less onerous duties of an extra lady again. When not engaged with her court duties, she resided between her apartment in central London and her estate of Eridge Park, in Tunbridge Wells, East Sussex. Lady Abergavenny died (Feb 22, 2005) aged eighty-nine.

Abergavenny, Rachel Lennard, Lady – (c1565 – 1616)
English music patron
Rachel Lennard was the daughter of John Lennard, of Knoll, Kent. She became the wife of Sir Edward Neville, later the eighth Lord Abergavenny (1604 – 1622), and was the mother of Henry Neville, ninth Baron Abergavenny (1622 – 1641). Lady Abergavenny has been identified as the ‘Lady Nevill’ who was the original owner of ‘My Lady Nevells Booke,’ a collection of forty-two virginal pieces by William Byrd, the choirmaster and organist of Lincoln Cathedral from 1575, which was transcribed in 1591 by John Baldwin, of Windsor, for Lady Abergavenny’s personal use.

Abernon, Helen Venetia Duncombe, Lady d’ – (1866 – 1954)
British diplomatic hostess and diarist
Lady Helen Duncombe was the daughter of William Duncombe, first earl of Faversham, and his wife Mabel Violet Graham. A famous society beauty, the younger sister of Hermione, Duchess of Leinster, she married (1890) Sir Edgar Vincent (1857 – 1941), who was later created baron (1920) and viscount d’Abernon (1926). The marriage remained childless. Lady Vincent entertained regularly at her residences of Stoke D’Abernon and Esher Place, in Surrey, and was a friend to Margot Asquith, Lady Desborough, and Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough. Her portrait was painted by John Singer Sargent, and her exquisite beauty was much admired abroad, notably in France, where her photograph appeared in the stylish Parisian edition of Les Modes (1900).
During World War I, Lady Vincent became involved in hospital work with the Red Cross, was trained as an anaesthetist, and cared for some thirteen hundred patients. After the war, Lady d’Abernon (as she had become) accompanied her husband to his posting in Germany, becoming the official diplomatic hostess at the British Embassy in Berlin, in Prussia (1920 – 1926).
Fluent in German, her re-organisation of the embassy was highly praised by Lady Curzon. During her widowhood she published her diary, Red Cross and Berlin Embassy 1915 – 1926. Extracts from the Diaries of Viscountess d’Abernon (1946). She survived her husband twelve years as the Dowager Viscountess d’Abernon (1941 – 1954). Lady d’Abernon died (May 16, 1954) aged eighty-seven.

Abhaya – (fl. c500 – c480 BC)
Indian poet
Abhaya was raised in the Ujjeni region and followed her friend Padumavati, when she joined an order of Buddhist nuns. One of her poems is preserved in the Therigatha. She received spiritual enlightenment whilst meditating over the remains of a corpse.

Abhirupa-Nanda – (fl. c500 – c480 BC) 
Indian poet
Abhirupa-Nanda was born into a noble Sakyan family in Kapilavatthu, the daughter of the local leader Khema, and his chief wife.  Permitted to choose her own husband, she chose Carabhuta, who inexplicably died on the same day. Because of this her parents forced her to become a Buddhist nun against her will. Finally converted from her recalcitrant attitude to true religious faith by the example of Gautama Buddha himself, Abhirupa-Nanada devoted herself to the practice of pious meditation. One of her poems survives in the Therigatha, and deals with the various stages of religious meditation.

Abiata – (d. c343 AD)
Persian Christian virgin martyr
Abiata was a native of Beth-Germana. She had been converted by Narses, Bishop of Sciaharcadat, with two other Persian women, Hates and Mamlacha. Abiata and her compnaions were members of a larger group of Christians who were arrested and condemned by order of King Sapor I. All were executed togther with Bishop Narses at Beth-Germana and the widow Bahuta.
All were collectively honoured by the church as saints (Nov 20).

Abida Sultan – (1913 – 2002)
Infian princess of Bhopal
Princess Abida Sultan was the eldest daughter of Hamidullah Khan, the last Nawab of Bhopal, and was heiress presumptive to the throne of Bhopal. She had married and produced a son and later renounced her rights to the throne (1950) and became a resident of the newly formed state of Pakistan where she was employed with the foreign service. This move for personal independence resulted in Abida being removed from the succession in favour of a younger sister. She died in Karachi. Her son Shaharyar Khan became the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan.

Abiertas, Josepha – (1894 – 1929)
Philippino feminist and lawyer
Josepha Abiertas was bon in Capiz, and orphaned during her youth. Educated in Capiz, she later enrolled to study law in the Philippine Law School. Abiertas became the first Philippino woman to graduate as a lawyer, and she was the author of the lecture entitled ‘The New Age for Women,’ in which she advocated the right to vote be granted to all women. Abiertas campaigned continually for the acceptance of female suffrage, for the betterment of the lives of the working classes, and worked hard to gain better conditions for the poor and oppressed Philippino farmers. She died young, of tuberculosis.

Abigail – (fl. c1030 – c990 BC)
Hebrew princess
Abigaill was one of the sisters of King David, being children of Jesse of Bethlehem. Her sister was named Zeruiah, these facts being recorded in the Bible (Chronicles II. 2: 16). In another verse (Chronicles I. 2: 17) Abigail is called the daughter of Nahash, who was an obscure relative of King David. He was perhaps their stepfather. Princess Abigail became the wife of Ithra the Ishmaelite (elsewhere called Jether the Ishmaelite), and according to (Samuel II. 17: 25) she was the mother of the king’s nephew Amasa, whom his cousin Absalom appointed military commander in the place of Joab, the son of Abigail’s sister Zeruiah.

Abigail of Carmel – (c1020 – c990 BC) 
Hebrew queen consort
Abigail was married firstly to Nabal, a wealthy goat and sheep farmer of Carmel. Beautiful and intelligent, King David desired her as his wife. When Nabal refused to feed some of the king’s soldiers, Abigail herself took the provisions to them, and thus appeased the king’s anger. With Nabal’s death ten days later from a surfeit of wine, David married Abigail. Later, when David sought refuge from King Saul, in the Philistine territories, Abigail and Ahinoam, another of David’s wives, accompanied him. The two women were captured during an Amalekite raid, but David tracked down the raiders and rescued them. Her son Chileab long resided at the court of Aschish, king of Gath.

Abijah – (fl. c755 BC)
Hebrew queen consort of Judah
Abijah was the daughter of Zachariah, and became the wife of Jotham (c770 – c734 BC), King of Judah. She was the mother of his son and successor, King Ahaz (c755 – c727 BC). These details are recorded in the Bible (Kings II. 18: 2).

Abingdon, Eleonora Lee, Countess of – (1655 – 1691)
English literary patron
Eleonora Lee was the daughter of Sir Henry Lee, of Quarendon, Essex, and was the elder sister of the poet Anne Wharton. The heiress of the ancient county family of Danvers, she married (1672) James Bertie, first Earl of Abingdon, to whom she bore six children. Lady Abingdon was a patron of the poet John Dryden who wrote the panegyric Eleonora to commemorate her.

Abinger, Jeanne Japy, Lady     see   Steinheil, Margeurite Jeanne

Abington, Frances (Fanny) – (1737 – 1815)
British actress
Born Frances Barton, in London, she was the daughter of a soldier turned cobbler. She spent her early years in various lowly professions, and was in turns a flower girl, a street singer, and a kitchenmaid, before being trained as a milliner in Paris, which later accounted for the popularity of her ‘Abington cap.’ She made her first stage appearance at the Haymarket Theatre in 1755, and rose to fame in 1759 in Dublin. That same year she married her music teacher, James Abington, but the match proved uncongenial and the couple seperated after several scandals. Fanny returned to Drury Lane Theatre in London and placed herself under the direction of David Garrick, who admired her acting, but disliked her tantrums.
Extremely versatile as a performer, she excelled in Shakespearean heroic and romantic roles, such as Portia, Desdemona, and Ophelia, and shone in comic roles such as Lady Teazle in School for Scandal, and Polly Peachum in The Beggar’s Opera. Fanny retired in 1797 and was painted by Zoffany and Sir Joshua Reynolds, who produced his Mrs Abington as the Comic Muse, which is now owned by the National Trust. Richard Cosway’s portrait of her as Thalia was engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi. Her estranged husband died in 1806, and Abington survived him nine years. Frances Abington died (March 4, 1815) aged seventy-seven, in Pall Mall, London.

Abirhilt – (fl. c750)
Merovingian scribe
Abirhilt was a nun attached to the Abbey of Wurzburg in Franconia. She worked in the scriptorium there illuminating books and parchments. Her name appears on a surviving copy of the Homiliae in Evangila, a work of Gregorius.

Abishag – (fl. c970 – c966 BC) 
Hebrew queen
Abishag was a member of the Shunamite tribe, and became the companion wife of King David’s old age (c970 – 966 BC), though the union supposedly remained unconsummated. When her stepson Adonijah, requested to marry her, his half-brother Solomon chose to view this as treason, and had the prince executed, thus successfully disposing of a potential rival for the throne. Her story was recorded in the Bible in, Kings I (4: 15) and (13: 25). Abishag’s fate is unrecorded, though she most probably passed into the harem of Solomon, her younger stepson, which thus rendered her politically inactive.

Abish Khatun – (c1259 – 1287)
Salghurid ruler of Fars, in Shiraz
Abish Khatun was the daughter of Sa’d II bint Abi Bakr bint sa’d bint Zangi, the ruler of Fars, and his wife Terken Khatun. In 1264 whilst still an infant she was installed as ruler of Fars by order of the Mongol Ilkhan Hulegu, and her name appeared on the coinage. In 1274 Abish married the mongol prince Mengu-Temur, a younger son of Hulegu, to whom she had been betrothed since infancy. This marriage between a Muslim and a Mongol prince was forbidden by Islamic law, but the dynastic considerations prevailed. Abish Khatun bore two daughters, but in 1284 the Ilkhan Ahmad Teguder sent her to Fars as governor, as replacement to her husband. Her rule was a period of gross financial mismanagement and civil disorder, and in 1286 she was ordered to appear before the Ilkhan and answer for her incompetence. Abish insulted the Ilkhan’s representatives in a highly objectionable manner, but was brought to heel, and died in disfavour soon afterwards.

Abisimti – (c2105 – c2025 BC) 
Sumerian queen consort
Abisimti was the sister of Babati, military governor of Maskan-sarrum and of Awal, and became the wife of Shulgi, King of Ur (reigned c2095 – c2048 BC). A woman of some strength of character, Abisimti long survived her husband and was honoured as queen mother during the successive reigns of three of her sons, Amar-Sin (c2047 – c2039 BC), Shu-Sin (c2038 – c2030 BC), and Ibbi-Sin (c2029 – c2006 BC). The surviving seal of her brother specifically refers to Abisimti as King Shu-Sin’s ‘beloved mother.’ Queen Abisimti died aged about eighty.

Abney, Elizabeth – (1704 – 1782) 
British heiress and philanthropist
Elizabeth Abney was the youngest, but only surviving daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Abney, Lord Mayor of London, and his second wife Mary, the daughter of John Gunston. With her father’s death (Feb, 1722) Elizabeth and her two sisters, together with their widowed mother, inherited the bulk of Sir Thomas’s impressive fortune and estates. However, by the time of her mother’s death (1750) Elizabeth was the only surviving daughter, and she inherited all the estates.
Miss Abney never married and was known as the ‘lady of tha manor of Stoke Newington.’ She directed in her will that the lease of the estates of Abney Park, together with her property of Stoke Newington, should be sold, and the proceeds distributed to the poor or to respected charitable organisations. Abney House was eventually demolished (1815). Elizabeth Abney died (Aug, 1782), aged seventy-eight.

Abott, Bessie Pickens – (1878 – 1919)
American soprano
Bessie Abott was born at Riverside, New York. Having appeared firstly in vaudeville and operetta, Jean de Reszke enabled Bessie to study in Paris with Mathilde Marchesi, the teacher of Nellie Melba, and Victor Capoul. In 1901 she made her debut in France, and she was performing in San Francisco on the night of the great earthquake (1906). Bessie retired in 1911. Bessie Pickens Abott died in New York.

Abra – (c90 – 62 BC) 
Roman conspirator
Abra was the personal slave to Pompeia, the wife of Julius Caesar. Abra became involved in the plot to allow Publius Clodius to meet Pompeia secretly, in her own house dressed as a woman during the sacred Orphic rituals performed in her home, for the Mother goddess, the Bona Dea. Abra arranged for the doors to be left open so Clodius could gain admittance, but he was detected by servants of Aurelia, the mother of Caesar, and was later found hiding in Abra’s room. Clodius was arraigned for religious sacrilege, but was acquitted to gratify the plebs, with whom he was immensely popular. Abra, as a slave, had no such protection, and was quickly put to death.

Abra of Poitiers (Afra) – (342 – 360 AD) 
Gallo-Roman nun
Abra was the daughter of Hilarius (Hilary), Bishop of Poitiers (c300 – 367 AD), who came from an old patrician family. Following the written advice of her father, sent to her during her childhood, Abra never married, dedicated herself as a virgin nun, and died aged seventeen, without pain or disease. Her father’s letter survives, as does one of the two hymns he wrote and sent to her at the same time, Lucis Largitor splendide. The early church regarded her as a saint, her feast being celebrated (Dec 13).

Abra, Catherine d’ – (1581 – 1641)
French nun
Catherine d’Abra de Raconis was the younger daughter of Francois d’Abra de Raconis, and his third wife Rachel Bochart, who remarried to Antoine de Cormont, sieur de Villeneuve. She was the aunt of Charles Francois d’Abra de Raconis, Bishop of Lavaur (1590 – 1646). She was the half-sister was Louise d’Abra. Remaining unmarried and having a religious vocation, Catherine founded convent for Franciscan Carmelites in the rue Chapon in Paris, of which she was first prioress. Her elder sister of the full-blood, Judith d’Abra (living 1592), became a Clarissan nun in Verdun as Sister Florence. Catherine d’Abra died there (Feb 12, 1641).

Abra, Louise d’ – (1566 – 1666)
French nun
Louise d’Abra de Raconis was the elder daughter of Francois d’Abra de Raconis and his second wife Marie Coignet, and was the elder half-sister to Catherine and Judith d’Abra. She was the full-sister to Olivier d’Abra de Raconis, Seigneur de Perderauville, and was the aunt of Charles d’Abra de Raconis, Bishop of Lavaur. She embraced the religious life, and took the veil at Pontoise in Normandy, where she resided as a nun for over eighty years of her life. Louise d’Abra died aged one hundred.

Abrahams, Caroline Harriet – (1809 – 1877) 
New Zealand painter
Caroline Hudson was born at Wanlip Hall, Leicestershire, England, the daughter of Charles Thomas Hudson (later Palmer) and his wife Harriet Pepperell. The first forty years of her life were spent resentfully nursing her invalid mother, but at her death (1848) Caroline was freed from familial restraint, and she quickly married (1850) the Anglican clergyman Charles John Abraham (1814 – 1903) to whom she bore an only son Charles (1857) who was himself to become a bishop. The couple immigrated to New Zealand, where Caroline had relatives in Auckland. Charles Abraham was appointed chaplain to St John’s College, Auckland.
A talented water colour painter, Caroline produced many sketches of the fledgling colony in Auckland, which have survived and remain a visible record of the period. She also produced details sketches of St John’s College (1851) as well as water colour views of North Head, Howick and Taurara (Judges Bay) around Auckland, and Porirua Harbour in the Wellington district. Togther with her husband, her cousin Bishop Selwyn, and Sir William and Lady Martin, Caroline helped produce Extracts of letters from New Zeland on the war question (1861), which was printed in London for private circulation, and presented the real position of the Maori people. Abrahams later returned to England with her husband (1870). Examples of her works survive in the Auckland City Art Gallery, and the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington. Caroline Harriet Abrahams died (June 17, 1877) in Bournemouth.

Abrahams, Elsie – (1910 – 2000)
Australian pathologist
Elsie Abrahams was born in Warrnambool, Victoria, the daughter of William Abrahams, and attended Essendon High School, Melbourne. There she obtained a scholarship to pursue further scientific studies. Deciding instead to study medicine she graduated with honours (1935) and was appointed official resident and medical officer of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Royal Children’s Hospital, and the Austin hospital in Melbourne.
Elsie later joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, where she studied pathology and established herself as Australia’s first female morbid anatomist.After service in World War II she was appointed chief pathologist at the Queen Victoria Hospital (1948) where she remained for nearly thirty years until her eventual retirement (1975). Elsie Abrahams died (Jan 22, 2000) aged eighty-nine, in Melbourne.

Abrahams, Esther – (1771 – 1846)
Jewish-Australian convict and colonial wife
Esther Abrahams was convicted a stealing several yeards of black lace from a London shop, and was confined to Newgate Prison (1786). Despite pleading pregnancy, she was transported to Australia, arriving with the First Fleet, aboard the Lady Penrhyn (1788). During the voyage she formed a liasion with George Johnston, the future leader of the New South Wales Corps, and aide-de-camp to Governors Arthur Philip and Hunter. She bore Johnston seven children, and was known as Mrs Esther Julian. She received a grant of nearly six hundred acres of land for herself (1809), and Johnston finally married her (1814).
However, her convict and Jewish origins, and the knowledge of her relationship with Johnston beofre their marriage prevented Abrahams from ever maintining a social position of any king in the colony. With her husband’s death (1823), Abrahams inherited the 2,500 acre estate of Annandale, which her second son Robert tried to wrest from her, eventually proceeding to have her declared insane, and therefore incompetent of managing her affairs (1831). She spent the last fifteen years of her life on her son’s estate on the George’s River.

Abrams, Harriet – (1760 – 1825)
British vocalist and composer
Harriet Abrams was the daughter of John Abrams, and was sister to contralto, Theodosia Abrams. The most celebrated of five talented sisters, she was taught by Thomas Augustine Arne, and David Garrick sponsored her first public appearance at the Drury Lane Theatre (1775). Abrams appeared as Leonora in The Padlock (1775) and then appeared with her sister Theodosia in the Concerts of Ancient Music (1776), organized by Joah Bates.
Miss Abrams sang as a soloist and sang in the Handel Memorial Concerts at Westminster Abbey and at the Pantheon (1784). She never married and long resided with her sister Theodosia. Abrams composed popular songs, and sixteen of her works survive in the British Museum catalogue of printed music, including, ‘A Smile and a Tear,’ ‘The Friend of My Heart,’ and ‘The Orphan’s Prayer,’ but her best remembered work was the popular ‘Crazy Jane.’

Abrams, Theodosia – (1761 – 1849)
British contralto
Theodosia Abrams was the daughter of John Abrams, and the younger sister of Harriet Abrams. She was married firstly Captain Thomas Fisher and secondly (1812) Joseph Garrow. Established in her youth as a popular vocalist, Abrams appeared with her sister Harriet in the Concerts of Ancient Music (1776) and in 1784 performed at the Handel Memorial Concert in Westminster Abbey, and at the Pantheon. Her aria, ‘Thou shalt bring him in,’ from The Israelite in Egypt, brought her critical acclaim. Towards 1800 Theodosia retired, and survived her fame by fifty years.
Theodosia Abrams died (Nov 4, 1849) aged eighty-eight, at Braddons in Torquay, Devon.

Abranches, Adelina – (1866 – 1945)
Portugese stage and film actress
Adelina Abranches was the mother of actress Aura Abranches. She appeared with her daughter in the classic Portugese film Lisboa (Lisbon) (1930), sometimes called by its full title of Cronica Anedotica Lisboa.

Abranches, Aura – (1896 – 1962)
Portugese actress
Aura Abranches was the daughter of veteran actress Adelina Abranches. Though best known for her stage work, Abranches appeared with her mother in the classic Portugese film Lisboa (Lisbon) (1930), which is known by the alternative title Cronica Anedotica Lisboa. Other film roles included Mariana in Rosa de Alfama (1953), and the aunt in Dois Dias no Paraiso (1958). Her last film appearance was in O Primo Basilio (1959). Aura Abranches died (March 22, 1962) aged sixty-five, in Lisbon, Estramadura.

Abrantes, Laure Saint-Martin de Permon, Duchesse d’ – (1784 – 1838)
French memoirist
Laure de Permond was born at Montpellier, in Languedoc. A friend of the Bonaparte family, she became the wife (1800) of Andoche Junot, Duc d’Abrantes (1771 – 1813) French general and aide-de-camp to the Emperor Napoleon, who provided her dowry and trousseau. Madame d’Abrantes entertained on a grand scale in Paris, and accompanied her husband to Portugal in 1805, but her marriage was not happy, and her relations with Prince Metternich aroused much scandal.

With her husband’s suicide (1813), her relationship with the emperor became strained, and finally Napoleon ordered her out of Paris, but her husband’s debts left her in a financially strained condition. Madame d’Abrantes was the author of, Memoires historiques sur Napoleon, la Revolution, let Directoire, l’Empire et la Restauration (1831 – 1834), consisting of eighteen volumes, the Histoires de Salons de Paris (1836 – 1838), and, Souvenirs d’une ambassade et d’une sejour en Espagne et en Portugal, de 1808 – 1811 (1837, 2 vols.). After the Second Restoration in 1815, the duchess was forced to write her memoirs, simply to exist, and in this she was encouraged by Honore de Balzac. After 1831, she settled at the Abbaye-aux-Bois in Paris. Despite her famous literary endeavours the duchess died in poverty in Paris.

Abundantia – (c750 – 804) 
Italian nun and saint
Abundantia was born in Spoleto to parents who had long been childless, and was educated by Niccolo, abbot of St Mark at Spoleto. She accompanied the abbot on a visit to Palestine, and remained there for several years, living as a recluse. Finally, at her father’s insistent request, she returned to Spoleto, where she remained until his death, whereupon she gave away her entire inheritance to the poor. Abundantia died aged in her mid-fifties (Jan 19, 804) and her death was popularly said to have been heralded by the ringing of bells, whilst the singing of angels was said to have accompanied her funeral cortege. Abundantia was said to have performed miracles, and the church honoured her on (Jan 19) and (July 15).

Abutsu – (1209 – 1283)
Japanese nun and diarist
Abutsu was the wife of the poet Fujiwara Tamie. Her work consists of a poetic travel diary covering a journaey from Kyoto to Kamakura, with poems written for her children. She also corresponded with personal friends with whom she also exchanged verses. In later life she became a Buddhist nun. Her diary was popularly known as The Diary of the Waning Moon or The Travels of Abutsu.

Abuza, Sophia    see   Tucker, Sophie

Abzug, Bella Savitzky – (1920 – 1998)
American feminist and politician
Bella Abzug was born (July 24, 1920) in the Bronx, New York. Educated at Hunter College, New York and Columbia University, after graduation she managed to establish herself as a lawyer in New York for twenty-five years 1944 – 1970, and gained for herself a reputation as a willing defender of persons accused of activities considered ‘un-American.’ Achieving prominence as a peace campaigner, she founded Women Strike for Peace (1961) and the National Women’s Political Caucus, to promote both women in political life and causes for women.
Bella was elected to Congress (1971) but failed in her attempts to win both a Senate seat (1976) and to become mayor of New York (1977). Returning to practice law in 1980, she nevertheless remained a prominent and vigorous campaigner for political, welfare and feminist issues, and was officially inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame (1994). Famous for her trade mark large flowery hats, Bella was the author of, Gender Gap: Bella Abzug’s Guide to Political Power for Women (1984), and also left political memoirs, Bella: Ms Abzug Goes to Washington (1972). Bella Abzug died (March 31, 1998) aged seventy-seven.

Acacia – (d. c303 AD)
Graeco-Roman Christian martyr
Acacia, whose name is also given as Achartia or Acatia, refused to abjure her faith and perished at Antioch with over two hunded other Christians, probably during the persecutions organized by the emperors Diocletian and Maximian Daia. Her feast (March 29) in recorded in the Acta Sanctorum.

Acarie, Barbe Jeanne – (1566 – 1618)
French religious founder
Known in religion as Marie de l’Incarnation, she married Jean Pierre Acarie, Vicomte de Villemore, in order to keep her parents happy. Prompted through visions and reading the works of Teresa d’Avila, Barbe established the Carmelites of the Reform in France in 1603. She also assisted with the foundation of the Paris Ursulines and Berulle’s Oratory. With her husband’s death, Barbe entered the Carmelite house at Amiens in 1613, but later removed to the house at Pontoise. She was beatified in 1794. Her daughters Marie (1585 – 1641), Margeurite (1590 – 1660) and Genevieve Acarie all became nuns.

Acarie, Genevieve – (1592 – 1644)
French nun
Born in Paris, she was the third daughter of Jean Pierre Acarie, Vicomte de Villemore, and his wife Barbe Jeanne Avrillot Acarie, and the sister of Pierre Acarie, Vicar-General of Eu (1587 – 1637). Genevieve never married and, like her two elder sisters Marie and Margeurite she became a Carmelite nun in June, 1607, at the Faubourg St Jacques, in Paris, and later became prioress of the convent in the rue Chapon. As ‘Mere Genevieve’ (Mother Genevieve) de Saint-Bernard, she was Carmelite prioress of the convent of Chartres from 1620, and corresponded with St Francois de Sales, figuring prominently in his own surviving letters. Genevieve Acarie died at Sens, Champagne.

Acca Larentia – (fl. c770 BC)
Roman semi-legendary foster mother of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome
Acca Larentia was originally the wife of a shepherd named Faustulus, who found the two boys being suckled by a wolf, and brought them home to his wife who supervised their upbringing.

Rome held an ancient festival annually (Feb 15), the Lupercalia, in honour of Acca Larentia, who according to one version of the legend, later became the first great benefactress of ancient Rome, to which she bequeathed her great welath for the public benefit, and was the first ancestress of the Tarquinian kings.
There are several other versions of this well-known story, including the one in which she was a prostitute (lupa, which also meant she-wolf), who inherited great wealth after the death of a rich, but anonymous husband. Another version, repeated by Virgil and Ovid, made her the ancestress of the Arval priesthood. The feast of Lupercalia would later evolve into the modern festival of St Valentine’s Day.

Acciaiuoli, Andreuccia – (c1356 – c1411)
Italian patron
Andreuccia Acciauoli was a courtier to Queen Joanna I of Naples. She was the sister of Cardinal Angelo Acciaiuoli. Andreuccia was married firstly (1372), to Count Francesco di Baltifolle, and secondly, to Mainardo Cavalcanti. Andreuccia commissioned the rebuilding of the choir of the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, to form a sacristy and chapel dedicated to the Annunciation. This was completed c1390 and the altarpiece is attributed to Giovanni del Bondo. Both her sons predeceased her. Andreuccia Acciaiuoli made her will in 1411.

Accoramboni, Vittoria – (1557 – 1585)
Italian tragedy figure and poet
Vittoria Accoramboni was born in Rome, the daughter of a minor nobleman from Gubbio. She was betrothed and married by her father to Francesco Peretti, nephew to Cardinal Montalto, and became prominent in Roman society because of her intelligence and beauty. Admired by Paolo Orsini, Duke di Bracciano, her brother Marcello, wishing to see the family elevated by a more suitable marriage, had Vittoria’s husband murdered (1581). Vittoria and the duke married soon afterwards, but his complicity in the murder was suspected as he had murdered his first wife Isabella de Medici (1576).
Attempts to have the marriage annulled failed, and eventually Vittoria was released from imprisonment through the intervention of Cardinal Carlo Borromeo. With the election of Cardinal Montalto as Pope Sixtus V (1585) he vowed vengeance for his nephew’s death. The couple fled firstly to Venice, and thence to Salo where the duke died (Nov, 1585), bequeathing all his possessions to Vittoria. Shatterred by her grief, the duchess removed to Padua, but was there assasinated (Dec 22, 1585) by Ludovico Orsini, who was supposed to be overseeing the disposition of her property.

Ace, Jane Sherwood – (1897 – 1974)
American commedienne and radio personality
Jane Sherwood Epstein was born (Oct 12, 1897) in Kansas City, Missouri, and was raised an educated there. She was married (1922) to Goodman Ace (1899 – 1982), the noted television and radio comedy writer. Goodman hosted an evening review on the KMBC radio in Kansas, and one night Jane filled in for an absent guest (1930). This proved successful and led to the show, Easy Aces (1930 – 1945), which was written by Gooodman Ace, and in which they both appeared, to great comic effect, Jane being famous for her rather strangely apt malapropisms such as “ Time wounds all heels,” “ I’m completely uninhabited,” and “ Up at the crank of dawn,” amongst hundreds of others. Apart from her appearances on this program, Jane Ace lived a quiet and retired private life. Jane and her husband were both inducted into The Radio Hall of Fame (1990). Jane Ace died (Nov 11, 1974) aged seventy-seven, in New York.

Acerenza, Jeanne Catherine Biron de Kurland, Duchesse de – (1783 – 1876)
German-Italian society figure
Jeanne Biron de Kurland was the third daughter of Peter Biron, Duke of Kurland, and his third wife Dorothea von Medem. She was married to the Italian patrician Francisco, Prince Pignatelli di Belmonte, Duke de Acerenza, but their union remained childless and ended in divorce after she bore an illegitimate daughter, fathered by Louis Victor Meriadec de Rohan, Prince de Rohan-Guemenee (1766 – 1846). The child was named Marie Wilson von Steinach (1805 – 1893) and she was married to Fabian, Burgrave and Count von Dohna-Schlodien (1802 – 1871).
Because of the scandal and divorce, the duchess did not inherit the duchy of Sagan from her elder sister Pauline, Princess von Hohenzollern-Hechingen (1845), and it passed instead to her youngest sister Dorothea, the Duchesse de Dino. The Duchess de Acerenza died aged ninety-three.

Acerronia Pollia – (c13 – 59 AD)
Roman Imperial courtier
Acerronia Pollia was probably the daughter of Gnaeus Acerronius Proculus, consul (37 AD). She was the close friend and confidante of Agrippina, mother of the Emperor Nero. Tacitus recorded in his Annales that Acerronia and another courtier, Crepereius Gallus, accompanied the empress to Baiae by Imperial galley, to meet her son. By pre-arranged plan, the boat capsized. Crepereius was killed, but the two women were saved by the large carved ends of the wooden couch on which they had beem reclining. Both fell unharmed into the water. Thinking to save her own life, Acerronia screamed out that she was the empress, and pleaded for help, and was promptly batterred to death in the water by the sailors. Agrippina kept quiet, swam to shore, and met a worse fate later on.

Acevedo, Angela de – (c1595 – 1644)
Spanish dramatist
Angela de Acevedo was born in Lisbon, Estramadura, Portugal, into a patrician family. Her father was a favourite of Queen Isabel (Elisabeth de Bourbon) wife of King Philip IV. Angela wrote several works but is best remebered for her plays, El muerto disimilado (The Hidden Corpse), La Margarita del Tajo (The Pearl of the Tagus), Dicha y desdicha del juego (The Joys and Sorrows of Gambling), and Devocion de la Virgen (Devotion to Our Lady) all of which were performed on the stage before 1700.

Acha of Deira – (c583 – after 617)
Anglo-Saxon queen consort
Acha was the daughter of Aella, king of Deira. Her importance was chiefly dynastic, and she married three kings, leaving issue by all three marriages. Acha married firstly (c599) Eadbert, king of Kent (c579 – 640), as his first wife. He divorced her after the birth of a daughter Aebbe (Ebba), later wife of Cwichelm, under king of Wessex, but who died as abbess of Coldingham. Acha married secondly (c604), Aethelfrith, king of Northumbria, as his second wife.
To him she bore seven sons, including St Oswald (605 – 642) and King Osiu (Oswy) (died 670). With Aethelfrith’s death (617) Acha and her children fled to the court of her brother Edwin of Deira. Edwin arranged her third and last marriage with Cadfan, King of Gwynedd whose third wife she became. She was the stepmother of King Cadwallon II of Gwynedd (625 – 634).

Achantia – (fl. 388 – 389 AD)
Roman patrician
Achantia was the wife of Maternus Cynegius, praetorian prefect (384 – 388 AD) and consul (388 AD). Achantia is believed to be identical with the unnamed Christian lady mentioned by the orator and rhetorician Libanius (314 – 393 AD) in his, Autobiography, who, under the influence of Christian monks, persuaded her husband to destroy a pagan temple in Osrhoene, without the permission of Emperor Theodosius I.
Cynegius died in 388 AD, his corpse being placed in the Church of the Apostles in Constantinople. In the following year Achantia accompanied her husband’s funeral cortege on foot for final internment there. Achantia and Cynegius were the parents of Antonia Cassia and of Materna Cynegia, who left a daughter named Herennia.

Achartia    see   Acacia

Achenback, Abbie Bright    see    Bright, Abbie

Acheson, Anne Crawford – (1882 – 1962)
Irish sculptor
Anne Acheson was born in Portadown. She studied art at the Victoria College in Belfast, and at the Royal College of Art, in London. Acheson exhibited her work annually at the Royal Academy, in Glasgow, Liverpool, and in Paris. Her works included figures, portraits and architectural subjects. Otihginally favouring the use of wood, in later years she developed her craft to work in metal and stone. She received the Feodora Gleichen memorial Award (1938), and had been created CBE (Commander of the British Empire) (1919) for her work with the Surgical Requisites Association during WW I. Anne Acheson died (March 13, 1962) aged seventy-nine.

Acheson, Dame Louisa    see    Gosford, Louisa Augusta Beatrice Montagu, Countess of

Achladiotou, Despina – (1889 – 1982)
Greek patriot and folk heroine
She was born into an ordinary family in Kastellorizo in the Dodecanese chain of islands, but later with her mother and her husband she removed to reside on the island of Ro, three miles distant (1927). When a local Turkish group hoisted the Turkish flag Madame Achladiotou formally complained to the Italian government and the flag was ordered removed. For over three decades she was the only inhabitant of the tiny island remaining so that the Turks could not annexe the island if there were no longer a native population.
Despina Achladiotou remained there during WW II and as as a gesture of native patriotism she hoisted the Greek flag everyday and lit fires to signal passing Allied ships. At the aged of ninety (1979) the Greek media made her a national celebrity by drawing attention to her patriotic vigil on Ro. She died (May 14, 1982) and a memorial was erected on Ro to her memory. Madame Achaldiotou was honoured by the Greek government who placed her portrait on a stamp.

Achler, Elisabeth Maria – (1386 – 1420)
German mystic and author
Elisabeth Achler was born at Reute, near Waldsee, in Wurttemburg, the daughter of a cloth weaver, and is sometimes referred to as Elisabeth of Reute. Her religious vocation was stimulated by the preaching of the Augustinian canon Konrad Kugelin, and eventually became a tertiary of the Franciscan order at a young age (1400). Elisabeth then resided as an ascetic in Reute, where she experienced mystical visions and the stigmata.
Elisabeth Achler was the mentor and teacher of Ursula Haider, who was later appointed as Franciscan abbess in Villingen, and died at Reute on her thirty-fourth birthday (Nov 25, 1420). Kugelin wrote her vitae (1421). Elisabeth Achler was beatified three hundred years later by Pope Benedict XIV (1766). The church venerated her memory (Nov 17).

Achmet, Catherine – (1766 – after 1791)
British actress
Born Catherine Ann Egan, in Kilkenny, Ireland, she was the daughter of a surgeon, whose early death (1777) left his family dependent on the charity of relatives. Much admired for her beauty, natural elegance, and considerate temperament. She lived with the actor William Cairns, who also adopted the professional name of Achmet, and who married her when she became pregnant (1784). Her first recorded stage appearances were as Indiana in The Conscious Lovers, and Estifania in Rule a Wife and Have a Wife.
Other popular roles included Euphrasia, in The Grecian Daughter, Polly Peachum, in The Beggar’s Opera, Sigismunda in Tancred and Sigismunda, Monimia in The Orphan, and the male roles of Sir Harry Wildair in The Constant Couple, and Jessamy in Lionel and Clarissa. She may have later abandoned her husband, and eloped with a lover, performing in York and Shrewsbury, but thereafter disappears from available records.

Achte, Emmy – (1850 – 1924)
Finnish soprano
Emma Charlotte Stroer was born (Nov 15, 1850) in Oulu. She studied singing in Stockholm, Paris, and Dresden in Saxony.  Emmy performed with the Helsinki Opera (1875 – 1881), appearing as Norma, Lucia di Lammermoor, Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust, and Leonora in Il trovatore. She was married to the Finnish conductor Lorenz Achte (1838 – 1900), and was mother of the soprano Aino Ackte.

Achurch, Janet – (1864 – 1916)                                          
British stage actress
Janet Achurch was born in Lancashire, of a theatrical family. She first appeared with Genevieve Ward in Betsy Baker, at the Olympic Theatre, London in 1883. In 1885 she joined Frank Benson’s company and played various Shakespearean heroines, and was particularly admired in the roles of Lady Macbeth, Desdemona and Queen Gertrude. Janet toured America with Beerbohm Tree’s company in 1895, and also toured Australia, India, and even appeared on stage in Egypt.
Janet Achurch’s chief success was in the role of Nora Helmer, in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Indeed, she is particularly remembered as one of the first English actresses to appear in roles written by Ibsen. She was married to Charles Barrington. Her retirement from the stage (1913) was partly due to alcoholism.

Achy, Marie Catherine Jeanne Jubert de Bouville, Marquise de – (1736 – 1780)
French courtier
Marie Catherine Jubert de Bouville was married (1757) Jacques Francois de Carvoisin, marquis d’Achy. Togther with her husband the marquise attended the court of Louis XV, and became a member of the political coterie that was allied with the king’s minister, the Duc de Choiseul and his sister the Duchesse de Gramont. Madame d’Achy accompanied the duc and duchesse de Choiseul to their estate at Chanteloup, after the duc was dismissed from the palace of Versailles (1770), but she was denied permission by Louis XV to visit them there later because of her public display of loyalty.

Acilia (Atilia) – (c15 – after 65 AD)
Roman patrician
Acilia was the daughter of the noted orator, Aelius Lucanus, of Cordoba in Lusitania. She became the wife of Mela Annaeus, a younger son of Seneca the Elder, and was by him the mother of the famous epic poet, Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) (39 – 65 AD). When the extent of her son’s involvement in the Pisonian conspiracy against the Emperor Nero became known (65 AD), he denounced his mother, whilst his two partners implicated his two closest friends, Glitius Gallus and Annius Pollio. Acilia was arrested, but after her son committed suicide, she was released unacquitted, but was spared punishment.

Acilla – (c1175 – c1240)
Anglo-Norman nun and religious leader
Acilla was the first prioress of the convent St Stephen’s Thimbleby at Foukeholme in Yorkshire, which was founded by William de Coleville and his family during the early part of the reign of King John (1203 – 1204). She was listed as the first head of Foukeholme in the Victoria History of the Counties of England (1913).

Acker, Jean – (1893 – 1978)
American stage and film actress
Jean Acker was more notorious as the first wife (1919) of film star Rudolph Valentino (1895 – 1926). She locked him out of their bridal suite on their wedding night, and the union was never consummated. Acker and Valentino divorced after only two years (1921), amongst great media hype. Acker’s silent film credits included, Are You a Mason?(1915), Arabian Knight (1920), Brewster’s Millions (1921), and, The Woman in Chains (1923).
With the advent of talkies, she made several more films over the next twenty or so years, such as The Girl Habit (1931), No More Ladies (1935), My Favourite Wife (1940), The Thin Man Goes Home (1944), Spellbound (1945), the thriller produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman, and Something to Live For (1952).

Acker, Kathy – (1944 – 1997)
American novelist and performance artist
Kathy Acker was born in New York and was heavily influenced by the work of writer William Burroughs.Having published her own early books and been employed as a stripper, she also devoted herself to body-building, tattooing, and piercing, conidering her own body a work of art. The author of many essays, stories and screenplays, her work was known for its abrasive tone, distinguishing violence and nihilistic cynicism.
Her work Blood and Guts in High school (1984) was banned in South Africa and Germany. Her other works included, Don Quixote (1986), Literal Madness (1987), My Mother: Demonology (1993), and, Pussy, King of the Pirates (1995). Acker also composed the opera libretto Birth of a Poet (1985), first performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She left New York to reside in London (1984), but later returned to San Francisco in California, where her last years were spent battling breast cancer. Kathy Acker died in Tijuana, Mexico where she had been receiving medical treatment.

Ackermann, Louise Victorine – (1813 – 1890)
French poet
Born Louise Choquet in Paris and educated by her father in the philosophy of the encyclopaedists. She travelled to Prussia to study German at Berlin (1838) and there she married (1843) Paul Ackermann, the noted philologist. Widowed within two years (1845) she removes to reside at Nice in France, and wrote Contes en vers (1855), followed by, Contes et poesies (1862). Ackermann is best remebered for her powerful collection of verse Poesies, premieres poesies, poesies philosophiques (1874) which was penned in response to her horror at the human suffering existent in the world. Soon after the publication of this work she removed to Paris where she established her own salon and produced the prose work Pensees d’une solitaire (1883). Louise Ackermann died (Aug 2, 1890) at Nice.

Ackland, Essie Adele – (1896 – 1975)
Australian vocalist
Essie Ackland was born in Woollahra, Sydney, the granddaughter of tenor Harry Ackland. She studied music at the New South Wales Conservatory of Music under Roland Foster, receiving further tuition from Emily Marks and Joseph Bradley. With the encouragement of composer, HenriVerbrugghen and soprano Dame Clara Butt, she was picked to accompany the Belgian cellist Jean Gherardy on his tour of Australasia (1923), and performed to universal acclaim.
After further study in Italy, she married the baritone Reginald Joseph Morphew (1925). A friend and admirer of Ada Crossley, Ackland became a successful oratorio and concert vocalist, both live and on radio, but was best remembered as a singer of ballads, which made her a household name. During World War II, Ackland performed in more than thirteen hundred concerts for the troops and civilian population throughout Britain, including hospitals and air-raid shelters, and entertained Australian troops at her home in Edgeware, London. Returning to Australia with her husband (1947), Ackland retired two years later (1949). Essie Ackland died (Feb 14, 1975) aged seventy-nine, at Gosford.

Ackland, Valentine – (1906 – 1968)
British poet and short story writer
Valentine Ackland was a friend to Nancy Cunard, and later the lover of the novelist and poet Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893 – 1978), the two women originally brought together by their personal commitment to the resistance of European fascism. Ackland and Warner reamined together for the rest of Valentine’s life, and they lived together in Dorset, jointly publishing a collection of their poetry Whether a Dove or Seagull (1934). Her own collections of poetic works, The Nature of the Moment (1973) and Further Poems (1978) were published posthumously.

Ackman, Amy Vera – (1886 – 1966)
Australian nun and founder
Amy Ackman was born in Randwick in Sydney, New South Wales, the daughter of a Jewish businessman. Though educated in a Catholic convent her mother would not allow her to receive Catholic catechism. She was prevented from following her religious vocation until her mother’s death. Having trained and practised as an optometrist in Melbourne, she joined the Sisters of Charity (1914) taking the religious name of Sister Mary Giovanni. She then trained as a nurse at St Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst, Sydney.
Appointed nursing administrator at Bathurst and Lismore in New South Wales, she then removed to Brisbane in Queensland (1953) where she founded and organized the Mt Olivet hospice for the inurably ill (1957). Mother Giovanni spent a further three years in Bundi, New Guinea (1963 – 1966) where her order were administrators of a local school, and responsible for the care of over three hundred children, but increasing ill-health facilitated her return to Mt Olivet. Mother Ackmann died (Aug 23, 1966) at Mt Olivet.

Ackroyd, Joyce Irene – (1918 – 1991)
Australian academic
Joyce Ackrody was born in Newcastle, New South Wales. She graduated from the universities of Sydney, and Cambridge in England. She became a researcher and lecturer at the Australian National University (ANU) (1925 – 1962) before being appointed associate professor of Japanese language and literature at the University of Queensland, a post she held for almost two decades (1965 – 1983). She was awarded the Japanese Order of the Precious Crown (1983) in recognition of her work in promoting the Japanese culture and literature in Australia. Joyce Ackroyd died (Aug 30, 1991) aged seventy-two.

Ackte, Aino – (1876 – 1944)
Finnish soprano
Aino Ackte was born (April 23, 1876) in Helsinki, the daughter of the noted tenor and sonductor, Lorenz Ackte (1838 – 1900), and of the soprano Emmy Achte (nee Stroer).  She received her vocal training in Paris. She made her stage debut as Margeurite in Faust at the Paris Grand Opera (1897). Ackte became the principal soprano at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, USA (1904 – 1906) she then sang at Covent Garden on London (1907 – 1910).
There she achieved her greatest public acclaim in the title role of Richard Strauss’s opera Salome (1910), and performed that role in Germany, Dresden in Saxony, and in Paris at Strauss’s explicit request. Aino founded the annual Finnish Opera festival held at Savonlinna (1911) and was later appointed general manager of the Finnish National Opera. Ackte published two volumes of memoirs, Muistojeni kirja (The Book of My Recollections) (1925), and, Taiteeni taipaleelta (My Life as an Artist) (1935). Aino Ackte died (Aug 8, 1944) aged sixty-eight, at Nummela, Helsinki.

Acland, Harriet Fox-Strangways, Lady – (1750 – 1815)
British traveller and heroine
Born Lady Christian Henrietta Caroline Fox-Strangways, she was the daughter of Stephen, first Earl of Ilchester, and his wife Elizabeth Strangways. Lady Harriet was married (1770) to John Dyke Acland (1746 – 1778) to whom she bore two children. Lady Harriet accompanied her husband to Canada in 1776 when he was ordered there with his regiment, and she wrote a narrative of the sufferrings of the campaign, which was printed both in England and America.
Lady Harriet hastened to her husband’s side when her was injured at the first battle of Ticonderoga, but when he was captured after the second battle of Ticonderoga (Oct 7, 1777) Lady Harriet gained a letter of protection from General Burgoyne and travelled through enemy lines in order to reach him, nearly being fired upon by the Americans as she sat in an open boat on the Hudson river. The couple returned to England, and John died at Pixton Park, near Dulverton (Nov, 1778).
Gossip that Lady Harriet then became insane and remarried has no factual basis. She survived her husband nearly forty years, and died at Tetton, near Taunton, being interred at Broad Clyst. Her daughter Elizabeth Kitty Acland (1772 – 1813) became the wife of Henry George Herbert, Lord Carnarvon, and brought the Acland property near Dulverton and Taunton to that family.

Acland, Sarah Angelina – (1849 – 1930)
British photographer
Sarah Acland was born (June 26, 1849) at Oxford, the only daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth Acland (1815 – 1900), first Baronet, of Oxford, and his wife Sarah, the daughter of William Cotton, of Walwood, near Leystone, Essex, a civil law specialist. She remained unmarried. Acland was a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, where she held exhibitions of her work, the Royal Society of the Arts, and the Meterological Society. 
Four of her own photograph albums, together with four of her father’s, are preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. Her own portrait photograph (1893) of the art critic and writer, John Ruskin (1819 – 1900), is preserved in the National Portrait Gallery. Sarah Acland died (Dec 2, 1930) aged eighty-one.

Acme – (c40 – 4 BC) 
Roman Imperial slave and court intriguer
Acme was involved in a conspiracy with Antipater, the eldest son of Herod the Great. Of Jewish birth, she had been a servant to Livia, the wife of Augustus, and kept her former mistress informed of developments in Herod’s household. Acme allied herself with Antipater after he bribed her, and agreed to assist him in plotting against his father, and his aunt, Princess Salome. Acme wrote letters in her own name, and in the name of Salome, but the plot and letters were detected by Herod, who sent copies of the conspiracy to Rome. Augustus ordered Acme’s death for her involvement in Antipater’s duplicity, and Herod had his son executed.

Aconia Paullina      see    Paullina, Fabia Aconia

Acosta, Mercedes de – (1893 – 1968)
Cuban-American novelist, poet, and dramatist
Mercedes de Acosta was the daughter of Ricardo de Acosta, whose family originated frm Cuba, and she was raised New York. She was married to the portaitist Abram Poole (1882 – 1961), but became famous for her relationship with mysterious Swedish actress, Greta Garbo for whom she wrote the script for the film Desperate (1932). Prominent in literary circles, de Acosta attended circles frequented by the likes of Rodin, Sarah Bernhardt, Igor Stravinsky, Anatole France, and Queen Marie of Romania, amongst other literary and artistic figures.
Mercedes wrote poetry and several novels including, Wind Chaff (1918) and Until the Day Breaks (1928), and the play Sandro Botticelli, which was produced for the stage (1923). She left an autobiography, Here Lies the Heart (1960). Mercedes de Acosta died (May 9, 1968) aged seventy-five, in New York after a lengthy illness.

Acosta de Samper, Soledad – (1833 – 1903)
Colombian historian, feminist, novelist and editor
Soledad Acosta de Samper was born in Bogota, Colombia. She edited the feminist periodical La Mujer (Woman) from 1878 to 1882, and wrote under various pseudonyms such as, Aldebaran, Bertilda, and Olga. Soledad produced over forty novels, as well as various biographies an historical romances, but is best known for her psychologically vivid historical novel Los piratas en Cartagen (Pirates in Carthage) (1885).

Acres de L’Aigle, Marie Germaine de Monforton, Marquise de – (c1808 – 1866)
French salonniere
As the wife of the political leader Marquis Jules de Acres de L’Aigle (c1803 – 1867), Madame de Acres was a prominent society hostess. She was a supporter of the Comte de Chambord and the royalist cause of the legitimistes. Madame de Acres died (Jan 6, 1866).

Acrosia – (fl. c50 – c67 AD)
Roman Christian figure
Acrosia became a disciple of St Peter during the first century AD. She was honoured as a saint by the Ethiopian Church, and her feast (June 29) is recorded in the Acta Sanctorum. It is uncertain whether or not Acrosia was actually a martyr.

Acte, Claudia – (fl. 55 – after 69 AD) 
Roman Imperial concubine
Acte was a former slave in the household of the emperor Claudius. She had been freed by the time that the youthful Nero, adopted son and successor of Claudius, became enamoured of her, to the extreme annoyance of his mother Agrippina, who viewed the liasion as an attack on her own power (55 AD). The affair was encouraged by the praetorian prefect Burrus, and by Nero’s tutor, Seneca, who used Acte to warn the emperor of his mother’s ambitions.
Acte remained the emperor’s mistress until she was replaced by Poppaea (58 AD), whom Nero eventually married. Popular tradition has it that Acte returned to help Nero commit suicide when he was at his lowest ebb, but in fact he was killed by his faithful freedman, Epaphroditus. Suetonius does record that Acte accompanied the emperor’s remains, together with his two elderly nurses, Ecloge and Alexandria, to the family tomb of the Domitii family on the Pincian Hill, where he was interred within a coffin of white porphyry, which was seen by Suetonius himself.
An extant incription from one of Acte’s freedmen, whom it appears was a Christian, has been taken to imply that Acte became a convert in later life. In the film Quo Vadis (1951) with Deborah Kerr and Robert Taylor, and Peter Ustinov as Nero Acte was sympathetically portrayed by Rosalie Crutchley.

Acteie – (d. c303 AD?)
Roman Christian martyr
Acteie perished in Rome during an uncertain period of persecution, most likely that instigated by the Emperor Diocletian. Her feast (June 26) is recorded in the Martyrology of Reichenau.

Actinea – (d. c304 AD)
Roman Christian martyr
Actinea was executed with her companion Graeciniana during the persecution of the emperor Diocletian. They were interred together in the monastery of St Justus and St Clement at Volterra, where their remains were discovered in the twelfth century. They were listed as saints in the Acta Sanctorum (June 16).

Acton, Eliza – (1799 – 1859) 
British cookery author and poet
Eliza Acton was born near Hastings, Sussex, the daughter of a brewer. She began writing seriously after a failed romance with a French officer. Several of her poetic volumes were published prior to 1840, during which time she resided at Tonbridge in Kent and acted as housekeeper to her mother. The London publishing company Longman’s published her culinary volume Modern Cookery (1845), which quickly went through five editions in two years and remained in print until 1914, though it sufferred much from the plagiarism of other contemporary Victorian authors. Eliza was also the author of The English Bread Book (1857).

Acton, Livia – (1879 – 1963)
Italian civic activist and philanthropist
Donna Livia Caracciolo was the daughter of a Neapolitan patrician, Giuseppe Giudice Caracciolo, Prince of Villa Santa Maria, of Cellamare, and of Leporano. She was married (1907) to Senator Admiral Baron Alfredo Acton (1867 – 1934) a prominent figure in Italian politics, to whom she bore two sons. Her elder sister Anna became the wife (1900) of his younger brother Admiral Amedeo Ferdinando Acton (1871 – 1938).
Known in Neapolitan society as the ‘Baronessa’ Acton she was devotedly religious by nature and became enrolled as a Franciscan tertiary. Determined to serve her country, she went to study tropical medicine and diseases at Naples University, then offerred her services to the Italian Red Cross. For more than two decades she worked tirelessly for that organization, helpin to provide for orphans during WW I, and then acting as an inspector of field hospitals during the military campaigns in East Africa (1936). During WW II Acton was appointed as regional inspector of the volunteer nursing staff.
Her valuable work was recognized when she was awarded the gold medal by the Red Cross, and was nominated as a Dame of Honour of the Sovereign Order of Malta (1936). Pope Pius XII awarded her the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (1939) in recognition of her work and she also received the Grand Cross of the Constantinian Order of St George. King Vittorio Emanuele II revived the princely title of Leporano (1624) in favour of the eldest sons of Livia’s descendants (1933), her elder son Ferdinando-Amedeo becoming twelfth Prince of Leporano. He also inherited the Palazzo Cellamare in Naples, Livia’s ancestral home. With the death of her husband (1934) Livia retired to the convent of San Paolo delle Benedettine, in Sorrento, where she died thirty years later.

Acuta – (d. c305 AD)
Roman Christian martyr
Acuta perished in Milan during the persecutions initiated by the Emperor Maximian Daia, being one of many Christians who were killed during this particular purge. Revered as a saint, her feast is listed in the Acta Sanctorum (May 6).

Acutia – (c10 BC – 37 AD)
Roman patrician
Acutia was the first wife of Publius Vitellius (c20 BC – 42 AD), a close relative of the Emperor Vitellius (69 AD). Vitellius later divorced her. According to the historian Tacitus in his, Annales, she was prosecuted in Rome by Decimus Laelius Balbus, for committing treason against the Emperor Tiberius (37 AD). She was convicted and condemned to death, which sentence was duly carried out, though as a Roman of noble birth, she was probably permitted to commit suicide. The proposal to reward Acutia’s accuser was vetoed by the tribune, Junius Otho, which action was later to cause his own downfall.

Ada of Caria (1) – (c387 – c320 BC)
Greek queen and client ruler
Ada was the daughter of Hecatomnus, King of Caria, in Asia Minor, and she became the wife of her brother King Idrieus. With her husband’s death in 344 BC, Ada ruled as regent until she was dispossessed of her authority by her brother Pixodaurus. Ada retired to the fortress of Alinda, of which she retained control. She welcomed Alexander the Great in 334, adopting him as her son, and placing her person and the fortress into his hands. Alexander defeated Pixodaurus and Memnon at Harlicarnassus, and gallantly restored Queen Ada to her throne.

Ada remained in official control of Caria until her death, but it seems likely that her influence extended only to the civil administration of her kingdom, as the Macedonian general Ptolemy (later Ptolemy Iof Egypt) was in control of a large garrison there, a mercenary army which included infantry and cavalry. Alexander’s general Asander helped Ada recover Harlicarnassus, and she continued to rule until her death, when she was succeeded as satrap of Caria by another of Alexander’s officers, Philoxenus.

Ada of Caria (2) – (fl. 344 – 332 BC)
Greek princess
Ada was the daughter of Pixodaurus, King of Caria, in Asia Minor, and his wife Aphenis of Cappadocia. With the death of her uncle, King Idrieus (344 BC), Ada’s father seized the throne from his widow, the elder Ada, and the princess became heiress to her father, as his only child. Ada was betrothed as a child to Philip Arrhidaeus of Macedonia, the half-brother of Alexander the Great, as her father feared the power of that state, but the marriage did not eventuate.
Choosing instead to ally himself with Persia, the enemy of Macedonia, Pixodaurus gave Ada in marriage (c340 BC) to the powerful Persian magnate, Orontobates, whom he created satrap of Caria by decree, thus formally recognizing him as his future successor, in Ada’s right. Pixodaurus died (335 BC), and Ada and her husband ruled all of Caria apart from the fortress of Alinda, which still held out in the name of her paternal aunt Queen Ada.
The elder lady successfully appealed to Alexander of Macedonia, who then invaded the kingdom, and forced Orontobates to battle (332 BC). He was defeated and forced to flee to Salamacis. The fate of Princess Ada remains unrecorded. She was perhaps the mother of Orontobates’ son the pretender Mithridates the Persian.

Ada of Gand – (c980 – c1015)
Flemish mediaeval countess
Sometimes called Adela in genealogies, Ada was the daughter of Raoul, Seigneur of Gand, and was the sister of Rudolf I (Raoul), Count of Alost in Flanders. Ada became the first wife (c995) of Baldwin II (c976 – 1041), Count of Boulogne and Sens (c1000 – 1041) and became countess consort (c1000 – c1015). After her death her husband was remarried secondly to Agnes, the daughter of Count Ernicule of Jumieges, but this union remained childless. Ada was the paternal great-grandmother of the famous Christian crusader figure Godfrey of Bouillon (1059 – 1100), Defender of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Her youngest son entered the church and became a monk. Her two elder children were,

• Eustace I (c1003 – 1049). He succeeded his father as Count of Boulogne (1041 – 1049) and left descendants.
• Fulk of Boulogne (c1005 – after 1041). He became a bishop his see remaining unnamed in the sources.

Ada of Holland (Adelaide) – (1188 – 1227)
Flemish heiress and ruler (1203 – 1207)
Ada was the only child of Dirk V, Count of Holland, and his wife Adelaide of Cleves. She was the paternal granddaughter of Count Floris III, and his wife Ada of Scotland, the granddaughter of David I, King of Scotland (1124 – 1153). With the death of her father, her uncle, William of Friesland, challenged her succession to the county of Holland (1203), an she was then married to Louis II, Count of looz (died 1218) in a move to strengthen her position, by acquiring a husband to defend her territories, and by bearing a male heir and securing the succession.
However, the young countess was captured by her uncle’s supporters, and taken to the Castle of Leyden, where she was confined a prisoner, as befitted her rank, and then conveyed to England. Count Willaim then established himself as undisputed ruler in her place (1205). However, the treaty of Brugge (1206) ordered that Ada and her husband be restored as rulers of Holland, but her uncle kept her prisoner. She was finally released due to the efforts of her husband, but they were unable to continue the fight for her inheritance. The country had escalated into civil war, and rival factionism, dicated by the wishes of the empire, and the kings of France and England. Ada remained childless. Countess Ada died (shortly after March 5, 1227).

Ada of Le Mans – (fl. c600 – c650)
Merovingian nun and abbess
Sometimes called Adeneta or Adrenhildis, she was a close relative, perhaps the niece, of St Engelbert, Bishop of Le Mans. Ada became a nun at the Abbey of St Marie in Soissons, and Engelbert later promoted her to the position of abbess. The Bishop later transferred Ada to the monastery of Pre in Le Mans, dedicated to St Julian de Prato. She was revered as a saint (Dec 4).

Ada of Neustria – (c748 – c773)
Carolingian princess
Ada was the third daughter of Pepin III, King of the Franks (751 – 768) and his wife Bertrada of Laon, the daughter of Carobert, Count of Laon. Through her mother she was the great-granddaughter of Theuderic III (died 691), the Merovingian king of Neustria. She was married (c761) to Wibert, Count of Hannonia, a courtier of her father. With her husband Ada made endowments to various religious houses in Picardy and Hainault. When Witbert had finished his military service to King Pepin he and Ada retired to his estates in Picardy and Hainault which had been granted them by the king.
Ada and her husband established a church and monastery at Liessies, on the River Helpra, where they had the relics of St Lambert enshrined. Another estate comprising of a large property between Molhain and Veaux was jointly granted by the countess and her husband to their elder daughter Hiltrude, who became a nun at Liessies, for use during her lifetime, after which it was to revert to the Church of St Lambert. Ada died young and was buried with two of her sisters in the Chapel of St Arnulf at Metz. Tradition asserts that Ada presented the Abbey of St Maximin at Treves (Trier) with a copy of the gospels (codex aureus) which is preserved at the Stadtbibliothek in Treves. Her children were,

• Hiltrude of Hannonia (c763 – c800). She became a nun at Liessies and was venerated as a saint as Hiltrude of Liessies (Sept 27).
• Gunthard of Hannonia (Guntar, Gontard) (c765 – after 800). He became a monk and acted as spiritual adviser to the group of nuns who joined his sister at Liessies.
• Bertha of Hannonia (c770 – c840). She was married to Rodald (Hrodald) (c762 – c798), Count of Hornbach and was known as St Bertha of Bingen.

Ada of Scotland – (1146 – after 1206)
Princess and dynastic heiress
Ada was the granddaughter of David I, and was sister to kings Maclcolm IV and William I the Lion. Her father was David’s eldest son Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, and her mother Ada, was the daughter of William de Warenne, second Earl of Surrey. Ada married (1161) Floris III, Count of Holland, to whom she bore nine children, including counts Dirk VII (1162 – 1203) and William I (1165 – 1222) whose wife, Marie of Brabant, was the widow of the Holy Roman emperor Otto IV. Because of her descent from King David I (1124 – 1153), Ada’s descendant Count Floris V (1254 – 1296) was a competitor for the Scottish throne (1292 – 1296). Ada survived Floris for more than fifteen years.

Adachi, Barbara Curtis – (1924 – 2004)
American cultural promoter and author
Barbara Adachi was born in Harbin, Manchukuo, in China, the daughter of a foreign banker, and was raised speaking Russian as her first language. Later going to the USA with her family, she attended Smith College and later the American School in Japan. She returned to Japan after WW II, and became the wife of Japanese born attorney, James Adachi (1949), who later became a resident of San Francisco, in California, to whom she bore two children.
Passionately interested in Japan’s culture and its people, Adachi was one of the earliest members of the Japan-America Women’s Club, which aimed at fostering understanding between the two former enemy cultures. She established the College Women’s Association of Japan (CWAJ), serving as president for over five decades, and formed the Nadeshiko Kai (1952), which promoted cultural understanding between American women and their Japanese counterparts. Adachi was a member of the Asiatic Society of Japan and was the official writer of the three founders of SWET (Society of Writers, Editors and Translators).
Adachi’s especial field of interest lay with the traditional puppet theatre, the Bunraku, and she produced two books on the subject, The Voices and Hands of Bunraku (1978) and, Backstage at Bunraku (1985). Other written works include, The Living Treasures of Japan (1973) and she wrote columns for various Japanese based periodicals such as the Manichi Daily News and the Asahi Evening News. She moved back to the United States (2000). Barbara Adachi died (Feb 9, 2004) aged seventy-nine, in San Francisco.

Adair, Cornelia Wadsworth – (c1837 – 1922)
American-Anglo socialite
Cornelia Wadsworth was the daughter of General Wadsworth of New York and his wife Mary Wharton, the daughter of William Wharton. She was married firstly (1858) to Colonel Montgomery Ritchie (died 1864), and secondly (1867) to John George Adair of Rathdaire, Ireland. She entertained at her London home in Portman Square and at her husband’s estate of Glenveagh Castle in Churchill, County Donegal. Mrs Adair died (Sept 22, 1922).

Adair, Jean – (1873 – 1953)
American stage and film actress
Jean Adair was born (June 13, 1873) in Hamilton, Ontario in Canada, and spent the early part of her career working in the theatre and appeared in such Broadway productions as It’s a Boy! (1922), Everything’s Jake (1930), Black Sheep (1932), On Borrowed Time (1938), The Next Half-Hour (1945) and The Crucible (1950). Adair appeared in the silent film In the Name of the Law (1922) and made several appearances in sound films such as Advice to the Lovelorn (1933), Something in the Wind (1947) and The Naked City (1947), but was best remembered as Martha Brewster, one of the eccentric aunts of Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). Jean Adair died (May 11, 1953) aged seventy-nine, in New York.

Adalaja   see    Adeloga

Adala of Bar     see    Adela of Bar

Adalgunde of Burgundy – (c855 – c902)
German Carolingian countess
Adalgunde was the daughter of Conrad II (died 876), Margrave of Burgundy, and Count of Auxerre, and his first wife Ermentrude of Sundgau, the daughter of Liutfrid II, Count of Sundgau. Adalgunde of Burgundy became the wife (c874) of Erenfried I, Count of Bliesgau and Count in the Charmois, whom she appears to have survived.
Adalgunde was the mother of one recorded son Eberhard (died after 913), who became Count in the Keldachgau and in Bonngau, and left numerous descendants, who all claimed descent from Charlemagne through her. Through him Adalgunde was the great-grandmother of Ezzo (955 – 1034), Count Palatine of Lorraine, who was married to Princess Matilda of Saxony, the sister of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III (983 – 1002), and was ancestress of that family.

Adallinde of Saalgau – (d. before 910)
Carolingian noblewoman
Adallinde was the daughter of Henry of Saalgau (c830 – 886), Duke of Austria, and his wife Ingeltrude of Friuli, the daughter of Duke Eberhard of Friuli, of the Unruochinger dynasty, and his wife Princess Gisela of Neustria, daughter of Emperor Louis I the Pious (816 – 840) and his second wife, Judith of Altdorf. Her elder sister, Hedwig of Saalgau, was the wife of Otto I the Illustrious, Duke of Saxony, and left many descendants.
Adallinde became the second wife (c890) of Count Eticho I of Ammergau. There were no surviving children recorded from this marriage, but she was stepmother to Oda of Ammergau, the wife of the Emperor Arnulf (896 – 899). Countess Adallinde predeceased her husband, who retired to become a monk at the Abbey of Ettal in Ammergau, and died there (910).

Adalmode of Gevaudan – (c971 – c1008)
French duchess consort of Aquitaine
Adalmode of Gevaudan was the third daughter of Stephen I, Count of Gevaudan, and his wife Adelaide Blanche of Anjou, later wife of the Carolingian king Louis V, who divorced her, and lastly of Otto I William of Burgundy, King of Lombardy. Adalmode was married firstly, as his second wife, to Count Adalbert I of La Marche (c948 – 997), whose political actvities in Aquitaine were viewed as dangerous by his suzerain, Duke William V (969 – 1030).
With the death of her first husband at the battle of Gencay (997), the countess retired to the fortress of Rochemeaux. The castle was later captured by Duke William, who made the countess his prisoner. Finally, he married her (c999) as his second wife, and received with her hand, the support of the Angevin family of Anjou, and their extensive connections. As part of this marital arrangement, Fulk III of Anjou, Adalmode’s cousin, received Saintes and other fortresses in Saintonge and Loudunais. Several years later the duke and duchess entertained Count Fulk at a Christmas court, which they held with considerable magnificence at the royal abbey of Maillezais. Her son Duke William VI (1004 – 1038) died childless.

Adalperga of Lombardy – (c742 – after 794)
Italian duchess of Benevento
Adalperga was one of the elder daughters of Desiderius, King of Lombardy, and his wife Ansa, the daughter of Verissimo. She received an excellent education from the noted scholar Paul the Deacon (Paulus Diaconus), and was married (c758) to Arichis II, duke of Benevento (735 – 788) to whom she bore two sons, Romuald and the future Prince Grimoald III (765 – 806). Her former brother-in-law Charlemagne conquered Lombardy, and imprisoned her parents in monastic establishments. Her brother Adelchis managed to escape to the Imperial court in Byzantium, and Adalperga and her sister Liutperga, the wife of Charlemagne’s cousin, duke Tassilo III of Bavaria, remained in contact with him, as well as urging their respective husbands to revolt against Frankish rule and the threatening supremacy of their king. The uneasy situation between the duchies of Benevento and Bavaria, and the kingdom of the Franks, fanned by the desire of these two sisters for family greivances to be avenged escalated until 786 – 787, when King Charles arrived in Italy with an army. Adalperga’s two sons were kept as captives for their father’s behaviour, whilst Adalperga accompanied her husband and daughters to the safety of Salerno. Finally Arichis offerred his submission to Charles and their elder son Romuald was restored to his parents.
Adalperga’s husband and eldest son both died in quick succession, not without suspicion of poison (788). The Beneventans, supported by Adalperga, requested the restoration of Romuald’s brother Grimoald, the rightful heir. Charles prevaricated and even Pope Adrian I, an avowed enemy of the duchess’s family, wrote to Charles advising against this step, even revealing to him the location of the duchess’s hidden hoard of private treasure, but eventually Charles released Grimoald (789) who remained involved with covert political activities against Charlemagne until his death (806). Adalperga appears to have remained in contact with her old tutor, and it was at her request that he completed his Brevarium of Eutropius, which encompassed the period (364 AD – 553). He wrote the funeral epitaph for her mother Queen Ansa (786 – 794), and Adalperga appears to have survived this event.

Adalsinde – (c643 – 678)
Merovingian nun and virgin saint
Adalsinde was the daughter of Adalbald, count of Ostrevant, and his wife Rictrude of Gascony, who founded the abbey of Marchiennes in Flanders. She became a nun (c656) under the rule of her mother at Marchiennes, where she attained a reputation for religious sanctity before her early death (Dec 25, 678).  The church revered her as a saint.

Adaltrude of Aquitaine – (c830 – 864)
Carolingian princess and saint
Adaltrude was the daughter of Pepin I, King of Aquitaine and his wife Ingeltrude of Madriene. A great-granddaughter of the Emperor Charlemagne, she was married to the Comte d’Aurillac and became the mother of St Gerald of Aurillac (855 – 909). Adaltrude died young (Nov 14, 864) and was interred within the church of St Clement, which had been founded by her famous son. Long revered as a saint, her relics were dispersed by the Calvinists during the Reformation.

Adaltrude of Limousin – (c840 – after 884)
Carolingian progenatrix
Adaltrude was the daughter of Count Ruthier of Limousin, and the granddaughter of Pepin I, king of Aquitaine, a younger son of the Emperor Louis I the Pious (816 – 840). Adaltrude became the wife of the nobleman Hildebert, for whom the viscounty of Limoges was created for. Through their son Hildegar I (c864 – 937), Adaltrude was an ancestress of the family of the counts of Angouleme, and through them, of Henry III of England (1207 – 1272) and the later Plantagenets, the Tudor dynasty, and the Stuarts of Scotland and Britain, and their descendants to the present day.

Adam, Helen – (1910 – 1993)
American poet and composer of Scottish ballads
Helen Adam was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. She wrote verse during childhood, and several volumes were published before the end of her teenage years. Helen attended Edinburgh Univeristy, and worked as a journalist in London, before resettling with her family in San Francisco in California. Helen was the author of Selected Poems and Ballads (1975), and appeared in several film produced by the experimental film maker Rosa von Praunheim. She also made an appearance (1988) on the television series Poetry Minute. With her sister she co-wrote the musical play, San Francisco’s Burning (1960). Helen Adam died in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Adam, Juliette – (1836 – 1936) 
French author, journalist and political salonniere
Juliette Adam was born at Verberie-sur-Oise, sufferred an unhappy childhood, and married a physician M. La Messine (1852).  She established her career as a serious writer with her rebuttal of the socialist Joseph Proudhon’s anti-feminist position with her, Idees antiproudhoniennes sur l’amour la femme et le mariage (Ant-Proudhonist Ideas on Love, Women and Marriage) (1858), written in defence of Daniel Stern (Mme d’Agoult) and George Sand. During the period of her second marriage (1868 – 1877) with the prominent senator Antoine Edmond Adam (1816 – 1877), Juliette established herself as a salonniere of note in Paris, receiving men of letters, politicians such as the Italian nationalist Leon Gambetta, and artists at her gatherings.
A champion of Republicanism she founded the magazine La Nouvelle Revue to campaign for this cause and be the mouthpiece of the movement, and edited the journal for eight years (1879 – 1887), retining her overall influence over the publishing until 1899. Her best known work was Idees antiproudhoniennes sur l’amour, la femme et le mariage (Anti-Proudhonist Ideas on Love, Women, and Marriage) (1858), a refutation of the anti-feminist stance of the socialist Joseph Prudhon. Juliette also wrote several novels such as Paenne (The Pagan Woman) (1883), Chretienne (The Christian Woman) (1913), and the memoirs Mes premieres armes litteraires et politiques (1904) and, Mes sentiments et nos idees avant 1870 (1905).

Adam, Ruth Augusta – (1907 – 1977)
British novelist
Born Ruth King (Dec 14, 1907) in Nottingham, she was the author of, A House in the Country (1957) and, A Woman’s Place (1975). Ruth Augusta Adam died (Feb 3, 1977) aged sixty-nine.

Adamovich, Evgenia Nikolaievna – (1872 – 1938)
Russian revolutionary
Evgenia Adamovich became involved in anti-tsarist circles and societies from the age of twenty (1892). A close friend to Lenin’s sister Maria Ulianova, Evgenia was appointed a member of the State Committee for Education (1917) at the outbreak of the revolution.

Adams, Abigail Smith – (1744 – 1818)  
American letter writer and First Lady (1797 – 1801)
Abigail Smith was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, the daughter of William Smith, a Congregational minister and his wife Elizabeth Quincy. Despite weak health and little formal education, Abigail became an energetic writer, a habit she retained for the rest of her life, and married (1764) John Adams (1735 – 1826), the future second president. She was the mother of John Quincy Adams, later the sixth president (1825 – 1829).
During the first decade of marriage she resided with her husband and family in Boston, but as his political career gained momentum she saw less and less of him, and the couple corresponded more frequently by letter. Abigail supported his insistence upon the Declaration of Independence, and accompanied him to France and England (1784 – 1785) where she recorded discourtesies accorded her at the court of George III and Queen Charlotte which would seem to have rankled. During her husband vice-presidency (1789 – 1797) and presidency she resided quietly in Washington. Her correspondence with her husband was later published by C.F. Adams as The Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife (1876). Abigail Adams died (Oct 28, 1818) at Braintree, later renamed Quincy, in Massachusetts.

Adams, Alice – (1926 – 1999)
American novelist
Alice Adams excelled in writing stories about women who managed to survive destructive marriages and go on to achieve emotional independence. Brought up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, she attended Radcliffe College, and was employed in a New York publishing house. She was married and divorced, prodeced a child, but ultimately remained involved in enduring relationship with interior designer Robert McNie of San Francisco, California.
Alice contributed articles and stories to magazines prior to 1959, but achieved notoriety with her novel Careless Love (1966) and the short story Gift of Grace (1969), published in the New Yorker, which won the O.Henry Award. Her second novel, Families and Survivors (1975) followed by her first collection of short stories, Beautiful Girl (1979) established her literary reputation. Her most popular work was her fifth novel Superior Women (1984). Alice Adams died in San Francisco.

Adams, Anna Matilda – (1785 – after 1808)
British dancer and actress
Anna Matilda Adams was one of the daughters of the celebrated Mr Adams, the equestrian performer and bird imitator, popularly known as ‘the English Rossignol.’ With her sister she performed dances of the grand minuet and gavotte in character. She also jointly performed the Strathspey and Reel, composed by Lady Charlotte Campbell (1800) as part of the pantomimic ballet organized her her parents.  
Adams was a dancer with the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin from 1799, and continued to perform with her sisters, in Edinburgh, Scotland (1804 – 1805), at Drury Lane Theatre, in London (1807 – 1808), and at Covent Garden and Brighton (1808). No details are available for her career after this date, and she may have retired from the stage after marriage.

Adams, Annette Abbott – (1877 – 1956)
American lawyer and judge
Annette Abbott Adams was the first woman ever appointed to handle federal prosecution cases, she was later appointed as the first woman judge (1942) in the state of California. She was born at Prattville, in Plumas County, California, the daughter of a local justice of the peace. She graduated from the State Normal School at Chico (1897) and attended the University of California at Berkeley. She was married to Martin Adams (1906), but retained her career as a teacher, serving as principal to the Alturas high school in Modoc County (1907 – 1910).
Adams later became president of the Women’s State Democratic Club and promoted the campaign for President Woodrow Wilson, as a supporter of rights for women. As a reward she was appointed the first female federal prosecutor in the state of California (1914). She was later persuaded to accept the position of assistant attorney general in Washington D.C. (1920), again the first woman to hold that position. She returned to private practice in San Francisco (1921) and criticized the government for its lack of enforcement of the prohibition laws, and remained a staunch supporter of the right of women to seek public office, though her own strenuous efforts to gain a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors ended in failure (1923).
Adams campaigned strongly for President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932), notably with the Women’s Division of the Democratic National Committee, but refused public office so she could remain in California. She failed to gain the vacant federal bench in the Northern District of California (1935) but was granted the post of assistant special counsel under John Preston, in two important legal cases for the government. She won the trial which forced Standard Oil to pay the government over seven million dollars, and returned to California (1939). Adams was appointed presiding justice of the appellate court in Sacramento, winning a twelve year term (1942) and was then assigned to sit on the California Supreme Court for a single case, the first woman ever to do so (1950).  During the last years of her life Adams suffered from multiple sclerosis. Annette Abbott Adams died (Oct 26, 1956) aged seventy-nine, in California.

Adams, Barbara Georgina – (1945 – 2002)
British Egyptologist
Adams was born (Feb 19, 1945) and studied archaeology and ancient civilizations at university. She travelled to Hierakonopolis in Egypt, where she worked for many years with John Garstang as one of the directors of the expedition to study the Pre-Dynastic period. Her published work included The Fort Cemetery at Hierakonopolis (1987) and Ancient Nekhen: Garstang in the City of Hierakonopolis (1995). Barbara Adams died (June 26, 2002) aged fifty-seven.

Adams, Charlotte – (b. 1859)
Australian mountaineer
Charlotte Adams was born in Hobart, Tasmania, the daughter of Edward Pattern Adams. She accompanied her father on a surveying trip, and became the first European woman to climb Mt Kosciuszko, Australia’s highest peak (1881). The village of Charlotte Pass was named in her memory.

Adams, Cecily – (1958 – 2004)
American actress
Cecily was born (Feb 6, 1958) the daughter of actor Don Adams, famous for his portrayal of Maxwell Smart in the hit-series Get Smart (1965 – 1970). Her mother was the vocalist Adelaide Efantis and was sister to actress Stacey Adams. She was a monor actress who appeared in such popular television programs as Murphy Brown with Candice Bergen, and Just Shoot Me with Laura San Giacomo, but was best known for playing the dominating Ferengi mother Ishka, the mother of Rom and Qark in Star Trek and Deep Space Nine. Cecily Adams died (March 3, 2004) aged forty-six, in Los Angeles, California.

Adams, Claire – (1900 – 1978)
American silent film actress
Born in Canada, Claire Adams appeared in leading roles in such movies as Riders of the Dawn (1920), Just Tony (1922), Where the North Begins (1923) and, The Sea Wolf (1926). Her career declined with the advent of sound and she eventually retired to Australia after marrying a second time (1938).

Adams, Diana – (1926 – 1993)
American ballerina and dance educator
Diana Adams was born in Stanton, Virginia, March 29, 1926, the daughter of Stanley Adams, an English teacher. Her stepmother was the dance teacher Emily Hadley Adams. She was educated at the Lausanne School in Memphis, Tennessee and at the Gardner school and the Ballet School in New York. Diana also studied dance under the instruction of Agnes de Mille and Antony Tudor, amongst others. Diana made her official debut in the ballet choreographed for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklakoma!, by Agnes de Mille (1943).
Adams later joined the American Ballet Theater, and appeared in the title role of, Helen of Troy (1944), the queen in Giselle, the mother in, Fall River Legend (1948), another work by Agnes de Mille, and Antony Tudor’s, Jardin des Lilias. From 1950 – 1963, Diana worked with the New York City Ballet of George Balanchine, appearing in Symphonie Concertante (1950), Margeurite in Lady of the Camelias (1952), Valse Fantaisie (1953), Opus 34 (1954), The Nutcracker (1954), and Liebeslieder Walzer (1960), amongst many other roles. Diana also appeared in two films, Knock on Wood (1954) and, Invitation to Dance (1956).
Retiring in 1963, she served as the dean of students at the American Ballet until 1971. In 1982 she emerged from retirement to serve as the official adviser to the American Ballet Theater when they were producing Balanchine’s Symphonie Concertante (1982). Diana Adams died of cancer (Jan 10, 1993) at San Andreas, California.

Adams, Dorothy – (1900 – 1988)
American character actress
Dorothy Adams appeared in films such as The Flame of New Orleans (1941), Laura (1944), The Foxes of Harrow (1948) and Peeper (1976).

Adams, Edie – (1927 – 2008)
American vocalist, film and television actress and comedienne
Elizabeth Edith Enke was born (April 16, 1927) in Kingston, Pennsylvania, and attended the Juilliard School of Music in New York. She began her career in television after winning the ‘Miss U.S. Television beauty contest (1950) and worked with talk show host Kack Paar and with comedian Ernie Kovacs. Edie also appeared in a series of commercials for Muriel Cigars, now using the professional name of Edie Adams. Her own show Here’s Edie lasted only one season (1963 – 1964). During this time she worked on Broadway her most notable appearances being opposite Rosalind Russell in Wonderful Town (1953) and as Daisy Mae in Li’l Abner (1956) for which she received a Tony Award for best featured actress in a musical.
Her film credits included The Apartment (1960) with Fred MacMurray, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Best Man (1964), The Oscar (1966), Up in Smoke (1978), The Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood (1982) and Boxoffice (1982). She made appearances in such popular television series as Murder, She Wrote with Angela Lansbury, Designing Women, As the World Turns and the miniseries Tales of the City (1993), whilst her telemovie credits included Portrait of an Escort (1980) and The Haunting of Harrington House (1981). Edie was married firstly (1954) to Kovacs, to whom she bore a daughter Mia Kovacs (1959). Her husband was later killed in a car accident (1962) as was their daughter two decades afterwards (1982). She remarried twice more. Edie Adams died (Oct 15, 2008) aged eighty-one, in Los Angeles, California.

Adams, Eva Bertrand – (1910 – 1991)
American lawyer and government official
Eva Adams was born in Wonder in Nevada, the daughter of a gold-miner. She graduated from the University of Nevada and obtained a master’s degree in English from Columbia University.
Adams taught high-school English in Las Vegas before returning to the University of Nevada as an instructor (1936). After having served as the assistant dean of women at the university, Adams left the academic world to take up a new career as principal aide to the Nevada Republican senator Pat McCarran in Washington (1940).
Eva Adams remained with McCarran until his death (1954), earning two law degrees in the interim from George Washington University in 1948 and 1950. Appointed director of the United States Mint by President John F. Kennedy (1961) she organized and supervised the construction of the Philadelphia Mint, and oversaw the expansion of the Denver Mint in Colorado. Reappointed by President Johnson (1966), Adams retired in 1969, and became a management consultant in Reno. Eva Adams died (Aug 23, 1991) in Reno, Nevada.

Adams, Fanny – (1859 – 1867)
American child murder victim
Her name has passed into American folk-lore as, ‘Sweet Fanny Adams.’ Fanny Adams was born in Alton, Hampshire, the daughter of George Adams, a farmer. Whilst walking in a nearby meadow with her sister and another young friend, she was lured away by one Frederick Baker, and brutally murdered (Aug 24, 1867), her tiny body sufferring terrible mutilation. Such were the appalling injuries that she had sustained, that several parts of the child’s torso were only discovered after extensive searches lasting several days. Baker, who had recorded the murder in his own diary, was tried and hanged for the crime four months later (Dec 24, 1867).
When American sailors were issued with tins of mutton, they jokingly declared that the butchered contents were the remains of ‘Sweet Fanny Adams.’ This eventually became accepted throughout the military services as a euphemism for ‘sweet nothing’ before passing into common usage.

Adams, Frances Mathilde – (1784 – 1863)
British water colour artist
Frances Adams specialized in painting flowers. She exhibited nine paintings at the Royal Academy in London between 1806 and 1832. Later she was appointed as painter to Queen Adelaide, the wife of William IV.

Adams, Glenda – (1939 – 2007)
Australian fiction writer
Glenda Felton was educated at Sydney University, where she studied the Indonesian language and was related to Prime Minister John Howard (1996 – 2007). She finished her education at Columbia University in New York and was married (1967) to an American, Gordon Adams, from whom she was divorced. She wrote short stories which were published in The Village Voice and Transanlantic Review, and then published two collections of stories, Lies and Stories (1976), followed by The Hottest Night of the Century, which established her literary credentials.
Adams taught fiction at Columbia and at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Her later work included Games of the Strong (1982) and Dancing on Coral (1987) which won the Miles Franklin Award. She returned to Australia and taught at the University of Technology in Sydney from 1990. Her novel, Longleg (1990) won the 1991 Age Book of the Year Award, and was followed by the gothic novel, The Tempest of Clemenza (1996). She wrote the paper, Inspiring Creativity, for the 2007 Sydney Writers’ festival, though she was too ill to present it. Glenda Adams died of ovarian cancer aged sixty-seven.

Adams, Hannah – (1755 – 1831) 
American historian and memoirist
Hannah Adams was born in Medfield, Massachusetts. Studious from an early age, Hannah acquired much self-education and an acquaintance with Latin and Greek. This later proved to be of bebefit when she was forced by financial circumstances to begin to provide for herself (1772) and she is said to have become the first American woman to have made her career from writing.
Despite this, though her work acquired her literary acknowledgment and introduced her to a wider circle of friends and acquaintances it brough Hannah little financial redress. Her written works included Views of Religious Opinions (1784), History of New England (1799), Evidences of Christianity (1801) and History of the Jews (1812). She published her Autobiography (1832) shortly before her death. Hannah Adams died (Dec 15, 1832) at Brookline, Massachusetts.

Adams, Leonie Fuller – (1899 – 1988)
American poet and translator
Leonie Adams was born (Dec 9, 1899) in Brooklyn, New York, and studied at Barnard College. Adams was the author of several collections of verse such as, Those Not Elect (1925), her first published collection High Falcon and Other Poems (1929) and Poems: A Selection (1954) which was awarded the Bollingen Prize. She was appointed as Poetry Consultant to the library of Congress (1948 – 1949).
Adams spent time abroad in London and France, and visited such important literary figures as Gertrude Stein, Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), and Louise Bogan. She became a lecturer at the New Jersey College for Women, later to be called Douglass College, which awarded her an honorary doctorate (1950), and she also worked at the University of Washington and at Sarah Lawrence College. She was awarded an academy fellowship from the Academy of American Poets (1974) and a fellowship from The Guggenheim Foundation. Leonie Fuller Adams died (June 27, 1988) aged eighty-eight, at New Milford, Connecticut.

Adams, Louisa Catherine – (1775 – 1852)
American First Lady (1825 – 1829)
Louisa Adams was the wife of John Quincy Adams (1767 – 1848), the sixth President of the USA. She was born in London, England, the daughter of Joshua Johnson, a merchant from Maryland, USA, and was educated at a convent school at Nantes, Brittany, in France prior to the Revolution.Louisa met Adams in 1795 and married him on London two years later (1797). The couple had three surviving children, and she accompanied Adams to Berlin, when he was appointed as the first US minister to the Prussian court, and later in London, when he served as minister to the British court (1815 – 1817).
Though considered a beauty by contemporaries, Louisa Adams possessed a radically shy and retiring nature, and she thoroughly disliked her role in the social limelight. Her own relations with her rather dictatorial husband were rarely easy, and her health sufferred from a total of a dozen pregnancies over a two decade period. During her time as First Lady she shunned the social set, but the death of their eldest son (1829) drew the couple back together, and when Adams was elected to Congress (1830), Louisa shared his support for the cause of anti-slavery.
Mrs Adams wrote poems, plays, and two autobiographical accounts Record of a Life, or My Story (begun in 1825) and Adventures of a Nobody (1840). Widowed in 1848, she resied mainly in Washington. Louisa Adams died in Washington aged seventy-seven, her funeral being attended by President Millard Fillmore.

Adams, Mary – (c1675 – 1702)
English thief
Mary Adams was born in Berkshire and was employed as a domestic servant by a grocer at Reading. Attractive, she was seduced by her employer and gave birth to an illegitimate child. Turned out into the street, she was forced to go to London to find the means to survive. In London Mary worked for a shopkeeper, who kept her, but then abandoned her after her second illegitimate child was born dead. Her first attempt at black mail failed, and after being abandoned again and left penniless, Mary became a prostitute for nobleman. Arrested for theft after picking the pockets of several of her clients, she was convicted and hanged at Tyburn (June 16, 1702).

Adams, Mary Jane Mathews – (1840 – 1902)
Irish-American poet
Mary Jane Mathews was born at Granard, near Dublin, Ireland, and after her arrival in America, she became the wife of the historian and biographer, Charles Kendall Adams (1825 – 1902). Mary Adams wrote several poetic works, The Choir Visible (1897) and The Song at Midnight (1903), published posthumously, and the collection of verse, Sonnets and Songs (1901). Mary Adams survived her husband only six months, and died (Dec 10, 1902) aged sixty-two.

Adams, Maude Kiskadden – (1872 – 1953)
American actress
Maude Adams was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. A child actress of some renown before she made her big debut in C.H. Hoyt’s A Midnight Bell in New York (1889), when she first took her mother’s maiden name as her stage name. Receiving highly favourable reviews for her role of Lady Babbie in J.M. Barrie’s The Little Minister (1897) Maude appeared in several of Barrie’s works, and she is believed to have been the inspiration behind his character of ‘Peter Pan,’ in which role she appeared in New York (1905).
Miss Adams retired from the stage in 1918, but returned for several years (1931 – 1934) to perform several Shakespearean roles. From 1937 until her full retirement in 1950 Maude taught drama at Stephens College in Missouri. Maude Adams died (July 17, 1953) at Tannersville, New York.

Adams, Sarah Flower – (1805 – 1848)
British hymnologist and poet
Sarah Flower was born at Great Harlow, Essex, the daughter of Benjamin Flower, and married (1834) William Bridges Adams, an inventor and pamphleteer. She was a member of the Unitarian sect, and most of her writings were of a devotional nature such as the lengthy dramatic poem Vivia Perpetua (1841) the life of an early Christian martyr. Adams also composed several beautiful and emotionally moving hymns, the most notable of which was ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee’ (1840).

Adams, Sophia Charlotte Louisa – (1832 – 1891)
Anglo-Australian Catholic nun
Sophia Adams was born in Woodchester, Gloucestershire, and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1851. Sophia entered the Dominican convent at Stowe, near Chipping Norton, Oxford. Sophia was appointed the superior of St Mary’s Priory, St Mary’s Church around c1866, taking the name in religion of mother Mary Rose Columba. In 1883 she was sent out to Adelaide in South Australia and managed the affairs of the order there until her death. Sophia Adams died (Dec 30, 1891) in Adelaide.

Adams, Suzanne – (1872 – 1953)
American soprano
Suzanne Adams was born (Nov 27, 1872) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Suzanne studied under Madame Marchesi in Paris, and made her stage debut at the Paris Opera as Juliette in Theodore Gounod’s Faust (1895). Known for the exquisite quality of her voice Adams was especially popular in the roles of Juliette and Margeurite. Adams later appeared for several years at Covent Garden in London (1898 – 1904) during which time she created the role of Hero in Much Ado about Nothing (1901) by Sir Charles Villiers Sanford (1852 – 1924). She also worked with the Metropolitan Opera in New York (1899 – 1903) and retired in 1904, after which she established herself as a vocal teacher in London. Suzanne Adams died (Feb 5, 1953) aged eighty, in London.

Adams, Truda – (1890 – 1958)
British ceramicist
Truda Adams studied at the Royal Academy School in London, before her marriage to John Adams, with whom she removed to Durban in South Africa (1914). The couple remained there throughout WW I, eventually returning to Dorset (1921) to set up the Poole Pottery company with Cyril Carter and Harold Stabler. Truda then became the resident designer, producing popular brush-stroke floral patterns. Divorcing Adam, Truda remarried to Carter in 1931. Her central role in the company as designer remained clear, and she eventually retired in 1950.

Adams, Victoria – (1897 – 1961)
American stage and film actress
Adams was born (June 17, 1897) in Missouri. She was a talented theatre performer of long standing but was best known for her sole film appearance as Ma Brooks in Angel Baby (1961). Victoria Adams died (May 13, 1961) aged sixty-three, in Los Angeles, California.

Adamson, Amy Hannah – (1893 – 1963)                                       
Australian educator
Hannah Adamson was born in Cooktown, Queensland, the daughter of John Adamson, a politician. Her teaching career began in 1912 at the Eagle Junction State School, and she graduated from the University of Queensland in 1916. In 1933, she was selected as a floor master at the State Commercial High School and College in Brisbane. When in 1947, her application for a senior post at State Commercial was given instead to a male colleague, Amy successfully appealed against this decision. From 1949 – 1959, she was principal of the Maryborough State High School and Intermediate School for girls. She retired in 1959. Amy Adamson died at Clayfield, Queensland.  

Adamson, Estelle Inez Ommaney – (1910 – 1990)
British director of nursing
Estelle Adamson was born (May 21, 1910) and was educated at the Benenden School in Cranbrook, Kent. Adamson trained as a nurse at St Thomas’s Hospital in London, where she served as a sister (1936 – 1943). She was later appointed as assistant-matron at the King Edward VII Sanitorium in Midhurst, Sussex (1943 – 1945). After WW II Adamson served as matron of the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland (1951 – 1965) and was appointed OBE (Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of her valuable service. Her last position for retirement was as director of nursing at St Thomas’s (1965 – 1970). Estelle Adamson died at Goring-on-Thames, Reading, in Berkshire.

Adamson, Jennie Laurel – (1879 – 1962)
British parliamentary figure
Jennie Adamson was the wife (1902) of William Murdoch Adamson (died 1945), amember of parliament and a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury. Mrs Adamson joined the civil service and was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sir Walter Womersley, the minister of pensions during WW II. After joining politics herself, she served in politics as the Labour Pary member for Dartford in Kent (1938 – 1945), and then as the member for Bexley (1945 – 1946). She was later a deputy chairman of the Assistance Board (1946 – 1953). Jennie Adamson died (April 25, 1962) in Bromley, Kent.

Adamson, Joy – (1910 – 1980)
Austrian conservationist and author
Born Joy Friedericke Victoria Gessner in Troppau (Opava) Silesia, she was brought up in Vienna, Austria where she learned the piano. She married secondly Peter Bally, the botanist, and thirdly (1943) to George Adamson, a British game warden. Adamson moved to Kenya (1937), where she begun studying the animal and flower life of the country, which she also began to paint, producing over one thousand separate paintings.

After her marriage with Adamson, Joy accepted a commission offerred by the colonial government in Kenya to paint pictorial records of members of the vanishing local tribes from 1944 – 1952. Samples of her work have been exhibited in the National Museum and Nairobi’s State House. Despite her great artistic talent, Joy Adamson remains more famous for her series of books which dealt with her life with the lioness Elsa, whom she raised and then eventually successfully released into the wild, Born Free (1960) which was made into a memorable and popular movie, Elsa (1961), Forever Free (1962) and, Elsa and Her Cubs (1965). Adamson founded the World Wildlife Fund in America (1962) and continued as a leading conservationist and wrote her own Autobiography (1978). Joy Adamson was murdered by tribesmen (Jan 3, 1980) at her home in the Shaba Game Preserve, in northern Kenya.

Adamson, Mary Ann – (1824 – 1906)
Anglo-Australian nun
Mary Adamson was the daughter of James Adamson, she was born in England. Being veiled a nun of the Good Samaritan Order, and taking the name of Sister Mary Magdalen, she was sent to Australia, where she was appointed matron at the Catholic Orphanage at Paramatta, New South Wales. Adamson was later appointed superior-general of the Samaritan Order in Australia (1876 – 1894) with the help and support of Archbishop Polding, Sister Mary Magdalen established thirteen branches of her Order in Australia.

Adana of Autun – (d. after 876)
Carolingian nun
Adana was the daughter of Childebrand III, count of Autun and Lord of Perracy, and his wife Dunana (Dyname). She became a nun at the abbey of Faremoutier in Brie, though it is uncertain whether or not she was abbess there. The testamentary charter made by her brother Count Ekkehard (Jan, 876) named Adane germane mea as amongst the beneficiaries of his will, and she was bequeathed some valuable books.

Adcock, Mary – (c1730 – 1773)
British actress
Mary Adcock was born in London, to a family of actors named Palmer. She joined the Hallam Company and travelled with them to America, where she met and married fellow British actor, William Adcock prior to 1754, when she appeared on stage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under her married name. Adcock appeared as Lady Anne in Richard III, the Nurse, in Romeo and Juliet, Mrs Peachum in The Beggar’s Opera, and Regan, in King Lear.
Mary Adcock travelled with her husband, working in Charleston, South Carolina, and in Jamaica, before they returned to London, both appearing at the Haymarket Theatre, she as Belvidera in Venice Preserv’d (1758). The couple spent three years at the Crow Street Theatre, in Dublin (1760 – 1763) and then toured the Irish provinces. Her daughter, Sarah Maria Adcock, called Weston, formed defacto relationships with the actors Thomas Weston and Richard Wilson. Mary Adcock died (Feb 13, 1773) aged about forty-two.

Adda-Guppi – (649 – 547 BC)
Babylonian queen mother
Queen Adda-Guppi was the mother of King Nabonidus who ruled (556 – 539 BC). She was born during the reign of Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria. Despite marriage and a son, this lady held an important social position as the priestess of the moon god Sin in the city of Harran. In this unique position she held considerable political influence during the reigns of the successive Babylonian rulers, Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar II, and Neriglissar.
When her son Nabonidus became king (556 BC), Adda-Guppi was accorded the rank of queen mother. She died nine years later, aged one hundred and two. The king put up a stela at Harran to comemorate her. This surviving stela provides most of the information we have of her life. Her position as priestess of Sin is thought to have heavily influenced her son’s devotion to that deity, and the city of Harran itself. Her son was later defeated by Cyrus I the Great (Oct, 539 BC) who conquered the city without bloodshed, and protected the inhabitants. Nabonidus surrendered himself to Cyrus and was kept in honourable imprisonment at Kirman till his death. Her grandson Bel-shar-usur ruled Babylon as regent during his father’s abscences from the city. He is the Belshazzar to whom Daniel acted as interpreter in the Bible.

Addams, Dawn – (1930 – 1985)
British actress
Dawn Addams was born in Felixstowe, Suffolk, and was educated in England, India and America. Dawn came to Hollywood, California in 1950, and obtained a role in Night Into Morning (1951) and a bit part in Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Her career remained undistinguished until she achieved notice with a leading role in Charlie Chaplin’s A King in New York (1957) her most memorable role. Dawn Addams also appeard in British and European films such as L’Ile du Bout du Monde (Temptation) (1959) and Les Menteurs (The Liars) (1961) both made in France, and several of her earlier films were made in Italy.
Adams was married in 1954 to the Italian prince Vittorio Massimo, but she continued to make sporadic film appearances, and was notorious for her scandalous private life, details of which appeared in the media. Divorced from Massimo in 1971, Dawn remarried and retired to Malta, settling finally in America. Her last two films included two horror movies The Vampire Lovers (1970), and, The Vault of Horror (1973). Dawn Addams died of cancer in the USA.

Addams, Jane – (1860 – 1935)
American social reformer and feminist
Jane Addams was born in Cedarville, Illinois. After a visit to the social settlement of Toynbee Hall whilst on a visit to London, Jane became inspired to founde the settlement of Hull House in Chicago (1899) of which experimental community she remained the head for the rest of her life. A tireless worker to provide social justice, affordable housing for the poor, factory inspections to promote safe and fair workplace conditions for both emigrant and black workers her efforts resulted in the introduction of the eight hour working day for women.
Jane was the first woman president of the National Conference of Social Work (1910) and herself founded the National Federation of Settlements of which association she was president for nearly twenty-five years 1911 – 1935. She was also active behind the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union (1920). A supporter of suffrage for women, Addams served as the vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from (1911 – 1914).
A committed pacifist who believed that all war was the worst evil of all, she served as president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom from (1919 – 1935), and in 1931 she shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Professor Nicholas M. Butler. She was the author of Democracy and Social Ethics (1902) and Peace and Bread in time of War (1922), and published memoirs, Twenty Years at Hull House (1910). Jane Addams died (May 21, 1935) in Chicago.

Addhakasi – (fl. c500 – c480 BC)
Indian poet
Addhakasi was born in the city of Kasi (later Benares and Varanasi), and was raised to become a prostitute, and eventually an expensive courtesan, who was able to command high prices for her services. Having heard the preaching of Gautama Buddha, she left her former life, and became a nun, eventually succeeding in gaining full ordination. Her particular manner of ordination, sanctioned by Buddha himself, established the precedent whereby nuns were permitted further religious authority. One of her poems is preserved in the Therigatha, and records her flagrant lifestyle and her conversion to Buddhism and self-realizarion.

Addington, Brenda Swanney – (1918 – 1990)
Canadian-Anglo editor
Brenda Wallace was born in Ontario, Canada, the second daughter of Professor Robert Charles Wallace, the Principal of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. She married into the British aristocracy and became the wife (1942) of Lieutenant-Commander Hilary William Dever Addington (born 1917) of the Royal Navy, the younger son of Raymond Anthony Addington, sixth Viscount Sidmouth to whom she bore three children.
When her father-in-law succeeded as the sixth Viscount Sidmouth Brenda and her husband became the Hon. (Honourable) Mrs Hiley Addington. The family later resided at Sarnia, near Ontario. The Hon. Mrs Addington edited and published the correspondence of her husband’s kinsman as The Crimean and Indian Mutiny Letters of the Hon. Charles Addington, 38th Regiment (1968).

Addington, Sarah – (1891 – 1940)
American children’s author and writer
Sarah Addington was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and married Howard C. Reid. Addington wrote several popular stories works for juveniles such as The Boy Who Lives in Pudding Lane (1922), The Pied Piper in Pudding Lane (1923), Pudding Lane People (1926), and then, a decade later, wrote the novel, Hound of Heaven (1935). Sarah Addington died (Nov 7, 1940) aged forty-nine.

Addison, Agnes – (1841 – 1903) 
New Zealand draper and businesswoman
Agnes Broomfield was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the daughter of a shoemaker, Joseph Broomfield. She was employed as a hat trimmer before her marriage (1874) to New Zealand based carpenter Robert Addison, and the couple settled at Hokitika, arriving abaord the Michael Angelo as assisted immigrants. With her husband’s death (1885) his land and businesses fell to Agnes to manage for the upkeep of her four daughters. She began selling cottons and pins from 1886, and imported her stock from Nelson and Dunedin, by sea. Her drapery business was firmly established by 1890, and her daughters all assisted her with the management of the shop and business before their own marriages. Agnes Addison died (Jan 28, 1903) at Hokitika.

Addison, Elizabeth – (c1770 – before 1844)
British actress
Born Elizabeth Willems, she was niece to the bass vocalist, Friedrich Karl Reinhold. Orphaned during her youth, she became a ward of the Addison family, and was vocally talented. Elizabeth married (1791) the composer and musician John Addison (c1766 – 1844). Addison performed sentimental ballads in Vauxhall Gardens with considerable success, most notably ‘With Heaving Breast and Downcast Eye.’
Several renditions of her favoured works, with lyrics written by her husband, wre published, including, A Roundelay Sung at Vaux Hall by Mrs Addison; Written by Mr. A. Set by Mr Hook (1792), Hook’s The Beauty of the Mind (1792), and his The Warning (1793). After performing in Liverpool, Addison sang principal roles in the private theatre in Fishamble Street, in Dublin, conducted by the earl of Westmeath. Addison made her Covent Garden stage debut as Rosetta in Love in a Village (1796), and appeared as Victoria, in The Castle of Andalusia and Polly in The Beggar’s Opera.
After further vocal tuition from Rauzzini at Bath, in England, the couple performed at Cork and Limerick in Ireland, and then at Manchester, in Lancashire, England. The couple retired around 1810, and John Addison devoted his time to teaching. Mrs Addison predeceased her husband.

Addu-Duri – (fl. c1780 – c1770 BC)
Assyrian royal and court official
Addu-Duri was perhaps the mother of Zimri-Lim, King of Mari, and thus the widow of King Yahdun-Lim. She possibly remarried to Hadni-Adad.

Adela Capet – (1009 – 1079)
Princess of France
Princess Adela was the daughter of Robert II the Pious, King of France (987 – 1031), and his third wife Constance of Provence, the daughter of William II, Count of Provence. Her mother was the stepdaughter of Otto I William of Burgundy, titular King of Lombardy. She was sister to Henry I, King of France (1031 – 1060). The princess was married firstly (1027) to Richard III (c1001 – 1029), Duke of Normandy (1027 – 1029). As a wedding gift she received lands at Saire Hague and Bauptois in the north of the Contentin from her husband. This marriage remained childless.
Adela was then sent to the Femish court at Bruges, where she was remarried secondly (1029) to Baldwin V (1012 – 1067), who succeeded his father Baldwin IV as Count of Flanders (1036 – 1067), and Adela became countess consort of Flanders. She brought the county of Corbeuil as her dowry. Prior to her husband succeeding his father (1031), Adela’s pride and arrogance had caused Baldwin to rebel against his father as, ‘… she believed she should have first place in the house of a count.’
Princess Adela was nearly related to the emperor Conrad II (1027 – 1039), and to most of the royal families of Europe, and at the Flemish court she was much honoured because of these lofty connections. At the time of her daughter Matilda’s marriage (1050) the chronicler William of Padua wrote, “ If anyone enquires who was Matilda’s mother, he will hear that she was the daughter of Robert, king of Gaul, the son and nephew of kings from kings descended.’ Countess Adela and her husband accompanied William and Matilda to the court of Rouen in Normandy, by request of Duke William, so that they might participate in the festivities. Soon afterwards they provided refuge for Baldwin’s young half-sister Judith and her Anglo-Saxon husband, Earl Tostig Godwinsson, when the couple had been exiled from England (1051).
Her husband served as joint regent of France (1060 – 1067) with the Queen mother, Anna Jaroslavna, for her son Philip I, the child successor of King Henry I, Adela’s brother. When her younger son Robert invaded Flanders to disinherit his nephew, Arnulf III (1071), Adela implored the intercession of the king. Despite this assistance, Robert managed to gain control of Flanders and eventually recognized as count. With her husband she founded the monastery of Einham on the Scald river, which they later gave to the Benedictines (1063).
Countess Adela survived her husband as Dowager Countess of Flanders (1067 – 1079). She later retired to the Benedictine abbey of Messines, near Ypres, which she had founded. The countess traveled to Rome in order to receive the veil from Pope Alexander II. She traveled in a chariot covered with a curtain to protect her from the wind and the rain, so that her prayers throughout the journey should continue uninterrupted. After this ceremony, she returned to Messines with several relics of St Sidronius, which she had received from the pope. Adela died (Jan 8, 1079) aged sixty-nine, at Messines, and was venerated as a saint. Her children were,

• Baldwin VI (1030 – 1070). He succeeded his father as Count of Flanders (1067 – 1070) and left descendants.
• Matilda of Flanders (1032 – 1083). She became the wife of William I the Conqueror (1027 – 1087), King of England (1066 – 1087), and left many descendants.
• Robert I the Frisian (c1035 – 1093). He became Count of Holland (1062 – 1071) and ultimately displaced his nephew as Count of Flanders (1071 – 1093). He was married and left issue.
  His stepdaughter, Bertha of Holland, was the first wife of Philip I, King of France (1060 – 1108) and mother of Louis VI (1108 – 1137).
• Henry of Flanders (born before 1040). He died in infancy.

Adela of Anjou (1) – (c925 – after 987)
French countess of Valois and Amiens
Adela was the daughter of Fulk I, Count of Anjou (929 – 941) and his wife Roscilla, the daughter and heiress of Warnarius (Werner), seigneur of Loches and Villentrais and his wife Toscandra of Nantes. Count Fulk arranged for Adela to became the wife (c940) of Walter I (Gautier) (c921 – 998), Count of the Vexin, Amiens, and Valois (965). The countess and her seven sons were named in a surviving charter of her husband (987) and she died sometime after this date.
Adela may have made donations to the abbeys of Corbie and St Crespin in Valois, probably jointly with her husband. Three of her elder sons confirmed a charter to Corbie made by King Hugh Capet (988). The countess left eight children including Walter II the White (c944 – c1027), who succeeded his father as Count of Vexin and Valois. He was married three times and left descendants. Her second son, Guy of Amiens, was appointed Bishop of Soissons.

Adela of Anjou (2) – (c986 – after 1033) 
Norman heiress
Adela was the daughter and heiress of Fulk III, Count of Anjou and his first wife Elisabeth, the heiress of Bouchard I, Count of Vendome. Adela became the wife (c998) of Eudes (Boon) of Monceau, Count of Nevers (c980 – 1023). Through her mother Adela inherited the county of Vendome and her son Bouchard was officially recognized as her heir in 1007.
Her husband seems to have had no authority over Vendome in his lifetime, and the reigns of power were firmly controlled by Fulk III through Adela, and Vendome remained under the political aegis of the Angevin dynasty. Adela was the mother of Bouchard II (c1003 – 1029) and Fulk II (c1008 – 1066) successive counts of Vendome. Countess Adela was recorded as living (Feb 26, 1033). Adela died between that date and the end of 1035.

Adela of Austrasia (Addula, Athela) – (c665 – c734)
Merovingian princess and abbess
Adela was the daughter of Count Hugobert, the Seneschal of Austrasia and Neustria and his wife Irmina of Liege, the granddaughter of King Dagobert I (629 – 639). She was married to a nobleman named Alberic to whom she bore a son named Alberic, who became count of Blois, who in turn became the father of St Gregory of Utrecht (c707 – 776). She is believed to be the same as the widow called ‘Adula’ who was residing at Nivelles with her young son (691 – 692).
Adela entered the monastery of Palatiolum (Pfalzel), near Trier, founded by St Modwald, and later became the abbess of that house (c710), which she governed successfully for many years. She seems to have been amongst the disciples of St Boniface, who visited her whilst travelling from Frisia to Thuringia (722). A letter in his correspondence from Abbess Aelfflaed of Whitby is addressed to Adela under the name ‘Adolena.’ The Lignum Vitae called her ‘Athela.’ The church venerated her memory annually (Dec 24).

Adela of Bar (Adala, Aelis) – (c1015 – 1053)
French feudal heiress
Adela was the elder daughter of Notcher III, count of Bar-sur-Aube in Champagne, the descendant of Norman invaders. Adela was married four times, firstly to Renaud of Semur, secondly to Rainald, Count of Joigny. She was married thirdly (1040) to Raoul IV de Valois (c1010 – 1074), Count of Vermandois, as his first wife. She bore him four children before he divorced her (1052), whereupon she remarried once more, to Roger I, seigneur de Vignory.
At the time of her marriage with Count Raoul The Chronicle of Alberic de Trois-Fontaines called her ‘Adala.’ Adela inherited the county of Bar at her father’s death (1040), and left her patrimony of Bar-sur-Aube to the children of her marriage with Count Raoul. It was first inherited by her eldest son Gautier, though it was administered by count Raoul until his son came of age to rule. Countess Adela died (Sept 11, 1053), recorded by a charter which confirmed gifts to the abbey of Molesme and which styled her Adalina comitissa. Adela’s children by Raoul were,

• Elisabeth de Valois (c1041 – before 1100). She became the wife of Barthelemy (died after 1073), Seigneur de Broyes and de Beaufort
• Adela de Valois (c1044 – before 1090). She became the wife of Herbert IV (c1032 – c1080), Count of Vermandois, and left descendents.
• Alice de Valois (Adelaide) – (c1045 – before 1100). She became the third wife of Theobald III, Count of Blois-Chartres (1010 – 1089).
• Gautier de Valois (c1046 – Sept 6, 1067). He succeeded his mother as Count of Bar-sur-Aube (1053 – 1067) but died unmarried and childless.
• Simon de Valois (c1048 – Sept 30, 1080). He succeeded his elder brother as Count of Bar-sur-Aube (1067 – 1080). He was betrothed to Adela of Normandy, daughter of William the Conqueror, but refused to marry, instead becoming a monk and dying childless.

Adela of Blois-Champagne – (1144 – 1206)
Queen consort and regent of France
Adela of Blois-Champagne was the third wife (1160) of King Louis VII (1137 – 1180), and the mother of King Philip II Augustus (1165 – 1223). She was the daughter of Theobald IV, Count of Blois-Champagne and Matilda, the daughter of Engelbert II, Duke of Carinthia. During Louis’s lifetime Adela had little influence over public affairs, though she did write to Pope Calixtus III on behalf of the English archbishop of Canterbury Thomas a’Becket, and she also wrote to King Henry II entreating him to allow Becket’s exile to be rescinded.
While her husband was paralyzed with a stroke her powerful brothers Henry and Theobald attempted to oust Adela from any position of power at her son’s court by persuading the young king to revoke his mother’s dower lands. Adela fled from the court and appealed to Henry II of England, who came to Normandy. This mediation resulted in the Treaty of Gisors (June 28, 1180), by which her son promised to make adequate financial arrangements for Adela at the appropriate time. Louis finally died in September, and King Philip had enough confidence in Adela’s administrative abilities to appoint her and her brother William, archbishop of Rheims as regents of France (1190 – 1191), whilst he was absent on crusade in Palestine. She corresponded with Henry II of England and with Pope Calixtus III. Queen Adela died (June 4, 1206). Of her two daughters, Alice was for many years betrothed to Richard I of England, though she became the mistress of his father, whilst Agnes married successively the Byzantine emperors Alexius II Komnenus and Andronicus II Komnenus.

Adela of Brittany – (c1002 – 1067)
Princess and nun
Princess Adela was the daughter of Geoffrey I Boterel, Duke of Brittany (992 – 1008), and his wife Hawisa, the daughter of Richard I the Fearless, Duke of Normandy (942 – 996). She remained unmarried and evinced a desire to live the religious life. Adela became a nun and was appointed to rule as the first abbess of the convent of St George, at Rennes, which had been founded after 1030 by her brother, Count Alan, and was supported by the ducal family.
The foundation charter is preserved in the Cartulaire de Saint-Georges de Rennes, which recorded that Alan gave his sister Adela as a nun, this ceremony being witnessed by her mother, the Dowager Countess Hawisa. The cartulary also recorded that the nobleman Rotald called on the abbess to provided medical assistance during two illnesses. The abbess provided a physician herself and paid the bills. Her own surviving charters began with the formula, ego Addela, ancillarum Christi ancilla (I, Adele, handmaiden of the handmaidens of Christ).

Adela of Flanders (Alaine) – (1063 – 1115)
Queen consort of Denmark (c1080 – 1086) and duchess of Apulia in Sicily
Adela was the daughter of Robert I the Frisian, Count of Flanders and his wife Gertrude, the daughter of Bernard II, Duke of Saxony. Adela was married firstly (c1080) to Knud IV (Canute) (1040 – 1086), by whom she the mother of Charles of Denmark, count of Flanders (1119 – 1127), and two daughters. She remarried secondly (1090) to Roger, duke of Apulia (1060 – 1111).
With Roger’s death Adela, whom the Normans called ‘Alaine,’ ruled as regent for her son, Duke Guglielmo II (William) (1097 – 1127) until her death (April, 1115) aged fifty-one.

Adela of Hamalant – (955 – 1025)
German mediaeval noblewoman
Adela was the daughter of Wichmann II, Count of Hamelant, and his wife Luitgarde, the daughter of Arnulf I, Count of Flanders (918 – 964) and his wife Adelaide of Vermandois. Her brother Wichmann died without issue (967) whilst her elder sister Luitgarde became abbess of Elten. Through her mother Adela was a direct descendant of Alfred the Great (871 – 899), the famous Anglo-Saxon king of England, and of the Carolingian emperor Charlemagne (800 – 814). Through her father she was a granddaughter of Dirk I, Count of West Frisia and Holland.
Adela of Hamelant was married firstly (c970) to Immed IV (c940 – 983), Count of the West Saxons, and secondly (c988) to the nobleman, Baldwin of Tubalgo (c950 – 1021). The children of her first marriage were,

• Glismode of Saxony (born c971). She was married firstly to Retting (died before 994), Count of Bavaria, by whom she left issue, and secondly to Ozi I, Count of Friuli.
• Theodoric of Saxony (c973 – 1015). He succeeded his father as Count of the West Saxons (983 – 1015).
• Meinwerk of Saxony (c975 – 1036). He became a priest and was appointed as Bishop of Paderborn.
• Emma of Saxony (c977 – 1038). She became the wife of Ludger of Saxony (c950 – 1011), Count of Westphalia, and was the mother of Immed (c1000 – 1076), who succeeded as Bishop of Paderborn.
• Atzela of Saxony (c980 – before 1048). She died unmarried.

Adela of Italy – (c800 – c847)
Carolingian princess
Adela was probably the second daughter of Pepin I, King of Italy (781 – 810), and his second wife Gundrada, the daughter of Count Bernard of Austrasia. Originally called Adula she was the younger half-sisters of Bernard, King of Italy. Adela was raised in Milan in Lombardy until the death of her father (810) after which she returned with her mother, Queen Gundrada, and her sisters, to the court of her grandfather, the Emperor Charlemagne. After her mother was forced to retire to the abbey of sainte-Croix in Poitiers because of her political dealings at the Imperial court, Adela’s uncle, the Emperor Louis I gave her in marriage (c818) to Lambert I (c790 – 836), whom he created Count of Nantes in Brittany, at the time of the marriage. Adela survived her husband as the Dowager Countess of Nantes (836 – c847). Her children were,

• Guy of Nantes (c820 – 860). He became Duke of Spoleto as Guy I (c846 – 860) and was also lay abbot of Lettlach. Duke Guy was married to Iltana of Benevento, and left issue.
• Doda of Nantes (c822 – after 846). She became a nun and was first appointed as Abbess of St Clement in Nantes. She later became Abbess of Craon (846).
• Lambert II (c825 – 852). He succeeded his father as Count of Nantes (836 – 852) and was married to his cousin Rotrude, the daughter of Emperor Lothair I (840 – 855), and left issue.
• Warnar of Nantes (c827 – 853). He became Count of the Breton March, and left issue.

Adela of Normandy (1) – (917 – 970)
Princess and duchess consort of Aquitaine
Born with the Scandinavian name of Gerloc at Rouen Castle, she was the legitimate daughter of Rollo, the first Viking Duke of Normandy (911 – 927) and his second wife Papia of Bayeux. She was later baptized as a Christian and adopted the French royal name of Adela by which she was then known till her death. She was married (935) to William III (Guillaume) (915 – 963), Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou, and became duchess and countess consort. When her husband abdicated in favour of their son William IV Bras-de-Fer (937 – 995) and became a monk (951), the Duchess Adela retired from the court at Poitiers and became a nun. Duchess Adela died (shortly after Oct 14, 970) at Poitiers. Her daughter Adelaide of Poitou became the wife of Hugh Capet, King of France (987 – 996).

Adela of Normandy (2) – (1064 – 1138) 
Norman-Anglo princess and regent
Adela was the daughter of William I the Conqueror, King of England (1066 – 1087) and his wife Matilda, the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders. She married (1080) Stephen Henry, Count of Blois-Chartres, to whom she bore numerous children, including Stephen (1096 – 1154) who derived the crown of England through Adela. With the death of her father-in-law, Theobald III of Blois (1090) her husband succeeded as ruler of Blois. Adela ever retianed enormous influence over her husband and took an active interest in civil and ecclesiastical affairs in Blois. Instrumental in rebuilding the cathedral of Chartres, Adela was appointed regent when the count, at her won urging took part in the First Crusade (1095). He was later killed during the siege of Ramulah (1102) during the Second Crusade.
Adela remained as regent for her son Theobald during his minority, and she became closely allied with Archbishop Anselm, even managing to effect a temporary reconciliation between the saint and her brother King Henry I. She entertained Pope Paschal (1107) and Prince Bohemond of Antioch (1108) at her court. Adela resigned the regency in 1109 and entered the convent of Marcigny-sur-Loire, near Autun, Burgundy, but retained some of her former influence over secular affairs, persuading her son Theobald to join with his uncle Henry I against France (1117).
Countess Adela died at Marcigny-sur-Loire (March 8, 1138). She was interred with her mother at Caen, where her tomb bears the simple inscription Adela filia Regis (Adela daughter of the King).

Adela of Vermandois (1) – (c937 – 974)
Neustrian heiress
Adela was born in Vermandois, the daughter of Herbert III, Count of Vermandois and his wife Princess Hildebrante of Neustria, the daughter of Robert I, King of France (922 – 923). Adela, a descendant of the Carolingian emperor Charlemagne (800 – 814), became the first wife (c955) of Geoffrey I Greymantle (Grisgonelle) (938 – 987), Count of Anjou and became his countess consort (961 – 974). She died (before May, 974) and was buried within the Abbey of St Aubin in Angers, of which she had been patron. Through her son Fulk III she was an ancestress of the Plantagenet kings of England and their varied descendants. Her children were,

• Ermengarde Gerberga of Anjou (c959 – after 1040). Originally named Ermengarde she was married firstly to Conan I le Tort (the Red) (c927 – 992), Duke of Brittany and left issue, and then
  became the wife of Count Guillaume II of Angouleme (died 1028) when she adopted the name of Gerberga, and left further issue.
• Arsinde of Anjou (born Adelaide) (c969 – 1010). She became the first wife of William III Taillefer (947 – 1037), Count of Toulouse and left issue.
• Fulk III (971 – 1040). He succeeded his father as Count of Anjou and was married twice and left issue.
• Geoffrey of Anjou (c973 – 976). He died young.

Adela of Vermandois (Agnes) (2) – (953 – 991)
Queen consort of Lorraine (c977 – 991)
Adela was the daughter of Hubert of Vermandois, Comte de Meaux and Troyes, and his wife Ogiva, the widow of the French king Charles III the Simple, and daughter of the Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Elder (899 – 924). Her marriage (c977) with Charles of Laon, King of Lorraine (953 – 992), the younger brother of King Lothair (954 – 986) was considered an unequal one by her contemporaries. When her husband and Hugh Capet were rivalling for the throne of France, one of Hugh’s supporters advanced the argument that Charles had taken the daughter of one of his own vassals as a wife, and Hugh could not bear the thought of such a woman reigning over him as queen.
When her husband was captured by Archbishop Adalberon of Rheims (989) and handed over to the custody of Hugh, Queen Adela and her younger children shared his imprisonment at Orleans. She died there. Her children were Otto (c978 – 1012), who was elected duke of Upper Lorraine (991), but died unmarried, Ermengarde (c979 – after 1022) who became the wife of Adalbert I, count of Namur, and twin sons who died in infancy.

Adela of Vohburg – (1130 – c1187)
Queen consort of Germany
Adela was the daughter of Diepold III, margrave of Vohburg, and his second wife Kunigunde, daughter of Kuno of Nordheim, count of Beichlingen. Adela’s marriage with Frederick I Barbarossa (1149) was arranged by the German king Conrad in order to confirm the Vohburg family in their adherence to the Hohenstaufen dynasty. She brought the fief of Egerhard as her dowry. When Frederick succeeded as king (1152), he granted Adela’s dowry to Frederick IV of Swabia.
The personal relationship of the queen and her husband was never close, and she is not mentioned in any contemporary charters, nor was she ever crowned. She was believed to be indulging in an adulterous liasion with a court official, Diether von Ravensberg, and Frederick had the marriage annulled on the grounds of consanguinity. Adela remarried to Poppo III, Count of Laufen, whom she survived, and to whom she bore two sons.

Adelaide Capet    see   Hedwig Capet (2)

Adelaide de Bourbon – (1732 – 1800)
Princess of France
Princesse Marie Adelaide de Bourbon was the third daughter of Louis XV and Queen Marie Lesczynszka. She was born at the Palace of Versailles, near Paris. Educated at Versailles, her childhood beauty quickly faded and she early developed a rather masculine manner. Her intended marriage to Francois de Bourbon, Prince de Conti was ended after an attack of smallpox which destroyed her remaining looks (1748). Other proposed alliances with Prince Francis Xavier of Saxony and Albert, Duke of Saxe-Teschen did not eventuate, and she remained unmarried. Though notorious at the court of Versailles for her involvement in court factionalism, aimed primarily against the Comtesse Du Barry and later Queen Marie Antoinette, Adelaide and her two sisters Victoire and Sophie, courageously nursed their father during his last illness (1774) before retiring from the court to the Chateau de Bellevue.
With the outbreak of the Revolution, Adelaide and her surviving sister Victoire briefly shared the imprisonment of the royal family at the Tuileries. Their successful escape from France through Burgundy (Feb, 1791) was engineered by Count Axel de Fersen the queen’s friend. They resided at Naples and then at Trieste in Italy. Painted in childhood by Nattier as Diana, Adelaide was the patron of the Venetian dramatist Carlo Goldoni, who dedicated to her sisters his production of Bourru bien faisait, which was first performed at the Comedie Francaise (1771). Princess Adelaide died (Feb 27, 1800) at Trieste.

Adelaide de Valois     see      Alice de Valois

Adelaide of Alsace    see    Adelaide of Metz

Adelaide of Anjou     see also    Arsinde of Anjou

Adelaide of Anjou – (c1010 – after 1040)
French mediaeval noblewoman
Adelaide was the daughter of Fulk III Nerra (the Black) (971 – 1040), Count of Anjou and his second wife Hildegarde, the daughter of Theobald, Duke of Upper Lorraine. She was full sister to Count Geoffrey II Martel (1040 – 1067). Adelaide became the wife of (c1030 or before) of Giraud I le Bon (the Good) (c1000 – 1066), seigneur of montreuil, the son of Berlay II, seigneur of Montreuil and Bellay and his wife Adelaide, the daughter of Gelduin of Saumur, Seigneur de Chaumont. Adelaide and Giraud were the parents of Berlay III who left descendants through the Melun and Harcourt families. Adelaide’s great-grandson Berlay V de Montreuil, went on crusade to Palestine with Richard I the Lionheart of England. Adelaide survived her father.

Adelaide of Austria (Adelheid) – (1914 – 1971)
Hapsburg archduchess
Archduchess Adelaide Maria Josepha Sixta Antonia Roberta Ottonia Zita Charlotte Luise Immakulata Pia Theresia Beatrix Franziska Isabella Henriette Maximiliana Geneveva Ignatia Marcus d’Aviano was born (Jan 3, 1914) at Hetzendorf, the eldest daughter of the Emperor Karl I and his wife Zita of Bourbon-Parma. She bore the additional titles of Princess of Hungary and Bohemia. In 1918 she accompanied her family into exile.
Well educated, she spoke several languages fluently and finished her studies in Louvain, Brabant with a doctorate. In 1935 she returned to Austria, and was actively involved with plans for the imperial restoration of her brother Archduke Otto. However, with tha national socialist takeover of Austria in 1938, Adelaide managed to escape to America via Hungary, Portugal and Canada. The former imperial princess was employed as a social worker in New York, and became a respected academic as professor of sociology at Fordham University. From 1945 she resided in Austria after signing her renunciation papers worked as assistant and amanuensis to her brother Otto for many years. She remained unmarried. Archduchess Adelaide died (Oct 2, 1971) aged fifty-seven, at Pocking, Bavaria.

Adelaide of Auxerre (1) – (c865 – after 929)
Duchess consort of Burgundy
Adelaide was the daughter of Conrad II of Auxerre, margrave of Burgundy, and his second wife Waldrada (Judith), the daughter of Eberhard, Duke of Friuli. Her mother was the great-granddaughter of the emperor Charlemagne. Adelaide was married (c880) to Richard the Justiciar, Duke of Burgundy (886 – 921), whom she survived as Dowager Duchess. As a widow Adelaide became a nun at the abbey of Roumainmoutier in Burgundy. Duchess Adelaide was living (Sept 14, 929) and died sometime after that date. She left six children,

• Raoul of Burgundy (c882 – 936). He succeeded Robert I as King of France (923 – 936). He was married but died without male issue.
• Hugh the Black (c885 – 952). He became Duke of Burgundy, and was married and left several daughters.
• Ermengarde of Burgundy (c889 – 935). She became Countess of Autun and was married to Manasses I of Vergy, Count of Chalons-sur-Marne (c867 – 920). She was the mother of several children, inlcuding Giselbert of Vergy, who succeeded his uncle Hugh as Duke of Burgundy (952 – 956).
• Adelaide of Burgundy (c895 – c958). She became the wife of Rainer II (c879 – 932), Count of Hainault, and left issue.
• Boso I (c900 – 935). He became Count of Arles and Provence. He was married but died childless.
• Willa of Burgundy (Gisela) (c902 – after 937). She became the wife of Hugh (c900 – c948). Count of Vienne and left issue. He later repudiated her.

Adelaide of Auxerre (2) – (1251 – 1290)
French mediaeval heiress
Sometimes called Alice or Alix, she was the third daughter of Eudes of Burgundy, Count of Nevers, and his wife Mathilde de Bourbon, Countess of Auxerre. She was the paternal granddaughter of Hugh IV (1218 – 1272), Duke of Burgundy whilst through her mother she was a descendant of Hugh Capet, Duke of Paris (died 956). Her elder sister Yolande succeeded their father as Countess of Nevers, whilst Auxerre was inherited by her next sister, Queen Margaret of Naples (1273).
Margaret then passed over the county to Adelaide (1273), who had become the wife (1268) of Jean II, Count of Chalon and Seigneur of Rochefort (1243 – 1309), and it was vested in their descendants. Their only son William VI de Chalon (c1270 – 1304) succeeded his mother as Count of Auxerre, and died before his father leaving descendants. Adelaide’s great-grandson, Jean IV de Chalon (died c1379), Count of Auxerre, who suffered from mental instability, eventually sold the county to King Charles V for a ridiculously small fee.

Adelaide of Baden – (c1249 – 1295)
German princess and nun
Adelaide was the second daughter of Rudolf I, Margrave of Baden, and his wife Kunigunde, the daughter of Otto I, Count von Eberstein. Adelaide was veiled as a nun during childhood, and was appointed to rule as abbess of Lichtenthal, over which establishment she ruled as superior for over thirty years (1263 – 1295). Princess Adelaide died (Aug 18, 1295) aged about forty-five.

Adelaide of Brunswick (1) – (c1243 – 1274)
German princess
Adelaide was the fourth daughter of Otto I the Infant, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg (1235 – 1252) and his wife Matilda, the daughter of Albert II, margrave of Brandenburg, as recorded in the Cronica Principum Saxonie. Adelaide was betrothed (1258) to Henry I the Child of Brabant (1244 – 1308), the grandson of St Elizabeth of Hungary. The ensuing marriage (1262) was recorded in the Cronica Reinhardsbrunnensis, which styled Adelaide’s husband as Henricius lantgravium Hesse.
Adelaide was Henry’s first wife. He later became landgrave of Hesse-Kassel with Adelaide as landgravine consort (1265 – 1274). Landgravine Adelaide died (June 12, 1274) aged about thirty. She was buried in the Church of St Elisabeth at Marburg. Apart from a son who died in infancy she left six children,

• Sophia of Hesse-Kassel (1264 – 1331). She was married to Otto I (c1262 – 1305), Count of Waldeck, and left issue.
• Henry the Younger of Hesse-Kassel (1266 – 1298). He was married and predeceased his father, leaving an only daughter and no male heir.
• Matilda of Hesse-Kassel (1267 – after 1332). She was married firstly to Godfrey VI, Count von Ziegenhain (died 1304), and secondly to Count Philip III of Falkenstein-Munzenburg (died 1322).
• Adelaide of Hesse-Kassel (1268 – 1317). She became the first wife of Berthold VII, Count of Henneberg-Schleusingen (1272 – 1340) and left issue.
• Elisabeth of Hesse-Kassel – (1269 – 1293). She became the first wife of Johannes I (c1262 – 1324), Count von Sayn, and left issue.
• Otto I (1272 – 1339). He succeeded his father as second Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (1308 – 1339). He was married and left descendants.

Adelaide of Brunswick (2) – (1285 – 1320)
Queen consort of Bohemia (1315 – 1320)
Adelaide was the eldest daughter of Henry I, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen, and his wife Agnes, the daughter of Albert I the Froward of Meissen, Landgrave of Thuringia. She was the elder sister to Adelaide of Brunswick, the wife of the Byzantinine emperor Andronikos II. This elder Adelaide was married firstly (c1307) to Count Gerhard IV of Eppstein (c1261 – c1314) as his second wife. She remarried (1315) at the convent of Wilthen, near Innsbruck, Tyrol, to Henry of Carinthia (1270 – 1335), the titular King of Bohemia, as his second wife, to whom she bore two daughters.
The anniversary of her death was long observed at the convent of Wilthen, where her elder, mentally retarded daughter, Adelaide, remained and was raised by the nuns there. The chronicle of Stams recorded the death, Anno Bini 1320 in die Agapiti Martyr obit Domina Adeheidis, Ducissa de Braunsweig, secunda conthardis, praedit, Regis Henrici etiam List sepulta. Her younger daughter was Margaret Maultasch (Pocket-mouth) (1318 – 1369), the ultimate heiress of the wealthy fiefs of Carinthia and Tyrol. Queen Adelaide died (Aug 15, 1320) aged thirty-five, at the convent of Stams.

Adelaide of Brunswick (3) – (1293 – 1324)
Byzantine Augusta (1320 – 1324)
Adelaide was born in Brunswick, the daughter of Henry I, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen, and his wife Agnes, the daughter of Albert I the Froward, Landgrave of Thuringia. Her mother Agnes was the maternal granddaughter of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II. Adelaide was married (1318) to the Byzantine prince Andronikus Palaeologus (1297 – 1341), four years her junior, in a dynastic match arranged by his grandfather Andronikus II, and took the Greek name of Irene after her conversion to Greek orthodoxy.
With the death of her father-in-law, Emperor Michael Palaeologus, Adelaide’s husband became joint ruler with his grandfather (1320). Of unpreposessing appearance, Adelaide failed to captivate the affections of her young husband. After the birth of a son who died in early infancy (1321) the emperor entirely ignored her and she resided in obscurity thereafter. Empress Adelaide died (Aug 16, 1324) at Rhaidestes. She was interred within the convent of Libis in Constantinople.

Adelaide of Burgundy (Adelais) (1) – (c880 – after 915)
Queen consort of Provence
Adelaide was the first wife of Louis III the Blind (880 – 928), former emperor (901 – 905) and then King of Provence, the grandson of the Carolingian emperor Louis II (855 – 875). Her own parentage has been much disputed, but the queen was either the daughter of Rudolf I, King of Burgundy (888 – 912) by a first, unknown wife, or she was the daughter of one of his brothers. Sources that call her the daughter of Rudolf and his wife Gisela of Vienne have the difficulty of explaining why King Louis would have married his own niece. The marriage took place (after June, 902), at the time Louis had been expelled from the imperial throne by Berengar I of Ivrea, and Adelaide did not receive Imperial titles ans styles.
Queen Adelaide held court with her husband in exile in Vienne, Provence. In a surviving charter the emperor Louis (Hludowicis ….. imperator augustus) granted property at Torresin in the Viennois, to a nobleman named Girardo, at the request of his wife, who was styled coniux nostra Adelaida (Jan, 915). Queen Adelaide died sometime before 928. Her two sons were,

• Charles Constantine, Count of Vienne (c910 – after 962). He was married to Theutberga of Troyes, and left issue.
• Raoul of Vienne (died after 929).

Adelaide of Burgundy (2) – (931 – 999)
Holy Roman empress
Adelaide was born at the Chateau d’Orbe, the daughter of Rudolf II, King of Burgundy, and his wife Bertha of Swabia, who remarried to Hugh of Arles, King of Italy. Adelaide was married firstly, at Milan, Lombardy (947) to Lothair II of Arles, King of Italy, her stepbrother, and bore him an only daughter Emma, later the wife of Lothair, King of France. With Lothair’s death (950) Adelaide was imprisoned at Garda (951) by his successor, Berengar II of Ivrea when she refused to marry his son. She escaped four months later with the assistance of Adalhard, Bishop of Reggio, and managed to reach safety in Canossa. From there Adelaide sought help from Pope Agapetus II and Otto the Great of Saxony, whose second wife she became (951). They were crowned emperor and empress in Rome by Pope John XII (962) and Adelaide is said to have encouraged Otto’s policy of close collaboration with the church.
Their son succeeded his father as Otto II (973). As empress mother, Adelaide exercised considerable influence, but eventually was driven from the court by her daughter-in-law Theophano, who was jealous of her power. A reconciliation of sorts was later arranged between the two women and Otto II had Adelaide appointed as vicereine of Italy (980). She became joint regent with her daughter-in-law, the Byzantine Theophano for her grandson Otto III (983), and they successfully defended his rights against the claims of Henry II of Bavaria and Lothair of France. Ousted from power by Theophano a second time (985) Adelaide retired to Lombardy, where her authority was recognized. With Theophano’s death, Adelaide was restored as sole regent (991 – 996) until her grandson came of age. In 999 she travelled to Lausanne were she effected and presided over a formal reconciliation between her nephew Rudolf III of Burgundy and his rebellious barons. Adelaide then retired to the convent she had founded at Seltz, in Alsace (987) and which had been consecrated by Wilderald, Bishop of Strasburg (995). Empress Adelaide died (Dec 16, 999) aged sixty-eight, at Seltz, and was interred there. Odilo, abbot of Cluny, who much admired her, composed the Epitaphium Adelaideae in her honour, and she was canonized by Pope Urban II (1097).

Adelaide of Carinthia – (1317 – 1375)
German princess
Adelaide was the elder daughter of Heinrich, Duke of Carinthia (1270 – 1335), who became King of Bohemia, and his second wife Adelaide of Brunswick, widow of Gerhard IV, Count von Eppstein, and daughter of Heinrich I, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen. Being possessed of feeble and childlike intellect she was passed over for the succession to the dukedom of Carinthia and the county of Gorz in favour of her younger sister Margaret Maultasch (1318 – 1369). She lived for most of her life under the care of the nuns at the royal abbey of Wilthen, near Innsbruck in the Tyrol, which had been favoured by her mother Queen Adelaide, with a liberal pension supplied by her sister. Adelaide died (May 25, 1375) aged fifty-seven, at Wilthen and was buried there.

Adelaide of Chalons – (c978 – before 1018)
French countess
Adelaide was the younger daughter of Lambert of Autun, Count of Chalons and his second wife Adelaide of Vergy, later the second wife of Geoffrey I, Count of Anjou (961 – 987). Adelaide was the sister of Count Hugh of Chalons, Bishop of Auxerre and Matilda of Chalons, Dame de Semur. She was married (before 999) to Guy I (982 – 1004), Count of Macon, the eldest son of Otto Guillaume of Burgundy, King of Lombardy. She bore Guy a son Otto II (c1000 – before 1041) who succeeded his grandfather as Count of Macon (1026) and left issue.
Count Guy was interred within the Abbey of Saint Benigne at Dijon and Adelaide survived him as the Dowager Countess of Macon. Her name does not appear with that of her sister Matilda and her nephews Otto and Theobald in a surviving charter which granted property to the Abbey of Flavigny (1018) and presumably had died before this date.

Adelaide of Egisheim – (c1010 – after 1054)
German noblewoman
Adelaide was the youngest daughter of Hugh IV, Count of Egisheim and his wife Hedwig of Dagsburg, the daughter of Count Louis of Dagsburg. Adelaide was sister to Pope Leo IX (1049 – 1054), formerly Count Bruno of Egisheim, whom she survived. Through her sister Gertrude, Countess of Brunswick, Adelaide was the great-aunt of St Margaret Aetheling, Queen of Scotland.
Her family of origin was deduced from the Annalisto Saxo and the Historia Hirsaugiensis Monasterii chronicles, in connection with her second husband Adalbert, and his relationship to Pope Leo, though neither source provided her name. Adelaide of Egisheim was married firstly (c1027) to Ernst II (1015 – 1030), Duke of Swabia, the stepson of the Emperor Conrad II. This marriage remained childless. Adelaide was remarried secondly (c1031) to Adalbert I (died c1065), Count of Calve (Adalberti di Calvia). She became the mother of Count Adalbert II of Calve (c1032 – 1099), and was the grandmother of Bruno of Calve, Bishop of Metz, Lorraine.

Adelaide of Forcalquier – (1054 – 1129)
Countess of Urgel
Adelaide was the daughter of Guillaume Bertrand II (died 1066), count of Forcalquier and his wife Adelaide of Cavanez, the daughter of Guy, Seigneur of Cavanez, and later the wife of Bernard Raimbaut III, Prince of Orange. A great heiress she was married (1079) to Count Armengol IV (Ermengaud) (1052 – 1092) of Urgel as his second wife. The county of Forcalquier formed part of the lands on the right bank of the Durance River in Provence, which formed Adelaide’s share of the Forcalquier estates, and which she brought by marriage into the Urgel family. Countess Adelaide survived her husband for almost forty years as the Dowager Countess of Forcalquier (1092 – 1129). She died aged seventy-five. Her three children were her son Guillaume III of Urgel (c1080 – 1129) who was Count of Forcalquier by right of his mother and left issue, and two daughters, Adelaide and Sanchia, who apparently remained unmarried.

Adelaide of Frontenhausen – (c1067 – 1110)
German mediaeval heiress
Adelaide was the daughter of Kuno I of Frontenhausen and Lechsgemund, Count of the Peignitz and Reichenpaldesberge, and his wife Matilda, the daughter of Rudolf, Count of Achalm and Adelaide of Wulflingen. Adelaide was married firstly (c1081) to Markwart, Count of Markwartstein (died 1085), from whom she received the fief of Markwartstein, which she brought as a dowry to her second husband (1085), Ulrich of Augstgau, ruling Count of Passau (1072 – 1099).
Adelaide bore her second husband a daugher and heiress, Uta of Passau (c1086 – 1140). She became the wife of Engelbert II, Duke of Carinthia, and left many descendants. Count Ulrich died of the plague (April 14, 1099) at Regensburg in Bavaria, and countess Adelaide wuickly remarried to her third husband, Berengar II (1080 – 1125), Count of Sulzbach, more than a decade her junior, as his first wife. This third marriage remained childless. Through her daughter Uta the countess was the ancestress of Edward III, King of England (1327 – 1377) and his descendants, and was also ancestress to most of the royal and aristocratic families of Europe. Countess Adelaide died (Feb 24, 1110) aged over forty. She was buried at Sulzbach.

Adelaide of Gueldres – (c959 – 1015)
Flemish Benedictine nun
Adelaide was the daughter of Megingose, Count of Guledres and Zutphen, and his wife Gerberga, the granddaughter of Charles III the Simple. Adelaide grew up pious and studious, and when her parents built and endowed the Benedictine monastery of Bellich (Willich) on the Rhine River, Adelaide was appointed the first abbess of the house. Adelaide encouraged the nuns in the learning of Latin so that they might follow the choir office properly, and Hubert, archbishop of Cologne, himself a saint, had a high regard for Adelaide. With the death of her sister Bertrada (1012) Adelaide succeeded her as abbess of Notre Dame du Capitole, Cologne. At her death she was interred at Bellich as had been her wish. The church observed her feast (Feb 5). Her abbey was later converted into a church of canonesses.

Adelaide of Hesse – (1323 – 1371)
Queen consort of Poland (1341 – 1357)
Adelaide was the eldest daughter of Heinrich II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (1328 – 1376) and his wife Elisabeth, the daughter of Friedrich I, Margrave of Meissen. She was the niece of Otto, Archbishop of Magdeburg. Adelaide was married (Oct 4, 1341) to King Kasimir III (1310 – 1370), as his second wife. The marriage remained childless, and Queen Adelaide was finally divorced (1357) and retired to a convent.

Adelaide of Holland – (1231 – 1284)
Flemish heiress and ruler
Adelaide of Holland was the daughter and heiress of Count Floris IV, and his wife Matilda, the daughter of Henry I, Duke of Brabant. Through her mother she was a descendant of Louis IV d’Outremer (from overseas), King of France (936 – 954) and through him of the Carolingian Emperor Charlemagne (800 – 814). Adelaide became the wife of her kinsman, Johann I of Avesnes (1218 – 1257), Count of Hainault, and inherited the county of Holland. She was the mother of his successor, Count Johann II (1247 – 1304), and was the ancestress of Philippa of Hainault, the wife of Edward III, King of England, and of her descendants. Through Philippa’s sister Johanna, Countess Adelaide was ancestress of Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife (1540) of Henry VIII of England. With her husband’s early death, Adelaide ruled Hainault and Zeeland as regent for her young son (1257 – 1263). She granted certain rights to the city of Schiedam. Countess Adelaide died (before April 9, 1284) aged fifty-two.

Adelaide of Hungary – (1039 – 1062)
Arpad princess
Princess Adelaide was the eldest daughter of Andras I (Andrew), King of Hungary (1045 – 1060) and his second wife Anastasia Jaroslavna, the daughter of Jaroslav I Vladimirovitch, Grand Prince of Kiev, and his second wife, Ingegarde of Sweden. Adelaide became the first wife of Vratislav II (c1035 – 1092), Duke of Bohemia, and was duchess consort (1057 – 1062). She was the mother of Bretislaus II, duke of Bohemia and Judith Premyslid, the wife of Vladislav I, King of Poland. The Annalista Saxo records the marriage of Duke Vratislav with the daughter of King Andras, but does not name her. The Chronica Boemorum called her ‘Adleyta.’ Duchess Adelaide died (Jan 27, 1062) aged twenty-two. The Chronica Boemorum recorded the death of ‘ductrix Adleyth.’ Her four children were,

• Bretislav II (1054 – 1100), Duke of Bohemia (1092 – 1100). He was married to Luitgarde of Windberg-Bogen, and their only son, Prince Bretislaus (c1099 – 1130), died without issue.
• Princess Judith of Bohemia (1056 – 1085). She became the second wife of Vladislav I Hermann (1043 – 1102), Duke of Poland, and left issue.
• Princess Ludmilla of Bohemia (died after 1062). She died in infancy.
• Prince Vratislav of Bohemia (died after 1062). He died in infancy.

Adelaide of Kiev     see    Praxedis

Adelaide of Lechsgemund    see    Adelaide of Frontenhausen

Adelaide of Lenkward – (fl. c1200)
German nun and saint
Sometimes called ‘Aleyd the Penitent’ Adelaide had led a free and profligate life. She was tormented by terrible apparitions prior to becoming a Cistercian nun at the Abbey of Lenkward. She was revered as a saint (Feb 13) and is mentioned in the Lilia Cistercii.

Adelaide of Lorraine – (c1007 – 1051)
German nun
Adelaide was the fourth daughter of Ezzo, Count Palatine of Lorraine, and his wife Matilda, the youngest daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Otto II (973 – 983) and his Byzantine wife Theophano Skleraina. She was niece to the emperor Otto III (983 – 1002) and sister of Archbishop Hermann of Cologne, the Imperial chancellor. Adelaide was married (c1022) to Frederick of Goseck, count of Hassegau (died before 1049). The countess later retired from the world and became a nun (1049) at the Abbey of St Gertrude at Nivelles, where she was later appointed as abbess. Princess Adelaide died (June 20, 1051).

Adelaide of Maurienne (1) – (1053 – 1079)
Queen consort of Germany (1077 – 1079)
Adelaide was the elder daughter of Otto, Count of Maurienne and his wife Adelaide of Turin, the daughter of Otto Manfredi II, marchese of Susa. Her elder sister Bertha became the wife of the Holy Roman emperor Henry IV. Adelaide was married firstly (1062) to Dauphin Guigues VI the Old of Vienne (c1001 – 1063), Count of Albon and Grenoble, as his second wife, but was left a childless widow. She then became the second wife (1066) of Rudolph of Rheinfelden (c1015 – 1080), Duke of Swabia, who was elected King of Germany (1077). Queen Adelaide left three children,

• Berthold of Rheinfelden (c1069 – 1090). He became Duke of Swabia but died unmarried.
• Bertha of Rheinfelden (c1071 – 1133). She was married to Ulrich IX (c1040 – 1097), Count of Pfullendorf, and left descendents.
• Otto (died after 1080). He was styled Count of Rheinfelden but remained unmarried and childless.

Adelaide of Maurienne (Adelasia of Moriana) (2) – (1092 – 1154)
Queen consort of France (1115 – 1137)
Adelaide was born in Piedmont, the daughter of Umberto II, count of Maurienne (known officially as Savoy from 1103) and his wife Gisela, the daughter of Guillaume Tete-Hardi, Count of Burgundy, and the niece of Pope Calixtus II. With her father’s death, her mother remarried to Rainer, marquis of Montferrat, and she became the second wife (1115) of Louis VI of France (1081 – 1137).
Though reputedly unattractive and corpulent of figure, Queen Adelaide was pious and dutiful wife, producing eight children, of whom seven were sons. With Louis’s death at the castle of Bethisy (1137), Adelaide organized the court until the marriage of her son Louis VII (1120 – 1180) with Eleanor of Aquitaine. Relations between the two women quickly deteriorated, and Adelaide retired from the court, where she remarried to a prominent baron, Matthieu I de Montmorency, whose first wife, Alice Fitzroy, the mother of his children, had been the illegitimate daughter of Henry I of England. After her second marriage, relations between mother and son improved, and the queen mother often visited the court, remaining prominent in religious activities, notably in her support of Abbot Suger.
Her only daughter, Constance Capet, was married firstly to Eustace IV of Boulogne, joint-King of England with his father, Stephen of Blois, who treated her shamefully, and secondly (1154) to Raymond V of Toulouse, whom she eventually left to return to the French court (1165). Queen Adelaide died aged sixty-two (Nov 18, 1154). She was interred within the abbey of St Denis, at Rheims, near Paris, but her tomb was destroyed during the Revolution.

Adelaide of Meissen (1) – (c1135 – after 1173)
Queen consort of Denmark (1152 – 1157)
Adelaide was the daughter of Conrad the Great, margrave of Meissen, and his wife Luitgarde, the daughter of Albert, Count of Ravensburg. Adelaide was married firstly (1152) to King Sweyn V of Denmark (died 1157). Their only daughter Luitgarde of Denmark (died after 1188) became the second wife of Berthold V, count of Meran and Andechs. Queen Adelaide was remarried secondly (1158) to Adalbert of Brandenburg, Count of Ballenstadt (died 1171), the younger son of Albert the Bear, Margrave of Brandenburg (1140 – 1170), whom she survived. Their only child and heiress was Gertrude of Ballenstadt (c1159 – 1194), who became the wife of Walter II of Arnstadt, Count of Lindau-Ruppin, and left issue. Queen Adelaide was living (Dec 6, 1173).

Adelaide of Meissen (2) – (1169 – 1211) 
Queen consort of Bohemia (1198 – c1199)
Adelaide was the youngest daughter of Otto the Rich, Margrave of Meissen, and his wife Hedwig, the daughter of Albert I, margrave of Brandenburg. She married (1180) Ottokar I, King of Bohemia (1155 – 1230), as his first wife, bearing him son and heir, Vratislav, and at least four daughters. Shortly after Ottokar succeeded to the throne (1198) he divorced the queen on the grounds of consangunity, when she angered him after taking the side of her brother, Dietrich of Meissen, in a quarrel against him.
Queen Adelaide retired to the Cistercian abbey of Weissenburg, in Meissen, where she became a nun and then was elected as abbess. Her son Vratislav never became king, predeceasing his elderly father, dying childless in 1224. Of her daughters, Dragomira (1189 – 1213) became the first wife of Valdemar II, King of Denmark, officially taking the less Germanic name of Margaret. Queen Adelaide died (Feb 1, 1211) aged forty-one.

Adelaide of Meran (Alix) – (c1221 – 1279)
French countess regnant of Burgundy (1248 – 1279)
Adelaide was the fourth daughter of Otto II, Duke of Meran (Andechs) (1204 – 1234), and his first wife Beatrix of Hehenstaufen, Countess Palatine of Burgundy, the granddaughter of the German emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa (1155 – 1190). Adelaide was married (1236) to Hugh I, Count of Salins (1220 – 1266), whom she survived as Dowager Countess. She bore him a large family of twelve children.
With the death of her childless brother, Duke Otto III of Meran (1248), Adelaide succeeded as the sovereign countess of Burgundy, despite the fact that several of her elder sisters were then still living. Her husband Hugh ruled Burgundy in her right until his death, after which Adelaide remarried (1267) to Philip I, Count of Savoy (died 1285) who then ruled Burgundy in Adelaide’s right. This dynastic union was strenthened by the marriage of one of Adelaide’s daughters with Tommaso of Savoy, the son of Cout Philip by his first wife. Adelaide’s second marriage remained childless. Countess Adelaide died (March 8, 1279). Her children were,

• Alice of Burgundy (c1238 – after 1279). She remained unmarried and became a nun at the Abbey of St Marie, Fontevrault, near Poitiers.
• Elisabeth of Burgundy (c1239 – 1275). She became the wife of Hermann V, Count of Kyburg (died 1263).
• Otto V (c1240 – 1302). He succeeded his mother as Count of Burgundy (1279 – 1302), was married twice, and left issue.
• Hugh of Burgundy (c1242 – c1313). He became Seigneur de Montbouson, and was married twice.
• Stephen of Burgundy (Etienne) (c1244 – 1299). He was married and left issue.
• Rainald of Burgundy (c1250 – 1322). He became Count of Montbeliard after marrying the heiress of that county, and left descendants.
• Hippolyte of Burgundy (c1251 – c1283). She inherited the seigneurie of Saint-Vallier, and became the first wife of Aymar III de Poitiers, Comte de Valentinois (died 1319), and left issue.
• Henry of Burgundy (born c1253). He died young or unmarried.
• Guya of Burgundy (c1254 – 1316). She became the wife of her stepbrother, Tommaso III of Savoy (1248 – 1282), Count of Maurienne and Piedmont, and left issue.
• Jean of Burgundy (c1255 – c1303). He became Seigneur de Montaigu and left issue.
• Margeurite of Burgundy (died after 1279). She remained unmarried and became a nun at the Abbey of St Marie at Fontevrault.
• Agnes of Burgundy (died after 1266). She became the wife of Philip II de Vienne (died 1303), Seigneur de Pagny.

Adelaide of Metz (Adelheid) – (c972 – 1040)
German Imperial matriarch
Adelaide was the daughter of Gerhard II, Count of Metz, of the Matfriedinger dynasty, and was a descendant of Charles III the Simple, King of France (893 – 922), through his eldest daughter Ermentrude of Neustria, the wife of Gottfried of Julichgau. She was the niece of Count Richard of Metz (living 986) and was first cousin to Count Adalbert II (died 1033). She was heiress of the county of Alsace in Lorraine, and is sometimes referred to as ‘Adelaide of Alsace.’
Adelaide of Metz was married firstly to Heinrich of Carinthia and Franconia (970 – 997), Count of Wormsgau and Speyergau, to whom she bore two children, including the Emperor Conrad II. The chronicler Wipo called her, Adalheida ex nobilissima gente Litharingorum oriunda. After her first husband’s early death she was remarried to Count Hermann of Bretschgau, by whom she was the mother of Gebhard of Bretschgau (c1005 – 1060) who entered the church and was later appointed as Bishop of Regensburg in Bavaria. Adelaide founded the royal monastery of Ohningen (1020). Her grandson, the German king Heinrich III donated property to the Cathedral of Speyer (Sept 7, 1046) in her memory.
Through the Emperor Conrad, Adelaide was an ancestress of the Hapsburg family and of the British and other European royal houses. Countess Adelaide died (May 19, 1040) and was interred in the Abbey of Ohningen. Her children from her first marriage were,

• Conrad II (990 – 1039), King of Germany. He was elected as Holy Roman Emperor (1027 – 1039) and left descendants.
• Judith of Wormsgau (995 – before 1034). She died unmarried and was interred in Worms Cathedral.

Adelaide of Nassau – (c1275 – 1338)
German princess of the Holy Roman Empire
Countess Adelaide of Nassau, Princess of the Empire was the daughter of Adolf of Nassau, King of Germany. She never married and became a nun at the royal Abbey of Clarenthal where she became abbess, a position she held for three decades (1311 – 1338). Princess Adelaide died (May 12, 1338).

Adelaide of Neustria (1) – (745 – c780)
Carolingian princess
Adelaide was the daughter of Pepin III, King of the Franks, and his wife Bertrada, the daughter of Carobert, count of Laon. She was sister to Carloman II and to the Emperor Charlemagne. Adelaide never married and became a nun at Aire in Artois. Princess Adelaide was buried in the chapel of St Srnulf at Metz, and was venerated as a saint.

Adelaide of Neustria (2) – (773 – 774)
Carolingian princess
Adelaide was the second daughter of the future emperor Charlemagne (800 – 814) and his third wife Hildegarde, the daughter of Gerald I, count of Vinzgau. She was born in Pavia, Lombardy, during the winter, and was baptized there. The princess was taken by her parents, together with her elder siblings Charles and Rotrude on a pilgrimmage to Rome, accompanied by a brilliant retinue (March-April, 774). Soon afterwards Adelaide was sent back to France, perhaps due to an outbreak of plague, but she did not survive the journey. Princess Adelaide was interred within the chapel of St Arnulf at Metz, Lorraine. Paulus Diakonus (Paul the Deacon) later composed her surviving epitaph at the request of her father (783).

Adelaide of Neustria (3) – (c797 – 810)
Carolingian princess of Italy
Adelaide was the daughter of Pepin I, King of Italy and his first wife Rothaide (Rhuodheid), the daughter of Bernard, Count of Austrasia. She was the paternal granddaughter of the emperor Charlemagne (800 – 814). She was the only full-sister of the ill-fated King Bernard of Italy (813 – 818) and their stepmother was their maternal aunt Gundrada of Austrasia. With the death of her father at Milan in Lombardy, Italy, Adelaide and her four younger half-sisters accompanied her mother back to the Imperial court at Aachen, to the court of their grandfather to be raised and educated. Adelaide died soon afterwards (before Dec 31, 810) perishing during a plague epidemic which carried off several members of the royal family at this time.

Adelaide of Normandy – (c1029 – before 1090)
French countess of Aumale
Variously called Adelildis and Aeliz, Adelaide was the full sister of William I the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England (1066 – 1087). She was born at Rouen Castle, the illegitimate daughter of Robert I, Duke of Normandy (1027 – 1035) and his mistress Arletta of Falaise (Herleve), later the wife of Vicomte Herluin de Conteville. Robert of Torigny describes Adelaide as William uterine sister.
Adelaide was married firstly (c1044) to Count Enguerrand II of Ponthieu, to whom she bore two daughters, Helisende of Ponthieu (living 1090), the wife of Hugh II Candavene, Count of St Pol, and Adelaide (living 1096), who died unmarried. Enguerrand was killed at the siege of Arques (1053) and the countess remarried soon afterwards to Lambert of Boulogne, Count of Lens, a younger son of Eustace I, count of Boulogne. Lambert was killed at the siege of Lille (1054) and Adelaide bore him an only child, Judith of Lens, later the wife of the Anglo-Saxon earl Waltheof of Northumbria.
Countess Adelaide remarried (1055) to her third husband, Eudes II (c1042 – 1118), count of Champagne. Before 1071 Eudes was deprived of Champagne by his uncle, Theobald III of Blois, and retained the county of Aumale. He and Adelaide were the parents of Stephen (c1057 – 1128) who succeeded his father as count of Aumale. Adelaide was mentioned in the Domesday Book as Comitissa de Albamarla, which records that she held some manors in Essex and Suffolk. She witnessed the charter of her brother William and Queen Matilda (1082) when they granted the town of La Homme in the Cotentin to the abbey of La Tirnille at Caen in Normandy. Another surviving charter for the church of St Martin at Auchy was written by command of, Adelidis, the most noble Comitissa, sister to William of Normandy, King of the English. Adelaide survived her brother William (1087) but had died before 1090.

Adelaide of Paris – (c853 – 901)
Carolingian queen consort (877 – 879)
Adelaide was the daughter of Bego II Adalhard, Count of Paris. Her mother is unknown, but through her father she was the great-great granddaughter of the Emperor Louis I the Pious, the son of Charlemagne. Her brother Vulfhard was Abbot of Flavigny (875). Adelaide became the second wife (868) of King Louis II the Stammerer (846 – 879), but her marriage was not recognized by the church, which had not supported Louis’s repudiation of his first wife, Queen Ansgarde. Because of this Pope John VIII refused to crown Adelaide beside her husband at Troyes (878). She survived into the reign of her son Charles III the Simple (877 – 929) as Queen Dowager (879 – 901).  Queen Adelaide died (Nov 10, 901) and was buried in the Cathedral abbey of Saint-Corneille at Compeigne.

Adelaide of Poitou (1) – (c949 – 1004)
Capetian queen consort (987 – 996)
Adelaide was the daughter of William III of Poitou, Duke of Aquitaine, and his wife Adela (formerly Gerloc), the daughter of Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy. She was married (968) to Hugh Capet (940 – 996), duke of Paris, because of her connections with the rich duchy of Aquitaine. Her husband later became the first ruler of the Capetian dynasty (987 – 996), and Adelaide was the mother of King Robert II the Pious (972 – 1031), and several daughters.
When their infant son Robert became ill, Adelaide and her distraught husband made the gift of a gold crucifix to Sainte Croix at Orleans for the child’s safe recovery. The queen was a needlewoman and seamstress of some considerable talent, and embroidered a chasuble of fine gold, which depicted Christ in Majesty on the back, and the Lamb of God on the front, together with a gold cloak, two silver ones, and two other chasubles of delicate workmanship. All these articles were worked personally by Queen Adelaide as gifts from the royal family to the royal shrine and mausoleum at St Denis, Rheims. Adelaide survived her husband as Queen Dowager (996 – 1004), founding two convents, one at Frambourg in Senlis, and the other at Argenteuil in the Parsis. Queen Adelaide died (June 15, 1004) aged in her mid-fifties.

Adelaide of Poitou (2) – (c1000 – before 1039)
French heiress
Adelaide was the daughter of William V of Poitou, Duke of Aquitaine and of his second wife Adalmode of Gevaudan, the widow of Adalbert I, Count of La Marche, and the stepdaughter of the Carolingian king Louis V (986 – 987). She was married before 1015 to Geraud I Trancaleon (died 1020), Comte d’Armagnac, and was the mother of his son Bernard I Tumpaler who abdicated as ruler of the Armagnac territories in 1061.
With the death of Adelaide’s elder brother Dukes Eudes of Aquitaine (1039) her son Bernard claimed the duchy of Aquitaine by right of his mother, and ruled as the son of Eudes’s sole surviving sibling, though Countess Adelaide appears to have died prior to this. However Adelaide’s half-brother Duke William VIII later forced Bernard to sell the dukedom back to him for fifteen thousand sous. Theough her son Bernard the countess was the ancestress, through the Valois and d’Albret families, of Henry IV of France (1589 – 1610) and the later Bourbon dynasties.

Adelaide of Reidenburg – (c1102 – c1126)
Queen consort of Hungary (1121 – c1126)
Adelaide was the daughter of Stephen of Reidenburg, Burgrave of Regensburg. She was married (1121) to King Stephen II of Hungary (1101 – 1131) and apparently predeceased him. She was mother of the pretender, Boris Konrad, who was an unsuccessful contestant for the Hungarian throne on the death of his father. Prince Boris was married to Anna Dukaina, the daughter of Constantine Dukas, and left descendants who resided in Constantinople.

Adelaide of Rheinfelden – (1059 – 1090)
Queen consort of Hungary (1077 – 1090)
Countess Adelaide of Rheinfelden, Princess of the Empire was the daughter of Rudolf of Rheinfelden, King of Germany (1077 – 1080), and of his first wife Matilda of Saxony, the eldest daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich III (1039 – 1056). Adelaide was married (1077) to St Ladislas I (1043 – 1095), King of Hungary. Her daughter Piroska (Irene of Hungary) became the wife of Johannes II Komnenus, Emperor of Byzantium, and Queen Adelaide was ancestress to the later Imperial dynasties of Constantinople.

Adelaide of Savona – (1072 – 1118)
Queen consort of Jerusalem (1113 – 1117)
Adelaide was the daughter of Manfredo I, Marquis of Savona. She was married firstly (1089) to Roger I (1031 – 1101), Count of Sicily as his third wife. She was the mother of the counts Simon (1101 – 1105) and Roger II (1105 – 1113) (later King of Sicily) for whom she ruled as regent. She agreed to become the third wife of Baldwin I (1062 – 1118), King of Jerusalem in Palestine, and travelled there by sea in magnificent style bringing with her an enormous dowry. Baldwin married Adelaide and then used her wealth to finance his military expeditions against the infidel princes. There were no children and the marriage ended in divorce (1117). The former queen was sent back to Sicily in humiliation and died soon afterwards (April 16, 1118). She was interred within the Cathedral of Palti in Sicily.

Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen – (1792 – 1849)
Queen consort of Great Britain (1830 – 1837)
Princess Amalia Adelaide Louisa Theresa Caroline of Saxe-Meiningen was born (Aug 13, 1792) at Meiningen in Thuringia, the daughter of George I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, and Louisa Eleanora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the daughter of Christian Albert, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. HSH (Her Serene Highness) bore the additional title of Duchess of Saxony. She travelled to England with her mother, and was married (1818) to William (1765 – 1837), Duke of Clarence, the third son of King George III, and had two daughters, Charlotte Augusta (1819) and Elizabeth Georgiana Adelaide (1820 – 1821) who both died in infancy.
Her husband succeeded to the throne as King William IV after the death of his brother George IV (1830). Adelaide was nominated as regent (Nov, 1830) in case any child of hers should survive the king, and Marlborough House and Bushey Park were settled on her. She was crowned queen at Westminster Abbey (Nov 8, 1831). Her supposed interference in politics rendered Adelaide very unpopular after the reform agitation (1832), and her carriage was once assailed by an angry mob in the street, which had to be beaten back by her footmen. The king died in her arms (June, 1837), and Adelaide was treated with exceptional kindness by her niece, the youthful Queen Victoria, who had always been fond of her. Ordered abroad by her physicians because of her health the Queen Dowager visited Malta during the winter of (1838 – 1839), and paid for the building of the church of Valetta. She visited Madeira in 1847. Some of her letters survive. Queen Adelaide died (Dec 2, 1849) aged fifty-seven, at Bentley Priory, near Stanmore in Middlesex, in the prescence of her sister Ida, Duchess of Saxe-Weimar.  The queen was buried in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in Berkshire. She was portrayed by actress Delena Kidd in the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) film Victoria & Albert (2001), with Sir Peter Ustinov as William IV, Penelope Wilton as the Duchess of Kent and Victoria Hamilton as the young Queen Victoria.

Adelaide of Saxony – (977 – 1045)
German Imperial princess
Princess Adelaide was born at Quedlinburg, the second daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Otto II and his wife Theophano Skleraina. Like her elder sister Sophia, she was educated to become a nun. Adelaide was abducted by her uncle, Duke Henry II of Bavaria (984) for political motives, wanting to marry her to his son Henry. The marriage did not eventuate, and Adelaide was restored to her mother, Henry providing her with the abbey of Vreden, as a token of his regret for his former actions.
The princess was placed under the care of her paternal aunt, Abbess Matilda, to be educated at Quedlinburg. With her aunt’s death (Feb, 999), Adelaide was chosen to suceed her in that office. Adelaide ranked as a prince of the empire and had no ecclesiastical superior apart from the pope. Having ruled Quedlinburg as abbess for four decades, with the death of her sister Sophia (1039) she became abbess of Gandersheim as well. Adelaide died aged sixty-eight, being succeeded at Quedlinburg by her niece Beatrice, daughter of Emperor Henry III, and at Gandersheim by her niece Sophia of Lorraine.

Adelaide of Schaerbeek    see   Aleydis of Schaerbeek

Adelaide of Silesia – (1166 – after 1213)
Polish princess
Adelaide was the youngest daughter of Boleslav I, Duke of Silesia and Breslau (1163 – 1201) and his second wife Christina, of unknown parentage. Adelaide was married (before 1182) to Diepold II, duke of Moravia, and her new subjects called her ‘Zwyslava.’ She was widowed in 1190 and survived her husband by over two decades. Adelaide bore her husband four sons, of whom the eldest, Otto of Moravia (c1183 – 1223) became took holy orders in Magdeburg, whilst her second son Boleslav (c1185 – 1241) later became margrave of Moravia, but died without heirs. Her younger sons Sobeslav and Borijov also died childless. Duchess Adelaide died (March 29) after 1213, at Treibnitz, Breslau, and was interred in the abbey of St Hedwig there. Her marriage and burial were recorded in the Chronicon Polono-Silesiacum.

Adelaide of Soissons (Adelisa) – (c970 – before 1042)
French mediaeval heiress
Sometimes called Adelisa, Adelaide was the daughter of Giselbert, count of Soissons. She was married firstly to Count Guy, who ruled Soissons in her right, and was a younger son of Count Albert I of Vermandois. With her husband’s early death (989) she remarried to Notcher I (died after 1011), count of Bar-sur-Aube, with whom she confirmed the gift of property (1011) to the abbey of Flavigny in Burgundy. The charter called her Adelise comitisse. Her second marriage was dynastically sealed by the marriage of her own daughter, another Adelaide of Soissons, with her stepbrother, Count Notcher II of Bar-sur-Aube.

Adelaide of Toulouse     see    Azalais of Toulouse

Adelaide of Tours – (c819 – after 862)
Carolingian noblewoman
Adelaide or Aenis was the daughter of Hugh II, Count of Tours and his wife Ava of Hamelant. She was married to Conrad I of Auxerre (died 862), Count of Argengau and Linzgau and Count of Alemannia, to whom she bore several children and whom she survived. Her husband was the brother to Judith of Altdorf, second wife of the Emperor Louis I (816 – 840). With Conrad the countess founded the Abbey of St Germanus of Auxerre. The long held view that Adelaide then became the second wife of Robert the Strong, Count of Neustria (died 866) has now been disproved. Through her son Count Welf I of Argengau Adelaide was ancestress of the House of Welf (Guelph) which succeeded to the British throne in 1714.

Adelaide of Turin – (1016 – 1091)
Italian medieval heiress
Adelaide was the elder daughter of Otto Manfredi II, Marquis of Turin and Susa, and his wife Bertha, the daughter of Adalberto, Margrave of Ivrea. She was married three times, firstly (c1030) to Herman IV, Duke of Swabia, the stepson of the emperor Conrad II, secondly to Henry of Montferrat, and thirdly to Otto (Odone), Count of Maurienne (c1012 – 1061), leaving children by her first and last marriages. Adelaide’s father, a descendant of Arduino, king of Italy, ruled over the counties of Turin, Auriate, Biedulo, and Vercelli, which corresponded roughly with the region of modern Piedmont, as well as the port of Liguria.
Her marriage with Otto (1044) greatly enhanced the claims of her father-in-law, Umberto I of Maurienne, to the kingdom of Burgundy. Her husband succeeded his brother Amadeus I as count (1056), but died five years later, whereupon Adelaide ruled Maurienne and its’ dependencies as regent, for her underage sons. A woman of great energy and governmental capabilities, she allowed her sons a share in ruling as they matured, but kept the power firmly in her own hands. She maintained justice and order, but her harsh, grasping nature caused her to be feared rather than loved. Adelaide besieged the rebellious city of Lodi and reduced it to rubble (1069), thousands being killed, not even the churches and convents being spared. Such was her treatment of Lodi that when she asked Alexander II for absolution, the pope had difficulty in devising a sufficient penance for her. Soon afterwards he captured and reduced the town of Asti (1070).
Adelaide allied herself politically with the German Imperial forces against the papacy, though she did favour the new ecclesiastical reforms. Her assistance was sought by the emperor Henry III in order to balance the power of Matilda of Tuscany and her mother Beatrice of Lorraine, whose interests and influence were opposite to his own. In 1076 Adelaide agreed to intercede between her Imperial son-in-law and Pope Gregory, and her help probably prevented him from losing his throne. As a reward for her help she successfully bargained with Henry for the cession of five rich bishoprics. Adelaide accompanied the emperor and empress across the Alps, to the monastery of Val d’Aosta in the depths of a bitter winter (1077). From Reggio, Adelaide and Henry travelled alone to Canossa, to receive Pope Gregory’s absolution. Adelaide’s children included Richwarra of Swabia, the wife of Berthold I, Duke of Zahringen and Carinthia, and Gebhard I, Count of Sulzbach (c1036 – c1080) from her first marriage. To Otto of Maurienne she bore Peter I (1061 – 1078) and Amadeus II (1078 – 1080) both counts of Maurienne, Bertha, the first wife of the emperor Henry IV, and Adelaide, the wife of Rudolf of Rheinfelden, King of Germany. Countess Adelaide died (Dec, 1091) at Canischio, where she was interred.

Adelaide of Vergy – (c932 – after 999)
French mediaeval heiress
Adelaide was the daughter of Giselbert of Vergy, Count of Chalons-sur-Seine and Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Ermengarde, the daughter of Eliram of Dijon, and sister to Count Raoul II of Dijon. She was married firstly (c946) to Lambert of Autun (c925 – 978), who became count of Chalons-sur-Seine, in her right, after the death of Duke Giselbert (956). This marriage produced four children,

• Gerberga of Chalons (c948 – 990). She was married firstly to Adalbert II, marquis of Ivrea (936 – 968), King of Italy, by whom she left issue. Queen Gerberga then became the first wife of Henry Capet (943 – 1002), Duke of Burgundy, but this union remained childless.
• Ermesende of Chalons (died after 979). She remained unmarried and became a nun at the Abbey of St Marcel-les-Chalons.
• Matilda of Chalons (c959 – c1016). She was married firstly to Geoffrey I (c954 – before 1019), Count of Semur. She bore him children but was later divorced. She then became the third wife of Henry Capet (943 – 1002), Duke of Burgundy, the widower of her elder sister Gerberga, to whom she bore a daughter.
• Hugh I (c961 – 1039). He succeeded his father as Count of Chalons (978 – 1039) but took holy orders and became Bishop of Auxerre in Burgundy, which office he held for four decades (999 – 1039).
• Adelaide of Chalons (c978 – before 1018). She married Guy I (982 – 1004), Count of Macon and left issue.

After Lambert’s death Adelaide was quickly remarried (c978) to Geoffrey I Grisgonelle (Grey-gown) (938 – 987), Count of Anjou, as his second wife. She bore him an only child Count Maurice of Anjou (980 – after 1031) who left descendants. Maurice received a share of the county of Chalons from his half-brother Count Hugh, at the intervention of his paternal uncle Bishop Guy of Le Puy (987 – 988). This arrangement lapsed after few years but Count Hugh later caused Maurice to be styled Count of Chalons in official documents. Countess Adelaide herself confirmed this fact in a surviving charter from this time (March, 999). She died sometime after this date.

Adelaide of Vermandois – (c1066 – 1124)
French medieval heiress
Adelaide was the only child of Herbert IV, Count of Vermandois, and his wife Adela of Valois-Vexin, the widow of Theobald I, Count of Champagne. With her father’s death (c1080) Adelaide was the last heiress of the Vermandois family, inheriting her father’s county, as well as the county of Valois from her mother (c1090). Philip I of France caused Adelaide to be married to his brother Hugh Capet (1057 – 1102) so as to keep the rich counties loyal to the crown. Hugh then became Count of Vermandois as Hugh I.
With the death of Count Hugh, Adelaide became the sole ruler Vermandois for almost two decades (1102 – 1120) until these fiefs passed to her eldest son Raoul. She had remarried (c1102) to Reinald II (c1085 – c1161), Count of Clermont, as his second wife, and nore him an only child, Margaret of Clermont, who married three times, her first husband being Charles of Denmark (1083 – 1127), Count of Flanders.  Countess Adelaide died (Sept 23, 1124) aged almost sixty, in Vermandois.
By her first husband Hugh the countess left seven children. Her sons included Raoul I (1090 – 1152), who succeeded his father as count of Vermandois (1102 – 1152) and Simon of Vermandois (c1095 – 1148), Bishop of Noyon (1121 – 1148). Most important of her daughters was Elisabeth of Vermandois (Isabel) (1084 – 1147), who was married successively to two Anglo-Norman lords, Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, and William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, and left many descendants.

Adelaide Blanche of Anjou (Arsinde) – (c940 – 1026) 
Titular Queen consort of Lombardy (c1003 – 1026)
Adelaide Blanche was born at Angers, Maine, in Anjou, the daughter of Count Fulk II of Anjou and his first wife Gerberga, the daughter of Ratburnus I, Viscount of Vienne. Adelaide Blanche was married firstly (c955) to Stephen I, Count of Forez and Gevaudan, to whom she bore a large family of children. The match had been arranged by her father, and her husband was an extremely powerful magnate in eastern Aquitaine. The view once held that her first husband had been Raymond of Gothia, has now been entirely discredited. Her children from her first marriage were,

• Pons I (c959 – after 1010). He succeeded his father as Count of Gevaudan and Forez. Pons held the fief of Langeac in the Auvergne, which he granted to the Church of St Julien de Brioude.
  He was the ancestress of Pons II de Langeac, Seneschal of Auvergne (1394 – 1417).
• Bertrand of Gevaudan (c961 – after 975).
• Emilia of Gevaudan (c963 – 1002). She became the first wife of Rotbald II (c953 – 1008), Count of Arles, and left issue.
• Philippa of Gevaudan (Humberga) (c965 – after 1017). She became the wife of William IV (Guillaume) (c958 – 1016), Count of Auvergne, and left issue.
• Stephen II (c967 – after 1004). He became Count of Auvergne and was Bishop of Le Puy.
• William of Gevaudan (Guillaume) (born c969). He died young.
• Adalmode of Gevaudan (c971 – c1008). She married firstly to Adalbert I of La Marche (c948 – 997), Count of Perigord, and then became the second wife of William V (969 – 1030), Duke
  of Aquitaine. She left children from both marriages.
• Adelaide of Gevaudan (c974 – after 1010). She became the wife of Geraud II (c975 – 1058), Count of Forez and Lyons, and left issue.

Widowed c974, the countess was remarried (981) at the age of forty, to the fourteen year old Carolingian king Louis V (967 – 987), who had been appointed joint-ruler with his father King Lothar (June, 979). Politically the marriage held great promise, and it was favoured by Adelaide Blanche’s brother, Count Geoffrey Greymantle, as it promised an Angevin alliance and influence in the duchy of Aquitaine, which could be used against Hugh Capet. The couple held court in Aquitaine as sovereigns till 982, when they proceeded to Aix-la-Chapelle. The marriage itself proved an absolute failure, and the couple lived for two years in almost complete estrangement. They never shared the same bedchamber, refused to inhabit the same house, and ended up meeting only out of doors to exchange the briefest of words. Finally in 983, the queen retired from the court, taking her moveable wealth with her. She quickly remarried a third husband, William II, Count of Provence, as his second wife, and bore him two children, Count William III (c985 – 1018) and Constance (c986 – 1032), who later became the last wife of Robert II, King of France.
Count William died in 994, and around c1003, at the age of over sixty, Adelaide Blanche married for the fourth and last time, becoming second wife to the forty year-old Otto William of Burgundy, titular King of Lombardy (c961 – 1026). This dynastic union was made stronger when the queen’s son William III of Provence was married to her own stepdaughter, Gerberga of Burgundy, whom Otto William had officially made her ward, perhaps as part of their own marriage settlement. When Robert the Pious tried to repudiate her daughter Constance (1010), Pope Sergius IV upheld her daughter’s rights as legitimate queen, and also provided assistance to Adelaide Blanche, whom he supported in her efforts to maintain control over the abbey of Montmajour, her status there being threatened by a group of local nobles. Queen Adelaide Blanche narrowly predeceased her husband, dying at Avignon, in Provence (Sept 21, 1026), aged in her mid-eighties. She was interred at the abbey of Montmajour and the obituary of the abbey of St Pierre, in Macon, refers to her as ‘regali progenie orta.’

Adelaide Henrietta of Savoy – (1636 – 1676)
Electress consort of Bavaria (1652 – 1676)
Princess Adelaide Henrietta was born (Nov 6, 1636) at Turin in Piedmont, the daughter of Vittorio Aamdeo I, Duke of Savoy and his wife Christina, the daughter of Henry IV, King of France. She married (1652) Ferdinand Maria, elector of Bavaria (1636 – 1679), to whom she bore eight children including elector Maximilian II Emanuel (1662 – 1726) and Marie Anne Christine Victoire, the wife of Le Grand Dauphin Louis, the eldest son of Louis XIV.
The electress brought the Baroque influence to the Bavarian court, and she and her husband commissioned the building of the Theatinerkirche. As a gift for her, Ferdinand built a summer residence, the Kemnathen, on a farm west of Munich. The electress renamed it ‘Castello delle Ninfe’, and the later palace of Nymphenburg was later contructed around it. She also invited the Italian painter Isabella Maria del Pozzo, to reside at her court at Munich and do a series of portraits of the royal family. Electress Adelaide Henrietta died (March 18, 1676) aged thirty-nine, in Munich.

Adelaide Louise d’Orleans – (1777 – 1847) 
Princess of France
The sister of King Louis Philippe (1830 – 1848), she was born (Aug 25, 1777) in Paris, daughter of Louis Philippe, Duc d’Orleans (Philippe Egalite) and Louise Adelaide de Bourbon-Penthievre.  Educated by her father’s mistress, the Comtesse de Genlis, plans to marry her to her cousin, the Duc d’Angouleme, the son of Charles X were abandoned because of the outbreak of the revolution. Escaping from France during the Terror, Adelaide fled to Fribourg in Switzerland, later joining her mother in Spain (1802) before fleeing to Naples in 1810. With Napoleon’s fall in 1814, Adelaide returned to France, amassed a large fortune and planned to gain the French crown for her brother, in which ambition they proved successful in 1830.
From this time she was known officially as ‘Madame Adelaide’, and she exercised a considerable influence over the course of French and European politics. This however, made her unpopular, and the weekly review, La Nouvelle Mode was inspired by the princess to counteract the Legitimist La Mode which attacked her with some vehemence. Popular fabrication and gossip credited the princess with a secret marriage to General Atthalin, to whom she supposedly bore several children, but the allegations are completely ridiculous. Princess Adelaide died (Dec 31, 1847) aged seventy, at the Tuileries Palace, in Paris. Her enormous fortune was divided between her nephews, the Prince de Joinville, the Duc de Nemours and the Duc de Montpensier.

Adelaide Victoria Maria Louisa Amalia Constance – (1835 – 1900)
German duchess consort of Schleswig-Holstein
Princess Adelaide was the second daughter of Prince Ernst of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1794 – 1860), and his wife Feodora of Leiningen (1807 – 1872), the elder half-sister of Queen Victoria of England. Known as ‘Ada’ to her family, the newly elected French emperor Napoleon III proposed to marry her (Dec, 1852), but Queen Victoria remained opposed to such a close alliance with the Bonaparte dynasty. Adelaide was later married (1856) to Duke Friedrich Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, to whom she bore five children, including Duke Ernst of Holstein-Augustenburg (1880 – 1918), and Augusta Victoria, the first wife of the German kaiser Wilhelm II.
With the death of her husband (1880), the duchess becme increasingly mentally unbalanced. After assaulting male companions at the Imperial dinner table, her son-in-law restricted her visits to his court in Berlin to three annually. An eccentric character, her personality had never recovered from the rigours of childbirth, and her condition became more pronounced as she aged. The duchess died (Jan 25, 1900) aged sixty-four, at Primkenau, Silesia.

Adelais of Anjou (Adelaide) – (c850 – after 888)
French countess of Angers
Countess Adelais was related by marriage to Duke Hugh of Burgundy (died 886). She was the niece of Adalhard, Bishop of Tours and of Raino, Bishop of Angers. Her marriage to Count Ingelger of Angers (c848 – c888) was recorded in the Historia Comitum Andegarvorum, which also recorded Adelais’s large dowry which included the fiefs of Ambazio, Buzencais and Castellone, she being her father’s sole heiress which fact was recorded by the Gesta Consulum Andegarvorum as well.
This chronicle recorded that as a widow, Countess Adelais was unjustly accused of adultery by a powerful clique of nobles, but that she was eventually proven innocent. She was the mother of Fulk I (c870 – 941), Count of Angers (c888) and Count of Anjou (929 – 941), who was married to the heiress Roscilla of Loches and left descendants. Adelais was buried with her husband in the Abbey of St Martin in Chateauneuf.

Adelasia of Moriana     see    Adelaide of Maurienne (2)

Adelasia of Torre-Galuzzo (Adelisa) – (1207 – 1259)
Queen consort of Sardinia (1238 – 1246) and heiress of Corsica
Adelasia was the eldest daughter of Mariano II of Logudoro, Judge of Torre-Galuzzo, and his wife Agnese de Massa-Lacon, the daughter of Guglielmo I de Massa, Lord of Cagliari in Sardinia. She was the heir of her brother, Barisone III, the Judge of Logudoro and Gallura. Her marriage with Ubaldo II Visconti (1219), the son and heir of Lamberto Visconti, was a dynastic alliance arranged by her father. Pope Homorius III attempted to have the marriage annulled, but proved unsuccessful. With the death of her brother withour heirs (1236), adelisa was universally elected by the Logudorese as his legitimate heir, with her husband to administer her estates for her, he being elected as judge. Adelasia confirmed herself as a vassal of Pope Gregory IX at the palace of Ardara (1237), which oath was confirmed by her husband.
Widowed in 1237, Adelasia was placed under the protection of Pietro II of Arborea, and was remarried to Guelfo di Porcari, who was loyal to the papacy. He died soon afterwards. Due to the influence of the Doria family of Genoa, the German emperor Friedrich II, caused Adelisa to be married (1238) at Cremona, to his natural son, Enzio of Hohenstaufen (1220 – 1272), and proclaimed the couple king amd queen of Sardinia.The marriage remained childless and uncongeial to both parties, the new queen being thirteen years her young husband’s senior. It proved short-lived as Enzio became the prisoner of the guelphs, and was never released. Adelasia ruled in Sardinia alone, and was eventually granted a divorce (1246), after which she retired from the government, and resided at the castle of Goceano. At her death without heirs, Adelasia’s fiefs and territories were divided between the Doria, Spinola, and Malaspina families of Genoa.

Adelchisa of Salerno – (fl. 832 – 839)
Italian princess consort
Adelchisa was the only daughter of Dauferius Mutus, Prince of Salerno (861) and sister to Prince Guaifar (861 – 880). She was married to Prince Sicard of Benevento, who was later murdered (839). She survived him as Princess Dowager, but the couple had no children. Her marriage was recorded in the Catalogus Principum Salerno.

Adele, Jan – (1935 – 2000)
Australian actress and entertainer
Jan Adele was born into a theatrical family, and made her first performance in a department store pantomime at the early age of three. Adele began her professional caareer at the age of fourteen as a vaudeville dancer at the Tivoli theatre, but became known as a vocalist, famous for her impressive delivery of jazz lyrics. She became a regular performer at the The Celebrity Room and at the Don Burrows Supper Club in the Regent Hotel, and was a notable Variety Club performer.

In 1986 Jan Adele was awarded the Australian Film Industry (AFI) Award for best supporting actress for her role in the Gilliam Armstrong film, High Tide. A popular television actress, she was best remembered for her role as the sexy Trixie O’Toole in the television serial, Number 96, and appearances on the Mike Walsh Show and Graham Kennedy’s Tonight show. In later years she also performed on the television serials A Country Practice and Home and Away. Jan Adele was found dead in her apartment at Allawah, Sydney.

Adelfia – (fl. c450 AD)
Roman Christian patrician
Adelfia was married to a count Valerius, who is probably to be identified with Valerius Faltonius Adelfius, consul (451 AD), and prefect of Rome. If this identification is correct then Adelfia was Valerius’ first wife. Adelfia died and was interred in the catacomb of San Giovanni in Syrakuse. Her marble sarcophagus survives, adorned with Christian reliefs which depicted biblical scenes. It bears the inscription, ic Adelfia clarissima femina posita conpar Baleri Comitis.

Adelgida of Albon (Adelaide) – (c1015 – 1079)
Italian countess consort of Maurienne
Adelgida of Albon was the daughter of Guigues VI the Old (c995 – 1063), Count of Albon in the Viennois in France (1009 – 1063), and his first wife Adelaide (Alix), the daughter of Guichard, Seigneur de Beaujeu. She was sister to Count Guigues VII le Gros (the Fat) of Albon and Grenoble, whilst her paternal great-grandmother, Fredeburga of Provence, was a descendant of Alfred the Great, the Anglo-Saxon king of Wessex in England. Adelgida was married (c1030) to Amadeo I (c1012 – 1051), Count of Maurienne (Savoy) and later became countess consort (1048 – 1051). She bore Amadeo three surviving children. Adelgida survived her husband for almost three decades as the Countess Dowager of Maurienne (1051 – 1079). Her children were,

• Theutberga of Maurienne (c1030 – c1080). She was married firstly to Louis I, Seigneur de Faucigny, and secondly to Gerhard I, Count of Geneva, leaving issue.
• Umberto of Maurienne (c1033 – before 1051). He died young.
• Aimone of Maurienne (c1034 – 1060). He entered the church and was appointed as Bishop of Belley.

Adelgunde of Maubeuge – (630 – 684)
Merovingian virgin saint
Adelgunde was born at Coursolre, Hainault the younger daughter of Count Vaubert, who was related to Clotaire II, King of Neustria, and his wife Bertilia. Her sister Waldetrude was the wife of St Vincent Madelgarius. Adelgunde was veiled as a nun at the abbey of Haumont by Amand, Bishop of Maestricht and Aubert, Bishop of Cambrai. Having experienced mystical visions, she built a nunnery at Malbode, on the banks of the Sambre river and resided there as an anchorite. The town of Maubeuge grew up around her nunnery and developed into the Benedictine abbey of Maubeuge, which, centuries later, became a house of regular canonesses. Adelgunde died of cancer (Jan 30, 684) and was succeeded at Maubeuge by her niece Adeltrude.

Adelgunde Augusta Charlotte Caroline Elisaeth Amalia Marie Sophie Luise – (1823 – 1914)
Princess of Bavaria
Adelgunde was born (March 19, 1823) at Wurzburg, the third daughter of King Ludwig I and his wife Therese, the daughter of Friedrich I, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen, and was great-niece to Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, King of England (1760 – 1820). After proposals from both the Orleans family of France and the dukes of Saxe-Coburg, the princess was married (1842) to the Italian ruler, Francesco V d’Este (1819 – 1875), Duke of Modena, and became duchess consort (1842 – 1856). Their only child, Princess Anna Beatrice d’Este-Modena (1848 – 1849), died in infancy.
When Duke Francesco lost his throne after the unification of Italy and was forced to abdicate (1856), the couple resided at the Modena Palace in Vienna, Austria. With the death of her husband Duchess Adelgunde returned to the Bavarian court and her family in Munich. She never remarried and was the Dowager Duchess of Modena for almost forty years (1875 – 1914). When her elder brother Prince Luitpold became regent of Bavaria (1886 – 1912) during the incapacity of his nephews Ludiwg II and Otto II, Adelgunde became her brother’s closest confidante and political adviser, as well as acting as hostess for him on occasion. Both the governments in Munich and in Berlin, Prussia distrusted her as a Hapsburg influence. With Prince Luitpold’s death (Dec, 1912), the princess retired from court. Princess Adelgunde died (Oct 28, 1914) aged ninety-one, in Munich.

Adelinde of Vinzgau – (c753 – c810)
Merovingian religious patron and saint
Adelinde was born at the castle of Andechs, the daughter of Gerald I, Count of Vinzgau, and his wife Emma of Alemannia. Her younger sister Hildegarde became the third wife of Charlemagne and was mother of the Emperor Louis I the Pious. Adelinde was married to Count Otto of Kesselburg to whom she bore four sons. Otto and three of their sons were killed in battle against the Huns, and her remaining son, a deacon, died of grief soon afterwards. After Charlemagne drove the Huns out of Germany, Adelinde founded a monastery at Buchau, in Swabia, where she took the veil and became the first abbess.

‘Adeline’    see   Sergeant, Adeline

Adelisa of Sicily – (c1125 – after 1187)
Norman princess
Adelisa was the only daughter of Roger II, King of Sicily, and his first wife, the Spanish Infanta Elvira Alfonsez, the daughter of Alfonso VI, King of Castile. She was recorded as the king’s daughter by the Annals of Romoald, though she was not named. Princess Adelisa held the county of Florenzia. She was married firstly to Joscelin, Conte di Loreto (died 1189), which marriage appears to have been annulled. She was then remarried to Robert de Bassunville, Conte di Conversano (died 1182), who was himself a descendant of Roger I of Hauteville (1031 – 1101), Count of Sicily. Adelisa survived her second husband.

Adeliza of Louvain – (1102 – 1151)
Queen consort of England (1121 – 1135)
Adeliza was the second wife of King Henry I (1068 – 1135) and was stepmother to the Empress Matilda, thr mother of Henry II. She was the daughter of Godfrey I of Louvain, Duke of Lower Lorraine and his first wife Imagina of Looz. Adeliza was married to Henry in 1121. They remained childless. With Henry’s death Adeliza retired from court and remarried to William d’Albini, first Earl of Arundel (c1102 – 1176) to whom she bore seven children.
Adeliza received her stepdaughter, the empress, at Arundel Castle in 1139 after her landing in England. She bravely defended her action to King Stephen, Matilda’s opponent, pleading her position as stepmother, and out of regard for King Henry, her late husband. As a result, Matilda was permitted to leave Adeliza’s home, and allowed safe conduct to Bristol. Queen Adeliza founded the priories of Payneham and the Causeway, and gave gifts to King Henry’s abbey at Reading, to Boxgrove Priory, Sussex, where two of her infant daughters from her second marriage were interred, and to the Cathedral Church of Chichester, to which she granted the prebend of West Dean in 1150. Adeliza later seperated from Lord Arundel for religious reasons, and retired to the Abbey of Afflighem, near Alost, Flanders, where she became a nun in the house founded by her late father.
Greatly interested in literature, Adeliza was the especial patron of Geoffroi Gaimar, Philippe du Thaon and David the Trouvere. Du Thaon dedicated to Adeliza his Bestiaire, an Anglo-Norman metrical version of the Latin Physiologus, written between 1121 and 1135, and David wrote a Life of Henry I for her in verse, which has not survived. Benedeit dedicated his Voyage of St Brendan to Adeliza, probably not long after her marriage. The joint coronation of Adeliza and Henry (Jan 30, 1121) was the occasion for which Henry of Huntingdon composed the elegiac in honour of the queen’s famous beauty, Anglorum regina, tuos, Adeliza, decores, Ipsa referre parans musa stupore riget.

Adeliza of Montferrat     see     Giovanna of Montferrat

Adeliza of Normandy (1) – (c1001 – after 1037)
French princess
Adeliza was born at Rouen Castle, the eldest daughter of Duke Richard II and his wife Judith, the daughter of Conan of Rennes, Duke of Brittany. Adeliza was married (c1016) to Count Rainald I of Burgundy (c990 – 1057) as his first wife, and bore him several children including Guillaume I Tete-Hardi (1024 – 1087), Count of Burgundy and Macon who left many descendants. Adeliza’s younger son Guy of Burgundy (died after 1069) unsuccessfully claimed the duchy of Normandy on the grounds that he, as the son of the duke’s eldest daughter, had a superior legitimate claim to the dukedom than the late duke’s bastard son William the Conqueror.

Adeliza of Normandy (2) – (c1058 – before 1113)
Norman-Anglo princess
Adeliza was born at Rouen Castle, Normandy, the daughter of King William I the Conqueror, and his wife Matilda, the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders. Betrothed in childhood (1062) to Herbert, Count of Maine, this engagement ended with Herbert’s death (1063), and Adeliza was then betrothed (1064) to Harold Godwinsson, earl of Wessex, in England, brother-in-law of King Edward the Confessor. The ceremony was conducted by Adeliza’s uncle, Odo of Bayeux. Harold’s subsequent marriage with Aldgyth of Mercia nullified these marital arrangements. Sources which place her death in childhood (after Jan, 1066) are incorrect. Adeliza never married and took religious vows, living under the protection of Roger de Beaumont at the nunnery of St Leger, at Preaux, in France. She also spent time with her sister Cecilia at the abbey of the Holy Trinity at Caen. She was patron of the poet Baudri d’Anjou (1046 – 1130), later abbot of Bourgeuil (1107).

Adeloga – (c690 – c745)
Carolingian princess and saint
Also referred to as Adalaja or Hadeloga, Adeloga was the daughter of Pepin II of Heristal, and was the full sister to Duke Charles Martel of Austrasia (714 – 741), they both being the children of Pepin’s mistress Alphaida, the daughter of Childebrand. She was raised at Schwanenberg in Franconia.Accredited with great beauty and intelligence she received many offers of marriage but refused them all, preferring to live the religious life. Her refusal to marry greatly angered her father, and after he accused her of improper relations with chaplain, and threatened to expel her from the palace, Adeloga and the priest left the palace, and built a monastery at Kitzingen, in Wurzburg, Franconia, where she was joined by several other ladies.
The group lived under the observance imposed by St Benedictine and St Scholastica. Her father eventually relented and made the abbey the gift of valuable estates for its maintenance (c710), around which time Adeloga was installed as first abbess. Her chaplain later traveled to Palestine and died in Jerusalem. Adeloga caused a stone bridge to be built over the Mainz River at Kitzingen, which is said to have taken thirty-two years to build and was commonly called ‘St Hadeloga’s Bridge.’ Adeloga was venerated as a saint (Feb 2). She was succeeded as second abbess by St Thecla, an Anglo-Saxon noblemwoman.

Adelsberger, Lucie – (1896 – 1971)
German-American scientist and immunologist
Lucie Adelsberger was born in Nuremburg, and was educated at th University of Erlangen.  Lucie joined the staff of the Institut Robert Koch in Berlin (1927), and established a major reputation for herself in the fields of immunology and allergy. Adelsberger demonstrated the occurrence of antigen-antibody reaction in individuals with certain types of cancer, and it was she who first proposed the now accepted theory that certain changes in red blood cells indicated incipient cancer.
Dr Adelsberger had worked as a volunteer physician for displaced Jews during the Nazi regime, and for this humanitarianism she sufferred imprisonment at the Auschwitz concentration camp, which horror she managed to survive. She became the author A Report of the Facts, a detailed and wideley read account of life in the concentration camp. In 1949 Dr Adelsberger joined the staff of the Montefiore Hospital in New York. A leader in the field of cancer research for the next twenty years, she remained in the US for the rest of her life. Lucie Adelsberger died at the Montefiore.

Adelsparre, Sophie – (1808 – 1862)
Swedish painter
Sophie studied in Paris under Jean Cogniet and his wife Caroline Thevenin, together with fellow Swede Amalie Lindgren. The two women had been granted traveling scholarships to study abroad by the Swedish government.

Adelwip     see    Hadewijch

Adeneta    see   Ada of Le Mans

Adeodata – (fl. c590 – 600)
Italian religious founder
Adeodata was a correspondent of Pope Gregory I, being mentioned in three of his letters contained within his Epistolarum Registrum, n the last of which he styles her Adeodatae inlustri femina. Adeodata wrote to Pope Gregory firstly (598) stating her desire to embrace the religious life, which choice the pope encouraged. Gregory then ordered Decius, Bishop of Lilybaeum to consecrate the nunnery Adeodata had founded on her estate at Lilybaeum (599), and then, at her especial request, the pope sent her some holy relics to be enshrined in her convent (600).

Adfalduid – (fl. c600 – 630)
Breton virgin saint
Adfalduid was the daughter of St Romaric, and sister of Gegoberga and Adzaltrude. She never married and with her sister Gegoberga she became a nun under the rule of abbess Mactaflede at the abbey of Habend. Adfalduid was mentioned in the Martyrologium Gallicanum and was revered as a saint her feast recorded in the Acta Sanctorum (Sept 30).

Adhemar de Monteil de Grignan, Marie Blanche d’ – (1670 – 1735)
French nun
Marie Blanche d’Adhemar de Monteuil was born in Paris (Nov 15, 1670), the eldest daughter of Henri d’Adhemar de Monteil, Comte de Grignan, and his third wife Francoise, the beloved daughter of the famous letter writer, the Marquise de Sevigne. She figures in the surviving correspondence between her mother and grandmother, and became a nun of the Visitandine Order at Aix in Provence. Marie Blanche died there over forty years later aged sixty-four.

Adur-Anahid – (fl. c235 – c280 AD)
Sassanian queen consort
Adur-Anahid was the daughter of King Sapor I (241 – 272 AD) and granddaughter of Ardashir I. She was sister or half-sister to Vahram I, and was married to her father and became one of his chief queens. The king established a fire temple in the Zoroastrian faith to the queen and her sons.

Adilburga    see    Bertha of Paris

Adini, Ada – (1855 – 1924)
American soprano
Ada Adini was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Ada studied in Paris under Madame Viardot-Garcia and Giovanni Sbriglia. She made her stage debut at Varese in Meyerbeer’s, Dinorah (1876).
Adini performed in New York and Covent Garden, and appeared in the first performance of Camille Saint-Saens’s, Ascanio (1890). She was particularly noted for her Wagnerian roles, notably that of Brunnhilde in, Die Walkure (1893) at La Scala, Milan. Ada Adini died (Feb, 1924) at Dieppe, France, aged sixty-eight.

Adivar, Halide Edib – (1883 – 1964) 
Turkish nationalist, author, and politician
Born into a welathy family, she was educated privately, and later attended the American College for Girls, at Uskudar (Scutari), Istanbul, from which she graduated in 1901, being the first Turkish woman to do so. When her husband decided to take a second wife, she divorced him. Halide firmly believed in equal educational opportunities for women, and advocated the promotion of public lectures, which could be attended by both sexes.
Also a fervent nationalist, Halide and her second husband actively and militantly participated in the Turkish War of Liberation in Anatolia from 1918 – 1922, alongside Kemal Ataturk. However, with the establishment of the Republic (1923), Halide and her second husband, Professor Adnan  Adivar, disagreed with the new ministry, and left politics (1924), residing in England and France for the next fifteen years.
Halide travelled extensively throughout the world, including Europe, India and America before World War II. She became a professor of English literature at Istanbul University, and also elected as a member of the Turkish parliament for Izmir (1950). With the death of her husband Professor Adivar (1954), Halide retired from public life, and devoted herself to her writing.
Halide wrote about a dozen novels, the best known of which were, Handan (Family) (1912),  Atesten gomlek (The Daughter of Smyrna) (1941), and Sinekli Bakkal (The Clown and His Daughter) (1938). Besides the political work, Turkey Faces West: A Turkish View of Recent Changes and Their Origin (1930), she also left several volumes of reminiscences entitled Memoirs of Halide Edib (1926) and The Turkish Ordeal: Being the Further Memoirs of Halide Edib (1928). Halide Adivar died in Constantinople.

Adler, Lydia – (1704 – after 1744)
British murderess
Lydia Adler was a native of London. She was alarge, argumentative woman, who had become the fourth wife of one John Adler, whom she physically attacked on more than one occasion. After one such beating he staggered to the home of a friend who took him to a local hospital. On his deathbed he accused Lydia of inflicting his fatal unjuries, and stated in front of witnesses that his death (June 23, 1744) would be her fault. Adler was tried in London for murder, her own daughter Hannah testifying against her. She was convicted of manslaughter after medical evidence indicated her husband had acutally died of a ruptured hernia. She was branded on the hand and was then released, having shown no remorse whatsoever.

Adler, Polly – (1900 – 1962)
American madam and memoirist
She was born Pearl Adler in Yanow, Russia. After arriving in New York, in the USA, she established her first brothel there (1920), fitting out an expensive apartment in Manhattan. She ran this business for almost twenty-five years, moving her bordello from apartment to apartment over the years. Protected by famous underworld figures like Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano, to whom she paid fifty per cent of her income, though Adler was arrested several times, she was always released uncharged.
Adler became a criminal celebrity during the Seabury Investigations (1931) conducted against New York mayor, James W. Walker. Summoned to testify she went into hiding before dramatically surrendering, but her clever answers meant that her testimony could not be used against her protectors. Later arrested again (1935) she was forced to serve thirty days in prison, and Luciano’s fall would eventually follow. She left best-delling memoirs entitled A House Is Not a Home (1950) which provided for her financially. Polly Adler died (June 10, 1962) in New York.

Adler, Ruth – (1910 – 1997)
American newspaper editor
Ruth Adler was born (July 10, 1910) in Rochester, the daughter of Mortimer Adler. She attended school in Rochester, and later graduated from Smith College, before attending the Sorbonne in Paris, for further studies. Adler joined The Times (1934) as secretary and then promotion manager to Ivan Veit, and was later asked to establish an internal news publication for the staff (1947).
Adler designed, edited and produced Times Talk, which appeared monthly, and which was regarded as a valuable teaching aid by journalism schools. She remained editor for over three decades, finally retiring in 1980. Adler compiled fifty-three Times Talk articles in, The Working Press: Special to the New York Times (1966) and, A Day in the Life of the New York Times (1971) which was an hour by hour account of the work behind one daily issue of the newspaper. Ruth Adler died (Aug 1, 1997) in Manhattan, New York.

Adler, Stella – (1903 – 1992)
American stage and film actress
Stella Adler was born into a prominent theatrical family, being sister to character actors Jay (1896 – 1978) and Luther Adler (1903 – 1984). Adler appeared in several films such as Love on Toast (1938), Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) and My Girl Tisa (1948), but was better known as an important drama teacher.  Her students included such acting lumiaries as Robert DeNiro, Warren Beatty, and Marlon Brando. Stella Adler wrote The Art of Acting (2001) which was edited by Howard Kissel and published posthumously.

Adlerburg, Amalie von Lerchenfeld, Countess von – (1808 – 1888)
German salonniere and literary figure
Countess Amalie von Lerchenfeld was born at Darmstadt in Hesse, the illegitimate child of Count Maximilian von Lerchenfeld and Princess Theresa of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, daughter of Grand Duke Karl II (1806 – 1816). Her mother was the niece to Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, King of Great Britain. Amalie was married firstly (1825) to Baron Alexander von Krudener, to whom she bore two children, and secondly (1855) to Count Nikolai Adlerberg, governor-general of Simferopol during the Crimean War, and ruler of Taurida.
During his posting to Finland as governor-general, Amalie resided with Nikolai in Helsinki as vicereine (1866 – 1881). Her beauty and grace inspired the poetry of Fyodor Tyutchev, to whose career she gave practical assistance, and with whom she conducted a liasion during the lifetime of her first husband, and she was greatly admired by the poet Alexander Pushkin and the famous Romanov courtier, diplomat, and official, Count Alexander von Benckendorff, and by Tsar Nicholas I (1825 – 1855).
During the time spent with Adlerberg in Simferopol, Amalie established an orphanage there with Imperial permission, which was named after her at the insistence of the Tsarina Maria Alexandrovna. This building remains in existence and public service today, housing the Museum of Ethnography of Crimean NationsWith the end of Adlerberg’s term of office in Finland the couple resided in Munich, Bavaria. The countess died (June 21, 1888) at Tegernsee, and was interred at the church of St Laurentius at Rottach-Egern am Tegernsee.

Admas Mogassa – (c1520 – 1597)
Ethiopian empress consort (1559 – 1563)
Admas Mogassa became the wife (prior to 1540), of the Emperor Admas Seggad II (c1519 – 1563), and was the mother of his son and heir, Malik Seggad (c1549 – 1597), who succeeded his father as emperor (1563 – 1597). Her tenure as Dowager Empress spanned over three decades (1563 – 1597), the entire length of her son’s reign. Empress Admas Mogassa died (March 30, 1597), ten days of the death of her son, at Mount Wosen.

Adobogiona (1) – (fl. c80 – c50 BC)
Galatian princess of the Tolistobogii
Adobogiona was the daughter of Prince Deiotarus and sister to Brogitarus, being the cousin to King Deiotarus the Great, the adherent of Pompey the Great. Adobogiona became the wife of Menodotus, a wealthy patrician from Pergamum. Their son Mithridates of Pergamum (c80 – 41 BC) was the friend and ally of Julius Caesar, who appointed him tetrarch of the Trocmi shortly before his death. The princess was honoured by a surviving inscription uncovered on the island of Lesbos, and her portrait head has been discovered at Pergamum.

Adobogiona (2) – (c84 – after 47 BC)
Galatian queen of the Trocmi
Adobogiona was born, probably in the city of Blucium in Galatia, the younger daughter of King Deiotarus, the famous Roman ally, and his wife Berenike. She was married (c69 BC) to her cousin Brogitarus, tetrarch of the Trocmi, who was himself the great-nephew of tetrarch Sinorix the father of Deiotarus. Her husband received the royal title with the permission of Rome at the same time as her own father (59 BC). Widowed a decade later, Adobogiona remained childless, and her father eventually annexed the kingdom. The details of her later life remain unrecorded.

Adobogiona (3) – (c63 – after 35 BC)
Galatian ruler
Adobogiona became the wife (c47 BC) of Castor (c70 – 36 BC), tetrarch of the Tectosages in Galatia, himself the grandson and heir of his grandfather, King Deiotarus of Galatia. Modern research claims her as the daughter of Mithridates of Pergamum, tetrarch of the Trocmi, and great-niece to King Brogitarus, thus a member of the Celtic Tolistobogii royal house.

Adobogiona bore Castor two sons, Deiotarus Philadelphus (born c46 BC) and Deiotarus Philopator. In 40 BC her husband succeeded as king of Galatia. With Castor’s death in 36 BC, Amyntas was granted the kingdom by Rome. Adobogiona’s elder son was however, granted the Paphlagonian portion of Galatia to rule as king, with their capital at Gangra. Queen Adobogiona is believed to have ruled Paphlagonia as regent for her son during his minority.

Adonon – (fl. c1720 – 1740)
African queen of Dahomey
Adonon was a native of Wassa, south of Abomey, from which region the mythical origins of the Alladahonu dynasty began. She was the wife of King Wegbaja. Adonon was appointed as the first kpojito (queen mother) during the reign of kings Akaba and his successor Agaja (c1716 – 1740) and resided in state at the palace of Abomey. The queen lead the cult devoted to her dynastic ancestor Aligbonon, the mother of the deity Agasu, and perhaps acted as the chief priestess, thus legitimizing the rule of the dynasty.

Adoree, Renee – (1898 – 1933)
French film actress
Adoree was born Jeanne de la Fonte at Lille in Flanders. After a long career in the circus where she performed as a bareback rider, she became a dancer at the Folies-Bergere in Paris. She began acting and adopted her professional name. Her earliest film appearance was in an Australian film entitled 1500 Reward (1918).
Adoree became one of the earliest examples of the ‘silent film star,’ and her roles included appearances in such silent movies as Made in Heaven (1921),  The Eternal Struggle (1923), The Big Parade (1925) as leading lady opposite John Gilbert, which set the seal on her ‘stardom’, La Boheme (1926), and Tide of Empire (1929). Her last two film appearances were in Redemption and Call of the Flesh (both 1930). However, her exotic quality did not transmit to sound, and her career foundered. Her first husband (1921 – 1924) was Irish born actor Tom Moore (1883 – 1955). Renee Adoree died of tuberculosis at the early age of thirty-five.

Adosina Gutierrez – (c905 – c948)
Queen consort of Leon (925 – 933)
Adosina Gutierrez was the daughter of Gutierre Osoriz, Count of Galicia, and his wife Ildoncia Gutierrez. She was married (925) to Ramiro II Ordonez, King of Leon (c897 – 951) by whom she was the mother of King Ordono III Ramirez (c926 – 955). Her husband divorced her (933) so he could make an important dynastic marriage, and she retired from court to become a nun, dying fifteen years later.

Adosinda Pelaez – (c730 – c790)
Spanish queen consort of the Asturias (774 – 783)
Adosinda was the daughter of King Alfonso I of the Asturias, and his wife Ormisenda (Ermisenda), the daughter of the first Asturian king, Pelayo. She was sister to King Fruela I. Adosinda was married (745) to the prince Silo (c725 – 783), who later ascended the throne of Asturias, by right of his marriage with Adosinda, after the death of her cousin, King Aurelio.
There were no surviving children of the marriage. With her husband’s death (783), Adosinda’s nephew Alfonso II was proclaimed as king. When he was displaced by the usurper Mauregato, the queen mother was forced to retire from court and remained in retirement at the convent of San Juan de Pravia, where she later died.

Adrehildis    see   Ada of Le Mans

Adrian, Dame Hester Agnes – (1899 – 1966)
British mental health reformer and civic leader
Hester Pinsent was born (Sept 16, 1899), the only daughter of Hume Chancellor Pinsent of Rough Lea, near Boar’s Hill, Oxford, and his wife Dame Ellen Frances Pinsent, the daughter of Reverend Richard Parker, Rector of Claxby iin Lincolnshire. She attended Somerville College at Oxford and was married (1923) to Edgar Douglas Adrian, the future president of the Royal Society. They had three children. When her husband was created the first Baron Adrian by Queen Elizabeth II Hester became the Baroness Adrian (1955 – 1966).
Mrs Adrian was appointed as a Justice of the Peace for Cambridge (1936) and became a member of the Council of magistrates Association (1947). Particulalry concerned for the care and management of the mentally ill Adrian was appointed as the chairman of the Mental Health Committee (1947) and of the Fulbourn Mental Hospital Management Committee (1951 – 1957). She served as secretary, chairman and president of the Cambridge Mental Welfare Association and served on the Royal Commission on Mental Health (1954 – 1957).
One of her last appointments (1963) was as chairman of the Training Council for Teachers of the Mentally Handicapped. Due to her valuable volunteer work on behalf of the mentally afflicted she was appointed DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II (1965). Dame Hester Adrian died (May 20, 1966) aged sixty-six. Her children were,

• Hon. (Honourable) Anne Pinsent Adrian (born 1924). She was married to the noted physiologist Richard Darwin Keynes (born 1919), of Wiveton, near Holt, Norfolk, and left issue.
• Hon. Richard Hume Adrian (1927 – 1995). He succeeded his father as the second and last Baron Adrian (1977 – 1995) and was married but died childless when the peerage became extinct.
• Hon. Jennet Parker Adrian (born 1927). A twin with her brother Richard, she became the wife of Peter Watson Campbell, of St Anthony in Roseland, Truro, in Cornwall, and left issue.

Adrian, Iris – (1912 – 1994)
American character actress
Iris Adrian was born (May 29, 1912) and she was originally a dancer with the Ziegfeld Follies. She appeared in films such as Rumba (1935), Professional Bride (1941), Road to Alcatraz (1946), and Herbie Goes Bananas (1980). Adrian also worked in television and appeared on The Ted Knight Show (1978). Iris Adrian died (Sept 17, 1994) aged eighty-two.

Adriana of Cortona – (c1249 – 1292)
Italian nun and saint
Adriana was born at Laviano, near Cortona, and was the younger sister of St Margaret of Cortona, and was converted to the religious life by her sister’s example, together with her friend Gilia, the two taking vows as tertiaries of the Third Order of St Francis, and becoming Margaret’s companions. Adriana eventually became an ascetic in the cell formerly occupied by her sister, when she removed to another location. Adriana died (Aug 10, 1292) in Cortona, and was interred with both women in the Church of the Friars Minor in Cortona. She was venerated as a saint (July 16).

Ady, Mrs Henry      see    Cartwright, Julia

Adzaltrude – (fl. c630 – c650)
Merovingian nun and saint
Adzaltrude was the daughter of St Romaric. She became a nun under her elder sister Gegoberga at the Abbey of Habend and was revered as a saint. The meagre details available for her life were gleaned from the Life of St Romaric (653) which was dedicated to Gegoberga.

Aebbe – (c601 – 683)
Anglo-Saxon queen consort, nun and saint
Sometimes called Ab, Abb or Ebba, she was the daughter of Eadbert, King of Kent (616 – 640) and his first wife Acha, the daughter of Aella, King of Deira. Her parents were divorced after her brith, and Aebbe accompanied her mother to the court of Northumbria when she became the second wife of King Aethelfrith. Thus Aebbe was the maternal half-sister to the Northumbrian rulers, Oswald (died 642) and Oswiu (Oswy) died 670) both of whom were revered as saints. She refused to marry a Scottish king, and became the wife of Cwichelm, under king of Wessex. She bore him a son Cuthred (died 661), who did not succeed him, and died without known issue.
After the death of her husband (636), or perhaps later, when her son was grown, Aebbe was veiled as a nun at the abbey of Lindisfarne by St Finan. Aebbe caused the construction of a monastery, called Ebbchester after her, on land which was given her by her brother, King Oswiu. It was a twin house, which contained separate cloisters for both nuns and monks, with the abbess in sole charge. Aebbe later constructed the abbey of Coldingham in Berwickshire, and became the first superior of that house. The nuns of Coldingham fell into sloth and disorder under Aebbe’s rule so she was perhaps an inept administrator. Whatever the reason, the abbess was warned in a dream that retribution would fall upon the sisters, but not until after her death.
Abbess Aebbe died aged over eighty, and was venerated as a saint (Aug 25).

Aebutia – (fl. c200 – c180 BC)
Roman testatrix
Aebutia was wife to the patrician Menenius Agrippa, himself a descendant of Lucius Menenius Agrippa, the famous consul of 503 BC. Possessed of considerable fortune, Aebutia bore Agrippa two daughters and several sons before he divorced her. When she died she made one of her daughters her heiress, left the other nothing, and only small legacies to her sons. Her testamentary dispositions, recorded by Valerius Maximus, were regarded as extremely strange by her contemporaries.

Aelders, Etta Palm d’ – (1743 – after 1795)
Dutch feminist and writer
Etta Palm d’Aelders was born in Holland and resided in Paris (1774 – 1793). Etta founded the Societe des amis de la verite and she led a female deputation to the French Assembly (1791), demanding female equality in all aspects of the new revolutionary society, which demands were contained in her speech the Women’s Petition to the Legislative Assemby (Petition de femmes a l’Assemblee legislative). Aelders was also the author of Letter to a Friend of Truth (Lettre a une amie de la verite) (1791). Etta Palm d’Aelders later went to Holland where she was later arrested for suspect political involvement (1795).

Aelfflaed of Mercia (Elfleda) – (c810 – c850)
Anglo-Saxon queen consort
Aelfflaed was the daughter and heiress of Ceolwulf I, King of Mercia. Her uncle Coenwulf died in 821 with no male heir, and in 823 her father was deposed and replaced by two pretenders. The family of King Wiglaf finally succeeded in establishing themselves, and to strengthen their position, Wiglaf’s son Wigmund was married to Aelflaed, probably in 827. Mercia was conquered by Egbert of Wessex in 829, and the royal family fled before his armies, but Wiglaf was restored to the throne in 830, and he and Wigmund ruled together.
Wigmund died in 839, and his and Aelflaed’s son Wigstan was proclaimed king with Aelflaed installed as regent. The pretender Beorhtwulf wished to marry the queen mother and seize power, but Wigstan refused to allow the marriage, which he regarded as incestuous, Beorhtwulf being his cousin. Beorhtwulf had Wigstan murdered in 850, and he was interred in the Abbey of Repton. Queen Aelflaed died not long afterwards. Aelflaed may also have been the mother of the Mercian princess Eadburga, who married Aethelred Mucil, earldorman of Gainas. Their daughter Eahlswith was the wife of Alfred the Great.

Aelfflaed of Romsey (Elfleda) – (c959 – 1030)
Anglo-Saxon abbess and saint
Aelfflaed was the daughter of Aethelwald, Earl of East Anglia, and his first wife Orcgiva. Her stepmother Aelfthryth (Elfrida) married King Edgar I in 964. A neglected child, she was sent to be educated under the Abbess Morwinna at Romsey Abbey, and took vows there. Morwinna died in 993, and in 996 Aelflaed succeeded Aelfwyn as abbess. Legend states that she maintained an ascetical habit of bathing nude in a fishpond in the evening, and interceded to cure an illness of the queen, one of the wives of Aethelred II.Aelfflaed exhibited great charity towards the poor, and indeed, her gifts were so excessive, as to cause some financial problems for the abbey itself. The Acta Sanctorum (1643) and the Nova Legenda Angliae (1901) record that she died at an advanced age, and correct other sources which place her death around c1000. Aelfflaed died aged about seventy, was canonized and venerated (Oct 29).

Aelfgifu (Elgiva) – (c921 – 945)
Anglo-Saxon queen consort (c939 – 945)
Aelfgifu was probably the daughter opf Eadric, earldorman of Wessex, and of the same royal line as her husband, Edmund I (921 – 946), whose first wife she became (c937). Queen Aelfgifu was the mother of two successive Anglo-Saxon rulers, Edwy (Eadwig) (955 – 959) and Edgar I (959 – 975), and a daughter Elgiva (Aelfgifu), the wife of Baldwin, Count of Hesdin. Queen Aelfgifu died (May 18, 945) from the effects of childbirth, aged about twenty-four, at the abbey of Shaftesbury, in Dorset. Spurious monastic legend states that she died as abbess of Shaftesbury (971), but Edmund never divorced her, and this is a confusion with his childless second wife and widow, Aethelflaed of Damerham, stepmother to Edwy and Edgar, who actually died there as a nun, some thirty years after Edmund’s death.

Aelfgifu of Northampton (Elgiva) – (c990 – 1044)
Anglo-Saxon regent of Norway
Aelfgifu was the daughter of Aelfmaer, earl of Northampton, who was killed by Eadric Streona (1006). In about 1006, she became attached to Canute (Knud) (990 – 1035) the son of Sweyn of Denmark, supposedly having formerly been the concubine of St Olaf of Norway, and the couple were married in the Danish fashion. She bore him two sons Harald I (c1008 – 1040) and Sweyn Knudsson (c1010 – 1036). The companion of his youth, Aelfgifu’s relationship to the king survived his ‘official’ marriage (1017) with Queen Emma, the widow of Aethelred II, despite the fact that Emma secured a promise from the king that her son and not Aelfgifu’s would be his legal heirs. Though only regarded as a royal concubine, and her sons technically illegitimate, Aelfgifu’s position was by no means considered a dishonourable one.
When Canute made their younger son Sweyn king of Norway, he appointed Aelfgifu to rule as regent (1030 – 1036) over his Wendish subjects. Her period of rule was extremely unpopular, and as regent she was harsh and exacting. The Norwegians also seriously resented the favouritism that she extended to her Danish entourage. This eventually provoked the uprising which removed her from power (1036) and she fled to Denmark with her son. With Sweyn’s death soon afterwards, Aelfgifu returned to England, where she proved successful in persuading the influential nobles to accept her younger son Harald Harefoot as king (1037), and some of his supporters from the Midlands probably came for Aelfgifu’s own family. Queen Aelfgifu died (Dec 31, 1044).

Aelfgifu of York – (c965 – after 993)
Anglo-Saxon queen consort (c979 – 993)
Aelfgifu was the daughter of Thored Gunnarsson, Earldorman of York, and his wife Hilde. Her paternal grandfather was the Scandinavian leader Gunnar who settled in the north. She was married (c979) King Aethelred II the Redeless (965 – 1016) as his first wife, and was the mother of King Edmund II Ironside (1016) and several other children. Her divorce was the result of her father’s probable involvement in a northern conspiracy. She was sent from court to the abbey of Wilton in Wiltshire to become a nun.

Aelfgyva of Wessex – (c1032 – c1066)
Anglo-Saxon noblewoman
Also called Aelfgyva or Elgiva Godwinsson, she was the fourth and youngest daughter of Godwin Wulfnothsson, Earl of Wessex, and his second wife, Gytha Thorkilsdotter, the daughter of Thorkils Sprakkaleg. Through her mother Aelfgyva was the great-granddaughter of Harald II Bluetooth, King of Denmark, and her elder brother was Harold II (1066), the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. Aelfgyva appears to have remained unmarried and is believed to have died around the time of the Norman Conquest. She is thought by some scholars and mediaeval experts to be indentical with the ‘Aelfgyva’ who is depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, which seems to indicate a proposed marriage alliance between Aelfgyva, and a member of the Norman ducal family (1064).

Aelfthryth of Devonshire    see   Elfrida of Devonshire

Aelfwynn (Elfwynn) – (c888 – after 948)
Anglo-Saxon ruler of Mercia
She was the only child of Aethelred, Earl of Mercia and his wife Aethelflaed, the daughter of King Alfred the Great. She succeeded her mother (918) as ruler of the Mercians but was disposessed by her maternal uncle Edward the Elder who conquered the Mercia and removed its former autonomy. Aelfwynn was taken back to her uncle’s court and placed in a convent, to prevent her from marrying and producing rival heirs.

Aelia Paetina Tuberonis – (c7 – c49 AD)
Roman Imperial princess
Aelia Paetina Tuberonis was the daughter of Sextus Aelius Catus, consul (4 AD) and was niece to Quintus Aelius Tubero consul (11 BC). She became the adopted sister of Lucius Aelius Sejanus, perfect of the Praetorian Guard and feared favourite of the Emperor Tiberius (14 – 37 AD). Aelia’s marriage with the emperor’s nephew Claudius (c26 AD) was arranged by Sejanus as a means of associating himself with the Julio-Claudian dynasty and the Imperial throne. She became his second wife and they had an only child Claudia Antonia (28 – 66 AD). Claudius divorced Aelia after Sejanus’ dramatic fall from power (c31 AD) and returned all of her dowry, instead of retaining the one-eighth part to which he was entitled by law. Aelia’s daughter was raised in the household of Claudius’mother Antonia, sister-in-law of Tiberius until that lady’s death (37 AD).
With the downfall of the Empress Messallina, the Emperor Claudius’ third wife (48 AD) his freedman Narcissus supported Aelia as the choice for next empress. At a meeting between the emperor, Narcissus and his tow other freedmen Callistus and Pallas, who favoured the candidature of Lollia Paullina and the younger Agrippina respectively, Narcissus reminded Claudius that his former union with Aelia and been productive and that remarriage with her would not create domestic upheavals. Callistus objected on the grounds that her previous divorce disqualified her as a candidate and that remarriage would only make her arrogant. In the end Claudius married Agrippina (49 AD).
Aelia disappears completely from the historical record after this date. As a former rival Aelia was a possible danger to Agrippina and as she plotted the removal of Lollia Paullina so she probably engineered the death of Aelia as well, though the sources do not record the fact. In the book I Claudius by Robert Graves she perished in a suspicious apartment fire, and she was portrayed on screen in the famous BBC (British Broadcasting Corpration) series of the same name (1975). Aelia’s daughter was married firstly to consul Pompeius Magnus (died 47 AD) and secondly to Faustus Cornelius Sulla (c21 – 62 AD), the father of her only child. She was eventually killed by order of her stepbrother the Emperor Nero.

Aelia Pithias    see   Pithias, Aelia

Aelia Prospera    see   Prospera, Aelia

Aelia Tuberonis (1) – (fl. c100 – c93 BC)
Roman Republican patrician
Aelia Tuberonis was the daughter of the senator, Quintus Aelius Tubero. She became the second wife (c100 BC) of the famous dictator, Lucius Cornelius Sulla (140 – 78 BC). Her marriage remained childless, and Aelia became the stepmother to Sulla’s children from his first marriage. No scandal ever attached itself to her name, but Sulla later divorced her for barrenness (c93 BC). This callous treatment, after a decade of marriage, created much public sympathy for Aelia. No details are recorded of her later life.

Aelia Tuberonis (2) – (fl. c10 BC – c20 AD)
Roman Imperial patrician
Aelia Tuberonis was the daughter of Quintus Aelis Tubero, and his first wife Sulpicia Rufa, the daughter of Servius Sulpicius Rufus, and was sister to Quintus Aelis Tubero, consul (11 BC). She became the wife of Lucius Cassius Longinus, consul (11 AD), and was the mother of his two sons, Cassius Longinus, consul (30 AD), and Gaius Cassius Longinus (died before 79 AD), who was the husband of Julia Livilla, the daughter of Germanicus Caesar and the elder Agrippina.

Aelith of Aquitaine    see    Petronilla of Aquitaine

Aemilia Lepida (1) – (c140 – 114 BC) 
Roman Vestal virgin
Aemilia Lepida was condemned to death for committing incest, on the order of Lucius Metellus, and buried alive. Orosius states that she was seduced by Lucius Veturius, a Roman knight, and that she involved two other Vestals, Marcia and Licinia in her crimes. All were punished after being informed upon by a slave, said to have belonged to one of their lovers, Vetutius Barrus.
Aemilia alone was found guilty on this occasion, and she and her two lovers were put to death, she being immured alive.

Aemilia Lepida (2) – (c15 BC – 20 AD)
Roman political victim
Aemilia Lepida was the daughter of Quintus Aemilius Lepidus and his wife Cornelia Sulla, the daughter of Faustus Cornelius Sulla. She was the great-grandduaghter to both Sulla and Pompey.
She was betrothed in childhood to Lucius Caesar, the grandson of Emperor Augustus, but his early death prevented this marriage (2 AD). Instead she was given in marriage to Publius Sulpicius Quirinius (c45 BC – 21 AD), later governor of Syria. The marriage remained childless, and Quirinius eventually divorced her.
Aemilia remarried to Mammercus Aemilius Scaurus, by whom she left issue. Aemilia Lepida was legally indicted (20 AD), for publicly claiming to have borne a son to her first husband. Additional charges brought against her included poisoning, and of having consulted astrologers concerning members of the Imperial family. At her trial she was defended by her own brother, Manlius Aemilius Lepidus.
Tacitus, who records the trial in his Annales, records that despite her obvious guilt, Aemilia attracted public sympathy because of her former husband’s continuedd maltreatment of her. During a lull ijn thr trial proceedings, Aemilia, accompanied by several other aristocratic Roman ladies, made a public appearance at the Games, and was treated with a great display of sympathy by the crowds there, after she made a tearful scene in front of the statues and memorial to Pompey, her great ancestor. Despite all this, the torturing of her slaves revealed her guilt.
Gaius Rubellius Blandus proposed that she be condemned as an outlaw, whilst Drusus, not wihtout some opposition, supported the death penalty. Upon the appeal of her second husband, Scaurus, to whom she had borne a son, her property was not confiscated. After this, the emperor Tiberius himself, who had followed the case closely, now revealed that the slaves of Quirinius ahd reported that Aemilia had tried to poison her husband. Soon after she was either put to death, or allowed to commit suicide.

Aemilia Lepida (3) – (c4 BC – after 28 AD)
Roman Imperial patrician
Aemilia Lepida was the daughter of Lucius Aemilius Paullus and his wife Vipsania Julia, the daughter of the Augustan general, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. During her childhood she was betrothed to her cousin, the future emperor Claudius I, probably through the arrangement of the empress Livia, but her parents offended Augustus, and this contract was broken. Instead, she was married (c10 AD) to Marcus Junius Silanus, consul 19 AD, who was living in 36 AD. The couple had five children. Aemilia Lepida was living in 28 AD.

Aemilia Lepida (4) – (c7 – 36 AD) 
Roman Imperial princess
Aemilia Lepida was the daughter of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, consul 6 AD. Her brother became the wife of Drusilla, the favourite sister of Caligula, and she was married (c22 AD) to Drusus Caesar (7 – 33 AD), the second son of Germanicus and the younger Agrippina. Her marriage remained childless and unhappy, and in 31 AD, she colluded with Sejanus, the favourite of the emperor Tiberius, to bring about the death of her husband. When her complicity in this crime became known, she would have been sentenced to death, but for the influence of her father with the emperor. His death (34 AD) left Aemilia vulnerable to the conspiracies of her enemies, and she was accused of several crimes, including adultery with a slave, having been caught in flagrante dilecto. She anticipated the guilty verdict by committing suicide. A posthumous trial found her guilty, but Tiberius refused to allow the charge of maiestas brought against her.

Aenis of Tours    see    Adelaide of Tours

Aenor of Chatellerault – (1103 – 1130)
Duchess consort of Aquitaine (1127 – 1130)
Aenor was born at Chatellerault in Vienne, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Chatellerault, and his wife Dangerose de l’Isle-Bouchard. Her mother was later rather willingly abducted by her lover, Duke William IX, the famous troubadour Duke of Aquitaine (1086 – 1127), and Aenor apparently accompanied her mother to the court of Poitiers (c1113) where she was educated. Duke William abandoned his wife Philippa of Toulouse and cohabited with Dangerosa who became popularly known as La Maubergeonne due to her residence in the Mauerbegonne Tower. Her mother and the duke arranged for the marriage of Aenor (c1116) with his son and heir. William X (1099 – 1137), Duke of Aquitaine (1127 – 1137).
Her only political involvement was her support given during the church schism, together with that of the duke, to the anti-pope Anacletus against Innocent II. The duchess appears to have obtained the appointment of her uncle as Bishop of Poitiers, perhaps because he was an adherent of Anacletus, and with her husband Aenor was excommunicated as an adherent of the anti-pope. Duchess Aenor was the mother of a son and heir, William Aigret (1126 – 1130), who died in infancy, leaving her with two daughters, Eleanor and Petronilla of Aquitaine. Thus she became the maternal grandmother of the English Plantagenet kings Richard I (1189 – 1199) and John I (1199 – 1216). Aenor died (shortly after March, 1130) at the Chateau de Talmond, near Poitiers, aged twenty-six. She was interred within the Abbey of Nieuil-sur-l’Autise in Poitiers.

Aeonia, Aemilia – (c290 – c320 AD)
Gallo-Roman patrician
Aemilia Aeonia was the daughter of Caecilius Argorius Arboricius of Aquitania in Gaul. She was the wife of the consul Julius Ausonius, who held a military command. Aeonia was the mother of the poet Decimus Magnus Ausonius (c310 – 394 AD).

Aerschot de Croy, Anne de Croy, Duchesse d’ – (1564 – 1635).
Flemish peeress
Anne de Croy was born (Jan 4, 1564) at Beaumont, and became the wife (1587) of Charles de Ligne, Prince d’Arenberg. She succeeded as the fifth sovereign duchess of Aerschot and Croy. Duchesse Anne died (Feb 26, 1635) aged seventy-one, at Enghien in Hainault.

Aesara – (fl. c520 – c490 BC)  
Italian philosopher
Aesara was born a native of Lucania. Iamblichus, the biographer of Pythagoras records that Aesara was one of the leading theorists of the school of philosophy at Metapontum in Italy, after the death of Pythagoras, and she is credited as the author of the treatise On Human Nature, which deals with the three way division of the soul, over which justice presides.

Aethelbertha      see    Bertha of Paris

Aethelburh of Kent (Ethelburga) – (c595 – 647)
Anglo-Saxon queen consort
Sometimes called Tata, which was probably a nickname from childhood, she was the daughter of Aethelbert I, King of Kent, and his wife Bertha, the daughter of Charibert I, the Merovingian King of Paris. Princess Aethelburh was married (625) to Edwin of Deira, King of Northumbria (584 – 633) as his second wife. Her only surviving child was Eanflaed, who became the second wife of King Oswiu of Northumbria. Her chaplain Paulinus assisted the queen in the conversion of Edwin to Christianity.
With the death of her husband in battle against the Mercian forces of King Penda, Queen Aethelburh and her children fled to the court of her brother, King Eadbald, in Kent. He provided Aethelburh with land of which she built the convent of Lyming, and then served as first abbess of that house, being succeeded as abbess by her sister Eadburh. Her youngest son, Vuscfrea, was sent to the court of the Merovingian king, Dagobert I, in France to be educated, but he died there still a child. Queen Aethelburh was revered as a saint her feast (April 5) recorded in the Acta Sanctorum.

Aethelflaed of Damerham (Ethelfleda) – (c927 – after 975) 
Anglo-Saxon queen of England (945 – 946)
Aethelflaed of Damerham was the elder daughter of Aelfgar, earldorman of Wiltshire. She married (945) King Edmund I (921 – 946) as his second wife, and brought the important estate of Damerham as her dowry. The marriage was childless, and Edmund was assassinated the following year by a robber with a grudge. Queen Aethelflaed remarried briefly to an earldorman named Aelfgar, but this union also remained childless. She died a nun at the abbey of Shaftesbury, in Dorset. A woman of considerable property, her will survives.

Aethelflaed of Mercia (Ethelfleda) – (869 – 918) 
Anglo-Saxon ruler
Aethelflaed was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex (871 – 899), and his wife Eahlswith of Gainas, and was sister to King Edward the Elder (899 – 924). She was married (880) to Aethelred Mucil, earl of Mercia, to whom she bore an only surviving child, a daughter Aelfwynn. The princess fought alongside her husband against the invading Danes, and they fortified the great colony at Chester (907) and won a decisive victory at Tettenhall (911). When Aethelred died in the same year, Aethelflaed was recognized as ‘Lady of the Mercians,’ and continued the resistance to the Danes, ruling alone. She built many fortified strongholds throughout Mercia, notably at Bridgenorth (912), Tamworth, Chester, and Stafford.
After considerable trouble from the Welsh, she also caused Eddisbury to be fortified (914), and built Cherbury and Warbury, and fortified Runcan on the Mersey River. In 916 she defeated the Welsh of Gwent at Brecknock and took thirty-five prisoners, including the Welsh queen, Elen, the wife of Howell. She personally led several military attacks, firstly the successful siege against Derby (917), with the help of her brother and secondly against Leicester (918). The Danes of York also made their peace with her, this alliance bringing about the downfall of the Norse Viking Ragald, at Corbridge.
Renowned as a wise and just ruler, the Annals of Ulster refer to her as famosissima regina Saxonum (most famous queen of the English). Her nephew Athelstan was brought up at her court, and his first wife Ecgwynn was probably a Mercian heiress, a relative of Aethelfleda’s husband. Aethelflaed was preparing to lead an attack into Dane-held Northumbria, when she died at her palace of Tamworth, Gloucestershire (June 12, 918). She was interred in the church of St Peter, Gloucestershire.

Aethelflaed of Northumbria (Ethelfleda) – (c975 – 1002)
Anglo-Saxon queen of England (993 – 1002)
Aethelflaed was the daughter of Ethelred, earldorman of Northumbria. Her marriage to King Aethelred II the Redeless (993) was a political alliance aimed at cementing the loyalty of the king’s northern barons, who had previously been tenuously involved in a conspiracy led by Aethelred’s former father-in-law. She was the mother of several junior princes who died without issue, and several daughters, of whom the youngest Aelfthryth (1002 – after 1051) became a nun and was abbess of Wherwell, in Hampshire. Queen Aethelflaed died aged under thirty (Feb, 1002), at Winchester Palace, probably from the effects of childbirth.

Aethelflaed of Wiltshire (Eneda, Ethelfleda) – (c944 – 973)
Anglo-Saxon queen (961 – c963)
Aethelflaed was the daugher of Ordmaer, earldorman of Wiltshire, and his wife Ealda, who was probably the daughter of Eadric, Earldorman of Wessex, of rhe royal house. Aethelflaed was married (961) to King Edgar I (959 – 975) as his second wife, and was the mother of the ill-fated King Edward the Martyr (975 – 979), said to have been assassinated with the privity of his stepmother, Aelfthryth (Elfrida). The king soon tired of her, divorced her, and sent her from the court to become a nun at the abbey of Wilton, in Wiltshire, where she died ten years later.

Aethelthryth of East Anglia (Etheldreda, Audrey) – (630 – 679)
Anglo-Saxon queen consort and saint
Aethelthryth was born at Exning in Suffolk, the daughter of Anna, King of East-Anglia and his second wife Hereswyth, the daughter of Hereric, Prince of Deira and sister to St Hilda, the famous abbess of Whitby. She was sister to saints Sexburga and Withburga. Aethelthryth was married firstly to Tonbert, a prince of the Gyvrii, who was killed in battle (655). During her short married life the princess had retained her virginity, Tonbert having respected her wishes in this matter.
Aethelthryth retired from the world for five years to live in seclusion on the island of Ely but she was then forced to make a political marriage (660), much against her will, and become the queen and first wife of Egfrith, King of Northumbria (646 – 685), who was over fifteen years her junior. As with her first marriage Queen Aethelthryth refused to cohabit with her youthful husband. Twelve years afterwards (672) the queen retired from the Northumbrian court with the support of Bishop Wilfred, and she became a nun at Coldingham Abbey. She then built an double abbey at Ely, where she became abbess and died of a tumour of the jaw. Aethelthryth was venerated as a saint (June 23).

Aetheria     see     Egeria

Afanasieva, Anna Stepanovna – (1892 – 1981)
Russian revolutionary
Anna Afanasieva joined the Bolshevik Party (1915) and took an active role in the Bolshevik takeover of Moscow (1917). From 1919 Anna was employed with the secretariat of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Anna later joined the Marx-Engels Institute (1923 – 1925), and was one of those entrusted with the organization of the museum instituted in Lenin’s memory.

Affry, Adele d’ – (1836 – 1879) 
French sculptor
Adele d’Affry was born in Fribourg, Switzerland, the only daughter and heiress of Louis, Comte d’Affry and his wife Madamoiselle de Maillardoz. With the death of her only brother Philippe, Comte d’Affry without issue (1889), Adele became the legitimate heiressof the d’Affry family. She was arried to the Italian Duca di Colonna di Castiglione, Adele was herself a sculptor of some talent and distinction, and adopted the professional name of ‘Marcello’. Adele d’Affry died at Cellamare aged forty-two.

Afinia Gemina Baebiana     see    Gemina Baebiana, Afinia

Afra of Augsburg – (c275 – 304 AD)
German Christian martyr
Afra was the daughter of a woman named Hilaria, and worked as a prostitute in the German town of Augsburg. She was executed during the persecutions initiated by the emperor Diocletian, after she had provided hospitality in her home to Narcissus, a Spanish priest and his deacon Felix.  Afra was condemned to be burned alive on an island in the river Lech, and her mother and several maidservants were executed several days later.
Afra is considered the patron saint of the cities of Augsburg and of Meissen, and of female penitents, and her feast was observed annually (Aug 5). She is represented in religious art with her hands tied to a stake, bound to a tree in flames, or holding a log, representing her death by fire. A church in Augsburg was dedicated jointly to St Afra and St Ulrich.

Afra of Brescia – (c100 – c133 AD) 
Roman Christian martyr and saint
Her husband served as prefect of that city during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian (117 – 138 AD). Her husband was torn to pieces in the arena by wild animals that were supposed to kill two Christian brothers, Faustus and Jovita. Afra bitterly reproached the emperor for her husband’s death, and was converted to Christianity by the two martyrs, refusing the emperor’s offer of a new husband.
Arrested with Faustus and Jovita, the two men were beheaded by gladiators on the road to Cremona, whilst Afra was cut down by the sword. Her surviving church, built on the site of a former temple dedicated to the god Saturn, remains the oldest ecclesiastical foundation in Brescia. The Roman Marytrology lists her feast (May 24).

Afra of Poitiers     see    Abra of Poitiers

Afrania, Gaia (Carfania) – (c90 – 48 BC) 
Roman litigant and advocate
Gaia Afrania was born into the patrician class, and became the wife of the senator Licinius Bucco. The upheavals to normal life caused by the continued civil disruptions and wars caused Afrania to represent herself at the law courts during the absence of her her husband. Afrania appears to have conducted her cases with some considerable skill, and her success outside the normal spheres of interest for Roman women, eventually led to envy and ridicule by contemporary male authors. However, her use of the court system enabled the law to be changed, after her death, to permit women to personally present their own case before a public magistrate, though they were legally prohibited from representing others.

Afrosinya – (fl. 1714 – 1718)
Finnish royal mistress
Afronsinya was of peasant birth. She became involved in a romantic liasion with the Tsarevitch Alexei Romanov (1690 – 1718), the son and heir of Tsar Peter I the Great by his first marriage with Eudoxia Feodorovna Lopukhina. This affair began shortly after the prince’s wife, Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, gave birth to their daughter, the Grand Duchess Natalia Alexievna (1714). Virtually nothing is known of Afronsinya’s life prior to the commencement of her liaison with Alexei.
When the affair ensued Alexei installed Afronsinya openly at court as his mistress, and paid attentions to her openly. With the death of the Tsarevna (1715) Tsar Peter ordered his son to do his duty for the dynasty and join the army. He angered his father by announcing his agreement to renounce his succession to the throne, or become a monk. He was given six months to consider his decision, after which he fled Russia with Afronsinya and went to Vienna in Austria. Thereafter Afronsinya was dressed in male disguise, and they resided under Imperial protection at Ehrenburg Castle in the Tyrol region. After being traced there by the Russian envoy they fled to Naples in Italy. Count Tolstoy prevailed upon Afronsinya to persuade Alexei to return to Russia, and may have promised to arrange an impressive marriage for her with his own son, Peter Tolstoy.
The Tsarevich insisted that he be permitted to marry Afronsinya, then several months pregnant, before he returned to St Petersburg. Alexei arrived there in Jan, 1718, and Afronsinya three months later. When taken to task by his father for his failures, Alexei could offer little defence, and even incriminated his own mother, amongst many others. Throughout however, he declared Afronsinya’s innocence from any of these crimes. This plea was to no avail, and Afronsinya was interrogated, though she was not tortured. Her evidence led to Alexei’s imprisonment, torture, and then death. Her later fate remains unknown.

Afua Kobi – (c1815 – 1900)  
Ashanti queen and ruler
Her second husband was King Boakye Tenten and became the mother of King Kofi Kakari who held the Golden Stool (1867 – 1874) and of his brother Mensa, who ruled (1874 – 1883) holding the official title of asantehemaa (queen mother). A woman of great power and influence, a British general once caused great offence to the Ashanti people when he asked King Kofi to hand over the queen mother as a hostage for the good faith of the Asante.
Despite this, the queen mother’s peacemaking with the British (1881) did prevent war for a period. After the deaths of her sons, the queen mother retained power. With the murder of King Kwaku Dua (1884), the queen mother then offerred the throne to the unpopular Kwasi Kisi. This was a political ploy to invite British intervention. It worked, but instead of gaining their assistance, the queen mother was deposed and replaced in office.

Agadzhanova-Shutko, Nina Ferdinandovna – (1889 – 1974)
Russian security services officer and scriptwriter
Nina was born (Nov 8, 1889) and was trained as a schoolteacher before becoming active in political circles. These associations led her to suffer several periods of imprisonment. Nina was involved with the secret police (Cheka) during the revolution and was later attached to the Soviet embassies in Prague, Bohemia (1921 – 1922) and Latvia (1934 – 1938) and engaged in espionage work for the Russian government.
With her retirement from the security services she became involved in film making, and her script, 1905 God, was the basis for Sergei Eisenstein’s film The Battleship Potemkin (1925) which was first screened at the Bolshoi Theatre (1926). Nina Agadzhanova-Shutko died (Dec 14, 1974) aged eighty-five.

Aga Khan III, Yvette Blanche Labrousse, Begum – (1906 – 2000)
Muslim princess and former model
Yvette Labrousse was born at Sete, near Montpellier, in Languedoc, the daughter of a tram conductor and a seamstress. Tall and beautiful, she won a beauty pageant to become Miss Lyons (1929), and was then voted as Miss France (1930), but missed out of the Miss World title. Quickly becoming a celebrity, she worked as a clothes model and panel judge at beauty competitions, but refused film offers and prestigious modelling assignments, preferring instead to work with her mother in the family shop in Cannes. Labrousse caught the eye of the thrice married Aga Khan, Sir Mohammed Shah, in Egypt. She converted to Islam prior to their marriage (1938), and a civil wedding took place in Geneva in 1944. The union remained childless.
The Aga built the villa of Yakymour in the south of France for her, where they entertained extensively, particularly during the annual Cannes Film Festival. Guests included American actress Rita Hayworth, British author Somerset Maugham, and the Duke of Edinburgh, husband to Queen Elizabeth II. In 1954, her husband conferred upon her the title of Mat Salamaat (Spiritual Mother) and named her as Om Habibeh (Little Mother of the Beloved), and she first performed the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Widowed in 1957, the Begum travelled the world residing at her various estates at Yakymour, Aswan, in Egypt, and Villa Barakat at Versoix, on Lake Geneva, in Switzerland.
Barakat she converted into a religious shrine for Ismaili Muslim figures, with who she maintained contacts, and she prevented family members form selling the property, which caused her to become embroiled in rather intense family disagreements. The Begum refused all thought of remarriage, and remained an elegant fixture of European high society for the next four decades. The Begum Aga Khan III died (July 1, 2000) aged ninety-four, at Le Cannet, France.

Agalbursa – (fl. c1150 – c1196)
Queen consort of Arborea
Agalbursa de Cervera was the daughter of Ponce de Cervera and his wife Almodis of Barcelona, the daughter of Ramon Berengar III el Grande (died 1131), Count of Barcelona. She became the second wife of Barisone II, King of Arborea in Sardinia and bore him two daughters of whom the elder, Ispella of Arborea became the wife of Hugh I de Bas, and was the mother of Hugh I of Arborea (1178 – 1211). She signed a surviving charter as Dei gratia Arboree Regina and with the death of her husband (1186) Queen Agalbursa secured the assistance of her powerful kinsman Alfonso II, King of Aragon and the Genoese republic in putting aside the rights of her stepson Pietro di Serra, and having her won grandson Hugh de Bas installed on the throne of Arborea.

Agallis – (fl. c200 BC) 
Greek author
Agallis was the daughter of Agallias of Korkyrus. She has been incorrectly called Dalis or Anagallis. During her youth she was a pupil of the famous Greek critic and grammarian, Aristophanes of Byzantium (c257 – c180 BC). Agallis declared that Princess Nausikaa, recorded in the Odyssey as playing ball when the hero Odysseus was found washed up on the beach of Phaeacia (believed to be identical with Korkyrus), was the inventor of that game, possibly because Nausikaa is the first person in literature to be portrayed playing with a ball.

Agana of Bourges – (fl. c830 – c840)
Carolingian noblewoman
Agana was the daughter of Wicfred, count of Bourges and his wife Oda. The Miraculis Sancti Genulf names her as Agana filia …. Byturicensium comes …Wifredus regali prosapia oriundus et  … Oda coniux.  Agane became the wife (c830) of Robert of Madrie, Count of Sesseau in Berry. Her husband’s sister Ringardis was the wife of Pepin I, King of Aquitaine. There were no children recorded of her marriage. Her brother Count Raoul of Turenne (died 843) was the ancestor of that particular comital family.

Agane of Neustria – (c825 – c862)
Carolingian princess
Sometimes erroneusly called Adelaide, she was the daughter of the Emperor Louis I the Pious (816 – 840) and his second wife Judith of Altdorf, the daughter of Welf II, Count of Altdorf and thus was the granddaughter of the Emperor Charlemagne. Princess Agane was married to Robert I Le Fortis (the Strong) Count of Neustria and Paris (c815 – 866) as his first wife. Her daughter Rothilda of Neustria later became the first wife of Theobald (Gerlon), Viscount of Angers (c840 – 904) and was ancestress of the family of the counts of Blois and Chartres. Princess Agane died (before Sept 21, 862).

Agape of Terano – (c235 – 273 AD)
Roman martyr and saint
Agape was a member of the religious group led by Valentine, Christian Bishop of Interamna (Terano). Agape and several female companions led a life of chastity and religious contemplation at Fra le Torri, built for them outside the town of Terni, in Umbria by Bishop Valentine (255 AD). Her sister Teonia was amongst the group of thirty or son nuns that made up this community. All were arrested with Valentine, and put to death with him. Her feast (Feb 15) is observed in the Roman Martyrology and the Acta Sanctorum. The citizens of Terano later held annual festivals to honour Agape, Valentine, and the other martyrs, over four days (Feb 14 – 17).

Agassiz, Elizabeth Cabot Cary – (1822 – 1907)
American naturalist and scientist
Elizabeth Cary was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She became the wife (1850) of the widowed Swiss-American geologist, zoologist and author, Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (1807 – 1873).
In 1856 husband and wife founded the Agassiz School for Girls in Boston, a pioneering educational centre to improve the educational facilities available for young women. The couple also founded a school for girls in Cambridge.
Elizabeth accompanied her husband on his expeditions into Brazil in South America (1865 – 1866), and this resulted in the publication of A Journey to Brazil (1868) which they authored jointly, and of her own work, Seaside Studies in Natural History (1865). Just prior to her husband’s death, Elizabeth accompanied him on expeditions along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the American continent. During her widowhood Elizabeth served as president of the Society for Collegiate Instruction for Women, but is best remembered as the founder (1879) and first president 1894 – 1902 of the prestigious Radcliffe College for Women. Madame Agassiz died (June 27, 1907) in Arlington Heights, Massachusetts.

Agatha – (c230 – 251 AD) 
Roman Christian martyr
Agatha was born to a Christian patrician family of Palermo or Catania. The consul Quntianus, governor of Sicily during the reign of Emperor Traianus Decius (249 – 251 AD), began the persecution of Christians in Calabria. Having failed to weaken her faith by forced incarceration in a brothel, Quintianus ordered Agatha to be tortured. These accounts are quite frightful, and eventually she died after having had her breasts cut off. Tradition has it that Quintianus had ordered her to be burnt alive, but that the local populace angrily demanded her release when the city was threatened by an earthquake.
Christians caused Agatha to be interred within a porphyry tomb, where her veil was preserved as a relic. It was placed on a lance at the head of a procession (252 AD), and was credited with averting the town’s destruction from a lava flow, after an eruption by Mt Etna. Agatha was greatly revered by the early church, especially by Pope Gregory I the Great, who took the church that the Goths had used in Rome, and reconsecrated it to St Agatha, as the surviving church of Sant’Agata dei Goti. Her feast was observed (Feb 5), and she was the patron saint of the island of Sicily. Her intercession is especially invoked against fire, colic, and diseases of the breast.

Agatha Chryselia – (c953 – c995)
Queen consort of Bulgaria
Agatha was the daughter of Johannes Chryselius, Lord of Durazzo. She became the wife (c970) of Samuel (c945 – 1014), Tsar of Bulgaria and was the mother of Tsar Gabriel Radomir (c970 – 1016) who left issue. Agatha appears to have died before her husband took the title of tsar (997). Her of her daughters Mirolsava of Bulgaria became the wife of Asot Taronites and Katun of Bulgaria became the wife of Vaszuly the Blind (c975 – 1037), King of Poland. Through her daughter Katun Queen Agatha was the ancestress of Isabella of Valois, the wife of Edward II, King of England (1307 – 1327).

Agatha Macedonika – (d. after 963)
Byzantine Imperial princess
According to Theophanes Continuatus Agatha was the third daughter of the Emperor Constantine VII (944 – 959) of the Macedonian dynasty, and his wife Helena Lekapena, the daughter of Emperor Romanus I Lekapenus. Princess Agatha was given an excellent education by her father, and appears to have been his favourite daughter. Constantine was a man of some scholarly erudition and his was assisted in these learned pursuits by Agatha, who acted as his private secretary until his death.
With the accession of her brother Romanus II his low-born wife Theophano resented the influence of Agatha at the Imperial court, and at her demand Romanus ordered that Agatha and her four sisters Zoe, Theodora, Theophano and Anna, should be removed from the court and forced to become nuns. Despite their own tears and the pleas of their mother, the Dowager Empress Helena, Agatha and her sisters were forcibly shorn and clothed as nuns by Polyuektes, Patriarch of Constantinople, and sent to the convent of Kanikleion. As a last cruelty Romanus later ordered them to be separated and Agatha and Anna were removed to the convent of Myrelaion prior to the death of Romanus (963), his only concession being that they retained their Imperial rank amongst the nuns.

Agatha of Brunswick – (c1026 – after 1094)
German-Anglo princess and dynastic matriarch
Agatha was related to the Holy Roman emperor Heinrich III (1039 – 1056) and her exact parentage had long been the subject of scholarly debate and dispute. It has now been proven that Agatha was the daughter of Luidolf, Count of Brunswick and Margrave of Friesland, and his wife Gertrude, daughter of Hugh VI, Count of Egisheim. Her father was the stepson to the emperor Conrad II, being the son of the Empress Gisela by her first marriage with Count Bruno of Brunswick.
Agatha was married (c1043) to the Anglo-Saxon atheling Edward the Exile (1017 – 1057) with whom she resided in county Baranya, in Hungary, and to whom she bore three children, Margaret, Christina, and Edgar the Aetheling. With the death of several claimants to the English throne of Edward the Confessor, Prince Edward brought his family to England. He died several weeks after their arrival, perhaps poisoned (Aug, 1057). Agatha and her children were then supported by King Edward, her son Edgar being considered the rightful heir by the Anglo-Saxons.
However, with the death of Edward (Jan, 1066), Edgar II was proclaimed king, but never crowned. The throne was taken by Harold Godwinsson, and with the advent of William the Conqueror, Agatha, her son and daughters fled by ship with several trusted Anglo-Saxon thanes such as Merleswegen, and reached safety in Scotland (1067). They were received favourably by Malcolm III, who married her daughter Margaret (1069).
During her daughter’s lifetime Agatha seems to have remained at the court at Dunfermline and Edinburgh, perhaps assisting with the upbringing of her numerous grandchildren. With the deaths of Malcolm and Margaret (Nov, 1093), Agatha retired from court and became a nun at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Her son Edgar, the former child-king married a Scottish heiress, the daughter of Maldred, Lord of Carlyle, and established a family in Scotland. His daughter Mathilda (c1080 – 1144) became the second wife of Guigues VIII of Albon, Count of Grenoble. Agatha’s younger daughter Christina became abbess of Romsey in Hampshire, England. Agatha was still living in 1094.

Agatha of Carinthia – (c980 – 1024)
German saint
Sometimes called Hildegard she was the wife of Paul (c975 – c1020), Count Palatine of Carinthia. Her own antecedents remain unrecorded though she was perhaps a connection of the Eppensteiner family. She and her husband resided at Rechberg above the River Drave. Count Paul, having rashly listened to a false accusation of adultery against Agatha rushed in anger to her apartment where she was at prayers with her maidservant, and hurled them both from the window. Instead of being killed both women survived the fall and reached the opposite side of the river and the village of Mochlingen.
The count, amazed at their survival and horrified at his own violent deed, caused the Church of St Paul to be built at Mochlingen. As penance he departed Carinthia on a pilgrimage that took seven years. He died soon after his return. Countess Agatha died a few years after her husband, and established several charitable foundations in the region of Mochlingen and at Stein. She was venerated as a saint (Feb 5).

Agatha of Geneva (Agate) (1) – (c1200 – 1247)
French-Italian mediaeval aristocrat
Agatha was the daughter of William I, Count of Geneva (1178 – 1195) and his second wife, Beatrice de Valperge. She was half-sister to Count Humbert of Geneva (1195 – 1219) and was full-sister to counts Amadeus II (1219 – 1220) and William II (1220 – 1252). Agatha was married (1218) to the elderly Italian nobleman, Enrico II del Carretto (1165 – 1231), Marchese dei Nol and Finale, as his second wife. She survived her husband as the Dowager Marchesa di Nol (1231 – 1247). The marchesa left four children,

• Giacomo del Carretto (1220 – 1268). He succeeded his father as Marchese di Nol and Finale, and also became Marchese di Novello, and left issue. His second wife was Caterina da Marano,
  the natural daughter of the German emperor Friedrich II.
• Manfredo del Carretto.
• Sophia del Carretto. She became the wife of Guglielmo III di Ceva, Marchese di Ceva.
• Beatrice del Carretto. She became the wife of Guillaume de Gratapaille, Seigneur de Clery.

Agatha of Geneva (2) – (c1210 – 1273)
French mediaeval noblewoman and nun
Agatha was the daughter of William II, Count of Geneva (1220 – 1252) and his wife Alice de La Tour du Pin, the daughter of Humbert de La Tour du Pin. She was sister to Count Rudolf of Geneva (Raoul) (1252 – c1268) and to four bishops, Amadeus of Die, Aimon of Viviers, Robert of Geneva, and Guigues of Langres. Agatha never married and became a nun. She was appointed to serve as abbess of the convent of St Catherine in Geneva, which house received the patronage of the comital family.

Agatha of Geneva (3) – (c1276 – 1302)
French mediaeval noblewoman
Agatha was the younger daughter of Aimon II, Count of Geneva (died c1290) and his first wife Agnes of Montbeliard, the daughter of Theodore III the Great (c1207 – 1282), Count of Montbeliard. She became the first wife (c1292) of Jean de Vienne (formerly d’Antigny) (c1270 – 1340), Seigneur de Pagny, near Auxonne in Burgundy, to whom she bore two sons. Dame Agatha’s descendants included Margeurite de Chabot-Charny (1565 – 1652) the wife of Charles I de Lorraine, Duc d’Elboeuf (1556 – 1605) and Marie Elisabeth Sophie de Lorraine, the second wife of the infamous courtier and memoirist Louis Francois Armand du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu (1696 – 1788). Her children were,

• Philip de Vienne (c1295 – c1352). He succeeded his father as Seigneur de Pagny (1340 – c1352) and left issue.
• Guillaume de Vienne. He was the father of Jean de Pagny, Admiral of France who was killed at the battle of Nicopolis (1396).

Agatha of Lorraine – (c1115 – 1147)
French countess consort of Burgundy
Agatha was the third daughter of Simon I, Duke of Lorraine and his wife Adelaide, the daughter of Baldwin II (1054 – 1099), Count of Hainault. She was married (1130) to Rainald II (c1091 – 1148), Count of Burgundy. The succeeding counts of Burgundy claimed the important fief of Briey (Meurthe et Moselle) in Lorraine, by right of the marriage of Countess Agatha, and they defeated Henry of Bar, who had to render homage to them for thie fief, though he later managed to free himself from this onerous obligation. Agatha’s only child and heiress was Beatrice of Burgundy (1145 – 1184), second wife of the German emperor Frederick I Barbarossa.

Agatha of Normandy – (c1063 – 1079)
Queen consort of Castile (1078 – 1079)
Agatha was born at Rouen Castle, Normandy, the daughter of William I the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England, and his wife Matilda, the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders. After her father established himself as king of England (1066), the princess and her siblings were brought to England by their mother (1068) and were present at her coronation.
Princess Agatha was betrothed to Edwin, Earl of Mercia, but his death in 1071 ended this arrangement. The recently widowed Alfonso VI of Castile (1040 – 1109) demanded one of the Conqueror’s daughters as a new wife, and Agatha was chosen. She was married to him by proxy in mid 1078, at the Abbey of the Holy Trinity, Caen, as his second wife.
Queen Agatha died soon after commencing her journey to the Spanish court, and her body was returned to Normandy, and interred in the Cathedral church of St Marie the Perpetual Virgin at Bayeux. Her monument was destroyed during the Revolution. The Norman chronicler Ordericus Vitalis provides a highly romanticized version of Agatha’s brief life and her proposed husbands. William of Malmesbury merely records that she died still a virgin, and with a reputation for piety.

Agatha of Polovtsky    see   Kontschaka

Agatha Semenovna – (1662 – 1681)
Russian tsarina (1679 – 1681)
Agatha Semenovna Grushetskaia was the daughter of Semen Feodorovitch Grushetsky, a clerk of the council (dummy dyak) and his wife Maria Zaborovskaia. Agatha was first noticed by the youthful Tsar Feodor III (1661 – 1682), son of Tsar Alexis (1645 – 1676) at the Easter procession of the Cross in Moscow (1676). He sent a servant fo enquire as to her identity, and gave orders that she was not to marry without his approval. The Tsar’s maternal uncle Ivan Miloslavsky died not approve of Feodor’s choice and did all he could to blacken the reputation of Agatha’s family, and succeeded only in attracting the emperor’s displeasure.
Agatha was married to Tsar Feodor at the Upensky Cathedral in Moscow (July 28, 1679) after which Miloslavsky was exiled from the court. The young empress interceded on his behalf but Feodor mistrusted his uncle so deeply that he excluded him from positions of influence. Empress Agatha is said to have shared her husband’s progressive views about reform. She gave birth to a son and heir Prince Ilya Feodorovitch (July 21, 1681) but three days later both mother and child died (July 24). They were interred together at the Arkhangelsky Cathedral in Moscow.

Agatha Vsevolodvna – (c1195 – 1238)
Russian princess
Agatha Vsevolodvna was the daughter of Vsevolod III of Tschernigov, Grand Prince of Kiev. Her mother was an unidentified daughter of Kasimir II, Duke of Poland. She was married (c1210) to Yuri II of Suzdal (George) (1189 – 1238), Grand Prince of Kiev and bore him five children. When the Tartars were devastating Russia during 1238, her husband went to the province of Yaroslavl to raise troops and obtain help from his brothers and nephews. He left his sons Vsevolod and Mstislav to protect the capital of Vladimir. In the care of Princess Agatha at this time were her younger daughter Theodora and the wives of her two sons, Marina and Christina, and the children of the family. The Tartar hordes marched relentlessly onwards and in Moscow they butchered every living person except Agatha’s youngest son Vladimir, and some monks and nuns whom they carried off.
The Tartar army approached the gates of Vladimir and asked if the Grand Prince was in residence. The army within answered with a flight of arrows in the enemy camp but after a few days of brave defence it became evident that their case was hopeless. Princess Agatha, together with her daughters-in-law and other noble ladies were determined not to fall alive into the hands of the barbarians, and with other prominent citizens assembled in the Church of Our Lady, where they begged Bishop Metrophanes to give them all monastic tonsure. This ceremony was performed in profound silence. When the final assault on the city of Vladimir began (Feb 7, 1238) the enemy rushed all four of the city gates at one. Mstislav and Vsevolod withdrew their guard into the old town of Petcherni where they all perished. The Grand Princess with her assembled family and ladies of the nobility shut themselves up in the cathedral. The building was set on fire and some of the occupants perished by suffocation whilst others were burnt or killed by the swords of Tartars searching for jewels and other treasure. Agatha and her daughters-in-law were venerated as saints by the Russian Orthodox Church and were all commemorated together (Feb 7). Her only child to survive, Princess Dubravka Yurievna (c1213 – 1248) was married to Prince Vassilko of Volhynia-Belz (1203 – 1269) as his first wife.

Agatha Charlotte Pauline Marie – (1888 – 1960)
Princess of Prussia
Princess Agatha of Hohenlohe-Schillingfurst was born (July 24, 1888) the daughter of Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Schillingfurst, second Prince of Ratibor and Corvey. She was married (1910) to Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia (1880 – 1925), the third son of Prince Albrecht of Prussia (1837 – 1906) and his wife Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg. The princess and her husband attended the marriage of the Kaiser’s daughter Princess Victoria Louise with Duke Ernst of Brunswick (1913). Agatha survived her husband for thirty-five years as the Dowager Princess of Prussia (1925 – 1960). Princess Agatha died (Dec 12, 1960) aged seventy-two. Her four daughters were,

• Princess Marie Therese of Prussia (born 1911). She married Aloysius Hug (1885 – 1972) and left issue.
• Princess Louise Henrietta of Prussia (1912 – 1973). She married Lieutenant-General Wilhelm Schmalz (born 1901) and left issue.
• Princess Marianne of Prussia (1913 – 1983). She became the wife of Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse-Philipsthaal (1905 – 1942) and left issue.
• Princess Elisabeth of Prussia (1919 – 1961). She became the wife of Heinz Mees (born 1918).

Agathokleia of Bactria – (fl. c130 – c80 BC) 
Greek queen and ruler
Agathokleia was the wife of Strato I, King of Bactria (c150 – 75 BC). She herself he may have been the daughter or granddaughter of the powerful Bactrian king Menander (died c145 BC) by his wife Agathokleia, the daughter of Demetrius I, King of Bactria. Known as ‘Agathokleia Theotropos’, meaning god-like in character, she was a woman of considerable dynastic and political influence. For much of her husband’s reign (c130 – 75 BC) she was prominently associated with him as a monarch in her own right. However, her power failed to end the internecine feuds between rival factions of the Bactrian royal house, which would ultimately lead to its downfall.

Agathoklia – (c65 – 94 AD)
Greek Christian martyr
Agathoklia was a slave who was treated with great cruelty by her mistress, who hoped to thus make her renounce her religion. She was incarcerated by her owner, who eventually murdered her.
Venerated in the Roman Martyrology (Sept 17), she is identical with St Agatodia listed in the Biographica Celesiastica (Sept 17).

Agathonika – (c210 – 251 AD)
Greek Christian martyr
Agathonika was sister to a deacon named Papylus, who was put to death with Carpus, Bishop of Thyatira during the persecutions instigated by the emperor Decius. Though not arrested herself, she threw herself into the flames, to die with the other Christians. Other sources identify her as sister to Bishop Agathodorus, and state that she was martyred with him and their servant.
Agathonika was revered as a saint (April 13) and is mentioned by Eusebius, being included in the Roman Martyrology.

Ageltrude of Benevento – (c854 – 923)
Carolingian empress consort (891 – 894)
Ageltrude was the daughter of Adelchis, prince of Benevento and his wife Engelberta. She was married (871) to Guy of Spoleto, who became Holy Roman emperor twenty years later. With her husband’s death, the empress ruled as regent (894 – 896) for their young son Lambert. A tall, blonde beauty, of forceful character, Empress Ageltrude is best remembered for the posthumous trial she organized for the corpse of her enemy, Pope Formosus. The future senatrix Marozia was raised at her court. She was confirmed in possession of her dower properties by the emperor Arnulf, and retired to the abbey of Fontana Brocoli, at Salsomaggiore, where she became a nun and was buried.

Ageltrude of Burgundy – (c975 – after 1016)
French queen consort
Her family connections remain unknown, though she was perhaps a connection of the dukes of Benevento in Italy, and thus of the family of the Empress Ageltrude, the mother of the Emperor Lambert (893 – 896). Ageltrude was married (994) to Rudolf III (c969 – 1032), who succeeded his father Conrad I the Peaceful, king of Burgundy (993), as his first wife. The marriage remained childless but Ageltrude remained queen until her death. She favoured the Cluniac reform movement, and is recorded as intervening with her husband to gain grants of land and priveliges for the abbey of Cluny. Charter evidence records her as alive in 1016 and she died before Rudolf remarried (1018) to Ermengarde of Luxemburg, the widow of Rotbald III, Count of Provence.

Ager, Cecelia – (1898 – 1981)
American magazine and film critic
Cecelia Ager was born in Grass Valley, California. She was married to the noted pianist and composer Milton Ager (1893 – 1979) who produced such popular songs as ‘Ain’t She Sweet? ‘ (1927) and ‘Hard-Hearted Hannah’ (The Vamp of Savannah) (1924). They were the parents of columnist Shana Alexander. Ager was a columnist for Variety magazine in which she concentrated mainly on matters of fashion, and was the author of the collection of published essays entitled Let’s Go to the Pictures.
Highly respected in her field, Ager reviewed the films of many early stars such as Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, and her work was highly regarded by the British journalist, Alistair Cooke. Cecelia Ager died (April 3, 1981) aged eighty-three, in Los Angeles, California.

Agesistrata – (c287 – 240 BC) 
Queen consort of Sparta
Agesistrata was the daughter of the powerful lady named Archidamia, an influential patrician connected with the royal house, and was the sister of the orator Agesilaus. She was married to King Eudamindas, to whom she bore two sons, Archidamus V and Agis IV. Because of her private wealth, impressive lineage, and web of patronage, with the death of her husband (240 BC), the queen took on a large role in public affairs during the reign of her young sons, and contributed her wealth to the cause of the glory of the Spartan monarchy.

However, the ephors, led by Amphares, disliking the king Agis’ new social reforms, betrayed him and caused his death, also having her elderly mother Archidamia strangled. When the queen grieved for her son, Amphares threatened her with death, whereupon Agesistrata offerred herself to the hangman, and died with the hope that her death would benefit Sparta.

Agger, Carolyn Eugenia – (1909 – 1996)
American tax lawyer
Carolyn Agger was born in New York City, and graduated from Barnard College (1931). She gained her master’s degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin (1932). After graduating from Yale Law School (1938) she went into private practice, being amongst the first women to do so. Agger was associated with several prominent law firms before she became a full partner with Arnold Fortas & Porter, marrying Abe Fortas, later Justice of the Supreme Court (1948). Having been a partner in the Washington office of the law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, when she left to become a partner with Fortas & Porter, Agger took the entire staff with her. Carolyn Agger died aged eighty-seven, in Georgetown, Washington, DC.

Agha, Zubeida – (1922 – 1997)
Pakistani abstract painter and artist
Agha was born in Faisalabad, and studied political science at Kinnaird College in Lahore, India. She studied western art at the Lahore School of Fine Art (1945), and became adept at copies of the old masters. She became the first Pakistani artist to have an exhibition of her work after the formal creation of the country (1947). Zubeida Agha favoured non-traditional themes of visual imagery in her indigenous work, and was the first to popularize that genre in Pakistan.

Aghormani Devi – (1822 – 1906)
Indian mystic
Aghormani Devi was born in Kamarhati, in Bengal, the daughter of Kashinath Bhattacharya, of the high Brahmin caste. She was betrothed and married at the early age of nine, but was quickly left a childless widow. Aghormani Devi became a devoted associate and believer of the mystic teacher Ramakrishna, whom she first met at Dakshineshwar, when she had already been a widow for fifty years (1884). She remained inconsolable at his death (1896), and spent the rest of her life managing and supporting the Ramakirshna Mission. During her final illness she was nursed by fellow Ramakirshna devotee, the Anglo-Indian Sister Nivedita (Margaret Elizabeth Noble).

Agia    see   Austregilde

Aglaonike – (fl. c480 – c450 BC)
Greek astronomer
Aglaonike was a princess of the royal house of Thessaly. She was able to predict the the eclipses of both the sun and moon, and was wideley revered as a sorceress. Though it has been discovered that she almost certainly used the saronic eclipse cycle, which had been discovered by the Chaldean astronomers, her contemporaries had no idea of her deception, and Aglaonike revelled in the power this knowledge gave her, claiming that she could make the sun and moon disappear at will.

Agnella – (fl. c500 – c510)
Roman patrician widow
Agnella was related to Magnus Felix Ennodius (473 AD – 521), Bishop of Ticinum, who refers to her in his Epistulae as magnitudo vestra. One of his letters addressed to Agnella survives.

Agnes – (c290 – 304 AD) 
Roman Christian martyr
Revered as one of the four great patronesses of the Christian church, Agnes was of patrician birth and sufferred martyrdom for her Christian beliefs during the persecutions of the emperor Diocletian (Jan 21, 304) when aged ony thirteen. The Roman prefect Sempronius had desired Agnes to marry his son, but when she refused, he condemned her to be sexually abused before execution. Miraculous intervention is supposed to have prevented this outrage, and the officer instead struck off her head with his sword.
Her remains were interred in a cemetery along the Via Nomentana, outside Rome, where a church was later built in her honour c350 AD, by the empress Constantina, the daughter of Constantine the Great. This building was later repaired by Pope Honorius in the seventh century. Agnes was the first great female martyr in the West. Her name is in the Canon of the Mass, and she ranks next to the Virgin Mary amongst female saints. Pope Damasus wrote her celebrated epitaph around c354, when her name and the date of her feast became first included in the calendar of martyrs. Her Acts are not older than the seventh century, but Agnes was honoured throughout the Christian world in the same century in which her martyrdom occurred, and she is also mentioned by St Jerome, St Augustine and St Ambrose, amongst other near contemporary writers.
The church honours her (Jan 21) and two lambs (her name meaning ‘chastity’ in Greek and ‘a lamb’ in Latin) are specially blessed after a pontifical high mass, and the wool is later woven into a pallia. Pope Innocent III made St Agnes the first patron of the new Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the Redemption of Captives. St Agnes is the special patron of meekness and young girls, who in rural districts, formerly indulged in all sorts of quaint and harmless country magic on St Agnes’ Eve (Jan 20 – 21), with a view to discovering the identities of their future husbands. In religious art, Agnes is usually portrayed with her lamb, her particular emblem. She is also represented attended by angels, who cover her with her own hair; sometimes standing in or near flames; sometimes holding a palm or a sword, and or, wearing a crown.

Agnes Capet (1) (Anna) – (1171 – after 1240)
Byzantine Augusta (1180 – 1185)
Princess Agnes was born in Paris, the second daughter of Louis VII, King of France (1137 – 1180) and his third wife Adela of Blois-Champagne, the daughter of Theobald IV, Count of Blois-and Champagne. When the Greek emperor Manuel I was in need of allies against the German emperor Friedrich Barbarossa, Pope Alexander III advised the emperor to contract an alliance with the King Louis. When Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders visited Constantinople on his return from Palestine, he was received by the Emperor Manuel and arranged for the marriage of Princess Agnes with the emperor’s son and heir, Alexius Komnenus. She was escorted to Genoa from whence she was taken to the imperial court (1179) to be educated for her future marriage. Agnes and Alexius were betrothed (March 2, 1180) and Agnes adopted the name of Anna. The marriage followed in the spring at the palace of Daphne in Constantinople.
With Manuels’s death (Sept, 1180) Alexius II became emperor under the regency of his mother Maria of Antioch, and Agnes was accorded the Imperial titles and styles. Young Alexius was later murdered (1182) at the instigation of his uncle and co-ruler, Andronikos II Komnenus (1124 – 1185). Andronikos became sole ruler and married Agnes at the Cathedral of St Sophia in order to consolidate his position of the throne. He was almost fifty years older that the twelve year old empress and their marriage remained one in name only. It caused a great scandal in the capital due to the disparity in their ages but Andronikos consoled himself with his mistresses. During the revolt against Andronikos (1185) Empress Agnes accompanied him to the Bucoleon Palace, together with his favourite mistress. The two women were arrested and after the fall of Andronikos’ cause they fled to a port in the Black Sea with the emperor and made desperate efforts to save his life. Despite this he was brutally killed by the mob (Sept 12, 1185).
Empress Agnes retained her dower settlement during the reign of Isaak II Angelus and later formed an attachment (c1190) with one Theodore Branas (died 1220), a noble Byzantine connected with the Komnenus dynasty, who had served with the Imperial army. As the empress would have lost her dower settlement if she remarried the couple lived in a respectable de facto relationship. When branas assisted with the popular overthrow of Isaak and held a distinguished position at the court of Alexius III his relationship with the empress was accepted (1195). However when Alexius was deposed in favour of his son Alexius V and Constantinople was overrun by the Crusader armies (1204) the empress and other noble ladies sought refuge within the fortified Bucoleon Palace. The city was pillaged and devastated but the arrival of Boniface of Montferrat saved the Imperial ladies from any harm. She and her husband then became supporters of the new regime and her relatives ensured that her relationship with Branas was regularized by their formal marriage. Henry of Flanders later ceded in fief to Branas and to ’ the Empress, his wife ’ the cities of Adrianople and Didymoticus, and he received the rank of Caesar. Agnes survived Branas for many years and was still living in 1240. Her only child was from her last marriage, an unnamed daughter (N Branaina) (c1197 – 1239) became the first wife of Narjod de Toucy (died 1241), Seigneur de Bazarne and left five children.

Agnes Capet (2) – (1260 – 1327)
Princess of France
Princess Agnes was the third daughter and youngest child of St Louis IX, King of France (1226 – 1270) and his wife Margaret of Provence. Her paternal grandmother was Blanche of Castile, the wife of Louis VIII (1223 – 1226). During her father’s lifetime she was betrothed to Duke Robert II of Burgundy (c1239 – 1305) and her brother King Philip III (1270 – 1285) caused the marriage to take place in 1275, when he conferred upon Robert the title of King of Thessalonika (titular only). They had a large number of children.
Her husband had confidence in Agnes’ political judgement and abilities and during Robert’s abscences from the court of Dijon the duchess ruled as regent, and she advocated the rights of appeal in Burgundyy, as her brother had established in France. When the duke was sent on an embassy to Rome (1297) by her nephew Philip IV (1285 – 1314), Robert made out his will, making special provision for each of their children and for Duchess Agnes to rule as regent during his absence. He gave her sole guardianship and governance over their eldest son Hugh, whilst providing her with a small and trusted council with whom to consult. Duke Robert died at Vernon-sur-Seine in Normandy (Oct, 1305) shortly after the marriage festivities held to celebrate the marriage of their daughter Margeurite with the Dauphin Louis (X). As regent the duchess attempted with some success to curb the ambition of her son Hugh’s turbulent vassals. Her eldest son died in 1315 and her second son Eudes was enthroned as the reigning duke but Agnes appears to have retained control of the government. With the death of her son-in-law Louis X (1316) the Dowager Duchess demanded the custody of Louis’s daughter Jeanne, for whom she claimed the kingdoms of France and Navarre. The duchess and her Burgundian supporters were most anxious to get the child away from the French court where they seem to have feared for her life. The duchess remained insistent and sent Duke Eudes to Vincennes to demand that her granddaughter be handed over and consigned to her care, which was duly accomplished. Agnes then worked towards preserving her granddaughter’s right to the kingdom of Navarre which she did by marrying Jeanne to Philippe d’Evreux.
Duchess Agnes died (Dec 19, 1327) aged sixty-seven, at the Chateau de Lantenay. She was interred in the royal Abbey of St Denis at Rheims, near Paris, where her tomb remains, having survived the destruction of the French Revolution. A woman of great strength of character, her personal family sorrows had engendered much pulbic sympathy and commanded general admiration. She bequeathed finances in her will to establish a hospital at Beaune. Agnes left nine children,

• Prince Jean of Burgundy (1276 – 1297). He was betrothed to Alice, the daughter of Otto IV, Count Palatine of Burgundy but died before the marriage could take place.
• Hugh V (1277 – 1315). He succeeded his father as Duke of Burgundy (1305 – 1315) but died unmarried.
• Eudes IV (1279 – 1349). He succeeded his brother Hugh as Duke of Burgundy (1315 – 1349) and was married to Jeanne Capet, the daughter of Philip V, King of France (1316 – 1322) and
  left issue.
• Louis of Burgundy (c1284 – 1316). He inherited his father’s titular claim to the Kingdom of Thessalonika in Greece. His childess widow Matilda of Holland was remarried to Prince
  Giovanni of Durazzo but left no issue from her second union either.
• Princess Blanche of Burgundy (1288 – 1348). She became the wife of Edoardo (Edward) (1284 – 1329), Count of Savoy and left issue.
• Princess Margeurite of Burgundy (Margaret) (1290 – 1315). She became the first wife of Louis, King of Navarre (X of France) (1289 – 1316) but was divorced for adultery and died in
  prison. They left an only daughter.
• Princess Jeanne of Burgundy (1294 – 1348). She became the first wife of Philip VI (1293 – 1350), King of France and was the mother of King Jean II (1350 – 1364).
• Prince Robert of Burgundy (1297 – 1334). He was married to Jeanne de Chalons, Comtesse de Tonnerre but remained childless.
• Princess Marie of Burgundy (1298 – before 1363). She became the wife of Edward I (1294 – 1336), Count of Bar and left issue.

Agnes de Saint Paul   see   Arnauld, Agnes

Agnesi, Maria Gaetana – (1718 – 1799)
Italian mathematician and scholar
Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born in Milan in Lombardy, the daughter of a mathematics professor at Bologna. The elder sister of Maria Theresia Agnesi, she was educated privately and became famous as a child prodigy, speaking half a dozen languages before the age of twelve. Maria Gaetana was the author of books on philosophy and mathematics, and her textbook Istituzioni analitiche (1784) achieved her lasting fame throughout Italy.
Developing several techniques of her own Maria Agnesi also assimilated the works of many other authors. She is best remembered for her description of a versed sine curve, though an early mistranslation caused her to become known as the ‘witch of Agnesi’ in English. From 1771 until her death she was the director of the Pio Istituto Trivulzio, which catered for the aged and infirm, at the especial request of the Archbishop of Bologna. Agnesi was also the author of Propositiones philosophicae, a collection of essays and discussions of science and philosophy. She later became the directress of the Hospice Trivulzio of the Blue Nuns at Milan, which order she later joined. Maria Gaetana Agnesi died (Jan 9, 1799).

Agnesi, Maria Theresia – (1724 – 1780)
Italian pianist and dramatic composer
Maria Theresia Agnesi was born in Milan, Lombardy the daughter of a mathematics professor at Bologna. Maria Theresia was the younger sister of Maria Gateana Agnesi, the famous mathematician and scholar. She composed several cantatas, five operas and two pianoforte concertos.

Agnes of Anhalt-Zerbst – (1445 – 1504)
German princess and nun
Agnes was the daughter of George I, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst and his third wife Countess Sophia von Hohenstein. She remained unmarried and was dedicated to the religious life, serving successively as abbess of three important convents, Gandersheim (1485 – 1504), Herse (1490 – 1504), and Kaufungen (1495 – 1504) all three of which offices she held concurrently, which involved an enormous administration. Princess Agnes died (Aug 15, 1504).

Agnes of Anjou (1) – (fl. c940 – c950)
French mediaeval noblewoman
Agnes was born c920 – c925, the youngest daughter of Fulk I, Count of Anjou (929 – 942) and his wife Roscilla of Loches, the daughter of Werner, Seigneur of Loches and Villentrais. She was married by her father’s arrangement (941) to Andrew, Seigneur de Craon who also held the seigneurie of Bruison in Anjou. They became the parents of Arthur de Craon, who held both of these lordships. Agnes’s grandson Suhart, the son of Arthur, and his nephew, Guerin, were disinherited by their maternal kinsman, Geoffrey II of Anjou prior to 987. Guerin later became a vassal of Duke Conan I of Brittany. Through Guerin Agnes was the ancestress of the seigneurs de Craon, the ducs de Thouars, the princes de Conde, and the princely family of Beauvau-Craon, and their descendants.

Agnes of Anjou (2) – (1345 – 1383)
Italian duchess of Andria and Imperial heiress
Agnes of Anjou was the second daughter of Charles of Anjou, Prince of Durazzo, and his wife Maria of Naples, the titular Empress of Constantinople, the daughter of Charles, Duke of Calabria. Princess Agnes was married firstly (1363) to Cansignorio della Scala (1334 – 1375), Lord of Verona, but was left childless at his death. She remarried secondly (1382) to Giacomo de Baux (c1353 – 1384), Duke of Andria, as his second wife. Giacomo became the titular emperor of Constantinople in Agnes’s right, but this claim was never put into effect. Duchess Agnes died childless (before Aug 7, 1383) aged thirty-eight, in Naples.

Agnes of Antioch (Anna) – (1154 – 1184)
Queen consort of Hungary (1172 – 1184)
Agnes was born at Versailles, near Seine, the daughter of Rainald of Chatillon, Prince of Antioch (c1110 – 1187) and his wife Constance, the daughter and heiress of Bohemond II, Prince of Antioch (1111 – 1130), and granddaughter of Baldwin II, king of Jerusalem. Agnes spent several years at the court of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II (1143 – 1180) in Constantinople, where she was educated and called Anna. She was there married (1168) to Bela III (1148 – 1196), King of Hungary, as his first wife.
The chronicle of Alberic de Trois-Fontaines names her Agnetam, and her Hungary subjects called her Anna. Queen Agnes is recorded in the Memoria Vivorum of the necrology of the abbey of St Rudpert in Salzburg. Queen Agnes died aged thirty and was initially buried at Szekesfeherver, but her remains were later translated, together with those of her husband, and reinterred to the Coronation Church in Budapest. She left four children,

• Emeric I (1174 – 1204), King of Hungary (1196 – 1204). He was married and left issue, the child king Ladislas II (1199 – 1205).
• Princess Margaret of Hungary (1176 – after 1223). She was married firstly to Isaak II Angelus (1155 – 1204), emperor of Byzantium, and secondly to Boniface I of Montferrat (1150 – 1207), King of Thessalonika, and left issue by both husbands.
• Andrew III (1175 – 1235), succeeded his nephew Ladislas as King of Hungary (1205 – 1235). He was married three times and left many descendants.
• Princess Constance of Hungary (1178 – 1240). She became the wife of Ottokar I (1155 – 1230), King of Bohemia, and left issue.

Agnes of Assissi – (1198 – 1253)
Italian Clarissan nun
Agnes was the daughter of Faverone Sciffo, Conte dei Offreduccio, and his wife Ortolana de Fiumi, and was the younger sister of St Clara (1194 – 1253). Despite violent parental opposition, in 1211, she joined Clara in the Benedictine convent of San Angelo de Panso, near Assissi, and the sisters soon became co-founders of the Order of the Poor Ladies of San Damiano or ‘ Poor Clares,’ in the church restored by St Francis. When a branch of this new order was established at Monticelli in 1219, Agnes was then appointed abbess (1221), and remained in office till her death over thirty years later. The church honoured Agnes as a saint (Nov 16).

Agnes of Austria (1) – (1111 – 1163)
Duchess consort of Silesia (1138 – 1159)
Agnes was the daughter of Leopold III, Margrave of Austria and his wife Agnes of Hohenstaufen, the widow of Duke Frederick I of Swabia, and daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Henry IV (1056 – 1106). Her parentage was recorded by the Continuatio Claustroneoburgensis and by the Chronicle of Alberic de Trois-Fontaines which called her ‘Agnetam.’ Princess Agnes was married (1125) to Vladislav of Poland (1105 – 1159) who was then created the first duke of Silesia and Krakow.
The duchess is mentioned in a surviving letter written by Cardinal Guido to King Conrad III of Germany (1150). She survived her husband as Dowager Duchess of Silesia (1159 – 1163). Duchess Agnes died (Jan 24 or 25, 1163) aged fifty-one, at Altenburg, near Thur. She was interred within the abbey of Pforte on the Saale River. Her five children were,

• Bolseslav I (1127 – 1201). He succeeded as Duke of Silesia and Breslau (1163 – 1201), was married twice, and left descendants.
• Richesa of Silesia (Ryksa) (c1135 – 1185). She was married three times, firstly to Alfonso VII, king of castile, as his second wife, secondly to Raymond Berenger II, Count of Provence, and thirdly to Count Albert III von Everstein.
• Mieszko I (c1137 – 1211). He was created Duke of Ratibor and Teschen (1163 – 1211) and left descendants.
• Konrad of Silesia (c1140 – before 1190).
• Albert of Silesia (died after 1178).

Agnes of Austria (2) – (1154 – 1182)
Queen consort of Hungary (1167 – 1172)
Agnes was the second daughter of Henry II Jasmirgott (1112 – 1177), Duke of Austria, and his Greek wife Theodora Komnena (1132 – 1184), Princess of Byzantium. Her marriage (1167) with Stephen III of Hungary (1147 – 1172) was negotiated by her father as a means of consolidating peace between Hungary and the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenus. Their only child, a son Bela, died in infancy.
With her husband’s death (1172), the young Queen Dowager accompanied her father back to her home in Austria. There her father arranged for Agnes to become the second wife (c1174) of Duke Hermann II of Carinthia (c1128 – 1181), to whom she bore two sons, Ulrich II (1176 – 1202) and Bernard II (c1178 – 1256), successive dukes of Carinthia. Queen Agnes died (Jan 13, 1182) aged twenty-six.

Agnes of Austria (3) – (1280 – 1364)
Last queen consort of the Arpad dynasty of Hungary (1296 – 1301)
Agnes was born (May 18, 1280) the daughter of Albert I of Austria, King of Germany, and his wife Elisabeth, the daughter of Meinhard IV of Gorz-Tyrol, Duke of Carinthia. She was married (1296) to Andrew III of Hungary (1271 – 1301). His early death left Agnes a childless widow, and she returned to Austria, residing with her mother in Vienna, acting as her secretary, adviser and deputy. With the death of Queen Elisabeth (1313) Agnes controlled and organized the affairs of the convent her mother had founded at Konigsfelden, and was where the queen would spend the last five decades of her long life. Eckhardt wrote his Book of Divine Consolation for her (1308 – 1311).
Until the death of her brother Frederick (1330), Agnes continued to support his Imperial ambitions, and her campaign for peace proved so successful that nearly all arbitrations agreed to in Swabian possessions of the house of Austria over a period of forty-five years (1314 – 1360) can be traced to her influence. Her master political victory was in bringing a conclusion to the war over Laupen (1340), and the conclusion of alliances for the house of Austria, first with Berne (1341), and then with Strasbourg, Basel, and Freibourg (1350). Queen Agnes died (June 10, 1364) aged eighty-four, at Konigsfelden. Her remains were later reinterred within the Abbey of St Blaise (1771).

Agnes of Austria (4) – (1322 – 1392)
Hapsburg archduchess
Agnes was the younger daughter of Duke Leopold I, and his wife Catherine, the daughter of Amadeo V, Count of Savoy. She was married (1338) to Bolko I (1312 – 1368), Duke of Swidnica and Jauer but the couple had no children. At the time of her father’s death (1326) Agnes and her elder sister Catherine being only minors under the protection of their widowed mother, certain familial lands belonging to the two sisters in Switzerland, notably Breisgau, Sundgau and the county of Ferrette, which was worth 20, 000 francs annually, were illegally usurped by Albert III of Austria, and his family retained control of them.
Agnes’s nephew, Enguerrand VII de Coucy finally laid claim to these lands in the right of his mother and aunt, but his claims were defeated after the disastrous battle of Frauenbrunnen (Dec, 1375) and he was forced to return to France. Agnes died fifteen years later (Feb 2, 1392) aged sixty-nine, at Schweidnitz, and was interred within the Church of the Minorites in that city.

Agnes of Bavaria – (1314 – 1352)
German princess and nun
Agnes was the daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Louis IV of Bavaria, and his first wife Beatrice of Silesia-Glogau. Raised and educated at the convent of the Poor Clares of St James, in Munich, when she was of age to marry and was recalled to the Imperial court, Agnes refused to leave her convent. Such was devotion to the religious life that her father relented and she was permitted to join the sisterhood there. Agnes died there aged thirty-eight (Nov 11, 1352). Revered as a saint, she became a popular cult figure, being commemorated by the Franciscan nuns of Munich (Nov 11).

Agnes of Blois – (c1094 – c1128)
French mediaeval noblewoman and heiress
Agnes was probably the second daughter of Stephen I Henry, Count of Blois-Chartres (1089 – 1102) and his wife Adela of Normandy, the daughter of William I the Conqueror, King of England (1066 – 1087). Agnes of Blois was niece to the English kings, William II Rufus (1087 – 1100) and Henry I (1100 – 1135), and was first cousin to the Empress Matilda, the mother of Henry II. Her brothers included Theobald IV, Count of Blois-Chartres (1102 – 1152), Stephen of Blois, King of England (1135 – 1154), and Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester.
Agnes was married (c1108) to Hugh III de Le Puiset (c1091 – 1141), Vicomte of Chartres (1108 – 1128). The marriage was arranged by her brother Theobald and widowed mother, Countess Adela, and Agnes appears to have brought Chartres to Le Puiset as her dowry, he becoming vicomte in her right. With her death, Hugh left France and eventually died in Palestine. Hugh de Le Puiset (died c1180), the Lord Chancellor of Louis VII, King of France (1137 – 1180) was Agnes’s illegitimate grandson. Her children were,

• Evrard III de Le Puiset (c1113 – 1190). With his mother’s death he inherited the vicomte of Chartres. He was married twice and left descendants.
• Bouchard de Le Puiset (died after 1128).
• Hugh IV de Le Puiset (c1125 – 1195). He became a monk and was appointed Bishop of Durham in England (1153 – 1195).

Agnes of Bohemia (1) – (1205 – 1282)
Princess and virgin saint
Princess Agnes was born in the Bysehrad Palace, Prague, the daughter of Ottokar I, King of Bohemia, and his wife Constance, the daughter of Bela III, King of Hungary. Betrothed in infancy (1208) to Henry Boleslav, son of Henry I, Duke of Silesia, she was sent to be educated at the Cistercian convent of Treibnitz, in Silesia, founded by her betrothed’s mother, St Hedwig. With the death of her fiancee (1211) Agnes returned to Prague, and continued her education at the Praemonstratensian convent of Doxan.
Agnes was betrothed successively to Henry, son of emperor Frederick II, and then to Frederick, son and heir of Leopold of Austria, she also received marriage proposals from Henry III of England, but eventually, at the insistence of her brother King Wenzel, Agnes was betrothed to the emperor Frederick II himself, now a widower. However, she desired to pursue a religious life, and when Agnes protested to Pope Gregory IX, the emperor graciously withdrew his suit. With her brother, Agnes completed and endowed the abbey and hospital of the Holy Spirit, near Prague, and brought to it the Knights Hospitallers of the Cross and Star, to be the residence of the master of that order in that province. She also built the convents of Tissnowa and Woslowana, in Moravia, and assisted with the endowment of the convent of the Poor Clares in Prague, where she herself was finally enclosed as a nun (1236).
Of a humble and ascetic nature, it was only with difficulty that Agnes later took up the position and duties of abbess of the order, at the insistence of Pope Gregory IX. Agnes also obtained for the Poor Ladies of Prague the concession obtained by St Clara herself at San Damiano (1238) which allowed the sisters to resign all revenues and properties held in common. Four letters survive from St Clara to Agnes. Agnes died (March 6, 1282) aged seventy-seven, in Prague. Her cult as a beata was confirmed by Pope Pius X (1874)). Agnes is regarded as patron saint of Bohemia, and her feast was observed (June 8).

Agnes of Bohemia (2) – (1289 – 1306)
Princess and heiress
Agnes was born (Oct 6, 1289) the daughter of Wenceslas II (Wenzel), King of Bohemia and his wife Judith of Austria, the daughter of Rudolf I, King of Germany (1273 – 1291). She was married as a child to Count Rupert VI of Nassau (c1279 – 1305) but his death left her a childless widow. Until her own death (before Aug 4, 1306) Agnes was the elder heiress presumptive to her childless brother Wenceslas III (Wenzel). As Agnes predeceased him her next sister Anna brought the Bohemian crown to her husband Heinrich, Duke of Carinthia.

Agnes of Brandenburg – (1255 – 1304)
Queen consort of Denmark (1273 – 1286)
Agnes was the second daughter of Johann I, Margrave of Brandenburg and his third wife Judith, the daughter of Albert I, Duke of Saxony. Agnes was married (1273) to Erik V (1249 – 1286), King of Denmark, and bore her husband seven children, including two sets of twins, but took second place at the court to her powerful mother-in-law, Queen Margaret Sambiria until that lady’s death (1282). King Erik was later murdered (Nov 22, 1286) and Agnes became Queen Dowager (1286 – 1304) at the court of her son Erik VI.
Queen Agnes later remarried (1293) becoming the second wife of Count Gerhard II of Holstein (1254 – 1312) to whom she bore a son, Count Johann II of Holstein-Kiel (1297 – 1356) who left descendants. Queen Agnes died (Oct 1, 1304) aged forty-nine. Her children by Erik V were,

• Erik VI (1274 – 1319), King of Denmark (1286 – 1319). He married and left issue.
• Princess Richesa of Denmark (1274 – 1308), twin with Erik. She became the first wife of Nicholas II of Mecklenburg-Parchim, Prince of Werle (c1268 – 1316) and left descendants.
• Christopher II (1276 – 1332), King of Denmark (1319 – 1332). He was married and left issue.
• Prince Waldemar of Denmark (c1277 – 1304). He died unmarried.
• Princess Margaret of Denmark (1280 – 1341). She became the wife of Birger (1280 – 1321), King of Sweden.
• Princess Catherine of Denmark (born 1283 – died same year).
• Princess Elisabeth of Denmark (born 1283 – died same year). Twin with Catherine.

Agnes of Brunswick-Luneburg – (c1249 – 1327)
German princess
Agnes was the fifth daughter of Otto I the Infant, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg (1235 – 1252) and his wife Matilda of Brandenburg, the daughter of Albert II (1174 – 1220), Margrave of Brandenburg. She was named as the duke’s youngest daughter by the Chronica Principum Brunsvicensium which recorded her marriage (1263) with Vizlav II (Wizlaw) the reigning Prince of Rugen in the Baltic Sea, opposite Strelasund in Pomerania, whom the chronicle styled ‘Wizlaus dominus Rugie.’ Prior to her marriage the princess had been a canoness at the Abbey of Quedlinburg. She was princess consort of Rugen for four decades (1263 – 1302). Her husband died in Oslo, Denmark (Dec 29, 1302) and Agnes survived him for twenty-five years as Princess Dowager of Rugen (1302 – 1327). Agnes died (Dec 28 – 31, 1327). Her eight children were,

• Vizlav III (1265 – 1325). He succeeded his father as Prince of Rugen (1302 – 1325) and married twice, leaving issue.
• Prince Jaromar of Rugen (1267 – 1294). He became a monk and was appointed as Bishop of Kammin (1290 – 1294).
• Princess Margareta of Rugen (1270 – 1320). She became the second wife of Bogislav IV (1255 – 1309), Duke of Pomerania-Wolgast, and left issue.
• Princess Helena of Rugen (1271 – 1315). She married firstly to Johann III (c1268 – 1289), Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and secondly to Bernard II (c1262 – 1318), Prince of Anhalt-
  Bernburg. Helena left children from both marriages.
• Prince Swantepolk of Rugen (1273 – 1285). He died young.
• Princess Euphemia of Rugen (1280 – 1312). She was the wife of Haakon V (1270 – 1319), King of Norway and left issue.
• Princess Sophia of Rugen (1281 – after 1302). She appears to have died unmarried.
• Prince Sambor of Rugen (1283 – 1304). He died unmarried.

Agnes of Burgundy (1) – (c1082 – after 1135)
French Capetian princess
Agnes was probably the second daughter of Eudes I Borel (Odo), Duke of Burgundy (1078 – 1102) and his wife Sibylla of Macon, the daughter of William II Tete-Hardi, Count of Macon and Burgundy, and was sister to Duke Hugh II the Peaceful (1102 – 1143) of Burgundy. Through her father Agnes was a direct descendant of Hugh Capet, the first of that dynasty to establish himself as king of France (987 – 996). Her paternal great-aunt, Constance of Burgindy, was the wife of Alfonso VI, King of Castile.
Agnes became the wife of Raynald II, seigneur of Grancey in Burgundy, and bore him two sons, Seigneur Raynald III (c1105 – c1165) who left descendants, and Odo (Eudes), named for her own father. Her grandson Eudes de Grancey (died 1197) was a Knight Templar at the Abbey of Bures. Together with her husband and two sons, Agnes assisted with the foundation of the Abbey of Auberive (1135). Surviving documents give Agnes the epithet of ‘Ducissa’ (Duchess), an indication of her ducal rank.

Agnes of Burgundy (2) – (1407 – 1476)
French Valois princess
Agnes was the youngest daughter of Jean the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy (1404 – 1419) and his wife Margaret, the daughter of Albert I, Duke of Bavaria. Princess Agnes became the wife (1425) of Charles I (1410 – 1456), Duc de Bourbon, to whom she bore several children. She survived him for two decades as the Dowager Duchess de Bourbon (1456 – 1476).
The duchess was famous as a patroness of art and literature. When her husband died (1456) she commissioned sculptors to build his monument. Duchess Agnes died (Dec 1, 1476) aged sixty-nine, at Moulins. Her eleven children were,

• Jean II (1426 – 1488). He succeeded his father as Duc de Bourbon (1456 – 1488) and was married twice, but left only illegitimate issue.
• Princess Marie de Bourbon (1428 – 1448). She became the first wife of Jean II (1426 – 1470), Duke of Lorraine.
• Prince Philip de Bourbon (1430 – 1440). He died young.
• Charles II (1434 – 1488). He entered the church as became a priest, being later appointed a cardinal (1479). He briefly succeeded his elder brother as Duc de Bourbon (1488).
• Princess Isabelle de Bourbon (1435 – 1465). She became the second wife of Charles of Burgundy, Comte de Charolais (1433 – 1477), later Duke of Burgundy as Charles the Bold, and left issue.
• Prince Louis de Bourbon (1436 – 1482). He entered the church and was later appointed as Bishop of Liege (1456). He left illegitimate issue.
• Pierre II (1438 – 1503). He succeeded his brother Charles II as Duc de Bourbon (1488 – 1503). He married Anne de Valois, the daughter of King Louis XI, and left an only daughter.
• Princess Catherine de Bourbon (1439 – 1469). She became the wife of Arnold (1438 – 1477). Duke of Gueldres.
• Princess Jeanne de Bourbon (1441 – 1493). She became the wife of Jean II de Chalons (died 1502), Prince of Orange.
• Prince Jacques de Bourbon (1445 – 1468). He died unmarried.
• Princess Margaret de Bourbon (1448 – 1483). She became the first wife of Philip of Savoy (1438 – 1497), Count of Geneva (later Count of Savoy as Philip II), and left issue.

Agnes of Chatillon    see    Agnes of Antioch

Agnes of Courtenay – (c1133 – c1186) 
French crusader ruler of Jerusalem
Agnes of Courtenay was the daughter of Joscelin II of Courtenay, Count of Edessa, and his wife Beatrice of Saone, the widow of William, lord of Sayhun. Agnes married firstly (c1146) Reynald, lord of Marash, whose early death (1149) left her a youthful and desirable widow. She was then remarried (1157) to Prince Amalric (I) of Jerusalem (1136 – 1174) to whom she bore two children, Sibylla and Baldwin IV (1161 – 1183). However, the marriage attracted gossip and condemnation as the couple were third cousins, and when Amalric I succeeded to the throne (Feb, 1162) the barons refused to allow his succession unless he divorced Agnes. The king agreed, on the condition that their children were declared legitimate and recognized as his heirs. Agnes then remarried thirdly to Hugh I, lord of Ibelin. With his death (1169) Agnes took her fourth and final husband, Reynald of Sidon, whom later had the union annulled on the grounds of consanguinity.
King Amalric died in 1174 and was succeeded by their son Baldwin IV, who had Agnes recalled to court and granted her the honours due to a queen mother, though she was not included amongst the regency council, headed by Raymond III of Tripoli. Resentful of this exclusion, Agnes, with the assistance of her brother, Joscelin III of Edessa, and the Knights Templars, set themselves up as a court party in opposition to Raymond. The young king tried to balance this explosive situation, but ties of kinship naturally drew him closer to the Courtenay family and their adherents. Agnes gradually regained her influence over her children, and since Baldwin was the only male heir, she arranged marriages for her daughter Sibylla, raising great support amingst the nobility and church leaders, securing appointments to key positions, and virtually ruling the country (1180 – 1184). Finally, as her son became increasingly incapacitated with leprosy, Agnes encouraged the coronation of her grandson Baldwin V (1177 – 1186) (the son of Sibylla). Her remarkable influence ceased with the death of Baldwin IV (1185).

Agnes of Hesse-Kassel – (1342 – 1393)
German princess and nun
Agnes was the only daughter of Prince Ludwig of Hesse, and was sister to Landgrave Hermann II (1376 – 1413). Her mother was Elisabeth of Spanheim, the widow of Count Rudolf of Hohenberg (died 1326). Agnes never married and became a nun at the convent of St Catherine in Eisenach, Weimar, in Saxony, where she was later appointed abbess. Princess Agnes died (Dec 23, 1393) aged sixty-one.

Agnes of Hohenstaufen (1) – (1074 – 1143)
German Imperial princess
Agnes was the eldest daughter of Heinrich IV, Emperor of Germany (1056 – 1106) and his first wife Bertha of Maurienne, the daughter of Count Odo of Maurienne and his wife Adelaide of Turin, Marchesa of Susa. The two marriages of this princess were of the utmost importance to the future of the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Saxony. She was married firstly (1089) to Friedrich I (1050 – 1105), Duke of Swabia who received the dukedom of Swabia at the time of his marriage from the emperor.
With Duke Friedrich the duchess was the joint-founder of the Abbey of Lorch which became the burial place of the ducal family of Swabia. In the early twentieth century there remained a fresco against one of the piers of the nave which represented Agnes and her husband. She founded the Church of St Johannes in Gmund, after her accidentally lost wedding ring was found on the antlers of stag killed during the hunt. Overjoyed at the return of her ring Agnes ordered the church built on the same spot the stag had been killed and rewarded the huntsman. Agnes bore Friedrich five children,

• Friedrich II (1090 – 1147). He succeeded his father as Duke of Swabia (1105 – 1147) and was married twice and left issue.
• Eilika of Swabia (1091 – after 1110). She became the wife of Friedrich III von Pettendorf, the Lord of Pettendorf-Lengenfeld (died 1119).
• Conrad III of Swabia (1093 – 1152). He was elected King of Germany and was married and left issue.
• Richilda of Swabia (c1107 – c1155). She became the second wife of Hugh II (c1090 – c1160), Count of Roucy and left issue.
• Gertrude of Swabia (1104 – 1191). She became the wife of Hermann of Stahleck, Count Palatine of Lorraine and left issue.

Agnes survived Friedrich as the Dowager Duchess of Swabia (1105 – 1106) but was quickly remarried according to dynastic policiy, becoming the wife of Leopold III the Pious (1073 – 1136), Margrave of Austria. They were both deeply religious by nature, reading the scriptures together, and rising at midnight to perform pious devotions. The couple built the church and monastery of Klosterneuburg a few miles from Vienna, on a site where the Duchess Agnes’s lost veil was discovered hanging on an elder bush nine years after she had lost it. They also built the Cistercian monastery of the Holy Cross near Kalnperg, outside Vienna, where they later resided.
Agnes survived Leopold as the Dowager Margravine of Austria (1136 – 1143) and died (Sept 24, 1143) aged sixty-nine. She was interred in the Abbey of Neuburg and was revered in Germany as a saint (Nov 15). Agnes had borne Leopold seventeen children, five of whom died in infancy. The marriages of these children were of great dynastic importance to the royal synasties of Austria and Germany. Her twelve surviving children were,

• Adalbert II (1107 – 1138). He succeeded as Margrave of Austria (1136 – 1138) and Duke of Bavaria and was married twice but died without issue.
• Leopold IV (1108 – 1141). He succeeded his brother Adalbert as Margrave of Austria (1138 – 1141) and was married but died childless.
• Prince Otto of Austria (1109 – 1158). He became a monk and became Abbot of Morimond. He was appointed as Bishop of Freising and wrote a history of the world.
• Princess Uta of Austria (1110 – after 1136). She became the wife of Liutold I (died 1164), Count of Plain.
• Princess Agnes of Austria (1111 – 1163). She became the wife of Vladislav II (1105 – 1159), Duke of Silesia and Poland and left issue.
• Heinrich II Jasmirgott (1112 – 1177). He succeeded his brother Leopold IV as Margrave of Austria (1141) and was then created Duke of Austria. He married and left issue.
• Prince Ernst of Austria (1113 – 1136). He died unmarried.
• Prince Konrad of Austria (1114 – 1168). He became a monk and was appointed Bishop of Passau (1148) and Archbishop of Salzburg (1164).
• Princess Judith of Austria (1115 – 1168). She became the wife of Guglielmo VI (1110 – 1191), Marquis of Montferrat and left issue.
• Princess Gertrude of Austria (1120 – 1151). She became the first wife of Vladislav II (1110 – 1174), King of Bohemia and left issue.
• Princess Elisabeth of Austria (1123 – 1143). She became the wife of Hermann II (c1109 – 1152), Count of Winzenburg.
• Princess Bertha of Austria (1124 – 1160). She became the first wife of Heinrich III (c1108 – 1174), Burgrave of Regensburg.

Agnes of Hohenstaufen (2) – (1176 – 1204)
Duchess consort of Saxony (1195 – 1204)
Agnes was the daughter of Prince Konrad of Hohenstaufen, Count Palatine of the Rhine and his wife Irmengarde of Henneberg. She was the paternal half-niece to the German Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa (1155 – 1190), beimg the granddaughter of Friedrich II, Duke of Swabia and his second wife Agnes of Saarsbrucken. She was suggested as a bride for Philip II of France (1180 – 1223) but refused his suit on account of his treatment of his previous wife Ingeborge of Denmark. Agnes was married instead to her cousin Heinrich I (1173 – 1227), Duke of Saxony as his first wife, and was the mother of Duke Heinrich II. Her daughter Agnes of Saxony became the wife of Duke Otto II of Bavaria. Duchess Agnes died (May 9, 1204).

Agnes of Leignitz – (1243 – 1265)
Polish princess
Agnes was the daughter of Boleslav II Rogatka, duke of Silesia-Leignitz (1241 – 1278) and his first wife Hedwig, the daughter of Henry I, Prince of Anhalt. Agnes became the second wife married (1260) to Count Ulrich I mit dem Daumen (with the Thumb), Count of Wurttemburg (1226 – Feb 25, 1265). She was mentioned as the daughter of Duke Boleslav in the Chronicon Polono-Silesiacum, which also recorded her marriage with the comiti de Wirtenberk.
Her daughter Agnes of Wurttemburg (c1263 – 1305) had three husbands, firstly (1275) Count Konrad IV of Oettingen (died 1279), secondly Friedrich I, Count von Truhendingen (1221 – 1290), and thirdly (1295) to Count Kraft I von Hohenlohe-Weikersheim (died 1313). Agnes survived her husband only a few weeks as Dowager Countess and died (March 23, 1265) aged only twenty-one, from the effects of childbirth, after bearing a posthumous son and heir, Count Eberhard II der Erlauchte (1265 – 1325), who later succeeded his elder half-brother Ulrich II as Count of Wurttemburg (1279). She was buried in Stuttgart.

Agnes of Meissen – (c1141 – 1203)
German nun and illuminator
Agnes was the youngest daughter of Conrad the Great, Margrave of Meissen (1127 – 1156) and his wife Luitgarde, the daughter of Count Albert of Ravensburg, and was sister to Margrave Otto the Rich (1156 – 1190). She never married and became a nun at the Imperial Abbey of Quedlinburg. Agnes is said to have written and illuminated many books of which an adorned gospel has survived. Princess Agnes was later elected as abbess (1184) a position she retained until her death there (Jan 21, 1203). She was interred at Quedlinburg.

Agnes of Meran – (1176 – 1201)
Queen consort of France (1196 – 1201)
Agnes was the daughter of Berthold VI, Duke of Meran and his wife Agnes von Groitzsch, countess von Rochlitz. Her sister Gertrude was the wife of King Andrew II of Hungary, and mother of St Elizabeth. Philip II Augustus of France (1165 – 1223) repudiated his first wife Ingeborge of Denmark and married Agnes instead (1196), despite the fact that they were related within the forbidden degrees of consangunity, and in defiance of the protests of Pope Celestine III, who insisted upon the reinstatement of Queen Ingeborge. The marriage was also regarded as incestuous because Agnes’s brother-in-law Andrew II of Hungary was the stepson of Philip II’s half-sister Margaret Capet, the wife of Bela III of Hungary.
Pope Innocent III took up the caused of the deserted wife, and eventually placed France under a papal interedict in order to force the king to take back Queen Ingeborge, after the king refused to heed the forceful admonitions of his legate, Peter of Capua. Philip pretended to separate from Agnes and to reconcile with the queen (1198), but he continued to consort with Agnes, and imprisoned Ingeborg at Soissons. Her children by Philip were later legitmated by Pope Innocent. Her son Philippe Capet (1200 – 1234), nicknamed Hurepel, held the county of Clermont, but died childless, whilst her daughter Marie (1198 – 1238) became the second wife of Duke Henry I of Brabant. Queen Agnes died at Poissy Castle, near Paris (July 19 or 20, 1201) and was interred in the Church of St Corentin in Mantes.

Agnes of Montferrat – (c1185 – 1208)
Latin Augusta (1207 – 1208)
Agnes was the only child of Boniface I of Montferrat, King of Thessalonika, the famous crusader, and his first wife, Elena de Busca, the daughter of Margrave Anselm. Renowned for her beauty, Bohiface arranged her marriage with the Latin emperor, and Agnes was escorted to Constantinople by the famous crusader figure, Geoffroi de Villehardouin. There she became the first wife (Feb, 1207) of the Latin emperor of Constantinople, Henry I of Flanders (1176 – 1216). Empress Agnes died in childbirth the following year. Her daughter Isabelle later died in childbirth, her child dying with her.

Agnes of Norfolk     see    Galiena

Agnes of Poitou (1) – (1025 – 1077)
Holy Roman empress
Countess Agnes was the younger daughter of William V of Poitou, Duke of Aquitaine, and of his last wife, Agnes of Burgundy. The princess became the third wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III (1017 – 1056) in 1043. She was the mother of Emperor Henry IV (1050 – 1106) and of several daughters. Following Henry’s early death in 1056, Agnes acted as regent during her son’s minority, but she had neither the experience nor the talent for ruling the empire, and discontent with her incompetence grew until in 1062, Anno, Archbishop of Cologne managed to gain custody of the emperor through trickery, and Agnes was deposed from the regency. She retired to Rome where she took religious vows, and was granted a residence by the pope. Empress Agnes died (Dec 14, 1077) aged fifty-two, in Rome.

Agnes of Poitou (2) – (c1046 – 1089)
Queen consort of Aragon (c1061 – 1064)
Agnes was the daughter of William VII of Poitiers, Duke of Aquitaine and his wife Ermesinde, the daughter of Adalbert III of Metz-Longwy (c1000 – 1048), Duke of Upper Lorraine. Agnes became the second wife (c1061) of Ramiro I (c1012 – 1064), King of Aragon, more than thirty years her senior. This marriage remained childless, and Ramiro was killed in battle (May 8, 1064). The young queen dowager was soon remarried to Peter I (died 1078), Count of Maurienne, and was the mother of two daughter, Agnes of Savoy, the wife of Frederick of Montbeliard, Count of Lutzelburg by whom she left issue and then of Elias of Maine, and Bertha of Savoy, the second wife of Pedro I, King of Aragon. Queen Agnes died (after June 13, 1089) aged in her early forties.

Agnes of Poitou (3) – (1052 – 1078)
Queen consort of Castile (1069 – 1078)
Agnes of Poitou was born at Poitiers, the only child of William VIII, Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine and his second wife Matilda de La Marche, a member of the Lusignan family. Agnes was sent to Spain as the first wife of Alfonso VI (1039 – 1109), King of Castile. The marriage remained childless and the last mention of Queen Agnes, whom her Spanish subjects called Inez, occurs in a surviving charter of her husband’s which made a donation to the Abbey of Cluny in Burgundy (May 22, 1077). Queen Agnes died (June 6, 1078) aged twenty-six, and was interred within the royal Abbey of Sahagun. Some genealogical sources state that Alfonso divorced Agnes (1077) in order to remarry and produce a male heir, but this assumption is incorrect, and no Spanish source mentions a divorce.

Agnes of Poitou (4) – (1072 – 1097)
Queen consort of Aragon (1094 – 1097)
Agnes was the only daughter of William VIII, Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine, and his third wife Hildegarde of Burgundy, the daughter of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy. Agnes was the maternal great-granddaughter of Robert II the Pious, King of France (987 – 1032). She was married firstly (1081) the Infante Pedro of Aragon (1094 – 1104), eldest son and heir of King Sancho IV Ramirez. He succeeded his father as King of Aragon (1094) and Agnes became queen consort. Her Spanish subjects called her Inez. Their children Pedro and Isabella both died young (1103) predeceasing King Pedro and Agnes probably died from the effects of childbirth. Queen Agnes died (June 6, 1097) and was interred within the royal Abbey of San Juan de la Pena.

Agnes of Poitou (5) – (c1103 – 1160)
Queen consort of Aragon (1135 – 1137)
Agnes was the daughter of William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou, and his second wife Philippa of Toulouse, the widow of Sancho V Ramirez, King of Aragon, and daughter of Guillaume IV, Count of Toulouse and Emma of Mortain, niece of the English king William I the Conqueror (1066 – 1087). Agnes was married firstly (before 1106) to Amaury VI, Vicomte of Thouars, to whom she bore four children including Guillaume I (1127 – c1151) and Geoffrey V (c1151 – c1174) successive vicomtes of Thouars.
With his death (1127) she remained a widow for several years and resided within a religious establishment though she did not take religious vows. Her brother, Duke William X (1127 – 1137) compelled Agnes to emerge from her retreat and caused her to be remarried (1135) at Jaca for dynastic reasons to the newly crowned Ramiro II (1075 – 1157), King of Aragon, who had been removed from his monastery to take the Aragonese throne, due to the lack of other suitable male heirs. Thus the marriage was purely a dynastic arrangement and Agnes was called Matilda by her new Spanish subjects. The following year the queen gave birth to her only child Petronilla (1136 – 1174), the heiress to the kingdom of Aragon. Their dynastic duty performed the king abdicated (1137) in order to return to the cloister of San Pedro el Viego at Huesca, and Queen Agnes returned to the court of Poitiers in Aquitaine, her child to be raised as the future queen. She entered a nunnery and was appointed as the Abbess of Maillezais in Poitou prior to 1137, when she received her niece Eleanor of Aquitaine at the abbey prior to her journey to Paris for her marriage with Louis VII of France. Queen Agnes died (March 8, 1160).

Agnes of Ponthieu    see    Ponthieu, Agnes de

Agnes of Savoy – (1065 – after 1110)
Italian mediaeval countess
Agnes was the elder daughter of Pietro I, Count of Maurienne and his wife Agnes of Poitou, the widow of Ramiro I, King of Aragon, and daughter of William VII of Poitou, Duke of Aquitaine. Agnes was her father’s co-heiress at his death (1078) though the title passed to her cousin Umberto I. She was married prior to 1080 to Frederic of Montbeliard (c1055 – 1092), Count of Lutzelbourg and Marquis of Susa, the fourth son of Count Louis II of Montbeliard and Bar and his wife Sophia of Lorraine, heiress of Bar-le-Duc, to whom she bore three sons. She survived her husband as the Dowager Countess of Lutzelburg for almost two decades before briefly becoming the second wife (1109) of Elias I de La Fleche (Helie) (c1065 – 1110), Count of Maine. There were no children and Agnes then retired from the world and took vows as a nun (1110). Her date of death remains unknown. Her sons were,

• Pierre (c1083 – 1140). He succeeded his father as Count of Lutzelburg and Marquis of Susa (1092 – 1140). He married twice and left issue but was dispossessed of the marquisate of Susa
  (1126) and retired to Lutzelburg.
• Bruno, Count of Lutzelburg. He remained unmarried.
• Siegfried, Count of Lutzelburg (c1090 – 1122). He was appointed as castellan of Strasbourg but died unmarried.

Agnes of Saxony – (1204 – 1267)
Duchess consort of Bavaria (1231 – 1253)
Agnes of Saxony was the younger daughter of Duke Heinrich I and his first wife Agnes of Hohenstaufen, daughter of Konrad of Hohenstaufen, Count Palatine of the Rhine the half-brother to Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa (1155 – 1190). She became the wife of Otto II (1206 – 1253), Duke of Swabia (1231 – 1253), whom she survived as Dowager Duchess of Bavaria (1253 – 1267). Her children included Elisabeth of Bavaria, the wife of Conrad IV, King of Sicily, and mother of Conradin, the last of the male Hohenstaufens. Duchess Agnes died (Aug 16, 1267) in Munich.

Agnes of Stargard – (c1393 – 1467)
German duchess consort of Pomerania-Stettin (1413 – 1428)
Princess Agnes was the daughter of Johann II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Stargard, and his wife Wilheida, the daughter of Grand Prince Olgierd of Lithuania. Agnes was married (c1409) to Otto II (1380 – 1428), Duke of Pomerania-Stettin, but their marriage remained childless. Duchess Agnes never remarried and survived Otto for four decades as Dowager Duchess of Stettin (1428 – 1467).

Agnes, Lore – (1876 – 1953)
German politician
Lore Benning was born (June 4, 1876) at Bochum, the daughter of a miner. After her marriage in 1906, Lore Agnes established an association for the benefit of female domestic servants, and was actively involved in the International Socialist Women’s Conference for Peace, at Bern, Switzerland in 1915. She joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1917 (U.S.P.D.), and from (1922 – 1933) she was a member of the Social Democratic Party. Lore Agnes died (June 9, 1953) aged seventy-seven, in Cologne (Koln).

Agnes Christina Franziska Karoline Theresia Raphaela Johanna Magdalena Huberta Josepha Ignatia – (1928 – 2007)
Hapsburg archduchess
Agnes was born (Dec 14, 1928) at Persenbrug Castle, the eldest daughter of Hubert Salvator (1894 – 1971), Archduke of Austria-Tuscany, and his wife Princess Rosemary von Salm-Salm, the daughter of Hereditary Prince Emanuel von Salm-Salm. Agnes held the additonal titles of Princess of Hungary and Bohemia, and Princess of Tuscany in Italy. She was married (1949) to Prince Karl Alfred of Liechtenstein (1910 – 1985), whom she survived over two decades as Princess Dowager (1985 – 2007). Archduchess Agnes died (Aug 31, 2007) in Vienna, aged seventy-eight. She left seven children, all of whom were born in Vienna,

• Prince Dominik of Liechtenstein (born 1950). He is married but remains childless.
• Prince Andreas of Liechtenstein (born 1952). He is married but remains childless.
• Prince Gregor of Liechtenstein (born 1954).
• Princess Alexandra of Liechtenstein (1955 – 1993). She was married (1980 – 1988) to Hans Lovrek (born 1955), from whom she was later divorced. Alexandra died childless.
• Princess Maria Pia of Liechtenstein (born 1960). She was married (1995) to Max Kothbauer.
• Princess Katharina of Liechtenstein (born 1964). She was married (1991) to a British citizen, Jeremy Kelton (born 1960), and left issue.
• Princess Birgitta of Liechtenstein (born 1967).

Agnes Hedwig of Anhalt – (1573 – 1616)
German princess and scholar
Princess Agnes Hedwig was the daughter of Prince Joachim Ernest of Anhalt-Zerbst and Eleonore of Wurttemburg. Agnes Hedwig and her sisters were given an extensive education, being instructed in Latin and Hebrew by the noted linguist Wolfgang Ratichius. Throughout her life the princess remained devoted to literary pursuits, and was a noted patron of scholars, scientist and philosophers. The princess was married firstly to the elderly widower elector August I of Saxony (1526 – 1585). His death when she was twelve (1585) left Agnes younger than her stepchildren, who treated her with great kindness. The young Electress Dowager was remarried (1588) to Duke Johann of Holstein-Ploen, to whom she bore five children, becoming the ancestress of the dukes of that dynasty, which became extinct in 1761.

Agnesi-Pinottini, Maria Teresa – (1720 – 1795)
Italian composer and musician
Maria Teresa was born (Oct 17, 1720) in Milan, Lombardy. She composed music from an early age, and her first work, cantata pastorale Il ristoro d’Arcadia was performed at the Regio Ducal Teatro (1747). She played the harpsichord and sang with great talent, and used her own libretto for the opera Ciro in Armenia (1753). Her other works included, Sofonisba (1765) and, Nitocri (1771). Maria Teresa Agnesi-Pinottini died (Jan 19, 1795) aged seventy-four, in Milan.

Agnew, Eliza – (1807 – 1883)
American missionary
Eliza Agnes was born in New York. Especially trained for mission work overseas, Eliza worked tirelessly in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) for over forty years 1840 – 1883, until her death, and was appointed to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Eliza remained a tireless pioneer in promoting opportunities for the education of Sri Lankan women. Eliza Agnew died at Oodooville, in Sri Lanka.

Agnew, Swanzie Erskine, Lady – (1916 – 2000) 
British geographer
Swanzie Erskine was born in the Transvaal, in South Africa, her mother of Dutch farming stock, and the granddaughter of the famous explorer St Vincent Erskine, who discovered the mouth of the Limpopo River. She studied geography in South Africa and at Edinburgh University, Scotland, later attended Montpellier University in Languedoc, France. She married (1937) Sir Fulque Agnew of Lochnaw (1898 – 1975), tenth Baronet (1898 – 1975), to whom she bore a son and heir Crispin, who succeeded his father as eleventh Baronet.
In 1948 she accompanied her husband to reside on a farm in South Africa, this move being necessitated by financial problems. Her husband joined the staff of the Fort Hare University in Cape Province, and Lady Agnew also joined the staff eventually as the geographer (1952). They became targets because of their opposition to apartheid, and during an official clampdown on unrest (1960) they were expelled from the university. The couple returned to England where Lady Agnew was appointed headmistress of the junior form of the Royal Ballet School.
Elected as the first professor of geography at Malawi University, the couple returned to South Africa. However, her views on democratic freedom brought Lady Agnew into conflict with the government of Hastings Banda, and she resigned her post in protest. Widowed in 1975, Lady Agnew returned to Scotland and resided in Edinburgh, remembered as a friend and patron of the avante-garde in the artistic world.

Agnodike – (fl. c350 BC) 
Greek gynaecologist
Agnodike was the first woman practitioner to be historically identified, she studied under the famous physician Herophilos disguised as a young man. Qualifying as a physician she continued to perform her work dressed as man in order to avoid scandal. However, such was the extent of her fame that other physicians grew jealous, and they falsely accused Agnodike of corrupting the female patients she was treating. Because of thsese slanders, she was forced to reveal her sex in the court in Athens, in order to save her own life. The court then decided to charge her with practising a profession which was restriced by law to men alone, though eventually she was acquitted of all charges.

Agontime – (fl. 1797 – c1840)
African queen of Dahomey
Agontime was appointed as kpojito (queen mother) early in the reign of King Gezo (1818 – 1858). During the reign of King Alonglo (1789 – 1797) Agontime served at the royal palace of Abomey. She became involved in a palace conspiracy which included the queen mother Hwanjile and the prime minister, Migan, amongst others, which resulted in the death by poison of the king. Agontime may have been the person employed to assassinate the king, but this remains speculation. Queen Hwanjile and a prince named Dogan, who had unsuccessfully attempted to seize power and were buried alive by order of King Adandozan. Others were sacrificed as part of the ensuing funeral rites, whilst Agontime was sold into slavery abroad in Brazil. When Gezo succeeded to the throne he had royal agents locate Agontime and return her to Dahomey. There she was later officially installed as kpojito (c1840).

Agostini, Linda – (1905 – 1934)
Australian murder victim
Born Linda Platt in London, she came to Australia and married an Italian waiter, Antonio Agostini (1903 – 1969). A body clothed in women’s pyjamas was discovered near Albury in New South Wales (Sept 1, 1934), the face disfigured and there had been an attempt to burn the torso. She remained unidentified for over a decade the body preserved in a bathtub of chemicals, and was popularly referred to as the ‘Pyjama Girl.’
A revision of dental evidence led to her final identification (1944) and her husband was questioned and arrested by police. He admitted to having shot her during an argument and was found guilty of manslaughter. Agostini served four years in Australia, and was then deported back to Italy where he died.

Agostinelli-Quiroli, Adelina – (1882 – 1954)
Italian soprano
Adelina Agostinelli-Quiroli was born (Nov 23, 1882) at Verdello, Bergamo, and studied in Milan. She made her stage debut as Fedora in Pavia (1903). Adelina performed with success throughout South America, Europe, and even the Russian court. She was attached to the Manhattan Opera in New York and at La Scala in Milan, where she sang the role of Amelia in, Simon Boccanegra (1910).
Agostini-Quiroli made her British debut at Covent Garden in Giacomo Puccini’s lyric drama Manon Lescaut (1912). Other famous roles included Elisabeth de Valois in Don Carlos and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. Adelina Agostinelli-Quiroli died (July 6, 1954) aged seventy-one, in Buenois Aires, Argentina.

Agoult, Marie Catherine Sophie de Flavigny, Comtesse d’ – (1805 – 1876)
French novelist and salonniere
Marie Catherine de Flavigny was born at Frankfurt-am-Main, the daughter of the emogre Comte de Flavigny. She was married (1827) to Comte Charles d’Agoult, whom she later deserted (1834) to become mistress of the composer Franz Liszt with whom she eloped and lived with as his mistress. The comtesse bore Liszt three daughters, including Blandine, the wife of Emile Ollivier, and Cosima (1837 – 1930) who married firstly Hans von Bulow and secondly the composer Richard Wagner.
Her affair with Liszt lasted till 1839 and they permenently seperated (1844) after which the comtesse returned to Paris where she became a close friend of the novelist George Sand. Madame d’Agoult kept a literary salon in Paris and wrote under the pseudonym ‘Daniel Stern’. She published the autobiographical novel Nelida (1846), which was a fictional account of her relationship with Liszt and revealed her continued bitterness, but her best known work was Moral Sketches (1849). Her other works included Lettres republicans (1848), Histoire de la revolution de 1848 (1851 – 1853), a play, Jeanne d’Arc (1857, a dialogue, Dante et Goethe (1866), Mes Souvenirs 1806 – 1833 (1877) which was supported by a later edition of Memoirs 1833 – 1854 (1927). The Comtesse d’Agoult died (March 5, 1876) in Paris.

Agoult, Urbaine d’ – (c1380 – c1435)
French medieval heiress
Urbaine was the daughter of Raymond III d’Agoult, Seigenur de Sault (died 1405), and the granddaughter of Foulque I, seigneur de Sault by his wife Alix, the daughter of Raymond I des Baux, Comte d’Avellino. Urbaine was married (before 1400) to her cousin, Francois des Baux (c1362 – c1437), seigneur de Marignane, whom she predeceased, leaving two daughters, Margeurite des Baux, who remained unmarried and became a nun, being appointed abbess of St Claire at Marseilles, and Alix des Baux (c1400 – c1455), who became the wife of Jacques de Passis, a Florentine businessman who was resident in Marseilles.

Agrafena Rotislavna – (c1165 – 1237)
Russian ruler
Agrafena Rotislavna was the daughter of Rotislav I, Prince of Smolensk, and married (c1179) Grand Prince Igor of Ryazan, to whom she bore six children, including Grand Prince Ingwar I Igorivich (c1181 – 1235) and Theodosia Igorievna (1194 – 1244) who became the wife of Jaroslav II, Grand Prince of Vladimir. Widowed in 1194, Agrafena ruled Ryazan as regent for several years, until her eldest son Ingwar was of age to take over the government.
Agrafena was Princess Dowager for over forty years, and when the Mongol army approached Ryazan (1237), she and her son Yuri organized a spirited defence of the city. However, despite their efforts their forces were overwhelmed and the Mongols succeeded in breaching the city walls. On Dec 21, Agrafena perished in the general slaughter that ensued. Her sons Yuri and Oleg, three grandsons, Roman, David, and Gleb, the sons of her eldest son Ingwar, her great-grandson Theodor, his wife Eupraxia, and their child Ivan, her great-grandson also died in this massacre.

Agreda, Maria Fernandez Coronel de – (1602 – 1665) 
Spanish Franciscan nun and mystic
Maria Fernandez Coronel was born (April 2, 1602) in Agreda, on the border of Aragon and Navarre, the daughter of Francisco Coronel and his wife Catalina de Arana. Maria took vows of chastity at the age of eight (1610) and experienced ecstasies and visions from an early.  She became a nun with the Poor Clares (1619) in the family house at Agreda, togther with one of her sisters and their mother as Sister (Sor) Maria de Jesus. Her father became a Franciscan monk at the same time.
Appointed abbess (1627) Maria retained this position for the rest of her life. Her earlier work the Introduction to the History of the Most Blessed Virgin, was destroyed by the direction of her confessor. Maria’s mystic experiences were chronicled in her work The Mystical city of God and the Divine History of the Virgin Mother of God (1670), which was written under the direction of her Franciscan confessor, Francisco Andreas de la Torre, which also contained apocryphal history and scholasticism. Because of the prominent position that Maria acorded to the Virgin Mary, this work was briefly placed on the Vatican’s Index of forbidden books (1681). For over two decades (1642 – 1665), Sister Maria carried on a lengthy correspondence with King Philip IV, which was written in excellent Spanish. Maria de Agreda died (March 29, 1665) aged sixty-two.

Agreneva-Slavianskaia, Olga Khristoforovna – (1847 – 1920)
Russian folk-lorist and ethnographer
Born Olga Pozdniakova in Makarino, Kostroma, she wrote poetry and composed folk music. She was the wife of the author Agrenev-Slavianskii, with whom she collaborated on some works. Olga Agreneva-Slavianskaia died (Dec 20, 1920) aged seventy-three.

Agricola, Benedetta Emilia – (1722 – 1780)
Italian soprano
Bendetta Molteni was born in Modena. She trained under Faustina Hasse and Felice Salembini (c1712 – 1751), and made her stage debut in, Cesare e Cleopatra (1743), by Karl Graun (1701 – 1759). Benedetta was married to the German composer Johann Friedrich Agricola (1720 – 1774). With his death she was dismissed from the Berlin Opera. Bendetta Agricola died in Berlin, Prussia.

Agrippina, Julia (Agrippina Minor) – (15 – 59 AD) 
Roman Augusta (50 – 59 AD)
Julia Agrippina was the daughter of Germanicus Caesar and of the elder Agrippina, the daughter of general Marcus Agrippa, and his wife Julia, the widow of Marcellus, sole heir of the emperor Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD). She was raised in the household of her grandmother Livia. Agrippina was married (28 AD) by her stepfather, the emperor Tiberius, to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (2 BC – 40 AD) to whom she bore a son and heir, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. During the reign of her brother Caligula (37 – 41 AD), Agrippina shared Imperial honours granted by the emperor with her two sisters, Drusilla and Livilla. However, she was exiled (39 AD) for her part in the conspiracy against the emperor, led by Lentulus Gaetulicus. Recalled to Rome by her uncle Claudius I, she failed to persuade the future emperor Galba to marry her, and was instead married to Sallustius Passienus Crispus, whom she was said to hae murdered so as to inherit his property.
Surrounded by her own court faction, and supported by Vitellius, and by the emperor’s freedman, Pallas, she engineered a campaign which saw her successfully become her uncle’s wife (49 AD). Proclaimed Augusta in 50, Claudius also adopted her son, who assumed the name of Nero. Possessed of considerable power, and few scruples, she caused the removal of Lollia Paullina, the former wife of Caligula, and her own rival for the Imperial throne, and had her supporter Burrus appointed as praetorian prefect. Uneasy that Claudius would naturally prefer his own son Britannicus rather than Nero as his successor she poisoned Claudius with a dish of mushrooms, and announced the succession of Nero, Britannicus still being under age. During the early years of her son’s reign, Agrippina wielded great power, but this quickly faded when Nero began to assert his own authority, in which he was assisted by his tutor Seneca, and by Burrus, who now feared Agrippina’s influence. Britannicus was quickly eliminated, and Nero’s mistress, the freedwoman Acte, achieved influence over him, while Agrippina’s star quickly waned.
The accusations of incest between the empress and her son can be disregarded as vicious and politically motivated slander. Several elaborate plots to dispose of the empress failed, most notably the last one, where her ship capsized in the harbour, and two of her friends were killed. Agrippina swam to shore, where she was assisted by locals to reach her villa. There she was brutally murdered by sailors sent by Nero for the purpose of finishing her off. She was sinisterly portrayed by actress Diana Hutchinson in the famous BBC (British Broadcasting corporation) series I Claudius (1976) with Derek Jacobi as the emperor and Bernard Hepton as Pallas.

Agrippina, Vipsania (Agrippina Maior) – (14 BC – 33 AD)
Roman Imperial princess
Vipsania Agrippina was the daughter of General Marcus Agrippa, and his wife Julia Maior, the only child of the emperor Augustus and the widow of Marcellus. Agrippina was married to her cousin Germanicus Caesar, the son of the elder Drusus and his wife Antonia Minor, and the stepson of the emperor Tiberius, to whom she bore nine children, including the future emperor Gaius Caligula (37 – 41 AD). A devoted supporter and helpmeet to Germanicus, whom she accompanied on his military campaignes, rather than wait behind in Rome, she was extremely popular with the Roman population. She accompanied Germanicus to the east (19 AD), where he died, and travelled back to Rome with his ashes (21 AD).

Her arrogance and pride, and dramstic sense of being victimized, resulted in the trial of the emperor’s former friend, Cn. Calpurnius Piso and his subsequent suicide, for which the emperor never forgave Agrippina. Eventually, the emperor’ unpopular favourite, the praetorian prefect Sejanus, played upon the emperor’s secret fears of conspiracy to such an extent that Agrippina was arrested and exiled to the island of Pandateria, where her mother had spent several years of her own exile. Her two elder sons, Nero and Drusus were both killed due to the machinations of Sejanus. During her exile she remained so intransigent that one of the officers guarding her gouged out one of her eyes with the hilt of his sword. Eventually she starved herself to death. She was portrayed by actress Fiona Walker in the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) series I Claudius (1976) with Gary Lock as Germanicus and Patrick Stewart as Sejanus.

Agrippina of Burgundy – (c455 – 491 AD) 
Gallo-Roman queen consort
Agrippina was probably of Gallo-Roman patrician background and married (c470 AD) Chilperic II, King of Burgundy, to whom she bore several sons and two daughters, Chrona and Clotilda. She was probably of orthodox Catholic faith in which her children were all baptized. Chilperic’s brother Gundobad, jealous of him and his kingdom had him and his sons treacherously killed. Queen Agrippina was then brutally murdered, having a heavy stone tied around her neck and being then thrown into the Rhone River where she drowned. Her two daughters were saved by the intervention of family friends and reached safety. Chrona became a nun whilst Clotilda became the second wife of the Merovingian king Clovis I, whom she persuaded to convert from Arianism to orthodox Christianity.

Aguglia, Mimi – (1884 – 1970)
Italian-American actress
Mimi Aguglia was born at Catania in Sicily, the daughter of noted stage actress Giuseppina Aguglia, and was named Girolama, but was always called Mimi. Trained to sing, dance and act, she followed her mother onto the stage in supporting roles, but her beauty quickly ensured that she became a favoured leading lady. Mimi eloped with Baron Vincenzo Ferrau (1902) who produced plays performed by Mimi and two of her former associates Giovanni Grasso and Angelo Musco in the Sicilian Theatrical Company.
Mimi performed in Spain and England, and was a well known and adored actress. She travelled on tours of Canada, the USA, and Central and South America. Aguglia later became an American citizen (1945) and appeared in films in the US, Italy, and Mexico. She continued to work into her eight decade. Her films include, The Lady Escapes (1937), The Outlaw (1943), Cry of the City (1948), Black Hand (1950), The Rose Tattoo (1955) and, The Brothers Rico (1957). She was the mother of veteran film and television actress Argentina Brunetti. Mimi Aguglia died (July 31, 1970) aged eighty-five, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.

Aguilar, Grace – (1816 – 1847)
Jewish-Anglo novelist
Grace Aguilar was born in Hackney, London, of Jewish parents, of Spanish ancestry. Educated at home, her family later moved to Devon, in Cornwall (1828). Sufferring from ill-health, Grace remained a semi-invalid for the rest of her short life. Aguilar began to write during her childhood illness, and her earliest poetic verse were collected and published as the, Magic Wreath (1835).
With the death of her father, grace wrote to support herself. Her work, The Spirit of Judaism (1842), was a controversial denouncement of formal contemporary religious practices. Her two following literary efforts, The Jewish Faith (1845) and Women of Israel, a series of essays, were far more popular. Grace is best remembered for her sentimental novels, set mainly within the domestic sphere. These works were edited and published by her mother posthumously, and included A Mother’s Recompense (1850) and Woman’s Friendship (1851). Grace Aguilar died (Sept 16, 1847) at Frankurt-am-Main, Germany, whilst on a visit to her brother.

Agujari, Lucrezia – (1743 – 1783)
Italian soprano vocalist
Lucrezia Agujari was born in Ferrara in Emilia Romagna, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman. She studied singing in Ferrara with Brizio Petrucci and under Abbate Lambertini, and made her stage debut in Florence (1764). She was married (1780) to the famous conductor Giuseppe Colla (1731 – 1806), after which she retired from the stage. Agujari was officially appointed to the court of Parma (1768), where she commanded enormous fees for her performances.
Lucrezia paid many visits to London where she was able to command immense fees for her performances in Oxford Street and at the Pantheon, and was popularly known as ‘La Bastardella’ in reference to her birth. She was heard by the novelist and diarist Fanny Burney, who was highly impressed by her vocal ability. Possessed of a phenomenal and flexible voice, with an incredibly high range, Mozart heard her perform at Parma (1770) and himself noted down some of the passages she sang, her range extending from middle C to C in altissimo, or more than an octave above the B flat, which is the limit for most sopranos. Lucrezia Agujari died (May 18, 1783) at Parma.

Agullona, Margherita – (1536 – 1600)
Spanish nun and saint
Sometimes called Margherita Angelona, she was born in Xativa, Valencia, in Aragon. Margherita refused an offer of marriage being determined to embrace the religious life. She took the veil with the Franciscan order (1556), giving all her possessions to the poor. Because of several contemporary and celebrated cases of religious fraud, Margherita, who was visited by signs of the stigmata, suffered from some persecution. Agullona was revered as a saint at her death, and her feast was celebrated annually (Dec 9).

Agustini, Delmira – (1890 – 1914) 
Uruguayan poet
Delmira Agustini was born in Montevideo (Oct 24, 1890) into an intellectual household, and was the victim of an unhappy childhood, and married life. Agustini eventually seperated from her husband, after only two months, and began a defacto relationship with another. Her estranged husband finally murdered her and then committed suicide. Delmira published volumes of frank and emotionally intense verse, El libro blanco (1907) and Cantos de manana (1910), which brought her lasting fame throughout the Spanish speaking world. Some of this work was later recombined with new work in her Los Calizes vacios (1913). Her letters, Correspondencia intima, were published posthumously (1969).

Agutte, Georgette – (1867 – 1922)
French painter
Agutte was born (May 17, 1867) in Paris, the daughter of the painter Jean George Agutte. She later studied under Gustave Moreau and attended the Ecole Nationale Superieure of the Fine Arts and established her own studio at Bonnes-on-Seine. She became known for her strong non-conformist style of art. With the death of her second husband she committed suicide (Sept 6, 1922) aged fifty-five in Chamonix, Switzerland. A retrospective of her work was held in Grenoble (2003). A public garden bearing her name was built in the Saint-Gratien suburb of Paris.

Ahalyai Bai – (1735 – 1795)
Indian queen
Ahalybai Bai was the daughter of Manakoji Shinde of Aurangabad and was married (1743) to Khande Rao, son of Malhar Rao, the King of Holkar, to whom she bore a son and heir, Male Rao and a daughter. With her husband’s early death (1754), Ahalyai Bai wanted to commit ceremonial suttee but was dissuaded from this act by her father-in-law. With the king’s death (1766) her own young and incompetent son became king of Holkar, and Ahalyai Bai ruled successfully as regent for him. When he died a raving madman (1767), the queen surectly assumed the control of the government of Holkar and refused to adopt an heir.
Queen Ahalyai Bai retained pwer for three decades and was revered as one of the best loved and most just rulers in Indian history. Her general, the famous warrior Tukoji Rao Holkar, served her faithfully for years, and at the beginning of her reign, the queen herself led her army against Chandravats of Rajasthan, who had led a revolt against her. Famous also for her acts of philanthropy, the queen paid for the contruction of a road between Calcutta and Varanasi, and built various temples and rest houses for travellers and pilgrims. Ahalyai Bai died (Aug 13, 1795) aged sixty.

Ahern, Kathy – (1949 – 1996)
American golfing champion
Kathy Ahern was born (May 7, 1949) and joined the LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) Tour directly she completed secondary school (1967). She won three important golfing tournaments, including the George Washington Classic (1972) and the PLGA Championship (1972). Ahern was later diagnosed with breast cancer (1991). Kathy Ahern died (July 6, 1996) aged forty-seven, at Fountain Hills, Arizona.

Ahern, Lizzie – (1877 – 1969)
Australian socialist
Elizabeth Ahern was born at Ballarat in Victoria, the daughter of Edmund Ahern. In her youth Lizzie was employed as a domestic servant, but she later followed her abiding interest in politics and joined the Labour Party (1904). Ahern served for over a decade on the Executive Committee of the Socialist party (1906 – 1918). She was married (1908) to Arthur Knight Wallace, who was elected mayor of South Melbourne (1934). During World War I Ahern campaigned against the war and conscription, and was a prominent supporter of suffrage and equal rights for women. Lizzie Ahern died (April 7, 1969) aged ninety-one, at Albert Park, Melbourne, Victoria.

Ahhopte I (Aahhotep) – (c1615 – c1530 BC) 
Queen of Egypt
Ahhopte I was the wife of Seqenenre Tao II (died c1574 BC) and was the mother of kings Kamose and Ahmose I (died c1546 BC). She was the daughter of King Seqenenre Tao I and his queen, Tetisherit, and was thus her husband’s sister of the full-blood. Long revered as the ancestress of the XVIIIth Dynasty, she ruled as regent for Ahmose until he was sixteen, and then survived for about forty-five years into his reign as queen mother.
Her son dedicated to her a surviving stela at Karnak, in which he exhorted his subjects to honour and reverence his mother. In this same inscription, Queen Ahhopte is praised for having rallied the Egyptian army to crush an armed rebellion against the crown. This is believed to have taken place shortly after the death of her elder son, Kamose (c1574 BC). Her quick and decisive action preserved the throne for her younger son. Queen Ahhopte was later granted divine honours and a cult was established in her memory. Her tomb was discovered by workmen (1859), near the entrance to the Valley of the Kings at Thebes. Her coffin and mummy, complete with tomb ornaments, are preserved in the Boulaq Museum in Cairo.

Ahhopte II (Aahhotep) – (fl. c1590 – c1570 BC)
Queen of Egypt
Ahhopte II was of the family of King Taa II and his sister wife Ahhopte I. She became the wife of Kamose I (c1574 – c1570 BC), brother of Taa II. He was once considered to be the brother (or half-brother) to Ahmose I, but modern research now believes that he was actually his uncle. Queen Ahhopte II left no sons, and the throne went to her nephew, Ahmose I, after Kamose was killed in battle. Their daughter Sitkamose, whose mummy is preserved in the Cairo Museum, married her first cousin Ahmose I and was one of his chief queens. Ahhopte’s mummy was discovered in the mid-nineteenth century (1859) but was destroyed by an official soon afterwards.

Ahhotepti – (fl. c1700 BC)
Egyptian queen consort
Ahhotepti was a member of the XIIIth Dynasty (1781 – 1650 BC) and bore the highest titles of ‘King’s Wife’ and ‘King’s Mother,’ but the identity of her husband and son remain unknown. One of her scarabs survived, and placed Ahhotepti prior to the reign of King Sobkhotep III.

Ahlefeldt-Laurwig, Countess Elisia Davidia Margarete von – (1788 – 1855)
German literary figure
Countess Elisa was born at Tranekjorer Castle, Denmark. Her first morganatic union was to the Crown Prince of Denmark, to whom she bore a daughter (1807). This union ended in divorce, and Elisia remarried to Ludwig Adolph von Lutzow. With von Lutzow, Elisia became a prominent figure during the Wars of Liberation, and accompanied him on his journeys, even recruiting military volunteers in Breslau during his absence.
In 1817 the couple settled at Munster in Westphalia, where Elisia established a literary salon, and here she met the poet Karl Immermann in 1821. She followed Immermann to Magdeburg and Dusseldorf, and divorced her husband in 1825, but Immermann refused to marry her. When he became engaged to another woman Elisia finally left him (1839). After travelling throughout Italy, she retired to Berlin, where she resided for the remainder of her life. Countess Elisia Ahlefeldt-Laurwig died (March 20, 1855) aged sixty-six.

Ahlefeldt, Maria Theresia von Thurn und Taxis, Countess von – (1755 – 1823)
German composer
Princess Maria Theresia von Thurn und Taxis was born (Feb 28, 1755) the daughter of Alexander Ferdinand, Prince von Thurn und Taxis. She was married (1780) to the Danish diplomat Count Ferdinand von Ahlefeldt and resided with him at the German court of Ansbach until 1791. The countess later accompanied her husband to Denmark where she was appointed to oversee the royal theatre in Copenhagen (1792 – 1794).
During this period the countess produced the four act opera Telemark pa Calypsos (1792) for which she also produced several orchestral and vocal pieces. She may have produced the score for the comic opera La folie, ou Quel conte (1789). Countess Maria Theresia died (Nov 4, 1823) aged sixty-eight, in Prague, Bohemia.

Ahlgren, Ernst – (1850 – 1888)
Swedish novelist
Ernst Ahlgren the pseudonym of Victoria Benedictsson, the daughter of a farmer from the Scania region. Refused an artistic career by her family, she was forced into a loveless marriage with a widower with five children. Her first work Pengar (Money) (1885) was the story of her own experiences.

Ahmose Nefertari– (c1580 – c1515 BC) 
Queen of Egypt
Ahmose Nefertari was the daughter of Kamose and Queen Ahhopte II. She became the wife of King Ahmose I, who gained the throne though marriage with her, and was the mother of his successor, Amenhotep I, and of a daughter, Meryetum. The queen survived her husband for thirty years and was honoured with a large number of inscriptions. Her husband granted, or sold, her the office of second prophet of Amun at Karnak, to be held by the queen or her descendants in perpetuity. Interred within the royal necropolis at Thebes, her tomb was later looted by robbers, who desecrated her mummy in order to steal her jewellery.

Aia    see    Aya

Aicher-Scholl, Inge – (1907 – 1998)
German pacifist and author
Inge Scholl was the sister of Hans and Sophie Scholl who were killed during the Nazi regime (1943). She married the designer Otl Aicher, and with several friends she founded (1946) an art school and adult education centre at Ulm, remaining the head of this establishment for nearly thirty years (1946 – 1974). Inge remained irrevocably committed to the cause of paicifism all her life. Her siblings had been involved in the student anti-Nazi movement, the ‘White Rose.’
Aicher-Scholl produced the book (1952) which provided the descriptions of the non-violent resistance offerred by the group to the Nazi officials. During the 1980’s she fought bitterly against the establishment of nuclear missile stations in West Germany by NATO, and was later arrested for her involvement in a peaceful demonstration at the American missile base at Mutlangen (1985). Inge Aicher-Scholl died (Sept 4, 1998) aged ninety-one, at Leutkirch, near Frankfort-am-Main, in southern Germany.

Aida, Celeste – (1916 – 1984)
Brazilian film actress
Aida was born in Rio de Janeiro and appeared in such films as I due sergenti (The Two Sergeants) (1936), Ingiusta Condanna (Guilt is Not Mine) (1952), Cangaceiros de Lampiao (1967) and O Sexomaniaco (1976). She also appeared in the television film Casa di bambola (1958) under the name of Celeste Aida Zanchi. Celeste Aida died (June 11, 1984) in Rio de Janeiro.

Aidinoff, Cissie Spiro – (1930 – 1984)
American legal aid executive
Cissie Spiro was born in New York City, and graduated from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia (1951). She married lawyer Bernard Aidinoff, and the couple were rescued from the cruise ship, the Andrea Doria, when the liner collided with the Swedish ship Stockholm off the coast of Massachusetts, and sank (1956). Having already worked on the presidential campaign staffs of Adlai Stevenson in New York (1956), Aidinoff was later appointed director of press and public relations for New York Citizens for Johnson (1964) during the presidential campaign of Lyndon B. Johnson.
Aidinoff was later named by President Johnson to serve a term on the Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (1968 – 1971) and served as chairman of the committee (1970). She was director of the Legal Aid Society of New York (1976), being conspicuously involved with fund-raising activities, and was appointed vice-chairman (1979). Cissie Aidinoff died of cancer (June 25, 1984) in Manhattan, New York.

Aigremont, Agnes – (c1130 – c1184)
French mediaeval heiress
Agnes was the daughter of Rayner I, Seigneur d’Aigremont in Burgundy. She was married firstly to the Seigneur de Lavilleneuve and secondly to Ulric of Deuilly (died 1166). She was the mother of Ulrich II, Seigneur de Lavilleneuve, who inherited Aigremont at his mother’s death.

Aigueblanche, Leonette d’ – (fl. c1310 – c1340)
French medieval heiress
Leonette was the daughter of Jean d’Aigueblanche (died after 1330) and became the wife of her distant cousin, Hugh d’Aigueblanche (died 1344), a kinsman of Hugh d’Aigueblanche, Bailli of Bresse (1270). She inherited the seigneurie of Briancon in Savoy, which was held and administered by her husband in her right. Her son was Gaspard d’Aigueblanche, seigner of Briancon, Villardsallet, Moutiers, Bellecombe, and Crest, and her descendants included Jacques II d’Aigueblanche (died before 1523), Comte de Montmayeur, and his son Francois d’Aigueblanche (died 1581), governor and lieutenant-general of Chablis, and his son, Gaspard Armand d’Aigueblanche, Comte de Montmayeur, who was killed at the siege of Ravel (1588).

Aiguillon, Anne Charlotte de Crussol de Florensac, Duchesse d’ – (1700 – 1772)
French salonniere
Anne Charlotte de Crussol de Florensac was married (1718) Armand Louis Vignerot du Plessis-Richelieu Duc d’Aiguillon (1683 – 1750), and was the mother of Emanuel Armand, Duc d’Aiguillon, minister to King Louis XV. Possessed of beauty but irregular features, the duchesse was well known in Parisian society, and it was recorded that when her husband, the Comte d’Agenois was made a duke (1731) which granted her the right of tabouret (to sit in the king’s prescence) she was so excited that she developed smallpox.
The duchesse appears consistently in the correspondence of Horace Walpole and Madame du Deffand, who, in reference to her weight in later years, called her the grosse duchesse and gave her the witty epithet Grossissima. Her weekly salon attracted statesmen, philosopher and men of letters like Charles Henault, Pierre Louis de Maupertuis, Charles Pinot Duclos, and the novelist, the abbe Antoine de Prevost. Highly educated, she could speak four languages, was interested in the sciences, and translated from English Epitre d’Heloise a Abelard (1758) by Alexander Pope and Carthon (1762) by Ossian. A friend of Charles de Montesquiou and protector of the abbe Jean Martin de Prades, the duchesse patronised Voltaire, and when he was imprisoned within the Bastille after publishing his Lettres philosophiques (1734), the duchesse successfully intervened with the Princesse de Conti on his behalf. The duchesse died (June 15, 1772).

Aiguillon, Louise Felicite de Brehan-Plelo, Duchesse d’ – (1726 – 1796)
French Bourbon courtier
Louise Felicite de Brehan-Plelo was the daughter of Louis de Brehan (1699 – 1734), Comte de Plelo and his wife Louise Francoise Phelypaux de La Vrilliere, the daughter of Louis Phelypaux, Comte de Saint-Florentin and Marquis de Chateauneuf and Marquis de La Vrilliere. She was the niece of Louis Phelypaux, Duc de La Vrilliere, and became the wife (1740) of Emanuel Armand du Plessis de Richelieu (1720 – 1788), second Duc d’ Aiguillon (1750 – 1788).
Madame d’Aiguillon and her husband were prominent figures at the courts of Louis XV and of Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette at Versailles, and were mentioned in the letters of the British antiquarian Horace Walpole. She survived her husband as the Dowager Duchesse d’Aiguillon (1788 – 1796) and survived the horrors of the Revolution. The duchesse died (Sept 15, 1796).

Aiguillon, Marie Madeleine de Vignerot du Pont de Courlay, Duchesse de – (1604 – 1675) 
French courtier, literary figure, and philanthropist
Marie Madeleine de Vignerot du Pont de Courlay was the niece of the infamous Cardinal Richelieu. She married (1620) Antoine de Beauvoir du Roure, sieur de Combalet, the nephew of the Connetable de Luynes. Widowed soon afterwards (1622) Marie became lady-in-waiting to the queen mother, Marie de Medici, through the influence of her uncle.  Prominent in literary circles and the precieuse salons, Pierre Corneille dedicated his drama Le Cid to her (c1637).
Marie was created duchesse d’Aiguillon (1638) but with the cardinal’s death (1642) she withdrew from the court and devoted herself to philanthropic concerns. Madame d’Aigullon assisted St Vincent de Paul to establish a hospital for foundling children, and took a prominent part in organizing the establishment of the General hospital and several other smaller establishments in the provincial regions. With her death the duchy of Aiguillon passed to her niece Marie Madeleine Therese de Vignerot, Madamoiselle d’Agenois (1635 – 1705) who also held the sovereign barony of Saujon.

Aiheria     see     Egeria

Aiken, Joan Delano – (1924 – 2004)
British novelist, poet, dramatist and children’s writer
Joan Aiken was born (Sept 4, 1924) in Rye, East Sussex the daughter of the poet Conrad Aiken. She began working for the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and soon began her career as a professional writer. She was best known for her historical phantasy works for juveniles such as The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1962), The Whispering Mountain (1968), and The Witch of Clatteringshaws (2005).
Miss Aiken was also the author of the popular Mortimer and Arabel series which included The Tales of Arabel’s Raven (1974) and were illustrated by Quentin Blake. Her thriller novels included Last Movement (1979), The Butterfly Picnic, and A Cluster of Separate Sparks (1972). Her other works included Night Fall (1969) and The Green Flash (1971). She was the recipient of the Guardian Award (1969) and the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1972). Joan Aiken died (Jan 4, 2004) aged seventy-nine.

Aikenhead, Mary – (1787 – 1858)
Irish Catholic nun
Mary Aikinhead was born in Cork, the daughter of Dr David Aikinhead, and was educated and brought up in the Protestant faith. Her father converted to Catholicism (as later did her mother) and soon afterwards Mary herself converted. The death of her mother left her free of familial dependancies, and the Archbishop of Dublin supported her foundation of the Sisters of Charity, the first such congregation in Ireland.
After initial administrative training in a convent in York, Mary and an assistant founded the first convent in Dublin, and Mary was appointed superior of this new order. Though she suffered from chronic ill-health throughout her life, Mary founded nine other such convents for more nuns, and also was the founder of St Vincent’s Hospital, the first hopital to be served and run by a religious order in Ireland.

Aikin, Anna Laetitia    see   Barbauld, Anna Laetitia

Aikin, Lucy – (1781 – 1864)
British children’s author
Lucy Aikin was born at Warrington, the daughter of John Aiken (1747 – 1822), the physician and man of letters, and was the niece of author Anna Laetitia Barbauld. Aikin believed that young, growing children could appreciate verse as much as adults, and compiled the anthology of verse, Poetry for Children, consisting of short pieces to be committed to memory (1801). This work included some works from Alexander Pope, and John Dryden, as well some from her aunt, Mrs Barbauld, whose works had not been written partuicularly for juveniles. It also contained the poem ‘The Old Man’s Comforts, And How He Gained Them’ written by Robert Southey which Lewis Carroll later parodied in his ‘You are old, Father William.’

Aikin revised this volume more than once, and it remained in print over forty years. Her private papers and letters were edited by P.H. Le Breton, and were published posthumously as Memoirs, Miscellanies and Letters of Lucy Aikin: including those addressed to the Reverend Dr Channing (William Ellery Channing) from 1826 – 1842 (1864).

Aikman, Louisa Susannah Wells – (1755 – 1831)
American diarist
Louisa Susannah Aikin was born to a colonial loyalist family. Her private journal covers the period (May – Aug, 1778), and is a record of journey undertaken by Louisa, who embarked from Charleston, South Carolina and travelled ship to London, England. It was edited and published by the New York Historical Society, seventy-five years after her death as, Journal of a Voyage from Charleston, South Carolina to London, undertaken during the American Revolution. By a Daughter of an Eminent American Loyalist in the year 1778 and written from Memory only in 1779 (1906).

Ailesbury, Charlotte Jacqueline d’Argenteau, Countess of – (1678 – 1710)
Flemish-Anglo heiress and peeress
Charlotte d’Argenteau was the only child and heiress of Louis Conrad, Count d’Argenteau and his wife Ghisberte Jeanne de Locquenghien. She inherited the county of Esneux in Flanders. She became the second wife (1700) of the British Stuart and Hanoverian statesman Thomas Bruce (1656 – 1741), the second Earl of Ailesbury and became Countess of Ailesbury in England.
The marriage produced an only daughter Lady Marie Therese Charlotte Bruce (1704 – 1736) who became the wife of Maximilien Emanuel, Prince of Horn and Oversiques (1695 – 1763). Her descendants included Louisa of Stolberg-Gedern, the wife of Bonnie Prince Charles Stuart, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen the queen consort of William IV of Great Britain, the Stuart-Fitzjames dukes of Berwick in France.

Ailesbury, Dorothy Haseley, Marchioness of    see    Tester, Doll

Ailleboust, Barbe d’ – (c1618 – 1685)
French-Canadian religious founder and saint
Born Barbe de Boulogne she became the wife of Louis d’Ailleboust, Sieur de Coulanges, who served as Governor-General of Canada (1648 – 1651). She accompanied her husband to Canada (1643) where she learned the native Algonquin language. After her husband’s death (1660) she founded the Confraternity of the Holy Family (1663), and died at the Hotel Dieu in Quebec, to which she bequeathed her fortune.

Aine (Amie) – (fl. c1345 – 1357)
Scottish queen of the Isles
Aine was the daughter of Ruaridh, the chieftain of the Uists. She was married (c1345) to Euan, King of the Isles (1329 – 1380), to whom she bore three sons, including Ranald, who became the founder of the famous Clan Ranald, and was ancestor of the famous Jacobite heroine, Flora Macdonald. Despite having borne sons to assure the succession, the union of Aine and Euan did not remain harmonious, and eventually the queen retired from the court to the Benedictine abbey of Iona (1355).
King Euan was captured by the English at the Battle of Poitiers (1356) and spent a year imprisoned in England. Upon his return he found that Queen Aine had divorced him 1357. With Euan’s death (1380) he passed over the sons of Aine in favour of his male issue by his second wife Margaret Stewart, the daughter of Robert II, King of Scotland.

Aineidassa, Irene – (c1110 – 1151)
Byzantine Imperial princess
Irene Aineidassa was the wife (1125) of Prince Andronikos Komnenus (1108 – 1142), the second son of the emperor Johannes II (1118 – 1143). Her children were Johannes Dukas Komnenus, duke of Cyprus (1128 – 1176), and four daughters, of whom Eudokia Komnena caused much censorious scandal after being pursued by her uncle, the emperor Manuel I (1143 – 1180), whilst the youngest, Theodora Komnena, became the wife of Heinrich II Jasmirgott, Duke of Austria. Presented officially to Bertha of Sulzbach, the wife of Manuel I upon her arrival in Constantinople (1142), her husband died shortly afterwards.
Irene survived him barely a decade. Her grandchildren included Alexius Komnenus, Emperor of Thessalonika (1185 – 1187) and Maria Komnena (1149 – 1217), the second wife of the Crusader king Amalric II of Jerusalem. Another granddaughter, a second Eudokia Komnena, became the maternal grandmother of Jaime I El Conquistador (the Conqueror), King of Aragon (1213 – 1276).

Ainianos, Aganike – (1838 – 1892)
Greek poet
Aganike Ainianos was born in Athens. Involved in anti-government uprisings against the German born King Otho, she was forced to flee into hiding. Ainianos wrote poetry in the Greek vernacular rather than ancient classical Greek, and so her work was despised by her contemporaries.

Ainsworth, Helen – (1901 – 1961)
American film actress and producer
Ainsworth was born (Oct 10, 1901) in San Jose, California, and appeared in almost one dozen films including Big News (1929), Dance With Me (1930), Gold Mine In the Sky (1938), You’re the One (1941) and The Lady Is Willing (1942). She then worked as an actors’ agent for such well known movie stars as Marilyn Monroe, Howard Keel and Carol Channing, amongst other famous figures, and then set her talents to being a movie producer.
Ainswoth produced or assisted with the production, of five films including Five Against the House (1955), The Hard Man (1957) and Bullwhip (1958). She also produced the popular television show Zane Grey Theater (1955) for which she wrote several episodes. Helen Ainsworth died (Aug 18, 1961) aged fifty-nine, in Hollywood, California.

Aioffe of Leinster (Eva) – (c1154 – c1189)
Irish princess and heiress
Aioffe of Leinster was the younger daughter of Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster and his wife Mor O’ Toole the daughter of Murtough O’ Toole, Lord of Omuretly, and sister to St Laurence O’ Toole (1128 – 1180), Archbishop of Dublin. Her elder sister Urlachan became the wife of Donnell More, King of Thomond. Richard Fitzgilbert (1130 – 1176) the earl of Pembroke, nicknamed Strongbow, had received a promise from King Dermot (1168) that if he assisted him to recover his lost kingdom, he would receive Princess Aioffe in marriage and with her the succession to the kingdom of Leinster.
With Dermot’s death (May, 1171) Aioffe and Richard were married three months later. In a surviving charter she styled herself Eva comitissa, heres Regis Deremici, though she was not her father’s true heir in the genealogical sense as she had brothers who left children. Together with her uncle, Archbishop Laurence, the countess witnessed her husband’s grant to Glendalough Abbey. With her husband’s death (1176) Aioffe was styled as countess of Ireland, comitissa de Hybernia est de donatione Domini regis, and her dower included the manors of Western in Hertfordshire, and Greate Chesterfield, in Essex, England. She never remarried.
Princess Aioffe died near the end of the reign of Henry II and was not mentioned in charters in connection with the marriage of her daughter Isabella (Aug, 1189) or afterwards. Her son Gilbert Fitzgilbert (1173 – 1186) succeeded as third earl of Pembroke (1176) but died young, leaving Aioffe’s only remaining child, Isabella Fitzgilbert (1174 – 1220), who became the wife of William Marshal (1136 – 1218) created Earl of Pembroke in her right by King Richard I.

Airlie, Clementina Drummond, Countess of – (1795 – 1835)
Scottish Hanoverian heiress
Clementina Drummond was the only child and sole heir of Gavin Drummond and his wife Clementina, the sister and coheiress of Alexander Graham of Duntroon, the male heir to John, Viscount Dundee. She was the paternal granddaughter of James Drummond of Keltie, Perth. Clementina became the first wife (1812) in Marylebone, London, of David Ogilvy (1785 – 1849), fourth Earl of Airlie, and bore him five children. Though often incapacitated due to almost constant ill-health, Lady Clementina Airlie’s continued participation in various prominent charitable and philanthropic activities, caused her to be popularly known as, ‘The Good Countess.’ The Countess of Airlie died (Sept 1, 1835) aged forty, at Duntroon in Scotland. Her children were,

• Lady Jean Graham Drummond Ogilvy (1818 – 1902). She remained unmarried.
• Lady Clementina Drummond Ogilvy (1819 – 1848). She became the wife of Captain James Rait (died 1877), of Anniston, Forfarshire.
• David Ogilvy (1826 – 1881). He succeeded his father as fifth Earl of Airlie (1849 – 1881) and left descendants.
• Lady Marie Anne Ogilvy (1827 – 1893). She remained unmarried.
• Lady Helen Susanna Catherine Gertrude Ogilvy (1831 – 1862). She was married to George Augustus Pepper Staveley (died 1890), as his first wife, and left issue.

Airlie, Mabell Frances Elizabeth Gore, Countess of – (1866 – 1956)
British courtier and memoirist
Lady Mabell Gore was the daughter of Charles Fox Gore, fifth Earl of Arran, and his wife Edith Elizabeth Jocelyn. She was married (1886) to David Ogilvy (1856 – 1900), eleventh Earl of Airlie, to whom she bore six children. Widowed young, in 1902, after much persuasion, Lady Airlie entered the household of the Princess of Wales (Mary of Teck), whom she had known since childhood. The countess would remain Queen Mary’s close friend and chief lady-in-waiting for over fifty years, until that lady’s death (1953).
For many years Lady Airlie served on the board of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Nursing Service, and her own experience in this field greatly aided her in guiding Queen Mary’s involvement in the effort for World War I. She also devoted much time to organizations such as the Army Nursing Board, for which she was created GBE (1920). Her lifelong services were rewarded by Queen Elizabeth II, who created her GCVO (1953).
Lady Airlie was the author of two historical works, In Whig Society 1775 – 1818 (1921), which included the letters of the first Lady Melbourne and her daughter Emily entitled Lady Palmerston and Her Times (1922) and With the Guards We Shall Go: A Guardman’s Letters in the Crimea, 1854-55 (1933), the letters of her own maternal great-uncle Colonel Strange Jocelyn. Her own reminiscences entitled Thatched With Gold, the Memoirs of Mabell, Countess of Airlie were published posthumously (1962). The Dowager Countess of Airlie died (April 7, 1956) in London.

Airola, Angela Veronica – (c1610 – 1670)
Italian painter
Angela Airola became a nun at the convent of San Bartolomeo dell’Oliva in Genoa, where she continued her career as an artist behind the walls. Airola is known to have produced various frescoes for her convent, as well as executing a painting for the church of the Pauline Friars Minor.

Airy, Anna – (1882 – 1964)
British painter and portraitist, etcher and pastellist
Anna Airy was born at Greenwich in London. She received commissions from the Imperial War Museum to paint munitions factories (1918). Airy was elected a member of the Royal Society of Painters and Etchers and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, and wrote The Art of Pastel. Anna Airy died (Oct 23, 1964) aged eighty-two, at Playford, near Ipswich, Suffolk.

Aisceline of Limoges    see    Almodis of Limoges

A’isha bint Abi Bakr (Ayesha) – (613 – 678)
Arab Muslim leader and teacher
A’isha was born at Mecca, the daughter of Abu Bekr. Her father was a supporter of the prophet Mohammed (c567 – 632), and married A’ishah to him (March, 624), after the death of his first wife Khadijah. Always his favourite wife, Mohammed defended her in palace disputes, but died when she was eighteen, apparently in her arms, and we have to rely on her statements for information about Mohammed’s last hours. As his widow, she was forbidden to remarry.

As Mohammed died without a male heir, A’ishah emerged as a powerful political force, and maintained this position because of her courage and intelligence, becoming an authority on Muslim tradition. Important for her active role during the civil war, she was defeated and captured at the battle of the Camel at Basra in 656, and was only granted release when she promised to abandon her political activities. Her religious teachings contributed to the emergence of the Sunni Muslims, and she is credited as the author of over two thousand surviving statements and public orations. At her death she was accorded a prominent position in Muslim culture and history.

A’isha bint Ahmad al-Qurtubiyya – (fl. 965 – 999)
Arab poet
Some of her verses have survived, including the untitled poem which begins “I am a lioness …. “

Aisse, Charlotte Elisabeth – (c1693 – 1733)
Circassian-French letter writer
Madamoiselle Aisse was born the daughter of a Circassian chief and was originally named Haidee. Her father’s palace was pillaged by Turks (c1698) and she was sold to the Comte de Ferriol, the French Ambassador at Constantinople. She was brought up in Paris with the Comte’s nephews, Charles Augustin de Ferriol, Comte d’Argental and his brother, Antoine de Ferriol, Comte de Pont-de-Veyle.
Usually nown as Madamoiselle Aisse, which is a French corruption of Haidee, she assumed the names Charlotte Elisabeth after her conversion. Aisse’s beauty and background attracted her much celebrity in Regency Paris, but she did refuse the advances of the regent Duc d’Orleans. She formed a lasting romantic attachment with the nephew of the marquis de Saint-Aulaire, the chevalier, Blaise-Marie d’Aydie (1692 – 1761), to whom she secretly bore a daughter. Through the influence of her friend Madame Calandrini she converted to Catholicism. Madamoiselle Aisse died (March 13, 1733) in Paris, with Aydie by her side, whilst Madame du Deffand sent her own confessor to tend her.
Her surviving letters which were written to her friend the marquise de Calandrini revelas touching insights into Aisse’s own tender and observant character, as well as providing interesting descriptions of French society celebrities of the period such as Madame Du Deffand and Madame de Tencin. The famous literary critic Charles Sainte-Beuve dedicated to her his famous essay, Madamoiselle Aisse, Portraits litteraires (1832 – 1839).

Aitken, Penelope – (1910 – 2005)
British socialite and film actress
Born Penelope Loader Maffey (Dec 2, 1910) in Peshawar, India, she was the daughter of Sir John Loader Maffey (1877 – 1969), first Baron Rugby, diplomat and Governor-General of the Sudan in Africa, by his wife Dorothy Gladys Huggins, the daughter of Charles Lang Huggins, of Hadlow Grange, Buxted. Penelope returned to England as a child and attended school at Sherborne. She was presented at court to King George V and Queen Mary, and her name was romantically linked with the society painter Simon elwes (1902 – 1975) and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, the husband of Queen Juliana, amongst others.
Penelope Maffey was married (1938) to Sir William Traven Aitken (1903 – 1964), the nephew of Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook. The couple had two children. During WW II Penelope performed valuable work with the WRVS (Women’s Royal Voluntary Service) and then became a magistrate. She was involved in various public causes including providing help for the victims of the 1953 flood, for which worked she was appointed MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II (1955). She became Lady Aitken when her husband was knighted (1963).
As a widow Penelope became re-involved with Simon Elwes, and created a famous garden at her moated Tudor home near Ipswich. She spent the last years of her life with the noted journalist and broadcaster, Noel Picarda (died 2003). She was the mother of the MP Jonathon Aitken (born 1942) and the actress Maria Aitken (born 1945), and was the grandmother of actor Jack Davenport. Lady Aitken died of cancer (Feb 7, 2005) aged ninety-four.

Aix, Agnes d’ – (c1065 – after 1120)
French religious founder
Agnes d’Aix was the wife of Alard Guillebaud, Seigneur de Chateaumeillant, in the county of Berry, and was herself of the family of the counts of Aix, in Provence, being related to the noble family of Sully. Agnes later seperated from her husband their marriage being declared invalid due to consanguinity. She retired to become a nun (c1100), living under the guidance of the religious leader, Robert d’Arbrissel, at his new foundation of the Abbey of St Marie at Fontevrault. Under Robert’s direction, Agnes was established as prioress of Orsan in c1107. Agnes was intrumental in establishing several other religious houses that were dependant on the the mother house of Fontevrault, notably the convent of St Maria de Vega, at Oviedo, Spain (1120).

Aix, Malberjone d’ – (c1230 – after 1307)
French Provencal heiress
Malberjone d’Aix was the only daughter of Isoard d’Aix, Baron de Chatillon in Diois, and his wife Dragonette de Montauban, the daughter of Seigneur Dragonet de Montauban and his wife Vierne de Baladun. Her marriage was contracted during childhood (1239) with Raymond I de Baux, Prince of Orange, the son of Guillaume I de Baux and his first wife Ermengarde de Mevouillon. Malberjone’s dowry consisted of the castles of Aubres, Condorcet, Marsanne, Noveysan, Montjeux, Teyssures, Rocheblave and Venterol.
Her only brother Raymond d’Aix rebelled against their father Isoard, who disinherited him in favour of Malberjone’s husband, his son-in-law Raymond. With her father’s death Malberjone became Dame de Chatillon as well. She survived her husband for over twenty-five years as the Dowager Princess of Orange and was living (Sept 13, 1307). Her children were,

• Guillaume de Baux (c1249 – c1281). He was married to Guise de Lunel and left an only daughter Stephanette, the wife of Bertrand III de Baux, Seigneur de Courthezon.
• Bertrand IV de Baux (c1255 – 1314). He succeeded his father as Prince of Orange (1282 – 1314) and left many descendants from his marriage with Eleonore of Geneva.

Ajja Chandana – (c615 – 527 BC) 
Indian Jaina nun
Ajja Chandana was the first woman disciple of Vardhamara Mahavira, the leader of the Jaina sect, who dissented from Hinduism, and was founder of Jainism. Ajja joined his group of followers (c599 BC) as a young girl. With the death of Mahavira at Pava over twenty years later (576 BC), Ajja became the leader of the first order of Jaina nuns. Ajja died at a great age, at Pava.

Ajofin, Maria de – (c1430 – 1489)
Spanish nun and saint
Maria joined the Order of Jeronimite nuns which had been established by St Pablo (Paul) in Toledo, Castile. This convent was popularly known as San Pablo de las Beatas de Maria Garcias, in honour of the original founder, Maria Garcias, who had established the convent on her own estates. Her veneration feast (July 17) was recorded in the Acta Sanctorum.

Akbar, Shireen – (1944 – 1997)
Anglo-Indian museum director and designer
Born Shireen Hasib in Calcutta, she attended college in Bangldesh. After her marriage and the birth of a daughter, she attended Cambridge University in Britain. Akbar worked to develop art projects, in particular a Bangldeshi textile exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London (1988). Entitled ‘Woven Air’ the exhibition caused considerable impact on British textile manufacturers.
Her last major project, for which she was awarded an MBE, was the spectacular exhibition she organized for the Victoria and Albert Museum, Shamiana: the Mughal Tent (1997), which included sixty-five panels made especially by eight hundred women in nine different countries. Shireen Akbar died of cancer.

Aked, Muriel – (1887 – 1955)
British character actress
Muriel Aked appeared in such films as Rome Express (1932), Two Thousand Women (1944), The Wicked Lady (1945), and The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950).

Akeley, Mary Lee Jobe – (1878 – 1966)
American explorer and photographer
Mary Lee Jobe was born in Tappan, Ohio, and was married to the explorer and author Carl Ethan Akeley (1864 – 1926). Akeley accompanied her husband on his expeditions to the Congo, and other parts of Africa, and co-wrote with him, Adventures in the African Jungle (1930). Her own works were Carl Akeley’s Africa (1929), Lions, Gorillas, and Their Neighbors (1932), Restless Jungle (1936), The Wilderness Lives Again: Carl Akeley and the Great Adventure (1940), and Congo Eden (1950). Mary Jobe Akeley died (July 19, 1966) aged eighty.

Akers, Elizabeth Chase – (1832 – 1911)
American poet
Elizabeth Chase was born in Strong, Maine, and she became the wife of the neo-classic sculptor and author Benjamin Paul Akers (1825 – 1861), whom she survived for fifty years. Elizabeth was the author of the novel, The Triangular Society (1886), but she is best known for her poems and verse, especially the famous poem, Rock Me to Sleep, Mother (1860).
Mrs Akers also used the pseudonym ‘Florence Percy’, and was the author of other minor collections of verse such as Forest Buds, from the Woods of Maine (1856), The High Top Sweeting, and Other Poems (1891), and, The Proud Lady of Stavoren (1897). Elizabeth Chase Akers died (Aug 7, 1911) aged seventy-eight, in Tuckahoe, New York.

Akeson, Sonja Berta Maria – (1926 – 1977)
Swedish poet and writer
Born Sonja Hammarberg into a poor rural family, she was raised on the Island of Gotland. She later moved to Stokcholm, where she began her literary career. Her first published work was the collection of verse Situationer (Situations) (1957) was followed by two others Leva livet (Living Life) (1961) and Husfrid (Domestic Peace) (1963), all of which were extremely well received by her contemporaries. Akeson rose to become an important figure in Swedish contemporary literature. Her most famous poem was the controversial ‘Be White Man’s Slave’ (1963), and with her husband she produced a collection of haiku poems entitled Saga nom Siv (The Saga of Siv) (1974).

Akhmatova, Anna Andreievna – (1888 – 1967) 
Russian poet
Born Anna Gorenko near Odessa (June 11, 1888), and grew up around the Imperial estate of Tsarskoe Selo. Anna studied in Kiev before the family moves to St Petersburg. She had begun writing poetry at the age of eleven, but when she began publishing these verses (1907) she took the professional name of Akhmatova, so that she would not tarnish the family name. In 1910 she joined the Acmeist movement, which included the author Boris Pasternak and Nikolai Gumilev, whom she married (1910).
Early collections of her work appeared during this period including, Vecher (Evening) (1912), Chetki (The Rosary) (1914), and Belaya Staya (The White Flock) (1917). This marriage, which produced an only child, ended in divorced (1918), and Gumilev was later shot on the orders of Leinin (1921) for involvement in counter-revolutionary activities. Deeply religious, Anna herself was forced into literary silence because of official disapproval of her work, Anno Domini MCMXXI (1922).
Anna remarried to the art historian Nikolai Punin, but did not begin publishing again until 1940 when she produced Iz checti knig. During World War II, she was evacuated from Leningrad, and resided in Tashkent (1941 – 1944). She was expelled from the Union of soviet Writers (1946) and Punin was also sent to prison (1953). It was not until after the death of Joseph Stalin, that she was officially reinstated, together with her work. Her two most famous works, Poema bez geroya (Poems without a Hero), and Rekviem (Requiem) (1963), composed to reveal the sufferring of the victims of the Stalinist regime, were published abroad to great acclaim.
Anna Akhmatova visited Italy in 1964, and she was granted an honorary degree by Oxford University (1965) in recognition of her literary contributions. In the same year, just before her death, Akhmatova was finally recognized by her homeland as one of Russia’s greatest female poets. Her Complete Poems (1993) were published posthumously.

Akhurst, Daphne Jessie – (1903 – 1933)
Australian tennis player
Daphne Akhurst was born in Sydney, New South Wales. A natural and aggressive player from early childhood, Akhurst won many several state titles, achieving the Australian singles crown on five occasions between 1925 and 1930. She formed a member of the group appointed as the first Australian female team to travel and compete overseas (1925) and was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon in the single and doubles. She was runner-up in the mixed doubles with Jack Crawford (1908 – 1991). Akhurst retired from competitive tennis after her marriage (1930). Daphne Akhurst died (Jan 9, 1933) aged only twenty-nine.

Akiko – (988 – 1074)
Japanese empress consort (c995 – 1010)
Fujiwara no Akiko was the daughter of Fujiwara no Michinaga and his wife Minamoto Rinshi. Her younger sister Kenshi became the wife of the Emperor Danjo (1008 – 1036). Akiko was married to the Emperor Ichiyo (980 – 1012). She survived him for over six decades as Empress Dowager (1012 – 1074) and never remarried, devoting her time to establishing a court noted for its literary figures and poets. Akiko is considered by historians to be the Japanese version of Queen Victoria.

Akimova, Sofia Vladimirovna – (1887 – 1947)
Georgian soprano
Sophia Akimova was born in Tiflis, and received her vocal training under Maria Slavina. She became the wife of fellow opera singer and actor Ivan Vasilievich Ershov (1867 – 1943). Sofia performed as a soloist with the Marinskii Theatre in Petrograd, and was later appointed a professor of music at the Leningrad Conservatory.

Akins, Zoe – (1886 – 1958)
American novelist, poet and dramatist
Zoe Akins was born in Humansville, Montana. She trained in New York as an actress, and published her first collection of poems, Interpretations (1912), after which she devoted herself to playwriting. Zoe achieved popularity with her melodramatic Declassee (1919), Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting (1921) the portrait of a crumbling marriage, and also a comedy involving the Ziegfield showgirls entitled The Greeks Had a Word For It (1930). Her adaptation of Edith Wharton’s famous novel The Old Maid (1935) won her the Pulitzer Prize for drama (1955). Zoe was also the author of two novels Forever Young (1941) and Cake upon the Water (1951).

Akkadevi – (c1010 – 1064)
Indian queen
Akkadevi was the daughter of Dashavarman, king of the Chalukya, and became the wife of Manjuravarman, king of the Kadamba. The couple ruled jointly from 1037, the queen attaining a fearsome reputation as an able warrior, who conducted herself with great valour on the battlefield beside her husband. It is recorded that the queen provided funds for the educational instruction of younger members of the nobility at her court and that she was responsible for the construction of several temples and shrines.

Akrabonia (Acrabonia) – (fl. c60 – c70 AD)
Hebrew Christian saint
Akrabonia and Askama were venerated by the Ethiopian church as saints (Dec 29).  Ancient sources name them as Deuris and Caria, which were probably their real names, and they were of Greek origin. They were referred to as the ‘wives’ of King Herod Agrippa II, and were converted by the preaching of St Peter.
Herod Agrippa had no known queen, these duties being performed by his sister, the famous Queen Berenice, so Akrabonia and Askama were certainly his concubines. Their supposed ‘sinful lives’ was reference to the fact that they were not married to the king in the Christian sense.

Aks, Patricia – (1926 – 1994)
American children’s writer
Patricia Aks was employed with various publishing houses in New York from the early 1950’s. Her first work for young adults, No More Candy (1979) was not published until she was over fifty. Aks wrote over fifteen other titles, all fiction for children including Lisa’s Choice (1980), You Don’t Have to Be a Perfect Girl (1981), A New King of Love (1982), The Searching Heart (1983), The Club (1988), A Friend for Keeps (1989), and Love Knots (1986). Aks co-wrote The Real Me (1986) with Lisa Norby, and produced other works under the pseudonym of ‘Emily Chase’ such as Keeping Secrets (1984), Best Friends Forever (1984), and Graduation Day (1986). Patricia Aks died in New York.

Akselrod, Liubov Ivanovna – (1868 – 1946)
Russian Marxist philosopher
Akselrod attended the University of Bern in Switzerland. She joined the growing revolutionary movement as a young girl, and espoused their patriotic ideals. She was critical of the philosophy of Lenin and was later appointed as a member of the Committee of the Menshevik Party (1917). Akselrod became a Communist lecturer at the Institute of Red Professors (1921 – 1923). Liubov Akselrod died (Feb 5, 1946).

Alabaster, Ann O’Connor – (1842 – 1915)
New Zealand educator
Ann Warner was born in Oxford, England, the daughter of Robert Warner, a shoemaker. She was married (1858) to Charles Alabaster, and the couple emigrated to Lyttelton, New Zealand (1859) aboard the Strathallan, eventually settling in Christchurch. When her husband was forced to retire as chaplain to Bishop Harper because of ill-health (1861), the needs of their growing family led them to open the Lincoln Cottage Preparatory School for boys in Christchurch (1862).
Widowed in 1865, Ann continued to run the school with considerable success. She retired in 1880 and opened a boarding house for young ladies in Christchurch. She was remarried (1891) to Canon Francis Knowles, an Anglican clergyman. Ann Alabaster died (Feb 25, 1915) in Christchurch.

Alacoque, Margeurite Marie – (1647 – 1690) 
French Visitandine nun and founder
Margeurite Alacoque was born at Lauthecourt, near Janots, Burgundy, the daughter of a notary. She sufferred an unhappy childhood, and after being cured of paralysis which she believed was due to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Margeurite became a Visitandine nun at Paray-le-Monial (1672). Known for her ascetism and mysticism, Margeurite experienced mystic visions (1673 – 1675) and under their direction she established the Holy Hour, communion on the first Friday of the month and the feast of the Sacred Heart to be observed on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi. The devotion to the new order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus spread rapidly and was recommeded by the papacy. Later she appointed mistress of the novices and assistant superior. Mother Margeurite Alacoque died (Oct 17, 1690). Declared blessed (1864) she was canonized sixty years later (1920).

‘A Lady’   see    Rundell, Mary Eliza

Alagno, Lucrezia d’ – (c1430 – 1479)
Italian courtier
Lucrezia was the daughter of Noccolo d’Alagno, lord of Torrer Annunziata of Amalfi, and his wife Covella Toraldo. Alfonso V of Naples fell in love with her as a young woman (1448), and she and her family benefited greatly from his generosity. Alfonso wished to marry Lucrezia, but Pope Calixtus III refused the king permission to divorce his estranged wife, Maria of Castile in order to marry her. During the kast years of Alfonso’s life Lucrezia held an important and powerful position at his caourt, and was patroness of the poets Giovanni Pontano and Antonio Brocadelli. Lucrezia d’Alagno spent the latter years of her life in obscutiry and poverty and died (Sept 23, 1479) aged about fifty.

Alaidis of Valois     see    Eldegarde

Alais of France    see   Alice Capet

Al-‘Akhyaliyya, Layla (Laila) – (fl. 665 – 699)
Arab poet
Famous for her poetic talents and independent character, Layla Al’Akhyaliyya recited her works before the local governor and the king, and won poetic contests in which she was rewarded, at her own request, with camels and land. A young man of a neighbouring tribe, Tawba, fell in love with her, and wrote her love poetry to which he confessed her name, which was much against the Arab custom. Layla’s father refused Tawba’s suit, and he married her to another. Tawba visited her, but their relationship remained chaste.
Her enraged husband and his people determined to kill him on his next surreptitious visit, and to warn him, Layla met him without her veil (burqu). He escaped but was later killed by another tribe. Layla mourned him continually ‘discarding female ornament to the end of her life.’ Her poetry was collected by later anthologists and thus preserved.

Alamanda – (fl. c1165 – c1199)
French trobairitz
Alamanda was of Gascon birth, perhaps a native of the town of Estang in Cataubon, Gers, but there is no contemporary vida of her life. The only information known concerning her is that she assisted the poet Guiraut de Bornelh (c1130 – after 1200) in composing chansons. One of these has survived. Bornelh referred to her as ‘Alamanda d’Estancs.’

Al-Anoud – (1925 – 1999)
Saudi Arabian princess and philanthropist
She was born Al-Anoud bint Abdul-Aziz bin Musaed al-Saud and was married as a teenager to Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia (1921 – 2005) as his second wife. She bore him several children of whom her eldest son Prince Faisal bin Fahd (1946 – 1999) later served as a minister of State (1977 – 1999). Her husband Fahd became king of Saudi Arabia in 1982 but his first wife held the title of queen.
Al-Anoud travelled to the USA for medical treatment (1996) and later died (March 9, 1999) in Los Angeles, California. The princess established the Princess Al-Anoud Foundation which provided services and specialised nursing for the care of handicapped children in Riyadh. At her death her daughter Princess Lateefa bint Fahd bin Abdul-Aziz became chairperson of the organization.

Alanova, Kyra – (1902 – 1965)
Russian-American dancer
Alanova became a proponent of modern contemporary dance routines, both on stage and in films from the 1920’s until WW II. She was immortalized by the artist Kees van Dongen in his portrait Alanova (1930). She appeared in such plays as The Little Clay Cart in the role of Vasantasena, as Jean in Nerves, and appeared as Celeste in The Awful Truth (1922 – 1923) which starred Ina Claire. Kyra Alanova died (Sept 1, 1965).

Alba, Irene Caba – (1905 – 1957)
Argentinian film actress
Irene Caba was born (Aug 25, 1905) in Buenos Aires, the daughter of actor Pascual Caba, and his actress wife Irene Alba, and was the niece of veteran actress Leocadia Alba. Alba appeared in around forty films, her credits including El Bailarin y el trabajador (The Dancer and the Worker) (1936), Testamento del virrey (The Viceroy’s Will) (1944), Le Fa (The Faith) (1947), Novio a la vista (Boyfriend in Sight) (1954), Nosotros dos (We Two) (1955), and her last film La Ironia del dinero (1959) which was released in France as Bonjour la chance. Irene Caba Alba died (Jan 14, 1957) aged fifty-one, in Madrid.

Alba, Maria – (1905 – 1999)
American flamenco dancer and teacher
Born Maria Casajuana in Barcelona, of Irish ancestry, she made her debut as a dancer in the original Broadway production of The King and I.  Entranced by the flamenco style after witnessing a performance of Carmen Amaya, Maria studied the dance with Marquitia Flores, and then travelled to Spain, for further training with La Kika and Regla Ortega. She established her flamenco career in Spain, becoming a star attraction at the Ximenez-Vargas Ballet Espagnol.
Maria later founded a dance troupe with Ramon de los Reyes in the mid 1960’s, before organizing several travelling dance troupes of her own, which she organized, managed, and took on tour throughout the world. For seven years in a row she appeared at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts. Considered one of the finest teachers of flamenco in New York, at Fazil’s Rehearsal Studio in the theatre district, Maria was conducting classes up until the time of her death from cancer. Notable amongst her many students were William Carter and Gelsey Kirkland. Alba appeared in several films such as Girl in Every Port (1928), Hell’s Heroes (1930), and Mr Robinson Crusoe (1932).

Alba, Sermena – (fl. c1860 – 1871)
Spanish dramatist
Nothing is known concerning the details of her life. Sermena Alba is recorded as the author of two plays, including Mirallets (Mirrors) which is set in Barcelona, and deals with the plight of a wealthy physician, and the ethical dilemma of using poor patients as medical guinea pigs.

Alba, Teresa Cayetana Maria del Pilar de Silva y Alvarez de Toldeo, Duquesa of – (1762 – 1803)
Spanish beauty and society figure
Dona Teresa de Silva y Alvarez de Toldeo became the wife (1775) of Jose de Toledo Osorio, Duque of Alba (1756 – 1796). She was brought up with an alert intellect but no discipline.
Haughty and beautiful, the duquesa adopted a little Negress into her household as her especial pet, and also became the patron of the artist Francisco Goya (1746 – 1828). Her position at court was hampered by her disregard for the scandal caused by her flirtations, and the hostility that existed between herself and Queen Maria Luisa.
With her husband’s death the duquesa retired to her country estate at Sanlucar between Seville and Cadiz in Andalusia till April, 1797, and Goya may have been her companion in her solitude. It was probably during this period that his most famous painting of the duquesa was completed, of her dressed in maja costume of black and yellow, with a sash of scarlet and gold about her waist, and a black mantilla on her head. Her right hand carried two rings, one bearing the name ‘Alba’, the other ‘Goya’, whilst her index finger points to the date, 1797. Goya always refused to sell this portrait. The romance with Goya ultimately ended and the duchess seduced the queen’s favourite, the minister of war Manuel Godoy.
Gossip at her death (July 23, 1803) whispered of poison. Public sympathy went in favour of the duquesa because she had left much of her huge fortune to her servants and had bequeathed an annuity of 3, 600 reales to Goya’s son Javier Goya y Bayeu (born 1784). However King Carlos appointed Godoy to make an official enquiry into her death which resulted in Alba’s physician and several servants being imprisoned and deprived of their legacies. The queen was soon noticed wearing some of Alba’s most magnificent jewellery.

Albana of Autun (Abba) – (c758 – after 804)
Carolingian noblewoman
Albana was the eldest daughter of Theodoric I, count of Autun and duke of Septimania, and his wife Aldana, the daughter of Karl Martel, Duke of Austrasia. Albana was probably married (c774) to Nibelong II (died after 805), count of the Vexin and lord of Perracy, to whom she bore several children, who were referred to anonymously in a surviving property charter of their father’s (788). Albana later seperated from her husband and became a nun at the abbey of Gellone in Toulouse, founded by her brother, Duke Guillaume. His surviving foundation charter (Dec 14, 804) refers to the duke’s sororibus meis Albana et Bertana who were then living.

Albanesi, Effie     see    Rowlands, Effie Adelaide Maria

Albani, Dame Emma – (1847 – 1930)
Canadian soprano
Born Marie Louise Emma Cecile Lajeunesse in Chambly, Quebec, she was trained in music and singing by her father. Her first public performance at Albany, New York, at the age of sixteen (1864) was the source of her stage name ‘Albani’ by which she was known for the rest of her life. She studied in Paris and Milan, and in 1870 made her debut in Messina. This performance met with such resounding success that her vocal career was quickly established and confirmed amongst the leading cities of Europe and America.
Madame Albani was especially noted for her admirable performances in Wagnerian roles, such as that of Elsa in Lohengrin and Elizabeth in Tannhauser, which she sang in the original German. She was present in San Francisco, California during the famous earthquake there (1906) but escaped unharmed. Emma Albani produced her memoirs, Forty Years of Song (1911), and retired from performing, thereafter devoting herself to teaching music and singing. She was appointed DBE (Dame Commander of the British Empire) (1925) by King George V.

Albany, Anne de La Tour d’Auvergne, Duchess of – (1464 – 1512)
French-Scottish royal
Anne was the daughter of Bertrand de La Tour, Comte d’Auvergne-Bouillon and his wife Louise de La Tremoille. She was married firstly to Prince Alexander Stuart (1454 – 1485), Duke of Albany, the brother of James III of Scotland, as his second wife. Duchess Anne was the mother of Prince John Stuart, Duke of Albany (1484 – 1536) who served as Regent of Scotland during the minority of James V. Left a youthful widow the duchess remarried to the French peer Comte Louis de La Chambre (1444 – 1517), to whom she bore two daughters. Through her second marriage Duchess Anne was the maternal grandmother to Catherine de Medici, the wife of Henry II of France (1547 – 1559).

Albany, Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of   see   Stuart, Charlotte

Albany, Louisa Maximilienne Caroline von Stolberg, Countess of – (1752 – 1824)
British titular Jacobite queen (1766 – 1788)
Countess Louisa was born (Sept 20, 1752) at Mons, Hainault, the daughter of Gustavus Adolf, Prince von Stolberg-Gedern, and his wife Elisabeth Philippine Claudine, the daughter of Maximilian Emanuel, Prince von Hornes and his English wife, Lady Marie Therese Charlotte Bruce. With the death of her father (1757) Louisa and her mother became pensioners of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. She later became a canoness at the Abbey of Chateaulieu at Mons (1770) founded by St Waldetrude in the seventh century. She was married secretly in Florence (1772) to ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, whom the Jacobites considered to be King Charles III (1766 – 1788).
The marriage proved uncongenial to both, and remained childless, the couple eventually residing seperately from 1780, when the countess left her husband.They were eventually divorced in 1784, whereupon Louisa resided with the Italian dramatist, Conte Vittorio Alfieri (1749 – 1803), whom she appears to have secretly married. This illicit union was socially recognized and in Paris the countess assumed the royal state and had a throne in her salon and the royal arms on her plate. With the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789) Louisa travelled to England, where she was presented at court to George III and Queen Charlotte as the Princess of Stolberg. She then made Florence her permanent home.
With Alfieri’s death (1803) Louisa resided with the French painter Francois Fabre, but at her death in Florence, at the age of seventy-one (Jan 29, 1824), her ashes were interred with those of Alfieri in the church of Santa Croce, Florence, between the tombs of Machiavelli and Michelangelo. Sixty years later her private letters were published in Rome under the title Lettere inedite di Luigia Stolberg, Contessa d’Albany a Ugo Roscolo, e dell’ Abate Luigi di Breme alla Contessa d’Albany (1887).

Albemarle, Anne Lennox, Countess of – (1703 – 1789)
British Hanoverian peeress
Lady Anne Lennox was born (June 24, 1703), the daughter of Charles Lennox, first Duke of Richmond, and the paternal granddaughter of King Charles II (1660 – 1685) and his French mistress Louise Renee de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth. She was married (1722) to William Anne Keppel (1702 – 1754), second Earl of Albemarle, the godson of Queen Anne, and left several children. Lady Anne survived her husband well over three decades as the Dowager Countess of Albemarle (1754 – 1789) and attended the coronation of George III and Queen Charlotte as a widowed peeress (1761). Lady Albemarle died (Oct 20, 1789) aged eighty-six, in London.

Albemarle, Gertrude Johanna Quirina van der Duyn, Countess of – (1674 – 1741)
Dutch-Anglo courtier
Gertrude van der Duyn was baptised (Dec 9, 1674) at Grote Kerk, The Hague,  the daughter of Adam van de Duyn (1639 – 1693), Heer van Gravenmeer, and his wife Geertruid (1653 – 1703), the daughter of Antony Pietersen. She became the wife (1701) in The Hague, of Arnold Joost van Keppel (1669 – 1718), master of the Buckhounds to King William III. Keppel was King William’s closest friend, and he bestowed the earldom of Albemarle upon him as a reward (1697).
Queen Anne stood godmother to Gertrude’s eldest son and heir, William Anne Keppel (1702 – 1754), who succeeded his father as second Earl of Albemarle (1718 – 1754), and left descendants. Lady Albemarle was mentioned in the correspondence of Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. Lady Albemarle died (Dec 13, 1741) aged sixty-seven, at The Hague.

Albemarle, Margaret Fitzgerald, Countess of    see    Redvers, Margaret de

Albemarle, Sophia Mary McNab, Countess of – (1832 – 1917)
Canadian-Anglo diarist
Sophia McNab was the daughter of Sir Alan Napier McNab, the Canadian soldier, statesman, and Prime Minister, and his second wife Mary Stuart. She was married in Canada (1855) to William Coutts Keppel (1832 – 1894), who later succeeded as seventh Earl of Albemarle (1891). The couple had ten children, including George Keppel (1865 – 1947), husband of Alice, the mistress of Edward VII, and the great-grandfather of Camilla Shand (later Parker Bowles), second wife (2005) of Charles, Prince of Wales, son of Elizabeth II. Her third daughter was the traveller and diarist, Lady Susan Townley.
Lady Albemarle kept a diary during childhood, whilst visiting Dundrum Castle, in Hamilton, Ontario (1846), when she was aged only thirteen. These letters were compiled and published as, The Diary of Sophia McNab (1974). She survived her husband over twenty years as the Dowager Countess of Albemarle (1894 – 1917). Lady Albemarle died (April 5, 1917) aged eighty-four.

Alberada of Buonalbergo – (1032 – after 1122)
Countess consort of Apulia (1051 – 1058)
Alberada was the paternal aunt of Gerard of Buonalbergo, an important Sicilian baron. She became the first wife (1051) of Robert Guiscard (1015 – 1085), Count (later duke) of Apulia, and was the mother of the famous Crusader Bohemond I of Antioch (1052 – 1111), and of Emma of Hauteville, the wife of Marchese Odo le Bon (the Good), who may possibly be identified with Guglielmo III, Marchese of Ravenna. Emma and Odo were the parents of Prince Tancred of Antioch (1076 – 1112).
Despite the birth of a male heir Alberada and her husband were divorced (1058) on the grounds of consanguinity. She quickly remarried (1058) to Robert’s own half-nephew Richard de Hauteville (c1041 – 1129), Count of Mottola and Seneschal of Apulia and Calabria, as his second wife. She is said to have remarried a third time but if this is true the identity of her last husband remains unknown. Alberada was living aged ninety (July, 1122) when she made a donation in honour of her son Bohemond to the Benedictine monastery of La Cava, near Salerno. At her own death Alberada was interred within the Abbey of Santissima Trinita, near Venosa.

Albert, Marie Madeleine Bonafous d’ – (fl. 1745 – 1775)
French writer
Educated by the nuns of Pentemont, her first published work, Tanastes (1745), provided insights into court life which caused offence amongst higher circles, and she suffered a short period of confinement within the notorious Bastille. She later retired to the Bernardine convent in Moulins (1746), and later to the convent of Petit Saint-Chaumont (1759). She was the author of the novel, Confidences d’une jolie femme (Secrets of a Pretty Woman) (1775).

Alberta – (d. c286 AD)
Roman Christian martyr
Alberta was a native of Agen in southern Gaul. She perished there during the early persecutions instigated by the Emperor Diocletian. Her feast was observed annually (March 11).

Alberta of Castile – (fl. c1070 – 1072)
Queen consort
Of unidentifiable parentage and antecedents, Alberta had been married (c1070) to Sancho II (1035 – 1072), King of Castile. She remained childess and survived Sancho as Queen Dowager of Castile. No other details of her life are recorded.

Albertazzi, Emma – (1814 – 1847)
British contralto vocalist
Emma albertazzi was born (May 1, 1814) in London. She made her stage debut at the King’s Theatre in London (1830). Emma travelled to Italy and Spain where she performed with success and was attached to the Theatre Italien in Paris (1835 – 1837). There she later appeared as Sarah, Duchess of Nottingham in the French premiere of Roberto Devereux (1838). During the latter part of her life she sang at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Emma Albertazzi died (Sept 25, 1847) aged thirty-three, in London.

Alberti, Bartolomea degli – (fl. c1380 – 1416) 
Italian model matron
Bartolomea degli Alberti remained in nominal charge of the family household in Florence, whilst her husband was sent into political exile. Cardinal Giovanni Dominici dedicated to her his treatise on correct wifely behaviour entitled Regola del Governodi cura familiare (1416). This work provided advice for matrons concerning the daily activities, behaviour, and duties of a respectable wife, and also provided details concerning the education of children within the home.

Alberti, Bertha di – (c1125 – 1163)
Italian Benedictine nun
Bertha di Alberti was born in Florence of the family of the counts of Vernio, whose lands later passed to the Bardi family in the fourtenth century. Pious from childhood, in 1143 she took the veil at the convent of St Felicitas in Florence, whence she had been sent by Gesualdo Galli, general of the Order of Vallambrosa, a branch of the Benedictines, to preside over the monastery of St Maria at Capriola in Valdarno. Distinguished by miracles and regarded a saint, she died aged thirty-seven, and was buried under the high altar of the chapel of st Maria in Capriola. The church venerated her memory (March 24).

Albertina Agnes of Nassau – (1634 – 1696)
Flemish princess and ruler
Princess Albertina Agnes was born at The Hague, the daughter of Fredrik Henrik, Prince of Orange, and his wife Amalia, the daughter of Johann Albert I, Count of Solms-Braunsfels. She married Willem Frederik, Prince of Nassau-Dietz, and was the mother of Prince Hendrik Kasimir II (1657 – 1696). With her husband’s death (1664), the princess ruled Friesland, Groningen, and Drente for her son as regent. A capable ruler, she brought stability to her territories, amidst growing anti-monarchist sympathies.
With the aid of the Bishop of Munster, she ordered the dykes to be broken, in order to defend Holland from the French forces (1671). Princess Albertina Agnes died (May 24, 1696) aged sixty-one, at Oranjewoud, Friesland. She was interred at the Jacobijbnerkerk in Leeuwarden.

Albertoni, Ludovica degli – (1473 – 1533)
Italian nun and saint
Ludovica was the daughter of an ancient and noble family. Upon becoming a widow she became a member of the Third Order of St Francis. At her death she was interred in the church of St Francesco in Trastavere, Rome. Regarded a saint, and with miracles attributed to her, she was beatified by Pope Clement X (1671).

Albertson, Mabel – (1901 – 1982)
American character actress and comedienne
Mabel Albertson was born (July 24, 1901) in Lynn, Massachusetts, and was the elder sister of actor Jack Albertson (1907 – 1981). She appeared in films such as The Long Hot Summer (1958), Home Before Dark (1958), The Gazebo (1960), Barefoot in the Park (1967) and, What’s Up Doc? (1972). Albertson also worked in television, appearing invarious popular shows such as The Tom Ewell Show (1960 – 1961) and The Andy Griffith Show, but was best remembered as Phyllis Stephens, the interfering mother-in-law in the popular Bewitched (1964 – 1971) series with Elizabeth Montgomery and Agnes Moorehead. Mabel Albertson died (Sept 28, 1982) aged eighty-one, in Santa Monica, California.

Albetti, Gabrina – (fl. 1375)
Italian witchcraft trial victim
Gabrina Albetti was an elderly widow who was accused and tried before the civil court in Reggio, and found guilty. Gabrina was branded and suffered mutilation for teaching Devil worship and for making love philtres.

Albia Domnica      see     Domnica, Albia

Albia Terentia – (c5 – before 69 AD)
Roman Imperial patrician
Albia Terentia was the mother of the Roman Emperor Otho (69 AD). She was possibly a connection of Albia, the wife of Quintus Terentius Culleo, who served as proconsul of Syria during the reign of Emperor Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD). Her marriage (c20 AD) with Lucius Otho (c10 BC – c50 AD) was probably arranged by the Empress Livia and the historian Suetonius referred to her as splendida femina. Her three children were Lucius Salvius Otho Titianus who became consul ord. (52 AD) and Marcus Salvius Otho (32 – 69 AD) the future emperor as one of the short-lived successors to Nero. Her daughter was once betrothed to Prince Drusus Germanicus, the eldest son of the future emperor Claudius I (41 – 54 AD) but was later put to death by Nero’s order (58 AD) when her brother drew the emperor’s anger by his association with Poppaea Sabina, whom Nero wanted for himself. Albia appears to have predeceased this tragic event, at any rate she had certainly died before her son was invested as emperor.

Albina – (c310 – 387 AD)
Roman Christian patrician
Albina was probably the daughter of Ceionius Rufius Albinus, consul (335 AD) and prefect of Rome (335 – 337 AD). Her husband was a descendant of Claudius Marcellus, prefect of Rome (292 – 293 AD), and she bore him two daughters, of whom Marcella is recorded in Christian tradition as the ‘First Nun.’ A Christian matron of great wealth and intellectual character, Albina welcomed St Athanasius into her home, when he came to Rome as an exile (340 AD). He presented her with a copy of the Life of St Antony, which greatly influenced Albina and her daughters in their spiritual development.

Albina was greatly annoyed when her elder daughter Marcella refused the suit of the prominent senator, Cerialis, who was connected with the Imperial family, because of her religious vocation, but later came to accept her wish, and the two women resided togther on the Aventine hill, surrounding themselves with a group of religiously inclined aristocratic ladies. She was farewelled by St Jerome in a letter to her daughter Asella. Albina died (March 4, 387 AD) aged about seventy-six, in Rome.

Albina, Caeonia – (c364 – 433 AD)
Roman Christian patrician
Caeonia Albina was born at Nola, the daughter of Caeonius Rufius Albinus, urban prefect (389 – 391AD), and was sister to Rufius Antonius Agrypinus Volusianus, praetorian prefect (417 – 418 AD). She was married (c379 AD) to Valerius Publicola, to whom she bore five children, including Melania the Younger, the wife of Valerius Apinianus. With the death of her husband (c404 AD) Albina travelled with her daughter and son-in-law, to visit their kinsman, St Paulinus, at Nola (406 AD). From there they travelled by ship to Sicily and Carthage, in Africa, and visited St Alipius at Thagaste.

Albina later accompanied her daughter to Hippo, where they visited St Augustine, who dedicated to her his De Gratia et de Peccato Originali. She was present at Hippo when the people seized her son-in-law, Apinianus, and demanded his ordination as their bishop. The family remained in Africa for seven years (409 – 417 AD), and from there Albina travelled to Jerusalem, in Palestine, where she built a hermitage for her daughter on the Mount of Olives. Albina died (Dec 31, 433 AD) aged about seventy.

Albini, Olivia d’ – (d. before 1149)
Anglo-Norman noblewoman
Lady Olivia was the second daughter of Sir William d’Albini (c1102 – 1176), the first Earl of Arundel, and his wife Adeliza of Louvain, the widow of King Henry I (1100 – 1135). Through her mother she was a descendant of the Emperor Charlemagne (800 – 814), and was probably born at Arundel Castle, Sussex. Olivia died young, and was buried in Boxgrove Priory in Sussex, prior to her mother leaving England to become a nun in Flanders (1149). Her sister Agatha was interred with her, she likewise having died as a child prior to 1149.

Albinia of Hauteville    see    Elvira of Hauteville

Albiniana, Ines – (1625 – 1696)
Spanish nun and saint
Ines was born near Valencia, and took vows as a Benedictine nun taking the name of Sister Josepha Maria of St Agnes. She became a religious recluse at Benignam and became famous for her religious ascetism and sanctity. Known popularly as St Josepha of Benignam, she was beatified (1888) by Pope Leo XIII. Her feast was celebrated (Jan 21).

Albizzi, Giulia – (1563 – before 1600)
Italian royal mistress
Giulia was born in Florence an illegitimate connection of the patrician Albizzi family, and had been brought up in relative poverty. Modest and lively, but innocent, she was chosen to be the first mistress of Vincenzo I Gonzaga, duke of Mantua by Belisario Vinta, the chief minister of Francesco I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tusany to test the prince’s virility before he was permitted to marry Leonora de Medici. This was considered necessary because Vincenzo’s first wife Margherita Farnese had been divorced and forced into a convent, despite the fact that popular rumour accused the duke of impotency. The Medici family wanted no such embarrassment.
The encounter of Giulia and Vincenzo was consummated in Venice (1584) and resulted in his ensuing dynastic marriage with the Medic princess Leonora. Her child by Vincenzo was taken and sent to the court of Mantua, but appears to have died young. Giulia was rewarded with a handsome dowry of three thousand gold crowns, and was married off to the Roman musician Giulio Caccini (c1546 – 1618). Through her marriage she she became the mother of singer and composer Francesca Caccini and her sister Settimia.

Alboflede – (c487 AD – c530)
Merovingian princess and saint
Alboflede was the daughter of Clovis I, King of the Salian Franks (481 AD – 511) and his first wife Evochilde, and was full sister to Theuderic I, King of Austrasia (511 – 534). Her mother was divorced (c491 AD) and Alboflede was raised in the Orthodox Christian household of her stepmother, Clotilda of Burgundy. She never married, and with her father’s permission she founded the monastery of St Pierre le Vif where she became a nun. She was regarded a saint and her feast was celebrated (June 28).

Albon, Julie Claude Hilaire d’Albon de Saint-Marcel, Comtesse d’ – (1698 – 1748)
French patrician and heiress
Madame d’Albon was the natural mother of the famous salonniere and letter writer, Julie de Lespinasse (1732 – 1776). The sole heir to a rich and ancient family in Lyons, Burgundy, Julie d’Albon held the marquisate de Saint-Forgeux and the princely title of d’Yvetot. She married (1714) her cousin, the Comte d’Albon, to whom she bore two legitimate children, Diane, wife of Gaspard, Comte de Vichy, the elder brother of the salonniere Mme Du Deffand, and Camille Eleonore, Comte d’Albon (1724 – 1789).
Soon after the birth of a son and heir (1724) the comte and comtesse seperated, and he retired to his estate in Roanne. The comtesse retained the control and upbringing of their two children, and resided either at her town house in Lyons, at her chateau at Avauges. Some years after this seperation, the comtesse gave birth to an illegitimate daughter Julie Jeanne Eleonore de Lespinasse, in the house of an obscure surgeon. She is believed to have been fathered by the Comte de Vichy, who ultimately became the husband of her Madame d’Albon’s legitimate daughter Diane. Julie was brought up in the same household as her legitimate half-siblings, but the scandal and secrecy that ensued would influence the rest of the girl’s life. The comtesse personally devoted her energies to Julie’s education, but she always seems to have sufferred on account of her mother’s over-anxious solicitude.
At her death, the comtesse left her large fortune to her legitimate heirs, and a small allowance of three hundred French pounds a year to Julie, without mentioning her relationship to the family. It is known that the comtesse had secreted a large amount of cash in her desk, and gave her daughter the key to this cabinet, that she might retrieve it at her mother’s death. Julie however, naively mentioned this to her half-brother, Comte Camille, who retained the cash, and Julie never received a penny.

Alboni, Marietta – (1823 – 1894) 
Italian contralto vocalist
Born Maria Anna Marzia Alboni (March 6, 1823) at Citta del Castello, she studied singing under Domenico Mombelli in Bologna, and with Gioacchino Rossini. She possessed an exceptional vocal range, from the contralto G to high soprano C, which enabled her to sing soprano parts. Alboni made her stage debut as Clymene, in Giovanni Pacini’s opera Saffo at the La Scala Opera House in Milan (1842).
Alboni then travelled to Russia, where she appeared in St Petersburg (1844 – 1845) to great acclaim and success, and appeared at the Italian opera with Madame Viardot, amongst other prominent performers. She appeared as Gondi in Donizetti’s Maria de Rohan, andmade her Paris debut as Arsace in Rossini’s Semiramide (1847). Touring Prague, Berlin and Hamburg, Alboni then travelled to England, where she established herself as a popular rival to the Swedish singer, Jenny Lind (1847) and was able to command fees of two thousand pounds for a single season.
Auber wrote for her the opera Zeline ou La Corbeille d’oranges (1851), which sang at its first performance. Alboni successfully toured the USA (1852 – 1853), appearing in Boston and New York. Alboni married firstly (1854) to the Italian peer, Conte Pepoli, and retired in 1863. She came out of retirement in order to sing at Rossini’s funeral (1868). Ten years after the death of her first husband (1877), Marietta was remarried to a French officer, Charles Zieger, with whom she resided in France. Later plagued by ill-health and obesity, Madame Alboni sometimes performed at concerts seated in a chair. Marietta Alboni died (June 23, 1894) aged seventy-one, at the Ville d’Avray, near Paris.

Albret, Jeanne d’     see    Jeanne III

Albret, Quiteria d’    see    Quiteria d’Albret

Albret-Orval, Charlotte d’ – (c1490 – 1524)
French heiress
Charlotte d’Albret-Orval was the elder daughter of Jean d’Albret, seigneur of Orval, she married Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, whose sister Francoise de Chateaubriand was the mistress of King Francois I. With the death of her father (1524), Charlotte inherited the seigneurie of Orval in the Bourbonnais, but died herself soon afterwards. With the death of her husband at the siege of Naples (1525), Orval passed to her sister Marie, the wife of Charles of Cleves, and through her to the Gonzaga dynasty. Charlotte was mother of Henri de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec (d. 1540) and Odet II de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec (d. 1546). Both sons died childless, and the viscounty of Lautrec passed to relatives of the Louvigny family.

Albrici, Leonora – (fl. 1662 – 1671)
Italian vocalist
Leonora Albrici was born in Rome, the sister of Bartolomeo (born c1630) and Vincenzo Albrici (1631 – 1696), the famous composers and intrumentalists. Leonora came to England with her brothers in 1662 where they formed part of the Italian Musick company established at his court by King Charles II. The diarist John Evelyn praised her voice, and Leonora was awarded a gold medal and chain by the king in 1668 in recognition of her talented performances. Leonora appears to have left England with her brother Vincenzo in 1671, and may have settled with him in Dresden, Saxony.

Albright, Anne – (c1515 – 1556)
English Protestant martyr
Anne Albright was arrested for refusing to attend confession during the persecutions instigated by Queen Mary I. When questioned by her interrogators she remained defiant. She was condemned as a heretic, and was burnt alive at Canterbury in Kent, with five others (Jan 31, 1556), all of them chanting psalms as they died in the fire

Albrizzi, Isabella Teotochi, Contessa d’ – (1761 – 1836) 
Italian author
Isabella Teotochi was born at Corfu of a Greek father and Venetian mother. She married firstly (1776) Carlo Antonio, a Venetian patrician. The couple were divorced (1795) and she remarried (1796) to Conte Giuseppe d’Albrizzi, the official inquisitor. The contessa patronised the arts and literature, and her salon in Venice was frequented by Morelli, Vittorio Alfieri, Ugo Foscolo, and Lord Byron. Byron considered her to be pleasant natured, unaffected, and scholarly, and nominated her ‘the De Stael of Venice,’ for she had written with distinction concerning the work of the sculptor Antonio Canova, Opera di Sculture e di Plastica di Canova (1809) which was published in Florence.
It was at the contessa’s palazzo that Byron was introduced to his last great love Contessa Teresa Guiccioli. Madame d’Albrizzi’s best known works were Ritratti di Vomini Illustri (Portraits), a series of line portraits of distinguished men with descriptive letter press. She also produced a biography of the Renaissance salonniere Vittoria Colonna (1836). She was widowed in 1812 and survived for twenty-five years as the Dowager Contessa d’Albrizzi (1812 – 1836). The Contessa died (Sept 27, 1836) aged seventy-five.

Albruzzi, Maddalena d’ – (c1399 – 1465)                                                  
Italian virgin saint
Maddalena was the daughter of Niccolo d’Albruzzi, chief magistrate of Como, and his wife Margarita. Her parents died while she was young, and Maddalena became anun at the convent of Brunate, Como, where she became abbess and placed the convent under Augustinian rule, which arrangement was confirmed by Pope Nicholas IV in 1448. Maddalena died after a long and painful illness (May 13, 1465), with a reputation for sanctity, piety and miracles. The church venerated her as a saint (May 15).

Albsuinda – (fl. 568 – after 573)
Lombard princess
Albsuinda was the daughter of King Alboin, and his first wife Chlodosinda, the daughter of Clotaire I, King of Neustria. Paul the Deacon recorded her story in his Historia Langobardorum. After her father’s murder by her stepmother Rosamunda and her lover Helmichius in 572, Albsuinda was taken to Ravenna. With Rosmunda’s death in 573, the princess was sent to Constantinople, by the order of Longinus, prefect of Italy, togther with much treasure. The treasure and the custody of the princess were then entrusted to the care of the Emperor Tiberius II, and nothing further is recorded of her.

Albu, Gertrude Frederike Alice Rosendorff, Lady – (1865 – 1950)
German-Anglo baronetess
Gertrude Rosendorff was the daughter of Max Rosendorff and his wife Emilie. She was married (1888) to to George Albu (1857 – 1935), the managing director of the General Mining and Finance Corporation in Johannesburg in the Transvaal, South Africa. He later became a naturalized British subject (1911) and was created a baronet as Sir George Albu, first baronet, of Johannesburg (1912) by King George V. Gertrude became Lady Albu and was a prominent figure in Johannesburg society.
Lady Albu later accompanied her husband to Copenhagen in Denmark when he took up the diplomatic post of consul of Denmark, and attended the court of King Christian X (1912 – 1947) and Queen Alexandrine. She survived her husband as the Dowager Lady Albu (1935 – 1950). Lady Albu died (April 18, 1950) aged eighty-four. She left six children,

• Charlotte Frederike Albu (1889 – 1965). She became the wife of Reverend Wilfred Parker, Bishop of Pretoria, of the family of the Earls of Macclesfield, but died childless.
• Katherine Victoria Albu (born 1891). She became the wife of Erroll Gordon Hay (died 1964) and left issue.
• Captain Walter George Albu (1892 – 1920). An officer of the Royal Air Force, he served during WW I and was a decorated war hero. He died unmarried.
• Alice Ernestine Albu (born 1893). She became the wife of Captain Nigel James Bengough, of Leominster, Hertfordshire, and left issue.
• Irene Elsie Albu (1900 – 1924). She became the wife of William Dalrymple, of Johannesburg.
• Sir George Werner Albu (1905 – 1963). He succeeded his father as second baronet (1935 – 1963) and was married twice and left issue.

Albucilla – (c5 BC – 37 AD) 
Roman political victim
Albucilla was the wife of Satrius Secundus. A woman of loose moral character, her husband had divorced her by 36 AD, and the following year she was indicted for adultery, and impiety against the emperor Tiberius. Vibius Marsus, the former governor of Syria, and two consuls, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus and L. Arruntius were implicated with her, the case being brought to court by the praetorian prefect, Surtorius Macro.
Albucilla was prosecuted by D. Laelius Balbus, but the senate, at first suspicious of their motives, fearedt o act without a word from the emperor himself. Finally, Arruntius committed suicide, whilst Albucilla vainly attempted to stab herself. She was carried off to execution by order of the senate. Of her other supposed accomplices, Carsidius Sacerdos was banished, and Pontius Fregellanus was expelled from the senate.

Alburga – (c765 – 810)
Anglo-Saxon princess and saint
Alburga was the stepdaughter of Eahlmund of Wessex, under King of Kent (784 – 786) by his wife, an Oicsinga princess who was the daughter of King Aethelbert II of Kent (725 – 762). Alburga was half-sister to Egbert I the Great, King of Wessex (802 – 839) and paternal great-aunt to King Alfred (871 – 899). Her father is thought to have been an as yet unidentified Oicsinga prince. The name Alburga appears to be a shorter variant of Aldeburga, her maternal grandmother, wife of Aethelbert II, for whom she appears to have been named in honour. Through her mother Alburga and her brother Egbert were the descendants of King Victi of the Jutes (living 364 AD) who was attested from a surviving inscription on the Catstane at Kirkliston in Scotland and of the Merovingian kings of France.
Alburga was married (c780) to Wulfstan, the earldorman of Wiltshire. There are no recorded children of this marriage. With her husband’s death (800) the princess transformed the college for secular priests that her husband had established in Wilton, into a convent for a dozen nuns of the Benedictine Order. Alburga was the first abbess of the royal abbey of Wilton and remained the head of the house until her death a decade later (Dec 25, 810). She was revered as a saint (Dec 25).

Alchflaed – (fl. 653 – 656)
Anglo-Saxon queen consort
Alchflaed (Alchflaeda) was the daughter of Oswiu (Oswy) (612 – 670), King of Northumbria and his first wife Rienmellt, a Pictish princess. She was given in marriage by her father (653) to Peada (c617 – 656), the eldest son of his powerful pagan enemy, King Penda of Mercia. She was permitted to follow the Christian religion and the new queen brought the four priests Cedd, Adda, Betti and Diuma to aid in the conversion of her new homeland.
Alchflaed became queen when her husband succeeded his father (654) but her reign as queen was short for Peada was treacherously killed (Easter, 656). There were no children. Unreliable tradition accuses the queen of conspiring against her husband and bringing about his death but most historians seem to believe that the crime was committed by Fina, mistress of Oswy of Northumbria. The chronicler Robert de Swapham recorded that ‘this blot is taken from the Christian lady Alchfleda and brands the face of her that most deserveth it.’

Alcima, Sidonia – (c465 AD – after 527)
Roman patrician
Sidonia Alcima was the daughter of Gaius Sidonius Sollius Apollinaris, prefect of Rome (468 AD) and his wife Avita Papianilla, the daughter of the Emperor Eparchius Avitus. Her brother Apollinaris was Bishop of Clermont. Alcima and her sister-in-law Placidina secured their brother’s appointment to the see of Clermont (515) though he died a few months afterwards. After the revolt of her nephew Arcadius against the Merovingian king Theuderic III of Austrasia (c525 – 527), Alcima and Placidina was captured and exiled by theuderic, who deprived them both of their estates and property.

Alcipe    see     Alorna, Marquesa de

Alcock, Mary – (c1742 – 1798) 
British poet
Mary Cumberland was the daughter of Reverend Denison Cumberland (1705 – 1774) and his wife Joanna, the daughter of Richard Bentley, the scholar. Her brother was the dramatist Richard Cumberland (1732 – 1811). She was raised in Stanwick in Northamptonshire but later removed to Ireland with her family (1762) when her father was appointed as the chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Halifax.
Mary Alcock was married (c1770) and widowed in Ireland, where she published an anonymous poem ‘ The Air Balloon, or, Flying Mortal ‘about the popular ballooning craze in 1784, and also produced The Confined Debtor, in order to raise money for people imprisoned in Ilchester jail for debt. Both of these works appeared in Poems (1799) published by her niece after her death. Her poetry was admired by Hannah More and Elizabeth Carter, and she was interested in social reform for working children. Having suffered from ill-health for some time Mrs Alcock died (May 28, 1798) whilst traveling to visit relatives in York. She was buried in the parish church of Haselbeach in Northamptonshire.

Alcoforado, Marianna – (1640 – 1723)
Portugese nun
Mariana Alcoforado was born (April 2, 1640) in Beja, the daughter of a wealthy landowner of Alentjo. Her mother died during her infancy and her father caused Marianna to be placed with the Franciscan nuns of the Convento de Nossa Senhora da Conceicao (Convent of the Poor Ladies), where she later took final vows and became a Franciscan nun. Sister Marianna was said to have met the young French officer, Noel Bouton, Comte and Marquis de Chamilly and Marechal of France, an acquaintance of her brother, who served with the Portugese army under the command of Duke Frederick von Schomberg.

Her convent was one with a more relaxed rule and Marianna was able to receive Chambilly as a visitor to the nunnery, as high-born nuns were permitted to entertain guests. They embarked upon a love affair which created a scandal when it became known. Chamilly left Marianna and returned to France. She is believed to be the author of the five celebrated Lettres Portugaises (Letters of a Portugese Nun) (1669), supposedly written by her to her lover. The original letters are now lost, but Gabriel Joseph de La Vergne (1628 – 1685), Comte de Guilleragues (1628 – 1685) claimed to have translated them in French. Marianna Alcoforado died (July 28, 1723) aged eighty-three, in Beja.

Alcott, Louisa May – (1832 – 1888)
American children’s novelist
Louisa Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Amos Bronson Alcott, the famous philosopher and transcendentalist, and she contributed to the family income through needlework, schoolteaching and periods of domestic service. She wrote stories and thrillers from childhood, and her first published work was Flower Fables (1855). Remaining unmarried, Louisa worked as a nurse at the Union Hospital in Georgetown, Washington during the civil war, and her personal letters from this period 1862 – 1863 were published as Hospital Sketches (1863) and achieved her first public attention.
Her most famous novel, the children’s classic Little Women (1868) for which she drew from her own personal experiences, achieved resounding success and fame, as well as making Louisa the sole income earner for her family. This was followed by four more novels Good Wives (1869), An Old Fashioned Girl (1870), Little Men (1871) and, Jo’s Boys (1886). A supporter of suffrage for women and of rights for the disenfranchised blacks, she produced a feminist novel Success, which was eventually published in 1873 as, Work: a Story of Experience (1873) as a semi-autobiography. Louisa May Alcott died in Boston (March 6, 1888) on the day of her father’s funeral.

Alcover Morell, Francisca – (c1890 – 1954)
Spanish poet and journalist
Francisca Alcover Morell wrote articles in support of the Accion Catolica, a national religious organization. Francisca wrote a collection of verse during her life which remained unpublished, and her style was influenced by that of Maria Antonia Salva and Jacint Verdaguer, amongst others. She died in Majorca after a lengthy illness. Her personal papers and poems, written in both Castilian and Catalan, were edited and published posthumously by Francisco Bonafe and Guillem Colom as Obra poetica (1955).

Alda, Frances Jeanne – (1879 – 1952)
New Zealand soprano
Born Frances Jane Davies (May 31, 1879) in Christchurch, she performed both the roles of Gilda and Leonora from Il Trovatore, but her technique was considered dubious, as she was unable to sustain high notes. Davies studied under Mathilde Marchesi, the teacher of Nellie Melba, in Paris, and then adopted the professional surname of Alda. She made her stage debut in the title role of Jules Masenet’s Manon Lescaut at the Opera-Comique in Paris (1905).
Alda performed in Brussels, London, Milan, Warsaw, and Buenos Aires, and made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the role of Gilda (1908). She performed over two dozen operatic roles during her time there. Alda retired from the stage (1929), when she divorced her husband of two decades, Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She continued to give concerts and work in radio, and ultimately became a US citizen (1939). Alda published the autobiography, Men, Women and Tenors (1937). Frances Alda died (Sept 18, 1952) aged seventy-three, in Venice, Italy.

Alda of Alania – (c997 – c1015)
Queen consort of Abakhazeti
Born of royal Alanian parentage, Alda became the first wife of Giorgi I (996 – 1027), King of Abakhazeti in Georgia. She was the mother of Prince Dimitri Giorgshivili (c1015 – 1041) pretender to the throne of Abakhazeti (1033 – 1041).

Alda of Burgundy – (c907 – c931)
Queen consort of Provence and Italy
Probably the daughter of Hugh the Black, Duke of Burgundy (936 – 952), she may have originally been named Hilda. She became the second wife (924) of Hugh of Arles (c880 – 947), King of Provence and Italy and was queen consort (924 – c931). She was the mother of Lothair II (925 – 950), King of Italy (947 – 950) and was the grandmother of Emma of Arles, the wife of Lothair, King of France (954 – 986). Her daughter Alda of Arles (924 – after 954), became the wife of Alberic II of Spoleto (911 – 954), Count of Tuscany and was the mother of Pope John XII (955 – 964) formerly Count Ottavio di Spoleto.

Alda of Siena – (1249 – 1309)
Italian nun and saint
Sometimes known as Aldobrandesca, she was born in Siena she was left a childless widow after seven years of marriage. Alda retired to a small house outside the city where she became known for her ascetism and religious sanctity, and gave away all her possessions to the poor. She later worked amongst the sick in the local hospital, and experienced religious trances and mystical visions, which caused her to suffer some ridicule until people became convinced she was genuine. Alda of Siena was venerated as a saint (April 26).

Aldana of Austrasia – (c732 – before 804)
Carolingian princess
Aldana was the daughter of Karl Martel, Duke of Austrasia (715 – 737) and his second wife Suanhilde of Bavaria, the sister to Duke Odilo. Aldana was married (c747) to Theodoric I (Thierry) (c725 – 793), Count of Toulouse and Autun and Duke of Septimania. Her marriage and relationship to St Guillaume de Gellone was recorded in his surviving foundation charter (Dec 14, 804) which named genitore meo Theuderic et genitrice mea Aldana. The duchess had survived her husband but had died by this date. Aldana left seven children,

• William I of Toulouse (Guillaume de Gellone) (752 – 812). He succeeded his father as Count of Toulouse and Duke of Septimania (793 – 806). He abdicated and became a monk, having married twice and left descendants from both marriages.
• Theodo of Toulouse (Teudoin) (c756 – c826). He became Count of Autun and was married and left issue.
• Albana of Toulouse (c758 – after 804). She was married to Nibelung II (died after 805), Count of the Vexin, and left issue.
• Theodoric II of Toulouse (c759 – after 811). He was Count of Autun and was married and left issue.
• Bertha of Toulouse (c763 – after 804). She was married to Prince Pepin the Hunchback (c762 – 811), the eldest son of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne, and left issue.
• Auba of Toulouse (c765 – before 804). She was married to Fredelon I, Count of Toulouse, and left issue.
• Adalhelm of Toulouse (c767 – after 804). He became Count of Laon.

Aldeburga (Aldeburh) – (c715 – c750)
Anglo-Saxon queen consort of Kent
Aldeburga was the wife of King Aethelred II (c690 – 762) of the Oicsinga dynasty, who ruled jointly with his brother, Eadbert I from 725. Aldeburga’s parentage remains unknown, and little else is known of her apart from her patronage of the church. Aethelred had remained heathen, but the queen distinguished herself by her support of the spread of the Christian faith. She caused the deserted Church of St Martin, previously founded by her husband’s ancestress Queen Bertha, wife of Aethelbert I, to be fully restored. The queen predeceased her husband. Queen Aldeburga bore three children,

• Egbert II (c735 – c780). He succeeded as King of Kent (c765 – c780).
• Oicsinga princess (name unknown, perhaps Eadgyth (Edith) (c740 – before 802). The identity of her first husband remains unknown. Her second husband was Prince Eahlmund of Wessex, who was appointed under-king of Kent, and by whom she was the mother of Egbert, King of Wessex (802 – 839).
• Eadbert II Praen (c745 – c812). He succeeded as King of Kent (796 – 798) but was then deposed.

Alden, Cynthia May – (1862 – 1931)
American philanthropist
Born Cynthia Westover at Afton in Iowa, she became a noted philanthropic promoter. Cynthia Alden was the founder and president of the International Sunshine Society.

Alden, Isabella Macdonald – (1841 – 1930)
American novelist and children’s writer
Isabella Macdonald was born in Rochester, New York, into a deeply religious family. Her later pseudonym of ‘Pansy,’had been acquired by her during choldhood, as a nickname. Alden married a Presbyterian minister, and became mother to the celebrated scholar, Raymond Macdonald Alden (1873 – 1924). Alden wrote the children’s novels, Helen Lester (1865) and the enormously popular Esther Reid (1870).
Mrs Alden also wrote many sentimental Sunday school stories intended to enrich juvenile minds such as Four Girls at Chautauqua (1876), and over nearly eighty children’s books. She was later the editor of the children’s magazine Pansy for over twenty years (1873 – 1896). Isabella Alden (Aug 5, 1930) aged eighty-eight, at Palo Alto, California.

Alden, Mary – (1883 – 1946)
American stage and film actress
Mary Alden was best known for her work with pioneer cinematographer D.W. Griffith (1875 – 1948). She appeared in silent films such as Home, Sweet Home (1914) and the famous Birth of a Nation (1915), and also in talkies such as Girl Overboard (1929) and Strange Interlude (1932).

Alden, Priscilla Mullins – (1601 – 1685)
American Pilgrim colonist and figure of romance
Priscilla Mullins was born in Dorking, Surrey, England, the daughter of William Mullins and his wife Alice. She accompanied her parents and brother to the colony of Plymouth in Massachusetts aboard the Mayflower. The deaths of her parents and brother left her alone in the colony. She refused an offer of marriage from the recently widowed Captain Miles Standish, brought to her by Alden, who had also admired her, and according to the poem ‘The courtship of Miles Standish’(1858) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Priscilla famously said ‘ Why don’t you speak for yourself, John? ’ There remains no actual proof of this tale though the story has been handed down in the Alden family.
Priscilla Mullins was married (1622) at Plymouth to John Alden (1602 – 1687) to whom she bore twelve children. John Alden and Captain Standish remained friends and John and Priscilla’s daughter, Sarah Alden, became the wife of Alexander Standish, son of the captain. Through her daughter Ruth Alden, the wife of John Bass of Braintree, Priscilla was the ancestress to two presidents, John Adams (1797 – 1801) and John Quincy Adams (1825 – 1829). Priscilla Alden died (Feb 5, 1685) at Duxbury, Plymouth aged eighty-three.

Aldgyth of Mercia – (c1037 – c1083)
The last Anglo-Saxon queen of England
Also called Alditha or Ealdgyth, Aldgyth was the daughter of Aelfgar, earl of Mercia, and his wife Aelfgifu, the sister of William Malet. Her paternal step-grandmother was Godgifu, Countess of Chester, was the ‘Lady Godiva’ of the famous Coventry legend. Her father gave her in marriage firstly (c1051) to his ally Gruffyd ap Llewellyn, King of North Wales, to whom she bore two sons and a daughter. Gruffyd was himself murdered by his own men (1063) after Harold of Wessex (1022 – 1066) who conquered Wales for Edward the Confessor. When Harold was searching for supporters for his plan to assume the English throne, Aldgyth became a powerful pawn. He sought the assistance of her important brothers, Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria, and to achieve this, he repudiated his first wife, Edith Swanneshals, the mother of his children, and married Aldgyth at York (1064).
When Harold assumed the throne (Jan 5, 1066) Aldgyth was recognized as queen. But as she was expecting a child, she remained in London. With King Harold’s death at the battle of Hastings (Oct 4), her brothers sent her to Chester for safety. There is no evidence that Aldgyth sufferred any form of persecution under William the Conqueror, excepting that some lands that she held in Warwickshire were forfeited after the Conquest. Her mention in the Domesday Book as ‘Aldgid uxor Grifin,’ seems to indicate that the Normans affected to consider that the precontract of King Harold to William’s daughter Adeliza had invalidated his marriage to Aldgyth.
The tradition that Aldgyth went into exile on the continent is incorrect, though it is quite possible that she resided in Dublin with her son for some years before returning to England where, according to Leland, she became a nun at the Abbey of Stortford in Hertfordshire. She was interred there at her death, which took place a few years before that of the Conqueror himself. Her son Harold (1067 – after 1098) who was born posthumously at Chester later joined the followers of Magnus Olafsson of Norway.

Aldighieri, Maria Spezia – (1828 – 1907)
Italian soprano
She was born Maria Spezia at Villafranca Verronese. She made her stage debut in Verona (1849) in Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda and had a triumphant success as Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi’s previously badly received opera La Traviata at La Fenice (1854). She sang the part of Valentine in Les Huguenots at La Scala in Milan (1857), and later performed with her husband the baritone Gottardo Aldighieri (1824 – 1906) in Nabuco (1861). Maria Spezia Aldighieri died at Colognola ai Colli.

Aldis, Dorothy Keeley – (1896 – 1966)
American novelist and children’s author
Dorothy Keeley was born in Chicago, Illinois the daughter of a newspaper jounralist. After attending private school in Chicago and Smith College, she married a real estate executive to whom she bore four children. Dorothy composed short stories and verse for a variety of magazines including Harper’s Weekly, Ladies’ Home Journal and the New Yorker.
Her first book Everything and Anything (1925) proved so popular that seventeen songs taken from it were set to music and published before 1930. Other works include Squiggles (1929), Their Own Apartment (1935), Before Things Happen (1939), Miss Quinn’s Secret (1949), Lucky Year (1952), which won the Junior Literary Guild selection, the anthology The Secret Place (1962) and a collection of verses for children, Is Anybody Hungry (1964), amongst several dozen other works. Dorothy Keeley Aldis died (June 28, 1966) aged sixty-nine.

Aldis, Mary Reynolds – (1872 – 1949)
American theatrical founder
Mary Reynolds was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was married to Arthur Aldis. Aldis was the founder of The Aldis Playhouse (1910), and was the author of Plays for Small Stages (1915) and No Curtain (1935). She also wrote Flashlights (1916), a collection of verse. Mary Reynolds Aldis died (June 20, 1949) aged seventy-seven.

Aldith – (fl. c1225)
English prioress
Superior of the Brewood ‘White Ladies’ of Boscobel, Salop, Aldith is attested by charter evidence as having held that office c1225, together with another nun named Cecilia. Cecilia is attested alone as prioress in 1233. Aldith is the first recorded head of the Augustinian house at Brewood, which had been originally founded by Bishop Roger de Clinton sometime before 1186.

Aldobrandeschi, Margherita – (c1253 – 1300)
Italian heiress
Margherita was the daughter of Ildebrandino Aldobrandeschi, Count of Soana and Pitigliano, in Tuscany. She was married firstly (1270), to Guy de Montfort, Count of Nola (1243 – 1292), secondly to Orsello Orsini (d. 1295) the nephew of Pope Nicholas III, and thirdly to Roffred Gaetani III (1270 – 1335), as his first wife. At the time of her third marriage, Margherita was conducting a clandestine affair with a Sienese who was said to have murdered his wife so that he could pursue his affair with the wealthy Margherita.

In 1298 she divorced Gaetani, but her notoriously profligate life had involved her adversely with the church, and as a result she lost some of her considerable property. Her fiefs of Soana and Pitigliano were inherited by her daughter Anastasia. By her first husband she left two daughters, of whom Anastasia de Montfort became the wife of Romano Orsini, of Nola. Her daughter by her second marriage, Angela Orsini, became the wife of Petruccio Savelli.

Aldona of Lithuania   see   Anna of Lithuania

Aldrich, Anne Reeve – (1866 – 1892)
American poet
Aldrich left collections of verse entitled The Rose of Flame, and Other Poems of Love (1889), The Feet of Love (1890), Songs about Love, Life and Death (1892), and A Village Ophelia (1899). She remained unmarried. Anne Reeve Aldrich died aged twenty-five.

Aldrich, Bess Genevra Streeter – (1881 – 1954)
American author
Bess Streeter was born (Feb 17, 1881) in Cedar Falls, Iowa and graduated (1901) from the Iowa State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Iowa) she taught school at Salt Lake City, Utah, and married a banker. Bess had been writing since childhood and until 1918 she used the pseudonym ‘Margaret Dean Stevens.’ Her first collection of short stories, Mother Mason (1924) was published under her own name, and was followed by her first and most famous novel The Rim of the Prairie (1925).
With the death of her husband her literary output increased dramatically and included such works as The Cutters (1926), A Lantern in Her Hand (1928) and A White Bird Flying, third on the best seller list for 1931 and The Drum Goes Dead (1941). Other collections included The Man Who Caught the Weather (1936) of which the title story won an O.Henry Prize, Journey into Christmas (1949) and The Bess Streeter Aldrich Reader (1950). Aldrich’s short stories were published in magazine and periodicals such as Woman’s Home Companion, the Saturday Evening Post, McCall’s and Harper’s Weekly. Bess Streeter Aldrich died aged seventy-three, in Elmwood, Nebraska.

Aldrich, Harriet Alexander – (1888 – 1972)
American civic leader and socialite
Harriet Alexander was born in Sea Bright, New Jersey, the daughter of Charles Crocker Alexander, and the granddaughter of Charles Crocker, one of the builders of the Central Pacific Railroad. She attended the Spence School in New York, and married (1916) Winthrop W. Aldrich, who served as ambassador to the court of St James in England. During World War I, Mrs Aldrich campaigned to raise funds for the American ambulance Hospital in Paris, and during World War II she served as chairman of the women’s division of the New York campaign committee for the United Service Organizations, and was appointed vice-chairman of the Civilian Defense Volunteer Office in New York.
Mrs Aldrich served on the boards of various other charitable organizations, such as the Cerebral Palsy Society, the Police Athletic League, and the Museum of Natural History. Interested and active in sports during her youth, she was the founder of the Women’s National Golf and Tennis Club. Mrs Aldrich died (April 30, 1972) at Greenwich, Connecticut.

Aldrich, Mariska – (1881 – 1965)
American film actress
Mariska Aldrich was born in Massachusetts. Her film career covered a twenty year period (1923 – 1945), during which she appeared mainly in uncredited roles in over thirty films. A large, masculine looking woman, she played authority figures, dowagers, and other tough, though minor, character roles. Her credited movie roles included, Lady by Choice (1934), as Lucretia, and the German teacher in The Painted Veil (1934), though these scenes were later deleted.
Her other credits included The Forgotten Woman (1939), You’re the One (1941) as Madame Ziffnidyiff, and Mabu in Song of the Sarong (1945). Her uncredited roles included that of a member of a motion picture crew in Souls for Sale (1923), an opera singer in Bottoms Up (1934) and Maytime (1937), Mrs Sampson, a civil servant in That Man’s Here Again (1937), a policewoman in Exclusive (1937) and a police matron in Stronger Than Desire (1939). Aldrich appeared with the Marx brothers in their film At the Circus (1939) (released in the USA as The Marx Brothers at the Circus). Her last role, again uncredited, was in the film The Hidden Eye (1945). Mariska Aldrich died (Sept 29, 1965) aged eighty-four, in Los Angeles, California.

Aldrich, Mildred – (1853 – 1928)
American traveller and author
Mildred Aldrich was born in Providence, Rhode Island. She travelled in France prior to WWI and wrote several books concerned with the theme of the Great War such as, A Hilltop on the Marne (1915), and When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1919). Other works included Told in a French Garden (1916) and Peak of the Lead (1918).

Aldrich-Blake, Dame Louisa Brandreth – (1865 – 1925) 
British surgeon
Louisa Aldrich was born (Aug 15, 1865) at Chingford, Essex, the daughter of Reverend Frederick Aldrich, rector of Chingford, and his wife Louisa Blake Morrison. She grew up at Welsh Bicknor, Herefordshire. Educated at Great Malvern (1881 – 1884), Louisa also studied abroad at Neuchatel (1884 – 1886). From 1886 – 1887 she studied at St Hilda’s College, at Cheltenham, before deciding to take up medicine, studying at the London School of Medicine for Women in Hunter Street, London, with impressive results. Winning the gold medal for surgery, Louisa obtained her master’s degree at the age of twenty-nine (1894), becoming the first woman to qualify as a master in surgery (1895).
Louisa became the assistant, senior, and eventually the consulting surgeon to the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in Euston Road, and to the Royal Free Hospital in Gray’s Inn Road. In 1914 she was appointed dean of the London School of Medicine for Women. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (1910), she was later created DBE (Dame Commander of the British Empire by King George V (1925).  Her portrait was painted by Sir William Orpen (1923) and is preserved at the London School of Medicine. Dame Louisa Aldrich-Blake died a few months later (Dec 28, 1925) in London.

Aldrich i de Pages, Trinitat – (1863 – 1939)
Spanish lyric poet
Trinitat Aldrich i de Pages was born at Vullpellach in Girona, into a minor aristocratic family. She received a small family income and never married. Trinitat amassed a large personal library and established a popular salon in her own home. She was acqainted with such well known literary figures as Jacint Verdaguer and Caterina Albert and later became the director (1910) of the famous poetry festival, the Jocs Florals of Girona.
Aldrich i de Pages was the recipient of several prizes from the Academia Mariana de Lerida in (1911) and (1927). Many of her poems were published in the Antologia de poetes bisbalences de la Renaixenca of Pere Lloberas, whilst her nephew later edited and posthumously published a selection of her works (1968). Trinitat Aldrich i de Pages died at La Bisbal in Girona.

Aldworth, Elizabeth – (1693 – 1773)
British freemason
The Hon. (Honourable) Elizabeth St Leger was the daughter of Viscount Doneraile, of County Cork, Ireland, and became the wife (1713) of Richard Aldworth. After having secretly observed the workings of the first two degrees of a lodge at her father’s home, she was discovered and initiated (1712) into the Doneraile Court Lodge as a Freemason. Despite this her induction was looked upon as irregular by many members as irregular. Her Masonic regalia is preserved at the Masonic Hall in Cork City, Ireland, and her own chair with camopy is also preserved there.

Alencon, Emilienne d’ – (1870 – after 1940)
French courtesan
Emilienne briefly studied acting at the Paris Conservatoire, before joining the circus. Blonde and elegantly beautiful, she made her debut at the Cirque d’Ete, and later performed at the Folies Bergere, establishing her fame with an act which centred round a troupe of trained rabbits, whose fur was dyed pink, and who then were decorated with paper ruffles. Alencon’s lovers included Leopold II, King of the Belgians, and the jockey, Alec Carter, and when she visited England she attended society disguised as the ‘Comtesse de Beaumonoir.’
Emilienne later married an aristocratic army officer and legally became a comtesse, producing a volume of poems entitled The Temple of Love. After World War I, Alencon formed part of the circle that surrounded Natalie Barney, and she was for a time the lover of fellow courtesan, Liane de Pougy and of the poet, Renee Vivien. Emilienne d’Alencon was last publicly seen attending the casino at Monte Carlo (1940).

Alencon, Margeurite de Lorraine-Vaudement, Duchesse de – (1463 – 1521)
French nun and saint
Princesse Margeurite de Lorraine was the daughter of Fierry VI of Vaudement, Duke of Lorraine and his wife Yolande, the daughter of Rene I of Anjou, King of Naples. She married (1488) Rene de Bourbon, Duc d’Alencon, to whom she bore three children. With her husband’s death, she brought up their children at the Chateau de Mauves, and proved herself to be a capable administrator. When her son Charles IV d’Alencon (1489 – 1525) came of age, he received his inheritance in much better shape than his father had left it.
Influenced by the preaching of St Francis de Paula, the duchesse entered the convent at Mortagne (1513) before founding another house at Argentan in Brittany for nuns of the Clarissan order. Becoming a nun herself (1519), the duchesse refused the position of abbess. Duchesse Margeurite died there (Nov 1, 1521) aged fifty-eight. She was declared venerable, and her cult was confirmed (1921). Her feast was observed (Nov 6).

Aleramo, Sibilla – (1876 – 1960)
Italian novelist and poet
Sibilla Aleramo was born in Alessandria. She was married in her youth a brutal man to whom she bore a son, but finally left him and the child (1902). Aleramo’s earliest work Una donna (A Woman at Bay) (1906) deals with the feminist theme of men pretending to love and celebrate women, but instead treat them as objects for their own pleasure.

Aleramo became the mistress of the poets, Dino Campana and Vincenzo Cardarelli, and joined the communists after World War II. She was the author of Amo, dunque sono (I Love, Therefore I Am) (1927) and left the memoirs Dal mio diario (From My Diary) (1945), besides a collection of letters between her and Campana, which was published under the title Dino Campana-Sibilla Aleramo: Lettere (1952).

Alessina of Montferrat – (1247 – 1285)
Italian duchess and ruler
Alessina was the only daughter of bonifacio III (1225 – c1254), Marchese of Montferrat and his wife Margaret of Savoy, the daughter of Amadeo IV, Count of Savoy. She was sister to the Marchese Guglielmo IX (c1254 – 1292) and came to England in the retinue of the Savoyard courtiers who were related to Eleanor of Provence, the wife of Henry III of England (1216 – 1272). She was married (1266) at Kenilworth Castle to Albert I (1236 – 1279), the reigning Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg (1252 – 1279) in northern Germany. The marriage was recorded by the Annales Londoniensis which described Alessina as filiam Marchisi de Montferrato, cognatem regine (Eleanor of Provence). Her marriage with Albert was recorded by the Cronica Principum Saxonie which named the duchess ‘Aleidis.’
With the death of her husband Duchess Alessina ruled Brunswick as regent (1279 – 1282) for her son Duke Heinrich I of Luneburg. When her son came of age the duchess remarried a second time (1282) to Count Gerhard I of Holstein-Schauenburg-Itzehoe (1232 – 1290) as his second wife, but this marriage remained childless. Duchess Alessina died (Feb 16, 1285) aged thirty-seven. Her death was recorded in the Libro Memoriarum Sancti Blasii which styled her ‘Alexina ducissa in Brunswich et cometissa Holsacie, soro comitis Montisferranum.’ The seven children of her first marriage were,

• Heinrich I (1267 – 1322). He succeeded his father as Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg (1279 – 1322) and was married and left issue.
• Albert II (1268 – 1318). He became Duke of Brunswick-Gottingen (1291 – 1318) and was married and left issue.
• Wilhelm I (1270 – 1292). He became Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel (1291 – 1292) and was married but died childless.
• Prince Otto of Brunswick-Luneburg (1271 – 1347). He became a member of the Order of the Knights Templar at Supplinburg (1303).
• Prince Konrad of Brunswick-Luenburg (1273 – 1303). He remained unmarried.
• Prince Luder of Brunswick-Luneburg (1275 – 1335). He became the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order of Knights (1331 – 1335).
• Princess Matilda of Brunswick-Luneburg (1276 – 1318). She became the wife of Heinrich I (c1253 – 1309), Duke of Silesia-Glogau and left issue.

Alexander, Annie Hector – (1825 – 1901)
Irish novelist
Born in Dublin her published works included The Wooing O’t (1873), Mana’s Choice (1887) and Kitty Costello (1902).

Alexander, Cecil Frances – (1818 – 1895)
Irish hymnist
Cecil Frances Humphreys was born in County Wicklow, and became the wife (1850) of William Alexander, Bishop of Derry. Mrs Alexander had written verses from early childhood, and her most famous early works were Verses for Holy Seasons (1846) and Hymns for Little Children (1848), published prior to her marriage, and which had run into almost seventy editions the year after her death. These hymns included the well known ‘All ThingsBright and Beautiful.’
But by far her most famous hymn was ‘There is a Green Hill Far Away’ which remains prominent during the church rituals connected with Easter, and the favourite Christmas carol ‘Once in Royal David’s City.’ Mrs Alexander’s devotional work ‘The Burial of Moses’ was admired by Lord Tennyson. She wrote pamphlets for the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement and wrote such stirring national songs as ‘The Irish Mother’s Lament.’ Cecil Alexander died at the Bishop’s palace in Londonderry.

Alexander, Christine – (1893 – 1975)
American museum curator and antiquities specialist
Alexander was born (Nov 10, 1893) in Tokyo, the daughter of missionaries. She was partly educated in Japan before returning to the USA to study archaeology and philology at Cornell University. During WW I she served in Alexandria, Egypt with the British Field Service, and was then employed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1923). She remained unmarried and was appointed as curator of the department of Greek and Roman art (1949 – 1959).
Her acquisitions for the museum during this period included the marble statue of Aphrodite which had been made by a student of the sculptor Praxiteles (c300 BC). Her published works were Aretine Relief Ware (1943) and The Paintings from Boscotrecase (1962). Christine Alexander died (Dec 24, 1975) aged eighty-two, in New York.

Alexander, Evelina Throop Martin – (1843 – 1922)
American diarist
Evelina Martin Alexander was the wife of Andrew J. Alexander, a cavalry officer. Mrs Alexander accompanied her husband when he was stationed in Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado (1866 – 1867), and where he saw active service amongst the Indian tribes. Several years later Mrs Alexander accompanied him to Fort McDowell in Arizona when he was reassigned (1868 – 1869).
Two editions of her personal diary and letters were published over fifty years after her death as Evy Alexander: The Colonel’s Lady at Ft McDowell (1974) and as Cavalry Wife: The Diary of Eveline M. Alexander, 1866 – 1867 (1977).

Alexander, Francesca – (1837 – 1917)
American artist and author
Born Esther Frances Alexander, in Boston, Massachussetts, she became the pupil and friend of the British author and art critic, John Ruskin (1819 – 1900) who gave her the name of ‘Francesca’ which she retained for the rest of her life. Alexander travelled in France and Italy, and wrote several works such as The Story of Ida (1883), Roadside Songs of Tuscany (1885), and Christ’s Folk in the Apennines (1888) all of which were edited for her by Ruskin. She also wrote Tuscan Songs (1897) and a collection of verses The Hidden Servants, and Other Very Old Stories (1900). Francesca Alexander died (Jan 21, 1917) aged seventy-nine.

Alexander, Hattie Elizabeth – (1901 – 1968)
American paediatrician and microbiologist
Hattie Alexander was born (April 5, 1901) in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of a merchant, William Basin Alexander. She attended a local girls’ secondary school and then graduated from Goucher College (1923). After this she studied medicine successfully at John Hopkins University and graduated as a doctor (1930). Her internship was spent at the Harriet Lane Home in Baltimore, a service which would inspire her lifetime research work.
As well as clinical studies into tuberculosis, Alexander was involved in extensive research into influenzal meningitis, and programmed a successful regime of antibiotics to substantially reduce the infant mortality from this disease. On top of receiving the E. Mead Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics (1942), Alexander was the first woman to receive the Oscar B. Hunter Memorial Award of the American Therapeutic Society (1961) and was also the first woman to serve as president (1964 – 1968) of the American Pediatric Society. Hattie Alexander died of cancer (June 24, 1968) aged sixty-seven, in New York.

Alexander, Katherine – (1898 – 1981)
American stage and film actress
Katherine Alexander was born (Sept 22, 1898) in Fort Smith, Arkansas. She became the wife of William Brady, Jr. Adept at portraying aristocratic and upper class ladies Katherine Alexander appeared in films for over a period of two decades (1930 – 1949). Her movie credits included The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), with Norma Shearer and Ronald Reagan, Splendor (1935), That Certain Woman (1937), and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939).
Alexander starred opposite John Barrymore in The Great Man Votes (1939) and appeared with Claude Rains and Bette Davis in Now Voyager (1942). She later returned to the theatre and appeared with Paul Muni in Death of a Salesman in London (1949). Katherine Alexander died (Jan 10, 1981) aged eighty-two, at Tryon, North Carolina.

Alexander, Lilian Helen – (1862 – 1934)
Australian surgeon
Lilian Alexander was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the daughter of Thomas Alexander. Educated at the Presbyterian Ladies’ College and Trinity College University, Melbourne, she was successful in obtaining from the university council the admission of women to medical school, obtaining her Bachelor of Medicine (MB) in 1893, and her Bachelor of Surgery (ChB) in 1901.
Lilian became the foundation member of the Victorian Medical Women’s Society, of which association she became president in 1921. Employed as surgeon and an original staff member of the Queen Victoria Hospital, after her retirement in 1917, she became an honorary medical and surgical consultant. A prominent university benefactor, Lilian Alexander remained unmarried and died in Melbourne.

Alexander, Mary Louise – (1889 – 1976)
American librarian
Mary Louise Alexander was born in Iowa and attended the universities of Wisconsin and Missouri. She received her librarian training at the St Louis Public Library. Originally employed as a company librarian Alexander established the Special libraries Association’s Advertising-Industrial Commercial Group (1923), and served as first chair-person. She served as director of the Bibliographical Planning Committee of Philadelphia, but she was later seconded to Washington as a special assistant to Eleanor Roosevelt in the office of Civilian Defence during World War II. Alexander served for twenty years as the director of the Ferguson Library on Stamford, Connecticut. She retired (1965) but continued to serve as a library planning and management consultant.
Mary Louise Alexander died in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Alexander, Nell Haigh – (1915 – 1986)
British churchwoman
Nell Haigh Fowler was the daughter of William Henry Fowler, and was educated in Cambridge. She married Arthur Alexander (1938), to whom she bore a son. Prominent within the Baptist church, Alexander was elected as national chairwoman of the Women’s Work department of the Baptist Union (1971 – 1976). She was then appointed president of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland (1978 – 1979), becoming the first woman to be appointed to that position.

Alexander, Ruth Kurtz – (1914 – 1999)
American-Australian music educator
Ruth Kurtz was born into a musical family in Wellington, Kansas, and was a pianist and tutor in high school, earning scholarships and working part time to complete her tertiary music training. She married (1943) Geoffrey Alexander, an Australian engineer (1943) and the couple settled in Victoria, Australia. Alexander took up a position at Morris Hall, the junior school attached to the Melbourne Church of England Girls Grammar School.
Having been influenced by the orchestral organizer Joseph Maddy in the US, she formed an association with John Bishop, president of the Victorian School Music Association, and established the first music camp in Victoria, held at Point Lonsdale (1948). Thousands of musicians, trained in both orchestral and chamber music have attended these camps of the decades, and the successful Australian Youth Opera (later renamed Youth Music Australia), evolved from them. Alexander was awarded the prestigious Sir Bernard Heinze Award for her contributions to Australian orchestral music (1984). She later became an Australian citizen (1996). Ruth Kurtz Alexander died (Jan 8, 1999) aged eighty-four, in Melbourne.

Alexander, Sadie – (1898 – 1989)  
American lawyer and civil rights activist
Sadie Alexander graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (1918) becoming the first woman to practice law in that state. Alexander was later appointed as secretary to the National Bar Association, and her long career of involvement with civil rights and social reform in all areas of life won her national recognition. President Jimmy Carter appointed her to head the White House Conference of Aging.

Alexander, Shana – (1925 – 2005)
American newspaper columnist
Shana Ager was born (Oct 6, 1925) the daughter of composer Milton Ager and his wife Cecelia Ager, the noted columnist. She studied anthropology at Vassar College and then obtained employment with the newspaper PM in New York, working alongside her mother. She also worked freelance and some of her articles were published in magazines such as Junior Bazaar and Mademoiselle.
Shana produced ‘The Feminine Eye’ column for Life magazine and was appointed as the first female editor at McCall’s (1969 – 1971) but resigned due to the sexist atmosphere at the company. Alexander then wrote a column for Newsweek (1975 – 1979) in which she participated in debates with James Kilpatrick in the ‘Point-Counterpoint’ segment of the 60 Minutes program. Shana Alexander wrote the autobiography Happy Days: My Mother, My Father, My Sister & Me (1995). Shana Alexander died (June 23, 2005) aged seventy-nine, in Hermosa Beach, California.

Alexander of Hillsborough, Esther Ellen Chapple, Countess – (1877 – 1969)
British philanthropist and peeress
Esther Chapple was born at Tiverton, in Devon, Cornwall, the daughter of George Chapple. She was married (1908) to Sir Albert Victor Alexander (1885 – 1965), the first Viscount Alexander of Hillsborough (1950) and then first and last Earl of Hillsborough (1963 – 1965), almost a decade her junior, who served as First Lord of the Admiralty and was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1950 – 1951). Lady Esther bore her husband an only daughter, Lady Beatrix Dora Alexander (born 1909), who became the wife of William Bernard Evison, of Enfield, Middlesex, to whom she bore children.
When not in London the couple resided at the family estate in West Mersea, Essex. With her husband’s subsequent elevations she became successively Viscountess Alexander of Hillsborough (1950 – 1963) and then Countess Alexander of Hillsborough (1963 – 1965). She survived her husband for five years as the Dowager Countess of Hillsborough (1965 – 1969). With her husband’s death, the titles became extinct as there was no direct male heir. Countess Alexander became president of the London and Home Counties King George’s Fund for Sailors, and was appointed CBE (Commander of the British Empire) (1947) by King George VI in recognition of her valuable volunteer work. Countess Alexander of Hillsborough died (Oct 18, 1969) aged ninety-two, at Enfield, in Middlesex.

Alexandra Feodorovna (1) – (1798 – 1860)
Russian tsarina (1825 – 1855)
Born Princess Charlotte of Prussia (July 13, 1798) at Charlottenburg Castle, near Berlin, she was the eldest daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia (1797 – 1840) and his first wife Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the daughter of Karl II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. She was named in honour of her maternal great-aunt Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III of England (1760 – 1820). Charlotte was sister to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia (1840 – 1861) and to Emperor Wilhelm I (1871 – 1888).
Princess Charlotte was married (1817) to Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovitch Romanov (1795 – 1855) who later succeeded his childless brother Alexander I as Tsar of Russia (1825). She survived her husband as the Dowager Empress (1855 – 1860). Empress Alexandra died (Nov 1, 1860) aged sixty-two, at the Palace of Tsarkoie-Selo. She was the mother of several children including  the Emperor Alexander II (1818 – 1881).

Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix) (2) – (1872 – 1918)
Russian tsarina (1894 – 1918)
Born Princess Alexandra Victoria Helena Louise Beatrice, but known as Alix, in Darmstadt, Germany, the daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt (1877 – 1892), and his wife Alice, the second daughter of Queen Victoria. She refused an offer from her British cousin, the Duke of Clarence, much to the dissapointment of Queen Victoria, and married instead Nicholas II (1868 – 1918) in 1894, shortly after the assasination of his father Alexander II brought him unexpectedly to the throne. The couple had four daughters, Olga (1895), Tatiana (1897), Maria (1899), and Anastasia (1901) and finally, a son and heir, the Tsarevich Alexis (1904) who had inherited the disease haemophilia, and whose health always remained a constant source of anxiety to his devoted parents.
Though she was deeply pious and superstitious, the empress was also extremely shy and emotional, and eventually (1905) came under the appallingly baneful influence of the fanatical monk, Grigori Rasputin, who played deeply on her concerns for her son’s health. Alexandra would no ill of`him, and would defend him against all gossip. Her son’s recovery from a near fatal illness at Spala (1912) left her convinced more than ever of Rasputin’s healing powers. During World War I the empress devoted much of her time and private income to organizing military hospitals in which she and her daughters worked as nurses. However, whilst the tsar was absent from the capital with the army, the empress meddled in politics with disastrous results. Her name was added to Imperial decrees, and appointed and dismissed ministers under Rasputin’s guidance. Reviled as ‘the German woman’ she was accused of being a traitor with the Germans, and there were calls for her to be shut up in a convent. Rasputin’s murder (Dec 27, 1916) left her prostrate with grief.
When the revolution broke out, Alexandra was imprisoned by the Bolsheviks with the rest of the immediate Imperial family at the palace of Tsarskoe Selo, and soon afterwards Nicholas was forced to abdicate. Despite being subjected to petty indignities by their captors, the empress and her husband bore their lot with magnificent courage. Removed to Tobolsk (Nov, 1917) on the orders of Alexander Kerensky, the family were installed in a fortified house in Ekaterinburg. Empress Alexandra was killed in the cellar with her husband and children (July 16, 1918).
Surviving accounts indicate that the empress was shot in the head whilst seated in a chair, and died instantly.
The empress was portrayed by Janet Suzman in the film, Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), opposite Michael Jayston as Nicholas. She was played in the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) series Edward VII (1975) by actress Meriel Brook, and by Claire Bloom in the film Anastasia, The Mystery of Anna (1986), with Amy Irving in the title role, and Olivia De Havilland as the Dowager Empress Marie.

Alexandra Josifovna – (1830 – 1911)
Roman Grand Duchess
Born HSH (Her Serene Highness) Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg (July 8, 1830) at Altenburg in Saxony, she was the fourth daughter of Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1834 – 1848) and his wife Duchess Amalia of Wurttemburg, the daughter of Duke Ludwig of Wurrttemburg. She became the wife (1848) of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievitch, a younger son of Tsar Nicholas I (1825 – 1855). She took the name of HIH (Her Imperial Highness) Grand Duchess Alexandra Josifovna as she was known thereafter.
The couple had several children and Alexandra bore an illegitimate child from a liaison with a nobleman. During the reign of Nicholas II (1894 – 1918) Grand Duchess Alexandra was one of the older members of the Romanov court who disapproved of the Empress Alexandra and her relationship with the monk Grigori Rasputin. Grand Duchess Alexandra Josipovna died (June 23, 1911) aged eighty, in St Petersburg.

Alexandra of Chalcis – (fl. 49 – 47 BC)
Judaean princess
Alexandra was the daughter of Aristobulos II, King of Judaea, and was sister to King Alexander (died 49 BC). Her father was poisoned by order of the Roman general, Pompey (49 BC), and Alexandra retired to live with her mother in Askalon. Prince Philippion of Chalcis fell in love with her, and married Alexandra (47 BC). However, his father, Prince Ptolemy (c100 – 40 BC), jealous of the young man, caused him to be killed and then married the young widow himself.
After this, Ptolemy looked after her widowed mother and two of her siblings, including her brother Antigonus, keeping them at his court as political pawns. Her elderly husband died (40 BC), to be succeeded by his son Lysanias. Alexandra’s fate remains unknown. The details that are known of her life were recorded by Flavius Josephus in his Antiquitates Judaicae.

Alexandra of Greece – (1921 – 1993)
Queen consort of Yugoslavia (1944 – 1945)
Alexandra was born in Athens, Greece, the only child of King Alexander I and his morganatic Greek wife, Aspasia Manos. Formally recognized as a Greek princess (1922), a coup forced mother and daughter to flee from Greece (1924), firstly to Italy and from there to England, where they settled. Alexandra attended boarding school at Ascot, near London, and from 1934 she attended school in Switzerland and Paris. Soon afterwards she returned to Greece at the invitation of King Giorgios II who had regained the Greek throne.
With the invasion of the Fascists and Nazis during World War II Alexandra returned to England and settled in London. There she met and married (1944) Peter II, King of Yugoslavia (1923 – 1970), the great-great grandson of Queen Victoria. To him she bore an only child and heir, Crown Prince Alexander (1945). With the dissolution of the Yugoslavian monarchy in the same year, the royal family were sent into exile, and he couple retired to reside successively in Paris, Madrid, London, and Monte Carlo, in severely straitened financial circumstances.
The marriage became unstable and Alexandra twice tried to commit suicide. They became more and more estranged, and with Peter’s death at Denver, in Colorado in the USA (1970) the queen returned to reside in England. Queen Alexandra died of cancer (Jan 30, 1993) at Burges Hills, near Lewes, Sussex.

Alexandra of Hasmonea – (c71 – 29 BC)
Judaean queen consort
Alexandra was the daughter of the high-priest king, Hyrcanus II, and was married to King Alexander of Judaea (c75 – 49 BC), her first cousin, to whom she bore two children, a son and heir, Aristobulos III (51 – 36 BC) and Marianmne I, the favourite wife of Herod the Great. Her husband was assassinated at Antioch on the orders of the Roman general, Pompey (49 BC), and she and her children resided at her palace in Jericho. Her daughter was betrothed to Herod (42 BC). Soon afterwards, the queen and her family were later sent for safety to the fortress of Masada during the uprising of Antigonus. She was present at the marriage of Mariamne and Herod (37 BC).
A proud and domineering woman, who despised her son-in-law as a usurper, she plotted with Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Mark Antony, which resulted in the death of her only son, after she and Aristobulos had been detected attempting to escape from Jerusalem, hidden in coffins. Her desire for revenge, and her continued treasonous activities caused her to be confined in chains (34 BC), and resulted only in the deaths of her aged father (30 BC), whom she had involved in a plot with King Malchuss of Nabatanea, and then of her daughter (29 BC). At Mariamne’s trial, Alexandra embarrassed the court by a vituperative outbust directed against her condemned daughter, in an effort to save her own life. Queen Alexandra later attempted a palace coup, by trying to subvert the captain of the fortress of Jerusalem, and she was quickly executed on Herod’s order.

Alexandra Pavlovna – (1783 – 1801)
Russian Romanov grand duchess
Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna was born (Aug 9, 1783) at Tsarskoie-Selo, the eldest daughter of Tsar Paul I (1796 – 1801) and his second wife Marie Feodorovna, and was the granddaughter of Catharine the Great. Her grandmother arranged for Alexandra’s betrothal to the young Swedish king Gustavus IV. He travelled to St Petersburg with his uncle, the Duke of Sodermanland, in order to sign the marriage contract, but reneged at the last moment, claiming that he could not accept the clause which demanded that Alexandra should retain her Russian Orthodox faith (1796). The shock of this is said to have hastened the old empress’s death.
Grand Duchess Alexandra was eventually married (1799) to the Hapsburg Archduke Joseph of Austria (1776 – 1847), the Palatine of Hungary (1795 – 1847), younger brother to the Emperor Franz II (1792 – 1835), as his first wife. Alexandra died (March 16, 1801) from the effects of childbirth, aged seventeen, in Buda, Hungary. Her daughter, the Archduchess Alexandrine (born March 8, 1801) died the same day, a week before her mother.

Alexandra Beatrice Leopoldine – (1901 – 1963)
German princess
HSH (Her Serene Highness) Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg was born (Aug 2, 1901) at Coburg in Thuringia, the second daughter of Ernst Wilhelm, seventh Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and his wife Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh-Coburg, granddaughter to Queen Victoria and niece to King Edward VII (1901 – 1910). She remained unmarried. Princess Alexandra died (Oct 26, 1963) aged sixty-two.

Alexandra Caroline Maria Charlotte Louise Julia – (1844 – 1925)
Queen consort of Great Britain
Princess Alexandra was born (Dec 1, 1844) at the Gule (Yellow) Palace, Copenhagen, the eldest daughter of Christian IX, King of Denmark, and his wife Louise of Hesse-Kassel, the daughter of William, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and niece to Christian VIII. Alix, as she was known informally, was personally selected as a bride for Edward VII (1841 – 1910), then Bertie, the Prince of Wales, by his mother Queen Victoria (1863).

Although Alix’s connection with Denmark did not recommend the alliance to the Prussian government, which anticipated problems with Denmark, the marriage had little political significance or influence. Dignified, beautiful, and religious, she quickly captivated the British public, and retained that place in their affections for the rest of her life. Her style of dress was imitated, a petticoat being named the ‘Alexandra’ after her.

Alix provided Edward with six children, of whom one son died in infancy (1871). Encroaching deafness at an early age left Alix somewhat isolated at home with her children, but this was the life she preferred. The death of her eldest and favourtie son, the Duke of Clarence (1892) caused her to withdraw from public life for some months, and it was feared that she might choose to imitate her mother-in-law, but eventually friends convinced her to reappear in public, where she was greeted with great public sympathy and affection. She quietly accepted her husband’s mistresses, and even received Alice Keppel (1898 – 1910) at Marlborough House and Buckingham Palace during her long stint as royal favourite.
Engaged throughout her life with charitable concerns, she founded the Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service (1902) and instituted the annual Alexandra Rose Day (1913) to provide financial aid for hospitals. In 1910 she cut short a visit to the family of her brother King Giorgios I in Athens when she received news of her husband’s serious ill-health. She was present at his deathbed, and then retired to Marlborough House, always her favourite home, and Sandringham in Norfolk. Queen Alexandra died (Nov 20, 1925) aged eighty, at Sandringham, and was buried beside Edward in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in Berkshire. Her children included King George V (1865 – 1936), Louise Victoria, the Princess Royal (1867 – 1931) who married Alexander Duff, Duke of Fife, Princess Victoria, who remained unmarried, and Princess Maud (1869 – 1938) the wife of Haakon VII, King of Norway.
In the famous BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) series, Edward VII (1975), Alexandra was portrayed by actress Helen Ryan, to great credit, with Timothy West as Bertie, and Annette Crosbie as Queen Victoria. Miss Ryan reprised her role of Alexandra for the film The Elephant Man (1980) with William Hurt in the title role.

Alexandra Louise Marie Olga Elisabeth Therese Vera – (1882 – 1963)
Last Grand Duchess consort of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1904 – 1918)
Princess Alexandra was born (Sept 29, 1882) in Gmunden in Austria, the second daughter of Ernst Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick (1913 – 1918), and his wife Thyra of Denmark, the daughter of King Christian IX, and sister to Queen Alexandra, the wife of Edward VII of England, after whom she was named. She was the paternal granddaughter of George V, the blind King of Hanover, who was deposed by Wilhelm I of Prussia, and was a descendant of King George III and his wife Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, which entitled her to bear the additional titles of Princess of Great Britain and Ireland.
Alexandra was married at Gmunden (1904) to Friedrich Franz IV (1882 – 1945), the last reigning Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who was forced to abdicate at the end of WW I (1918). The couple had several children and she survived her husband as the Dowager Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1945 – 1963). Grand Duchess Alexandra died (Aug 30, 1963) aged eighty, at Glucksburg in Holstein. Her children were,

• Hereditary Grand Duke Friedrich Franz of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (born 1910). He married Karen Elisabeth von Schaper (born 1920) but died childless.
• Duke Christian Ludwig II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1912 – 1996). He married Barbara of Prussia and left two daughters.
• Duchess Olga of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1916 – 1917). She died in infancy.
• Duchess Thyra of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1919 – 1981). She remained unmarried.
• Duchess Anastasia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1922 – 1979). She became the wife of Prince Friedrich Ferdinand of Holstein-Glucksburg (1913 – 1989) and left four daughters.

Alexandra Salome       see     Salome Alexandra

Alexandra Victoria Alberta Edwina Louise – (1891 – 1959) 

British princess
Princess Alexandra was born (May 17, 1891) at Sheen Lodge, the elder daughter pf Alexander Macduff, first Duke of Fife and his wife Princess Louise Victoria, the daughter of Edward VII. When her mother was created Princess Royal (1905), Alexandra and her sister Maud were granted the rank of princesses. With the death of her father (1912) Alexandra succeeded as duchess of Fife and Countess Macduff. The following year (1913) she married her cousin Prince Arthur of Connaught (1883 – 1938) to whom she bore an only child, Alistair Arthur (1914 – 1943) who succeeded as second duke of Connaught, but died childless in Canada.
During World War I Alexandra joined the staff at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington as a full time nurse. She was also employed at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital as a gynaecologist. After 1923 she served ar the University College Hospital and Charing Cross Hospital, specializing in surgery, and proved herself a competent, dependable, and impeccable theatre sister, capable of performing minor operations herself, and was awarded the RRC (Royal Red Cross) in 1925. During World War II Alexandra was appointed as sister-in-charge of casualty at the 2nd London General Hospital. Shortly thereafter the princess opened the Fife Nursing Home in Bentinck Street, which establishment she personally equipped and financed.
During the absence of George VI abroad in 1939, 1943 – 1944, and 1949, Princess Alexandra served as counsellor of state. She was president, and later patron of the Royal British Nurses Association, and the patron of Plaistow Maternity Hospital. Forced to retire because of illness (1949), Alexandra wrote two autobiographical works A Nurses Story (1958) and Egypt and Khartoum (1959). Princess Alexandra died (Feb 26, 1959) at her home in Regent’s Park, London, and was interred in the chapel of Mar Lodge.

Alexandra Victoria Olga – (1878 – 1942)
Princess of Great Britain
HSH (Her Serene Highness) Princess Alexandra was born (Sept 1, 1878) at Coburg in Thuringia, Germany, the third daughter of Prince Alfred (1844 – 1900), Duke of Edinburgh and Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1893 – 1900), the second son of Queen Victoria, and his wife the Russian Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna Romanov, the daughter of Tsar Alexander II (1855 – 1881). She was the younger sister to Queen Marie of Roumania and the niece of King Edward VII (1901 – 1910).
Alexandra bore the additional title of Duchess of Saxony and was married (1896) at Coburg, to Prince Ernst Wilhelm Friedrich Karl Maximilian (1863 – 1950), seventh Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and left several children. Princess Alexandra died (April 16, 1942) aged sixty-three, at Schwabish-Hall in Wurttemburg. Her children were,

• Gottfried Victor Hermann Alfred Paul Maximilian (1897 – 1960), eighth Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1950 – 1960). He was married to Princess Margarita of Greece, the sister-in-law of
  Queen Elizabeth II and left children.
• Princess Marie Melita of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1899 – 1967). She was married to Wilhelm Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Glucksburg and left issue.
• Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1901 – 1963). She remained unmarried.
• Princess Irma Helene of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (born 1902). She remained unmarried.
• Prince Alfred of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1911). He died in infancy.

Alexandria – (c550 – 599)
Italian religious founder and patrician
Alexandria was mentioned in the Epistolarum Registrum of Pope Gregory I, who called her clarissimae memoriae femina. Alexandria founded the monastery dedicated to the saints Herasmus, Maximus, and Juliana at Naples, which establishment she made her heir. With her death (before June, 599), the abbot of Alexandria’s monastery also claimed a portion of one of her estates, the massa Papryensis, which she had inherited in Sicily, and which she had bequeathed to the church of St Theodore in Palermo.

Alexandrine of Macon – (c1168 – 1242)
French mediaeval noblewoman
Alexandrine was the daughter of Girard I, Count of Macon and Vienne and his wife Mauretta of Salins, the daughter and heiress of Walter III, Sire de Salins. Through her father she was a descendant of the Emperor Charlemagne (800 – 814) through Berengar II, King of Italy and of Henry I the Fowler, Emperor of Germany (919 – 936). Through her mother Alexandrine was a descendant of the ancient countly family of Macon, founded by Aubri of Narbonne (died 945), a descendant of Flavius Afranius Syagrius, the Roman proconsul of Africa (381 AD). Alexandrine became the second wife of Ulrich V (c1145 – c1212), Seigneur of Bage, near Bresse. She survived Ulrich for three decades as the Dowager Dame de Bresse (c1212 – 1242). Her children were,

• Raynald IV (c1188 – after 1250). He succeeded his half-brother Guy I as Seigneur of Bage and Bresse (c1218). He left an only daughter and heiress, Sibylla of Bage, the wife of Amadeus
  V, Count of Savoy.
• Hugh de Bage (c1190 – after 1251). He became Seigneur de Saint-Trivier and de Cuisey.
• Beatrix of Bage (c1195 – after 1227). She became the second wife of Amadeus II (c1170 – 1247), Seigneur of Gex, of the family of the Counts of Geneva, and left issue.

Alexandrine of Prussia – (1803 – 1892)
Hohenzollern princess
Princess Alexandrine was born (Feb 23, 1803) in Berlin, the second daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III (1797 – 1840) and his first wife Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the daughter of Karl II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. She was sister to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV (1840 – 1861) and of Emperor Wilhelm I (1871 – 1888). She became the wife (1822) of Duke Paul Friedrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the son of Hereditary Duke Friedrich Ludwig and his first wife Grand Duchess Helena Pavlovna, the daughter of Paul I, Tsar of Russia (1796 – 1801).
Paul Friedrich later succeeded his grandfather Friedrich Franz I as the reigning Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1837) and Alexandrine became the Grand Duchess consort of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1837 – 1842). Alexandrine survived her husband for five decades as the Dowager Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1842 – 1892). She was mentioned in the letters of her brother’s daughter-in-law the British Princess Vicky, the daughter of Queen Victoria. Grand Duchess Alexandrine died (April 21, 1892) aged eighty-nine. She left three children,

• Friedrich Franz II (1823 – 1883). He succeeded his father as Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1842 – 1883). He was married twice and left issue.
• Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1824 – 1859). She became the wife of Prince Hugo von Windisch-Graetz (died 1904).
• Duke Wilhelm of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1827 – 1879). He was married and left an only daughter.

Alexandrine Augustine – (1879 – 1952)
Queen consort of Denmark (1912 – 1947)
Princess Alexandrine was born (Dec 24, 1879) at Schwerin, Germany, the elder daughter of Friedrich Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and his wife Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna, daughter of the Romanov grand duke Mikhail Nikolaievitch. She married (April 26, 1898) at Cannes, France Crown Prince Christian, the eldest son and heir of Frederik VIII, to whom she bore two sons, Frederik IX (1899 – 1972) and Prince Knud.
Reserved and quiet by nature, and fond of music, particularly the works of Richard Wagner, the princess preferred the domestic life with her family. Her husband became king in 1912 as Christian X, and the queen accompanied him on state visits to the Faroe Islands, and to Iceland and Greenland. Despite sufferring frequent ill-health, Queen Akexandrine was particularly fond of outdoor activities, particularly cycling, a recreation that she shared with her husband. The royal family spent the summers at their estate at Skaw, in North Jutland, and it was only here that Alexandrine felt able to relax the formality attached to royal life.
During the German occupation during World War II, Queen Alexandrine stood resolutely beside her husband, residing quietly at the royal palace throughout. Their courage and loyalty were never forgotten by the Danish people. She survived her husband as Queen Dowager (1947 – 1952). Queen Alexandrine died (Dec 28, 1952) aged seventy-three, in Copenhagen.

Alexandrine Louise Caroline Mathilde Dagmar – (1914 – 1962)
Princess of Denmark
HH (Her Highness) Princess Alexandrine Louise was born (Dec 12, 1914) at Haegersborghus, the daughter of Prince Harald of Denmark and his wife Helena of Schleswig-Holstein-Glucksburg, and was cousin to King Frederik IX (1947 – 1972). She was proposed as a possible Protestant bride for her cousin Edward VIII of England, but his involvement with Mrs Simpson ended this idea. Alexandrine was married instead (1937) to H Ill H (His Illustrious Highness) Count Luitpold Alfred Friedrich Karl, Count of Castell-Castell (1904 – 1941) who was killed in action  at bankta, near Sofia in Bulgaria during WW II. Princess Alexandrine survived her husband as the Dowager Countess of Castell-Castell (1941 – 1962) and she never remarried. Princess Alexandrine died (April 26, 1962) aged forty-seven, at Hellerup. She left two daughters,

• Countess Amelie of Castell-Castell (born 1938). She was married to Oskar Heinrich Ritter von Miller zu Aichholz (born 1934) and left issue.
• Countess Thyra of Castell-Castell (born 1939). She was married to Karl Moes (born 1937) and left issue.

Alexei, Caroline – (1779 – 1853)
German courtier and royal
Caroline Alexei was born (Dec 26, 1779) in Ludwiglust. She became the wife (1798) of Duke Karl Heinrich of Wurttemburg (1772 – 1833) and bore him five children. The marriage was not recognized and was regarded as morganatic. Caroline was later created Baroness von Hochberg and Rottenberg (Sept, 1807) and two decades later she was raised as Countess von Urach (1825 – 1853). The countess survived her royal husband by two decades and their surviving children bore the titles of countess von Urach. Caroline Alexei died (Aug 17, 1853) aged seventy-three, in Baden-Baden. Her children were,

• Baroness Louise von Hochberg-Rottenberg (born Nov, 1799). She died young.
• Baroness Henriette von Hochberg-Rottenberg (born March, 1801). She died young.
• Baroness Marie von Hochberg-Rottenberg (1802 – 1882). She became Countess of Urach in 1825 and was married to Karl Ludwig (1780 – 1861), Prince of Hohenlohe-Kirchberg.
• Baroness Alexandrine von Hochberg-Rottenberg (1803 – 1884). She became Countess of Urach in 1825 and became the wife of Charles, Count von Arpou und Gallatin (1802 – 1877).
• Baroness Elisabeth von Hochberg-Rottenberg (Feb, 1805 – Aug, 1819). She died young.

Alexina of Brunswick    see    Alessina of Montferrat

Alexiou, Elli – (1894 – 1986) 
Greek prose writer and dramatist
Elli Alexiou was born at Heraklion in Crete, and was younger sister to the novelist Galateia Kazantzaki (1881 – 1962). She trained as a teacher in Athens and in Paris. Attracted to the more progressive and left-wing literary circles from her youth, she married Vasso Daskalakios, the teacher and translator. Elli taught French at the Third Christian Girls’ School for nearly twenty years (1913 – 1931), joining the Communist Party (1928), and in 1945 went to Paris on a French government scholarship to study at the Sorbonne, where she became familiar with the French Communist intellectuals.
From 1945 – 1949 she taught Greek in the Greek quarter in Paris. Deprived of her citizenship (1950), Elli removed to Budapest in Hungary, where she resided for over a decade. Her highly original and interesting ideas concerning the education of children, gained Elli a leading role in the organization of public education for children. From 1962 she was allowed to return and to reside in Greece, though she did not regain her citizenship till 1965. A prolific author, she wrote many short stories such as Hard Labour for Small Lives and People, and her complete works have been published in ten volumes. They include her later works such as Tributaries (1956) and The Dominant (1972).           

Aleyd the Penitent    see   Adelaide of Lenkward

Aleydis of Schaerbeek – (c1210 – 1250)
Flemish nun and saint
Sometimes called Adelaide, Alizette, or Alizon, Aleydis was born at Schaerbeek, near Brussels. She joined the Cistercian order at seven, joining the nuns at Le Cambre near Brussels, but later in her career she contracted leprosy and became blind, which effectively cut her off from her own community. She was believed to have mystical visions. Her religious cult (June 15) was later approved by Pope Pius X (1907).

Alfhilda (Aelfhild) – (c1005 – c1060)
Anglo-Saxon concubine
Alfhilda became the mistress of the Norwegian king Olaf II Skotkonnung, by whom she became the mother of King Magnus I (1024 – 1047). William of Malmesbury records that Alfhilda was captured by Norwegian raiders, and was raped by her first owner, a Norwegian jarl, before being desired and raped by King Olaf himself. This second rape resulted in the birth of her son. With the death of Magnus (1047), Alfhilda returned to England, where her career was dogged by several more romanticized adventures before she ultimately became a nun. Alfhilda was interred within Malmesbury Abbey, Somerset.

Alfidia – (c78 – c50 BC)
Roman Imperial progenitrix
Alfidia was the daughter of Marcus Aufidius Lurco, tribune of the plebs (61 BC). Alfidia was married to Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus (c95 – 43 BC) and became the mother of Livia Drusilla, the first Augusta (14 – 29 AD) as the wife of Augustus and mother of Tiberius. This made her the first identifiable female Claudian ancestor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (27 BC – 68 AD). Alfidia died during her daughter’s childhood, and was attested by a surviving inscription from Samius.

Alfon, Estrella – (1917 – 1983)
Filippino writer and joinralist
Estrella was born in Cebu City, and was only able to gain a minor degree from the University of the Philippines (UP) because of ill-health. Many of her stories were set in Cebu City and her works included the collection entitled Magnificence and Other Stories (1960). She was a member of the U.P. Writer’s Club, and held the National Fellowship in Fiction position at the U.P. Creative Writing Centre (1979). The volume Stories of Estrella Alfon (1994) was published posthumously.

Alford, Marianne Margaret Compton, Lady – (1817 – 1888)
British painter and etcher
Lady Marianne Compton was born in Rome, Italy, the daughter of Spencer Compton, marquess of Northampton, and his wife Margaret, the daughter of Major-General Douglas Maclean Clephane, of Torloisk. She was married (1841) to John Hume Cust, Viscount Alford (1812 – 1851) the heir of first earl Brownlow, and bore him two sons.
An accomplished painter who executed many drawings and paintings of a high standard, she was a friend of both British and Italian artists, whose careers she patronised. Lady Alford designed her London residence of Alford House in Prince’s Gate, and was a skilled needlewoman. She established the Royal School of Needlework, which eventually came under the patronage of HRH Princess Christian, the daughter of Queen Victoria. Lady Alford published the work Needlework as Art (1886). Lady Alford died (Feb 9, 1888) aged seventy, at Ashridge, Berkhampsted.

Algase, Julia Cohn – (1902 – 1975)
American Labor and theatrical lawyer
Julia Algase was born in New York and graduated from the New York University Law School (1922). Earlier in her career she had appeared as a stage actress on Broadway using the name of ‘Julia Colin,’ performing roles in such plays as Subway Express, Theodora, the Quean, and St Helena in which she starred with Maurice Evans. Until giving up her stage career Julia had continued her private law practice, and she then asserted herself as a leader in consumer legislation, and worked extensively as a trade union representative in Washington.
Algase was prominent in the battle that successfuuly forced the Board of Social Security to reverse its ruling which had declared tips included when determining social security benefits for employees that received them. She also sought to provide legal services for low-income employees, and represented the Actors Equity Associations in contract negotiations with Broadway producers. Julia Algase died of a heart attack in New York.

Alia – (1948 – 1977)
Queen consort of Jordan (1972 – 1977)
Born Alia Baha Eddin Tourkan (Dec 25, 1948) in Cairo, Egypt, she was the daughter of the Jordanian ambassador, and was educated in Rome and New York. She became the third wife (1972) of King Hussein I (1935 – 1999) and was the mother of his son Ali (born 1975) and his daughter Haya (born 1974). Soon after their marriage she also adopted an infant girl, the sole survivor of an air crash. Queen Alia accompanied her husband on several state visits including to Tokyo in Japan, where they visited the emperor Hirohito, and Washington, D.C., where they were entertained by President and Mrs Ford, and Canada, where they were received by Pierre Trudeau.
The couple also visited Australia with her husband (March, 1976) being received by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. The popular young queen was killed in a helicopter crash (Feb 9, 1977), near Tafileh, south-east of the Dead Sea, near Amman, caused by a violet rainstorm, to the immense grief of her husband and his people, aged only twenty-eight.

Aliberty, Soteria – (1847 – 1929) 
Greek educator and feminist
Soteria Aliberty was raised in Greece and Italy and taught at the Zappeion School for girls in Constantinople, the first such institution to be established in the city. Later moving to Romania she joined with other Greek women living there and founded a girls’ school within the Greek community, and herself wrote articles for the Greek newspaper in Bucharest. Returning eventually to Athens she founded the feminist organization Ergani Athena, and was editor of the literary journal Pleiades. She wrote the series of ‘Biographies of Distinguished Greek Women’ for the Women’s Newspaper, which was published in Athens.

Alice of Brotherton – (c1322 – 1351)
English Plantagenet heiress
Alice of Brotherton was the younger daughter and coheiress of Prince Thomas Plantagenet, first Earl of Norfolk the elder son of King Edward I (1272 – 1307) from his second marriage to Margaret of Valois, the daughter of Philip III, King of France (1270 – 1285). Alice’s mother was Thomas’s first wife, Alice de Halys, the daughter of Sir Roger de Halys, of Harwich, Essex, the coroner of Norfolk. Her elder sister was Margaret of Brotherton, hereditary Earl Marshal of England, who was later created Duchess of Norfolk for life by Richard II (1397). Their stepmother was Mary de Braose, formerly the Dowager Lady Cobham.
Lady Alice was married (1338) to Sir Edward de Montagu (c1304 – 1361), who was created first Baron Montagu, as his first wife. Her marriage was a violent one, and Alice eventually died (before Dec 31, 1351) aged about thirty, at Bungay Priory, Suffolk. Her death had been caused by a violent assault which had been carried out by her husband. Her children were,

• Edward de Montagu (c1340 – c1359). He died young and unmarried.
• Audrey de Montagu (c1342 – c1359). She died young and unmarried.
• Elizabeth de Montagu (born 1344). She became the wife firstly of Walter de Ufford, and secondly of Sir John de Braose (died 1367).
• Matilda de Montagu (Maud) (1346 – 1394). She became a nun and was appointed as Abbess of Barking.
• Margaret de Montagu (c1347 – c1350). She died in infancy.
• Joan de Montagu (1349 – 1376). She became the first wife of William de Ufford (c1338 – 1382), second Earl of Suffolk, and left children.

Alice of Burgundy – (1232 – 1273)
Flemish duchess consort and regent of Brabant
Also called Alix or Adelaide, she was the daughter of Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy and his wife Yolande, daughter of Robert III, Count of Dreux, and married (c1247) Henry III, Duke of Brabant, to whom she bore bore four children. Henry died at Louvain (Feb 28, 1261) and Alice was appointed regent for her eldest son Henry IV. However, the duchess preferred that her second son John be recognized as heir, and pretended that Henry was unfit to rule.

A portion of the aristocracy rebelled against the duchess in this matter, and she was forced to close the gates of Louvain. As the civil unrest grew more disturbing, Henry of Gueldres, the bishop of Liege used this unrest to profit territorially from Alice’s family. Finally in 1267, Alice manged to restore law and order, and Henry abdicated to become a monk, whilst her favourite son John became duke, as she had desired. Her children included Duke John I of Brabant (1252 – 1294) and of Marie of Brabant, the second wife of Philip III, King of France. Duchess Alice died (Oct 23, 1273) aged forty-one, and was buried in the Church of St Peter, Louvain.

Alice of France   see   Alix Capet

Alice of Hainault – (c1279 – 1317)
Flemish-Anglo noblewoman and peeress
Alice was the daughter of Johann II of Avesnes (1247 – 1304), Count of Hainault and Holland, and his wife Philippina of Luxemburg, the daughter of Heinrich III the Blond, Count of Luxemburg. Alice came to England as a young woman to attend the court of Edward I and his first wife Eleanor of Castile. She was married, by royal arrangement (1290), to Roger Bigod (1245 – 1306), fifth Earl of Norfolk, son of Hugh Bigod, Justiciar of England and his wife Joan de Stuteville, as his second wife and became the Countess of Norfolk. There were no children.
A French translation of Justinian written by Florence of Worcester was inscribed to ‘Alis de Heynau, contesse de Norfolk.’ The earl and countess were summoned to attend the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward I, with Count Johann of Holland, Alice’s kinsman (1296). With the death of her husband Alice became the Dowager Countess of Norfolk (1306 – 1317). She performed fealty to Edward I in Parliament at Carlisle (Feb, 1307) for certain manors and estates as a widow, and had orders for the livery of her dower (June and July, 1307). Lady Norfolk was later appointed by Piers Gaveston, in the name of Edward II (1308) to be in attendance upon the new queen Isabella of Valois, daughter of Philip IV of France at Dover, together with the Countess of Hereford and other ladies of rank, to receive her and accompany her on her journey to Westminster in London. Countess Alice died (Oct 26, 1317) aged under forty.

Alice of Ibelin – (1304 – 1386)
Queen consort of Cyprus (1324 – 1359)
Alice was the younger daughter of Guy II of Ibelin, seneschal of Cyprus. Her sister Isabella was married to John III, count of Arsuf in Palestine. Alice was married (1318) to King Hugh IV (1300 – 1359), as his second wife, the dispensation provided by Pope John XXII being dated June 18 of that year. She was crowned with her husband in the Cathedral of Nicosia (April 15, 1324), after which the couple travelled to Famagusta, where they were crowned as king and queen of Jerusalem. Queen Alice was the mother of two kings, Peter I (1329 – 1369) and James I (c1333 – 1398), and of John of Cyprus (c1331 – 1374), who became prince of Antioch and constable of Cyprus.
Alice survived her husband as Queen Dowager (1359 – 1386), and remarried secondly (1368) to Duke Philip of Brunswick-Grubenhagen (c1332 – before 1380), nearly thirty years her junior. This marriage caused Duke Philip many financial problems. The historian Machaut accused Alice of being privy to the plot to assassinate her son Peter (Jan, 1369), but this assertion is utterly ridiculous and is based on no recorded facts. When her son and his wife Eleanor of Aragon returned from exile and imprisonment at Kyrenia (April, 1385), where they were formally greeted by the Genoese, Queen Alice was amongst the first to greet them. She then presented to Peter those estates that had been her dowry at the time of her second marriage. Queen Alice died (after Aug 6, 1386) aged over eighty.

Alice of Jerusalem – (1192 – 1246)
Queen consort of Cyprus (1208 – 1218)
Alice was the daughter of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem, and her second husband, Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat. With the remarriage of her mother with King Amalric of Cyprus (1198), she was betrothed to her stepbrother, Hugh I of Cyprus (1195 – 1218) whom she married in 1208. Queen Alice bore her husband a son and heir Henry I (1217 – 1253), and two daughters, Maria, the wife of Walter IV of Brienne, and Isabella, the wife of Prince Henry of Antioch. With the early death of her husband (Jan, 1218), Alice ruled as regent for her infant son, though the actual government was entrusted to her uncle, Philip d’Ibelin. A series of disagreements between the queen and her uncle led the queen to withdraw to Tripoli, where she remarried (1223) to Bohemond V, Prince of Antioch (1197 – 1252).
Attempts by Alice to have Bohemond appointed as bailli of Cyprus failed because the barons refused to accept him. With the death of Philip (1227), his brother John d’Ibelin of Beirut, was confirmed as bailli. Queen Alice confirmed his appointment and was herself confirmed in the rightful revenues due to her as regent. She divorced Bohemond on the grounds of consanguinity (c1229). With the death of her niece, Isabella II of Brienne, wife of the emperor Frederick II (1228), Alice laid claim to the crown of Jerusalem, claiming that though Isabella and Frederick’s infant son Conrad was legally king, he had forfeited his right to the throne by failing to present himself. Alice presented herself as the next legal heir, but the High Court rejected her claim. Conrad came of age in 1243, but when he did not arrive to take up his crown, the barons officially nominated Alice as regent with her third husband, Raoul de Soissons, Seigneur de Couevres.  Alice ruled till her death.

Alice of Korcyrus – (c1305 – 1329)
Queen consort of Armenia (1320 – 1329)
Alice was the daughter of Oshin, Lord of Korcyrus, whilst her mother was a daughter of Leo III, King of Armenia. Upon the death of King Oshin and the accession of his young son Leo V (1320), Alice’s father claimed the regency, forcing Leo to marry the older Alice, and murdering all other rival claimants. The marriage remained childless. The rule of Prince Oshin was not appreciated, and when the king asserted finally his independence (1329) he had both father and daughter killed.

Alice of Montferrat – (1203 – 1233)                                               
Queen consort of Cyprus (1229 – 1233)
Alice was the daughter of William VIII, Marquis of Montferrat, and his wife Bertha of Clavesana. Alice was married by proxy (May, 1229) to Henry I (1217 – 1253), King of Cyprus, as his first wife, the marriage having been arranged by the Emperor Frederick II, Henry being one of his staunchest allies. It remains doubtful if Queen Alice ever actually met her chosen husband, as she arrived in Cyprus amidst civil war, and fled with the defenders of the fortress of Kyrenia to that place for refuge.
There they were beseiged by rebel forces. It is said that Alice’s sympathies lay with the emperor, and because of this she was known as the ‘Longobard Queen.’ During the siege of Kyrenia, the queen took ill and died early in 1233. The siege was lifted so that her corpse, ceremonially dressed, could be handed over and borne to Nicosia for her husband to arrange burial.

Alice of Savoy (Adelaide, Agnes) – (1165 – 1174)
Italian mediaeval heiress
Alice was the eldest daughter of Count Umberto III and his third wife Clementia, the former wife of Duke Henry V of Saxony, and the daughter of Konrad I, Duke of Zahringen. As her father had no sons, Alice and her younger sister Sophia were the only heirs to the county of Savoy. Her father sent an envoy to the court of Henry II of England (1171), proposing a marriage between Alice and the king’s youngest son John.
The province of Savoy was of great strategic importance because it commanded the principal Alpine passes between France and Italy. Umberto planned to bestow the county on Alice as her dowry, even if he should later produce a male heir. Receiving a favourable response from King Henry Umbert sent further envoys to England (1172), with the result that Alice arrived at Montferrat in the Auvergne with her father (Feb, 1173), where the marriage contract between her and Prince John was further negotiated.
King Henry II proposed to pay Count Umberto five thousand marks in three instalments, the last to be paid when Alice and John were married, and to bestow the castles of Chinon, Loudoun, and Mirabeau upon the prince. After the finalities were desposed, Alice was given into the custody of the king to be raised and educated in the royal household in England, and the royal party travelled to Limoges. Alice sailed from Barfleur with the king and his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and others (July, 1174). Upon reaching England Alice was sent to Devizes in Wiltshire, where she joined several other princesses, Margaret Capet, the wife of the young king, Alice Capet, the proposed bride for Richard I, and Constance of Brittany. Princess Alice died a child, aged nine.

Alice Plantagenet – (c1269 – c1281)
English princess
Princess Alice was born at Woodstock Palace in Oxon. She was probably the second daughter of King Edward I (1272 – 1307) and his first wife Eleanor of Castile, the daughter of Ferdinando III, King of Castile. The Harleian MSS states that Alice died at the age of twelve. She was probably interred in Westminster Abbey though her tomb has not been identified.

Alice Christabel – (1901 – 2004)
British princess
Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott was born (Dec 25, 1901) at Montagu House in London, the third daughter of John Charles Montagu-Douglas-Scott, seventh Duke of Buccleuch, and his wife Lady Margaret Alice Bridgeman, daughter of the fourth Earl of Bradford. Lady Alice was married (1935) to Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1900 – 1974), the third son of George V and Queen Mary, and bore him two sons, William (born 1944), who was killed in an air crash at Wolverhampton (1972) and Richard (born 1946), who succeeded his father as duke. During and after World War II, Princess Alice supported George VI and Queen Elizabeth in their work to modernize the monarchy.
From 1945 – 1946 she resided in Sydney, Australia, where her husband was appointed as governor-general, the only British royal to ever hold that post. The duke, a stiff, unbending man, of irascible temperament, sufferred a stroke in 1966, and the duchess cared for him devotedly until his death. She survived him thirty years as the Dowager Duchess of Gloucester (1974 – 2004). Failing health and high maintenance costs eventually forced the duchess to move from the family estate in Northamptonshire, to apartments in Kensington Palace, in London (1995). Princess Alice died (Oct 29, 2004) aged one hundred and two, at Kensington Palace.

Alice Maud Mary – (1843 – 1878) 
British princess
Princess Alice was born at Buckingham Palace, London, the second daughter of Queen Victoria and her husband Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the Prince Consort. Possessed of great tact and strength of character, she supported her mother during the immediate period after her father’s death. She was married (1863) to Prince Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt (1837 – 1892) to whom she bore seven children. Her eldest daughter Victoria Alberta (1863 – 1950), later the wife of Louis of Battenberg, marquess of Milford Haven, was the maternal grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the husband (1947) of Queen Elizabeth II.
Alice organized military hospitals during the Franco-Prussian war (1869 – 1870) which won her the esteem of the Hessian people. She remained in England with her family during the near fatal illness of her brother the Prince of Wales (1871). Her husband succeeded to the grand ducal throne of Hesse-Darmstadt (June, 1877) and Alice was installed as grand duchess. She fell ill of diptheria, which she caught whilst nursing her own children, and she died aged thirty-five (Dec 14, 1878). Her letters to her mother were edited and published a few years after her death as Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, Letters to Her Majesty The Queen (1884), by her younger sister, Princess Christian. Her eldest son Ernest Louis (1868 – 1937) was the last reigning Hessian Grand duke (1892 – 1918), whilst her youngest surviving daughter Alix (1872 – 1918) (Alexandra Feodorovna) became the ill-fated wife of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II. Alice was portrayed on the screen by actress Shirley Steedman in the famous BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) series Edward VII (1975) with Timothy West in the title role and Annette Crosbie as Queen Victoria.

Alicia Maria Maria Teresa Henrietta – (1849 – 1935)
Austrian Hapsburg archduchess
Princess Alicia of Bourbon-Parma was born (Dec 27, 1849) in Parma, the second daughter of Carlo III, Duke of Parma and Piacenza (1849 – 1854) and his wife Louise Therese Marie de Bourbon-Berry, Princess of France, the granddaughter of King Charles X (1824 – 1830). She was the sister of Duke Roberto I (1854 – 1859) and was the paternal aunt of Zita of Bourbon-Parma, the last Hapsburg empress consort.
Alicia was married at Frohsdorf in Austria (1868) to Ferdinando IV (1835 – 1908), Grand Duke of Tuscany (1846 – 1860) who lost his throne during the inification of Italy. Alicia became the Grand duchess consort in name only for four decades (1868 – 1908) but the family resided in Austria. She survived her husband as the Dowager Grand Duchess of Tuscany for over three decades (1908 – 1935). During WW I the Grand Duchess became involvolved with the organization of hospital units and ambulance services for the German front. Grand Duchess Alicia died (Jan 16, 1935) aged eight-five, at Schwertberg. Her children were,

• Archduke Leopold of Austria (1868 – 1935). Grand Ducal Prince of Tuscany. He later renounced his Imperial styles and prerogatives and became a private citizen as Leopold Wolfing. He
  was married three times but died without issue.
• Archduchess Louisa of Austria-Tuscany (1870 – 1947). She was married firstly to Crown Prince Friedrich August of Saxony (later King Friedrich August III (1904 – 1918) to whom she bore
  children and from whom she was divorced. She remarried secondly to Enrico Toselli and was known as the Countess von Montignoso.
• Archduke Joseph Ferdinand of Austria-Tuscany (1872 – 1942). He married twice morganatically and left issue, the Counts and Countesses von Hapsburg.
• Archduke Peter Ferdinand of Austria-Tuscany (1874 – 1948). He was married to Princess Maria Christina of Naples and left issue.
• Archduke Heinrich of Austria-Tuscany (1878 – 1969). He was married morganatically and left issue, the Counts von Habsburg-Lothringen.
• Archduchess Anna Maria of Austria-Tuscany (1879 – 1961). She became the wife of Prince Johannes of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein-Jagstberg (1863 – 1921) and left issue.
• Archduchess Margareta of Austria-Tuscany (1881 – 1965). She remained unmarried.
• Archduchess Germana of Austria-Tuscany (1884 – 1955). She remained unmarried.
• Archduke Robert of Austria-Tuscany (1885 – 1895). He died young.
• Archduchess Agnes of Austria-Tuscany (1891 – 1945). She remained unmarried

Aliger, Margarita Iosipovna – (1915 – 1992)
Russian poet and translator
Margarita Aliger was born in Odessa, and educated at the Gorky Literary Institute. She was married to Konstantin Makarov-Rakitin, to whom she bore two daughters, and who died during World War II (1941). Aliger’s early works included Year of Birth (1938), The Railway (1939), Stones and Grasses (1940), To the Memory of the Brave (1942) and Lyrics (1943), for which composition she was a state prizewinner.
Her other works include Your Victory (1946), Selected Poems (1947), The Lenin Hills (1953), Lyrics and Poems (1959), Poems (1970, 2 vols) , and Verse and Prose (1975, 2 vols). She wrote two essays inspired by visits to Chile in South America, entitiled Chilean Summer (1965) and Return to Chile (1966). Aliger also wrote biogaphies of Luis Aragon and Pablo Neruda, left reminiscences entitled Essays and Memoirs (1980). Margarita Aliger died (Aug 1, 1992) aged seventy-six.

Aline – (fl. c1150 – c1170)
Anglo-Norman literary patron
Aline was possibly a member of the famous de Montfort family. Her personal chaplain Robert of Greatham, wrote a collection of verse sermons for her in Anglo-Norman entitled Miroir.

Alis – (fl. c1530 – 1545)
Welsh poet
Alis was the author of a series of englynion quatrain verses, composed in strict metre with one rhyme, she was born in Llewini Fychan, in Denbigh, the daughter of Gruffyd ab Ieuan ap Llewellyn Fuchan, himself a noted poet. Her surviving work deals with Alis’s personal feelings concerning her relationship with her stepmother and her own future husband.

Alison, Dorothy – (1925 – 1992)
Australian actress
Dorothy Alison appeared in many British films such as Mandy (1952), Georgy Girl (1966), and Pretty Polly (1968). Alison also appeared in the telemovie A Town Like Alice (1980).

Alix Capet (Alice) – (1150 – 1197)
Princess of France
Alix was born in the summer of 1150, the second and younger daughter of Louis VII, King of France (1137 – 1180) and his first wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, later the wife of Henry II, King of England (1154 – 1189). Her birth did nothing to reconcile her parents’ collapsing marriage and they were divorced (1152). Alix and her sister were declared legitimate and their custody awarded to their father. Until the birth of their half-brother Philip II Augustus (1165) Alix and her elder sister Marie were the only heiresses of Louis VII but due to the existence of the Salic Law they could not inherit the throne. She was half-sister to the Plantagenet kings Richard I (1189 – 1199) and John (1199 – 1216).
Alix was betrothed to her step-uncle Theobald IV (1125 – 1191), Count of Blois (1160), the brother of her stepmother, Adela of Champagne, whilst her sister Marie was married to his elder brother, Henry I of Champagne. These three marriages between the Capetian royal house and the powerful comital family of Blois were part of a strategy of King Louis to thwart the growing power of the Angevin dynasty. Alice was married to Theobald in 1164. She attended her mother’s famous court at Poitiers with her sister, and was a frequent visitor to her court, which was famous for the patronage given to contemporary troubadours. Alix welcomed the trouveres at her own court at Blois, and extended her patronage to Gautier d’Arras and le Chatelain de Coucy. When her husband was absent from France occupied with campaigns in the Holy Land, the countess ruled Blois as regent for their young son Louis. She survived Theobald as the Dowager Countess of Blois (1191 – 1197). Her children were,

• Theobald of Blois-Chartres (born c1165). He died young.
• Louis I (c1166 – 1205). He succeeded his father as Count of Blois-Chartres (1191 – 1205) and left issue.
• Henry of Blois-Chartres (c1169 – 1182). He died unmarried.
• Philip of Blois-Chartres (c1171 – 1202). He died unmarried.
• Margeurite of Blois-Chartres (1173 – 1231). She later succeeded as Countess of Blois and was married three times, firstly to Hugh d’Oisy, Vicmte of Cambrai, secondly to Otto I (1167 –
  1201), Count of Burgundy, and thirdly to Gautier d’Avesnes. Margeurite left children from her last two marriages.
• Alice of Blois-Chartres (Adelaide) (c1175 – after 1204). She became a nun at the Abbey of St Marie at Fontevrault and was appointed as abbess.
• Isabelle of Blois-Chartres (Elisabeth). She was married firstly to Sulpice III, Seigneur d’ Amboise and secondly to Jean II de Montmirail (died before 1244), Burgrave of Cambrai.

Alix de Valois – (c1045 – before 1100)
French countess consort of Blois-Chartres (1074 – 1089)
Also called Alice and Adelaide, Alix was the third and youngest daughter of Raoul IV de Valois, Count of Vermandois and his first wife Adela, Countess of Bar-sur-Aube. Sometime prior to 1061 Alix became the third wife of Theobald II (1010 – 1089), Count of Blois-Chartres (1037 – 1089) and was the stepmother-in-law of Adela of Normandy, daughter of William the Conqueror.
With the retirement of her brother Simon to become a monk (1077), Count Theobald took control of the family’s hereditary fief of Bar-sur-Aube. It was later seized by her nephew Hugh Bardoul de Broyes, the son of her sister Elisabeth, though he was ultimately dispossessed by Hugh of Troyes. Alix survived into the reign of her stepson Stephen Henry (1089 – 1102) as Countess Dowager of Blois-Chartres and died (May 12, between 1093 and 1100). Alix was interred within the Abbey of Saint-Faron.

Alix of Aquitaine    see   Petronilla of Aquitaine

Alix of Meran    see   Adelaide of Meran

Alix of Thiern – (c1148 – c1187)
French mediaeval heiress
Alix was heiress of the fief of Mirabeau and became the wife of Ulrich V (c1145 – c1212), Seigneur of Bage, near Bresse. She was the mother of his eldest son and successor Guy I of Bage (c1177 – c1218), who inherited the seigneur of Mirabeau in her right. The fief later passed to Alix’s granddaughter Margeurite de Bage, wife of Humbert VI of Beaujeu.

Alix of Thouars – (1199 – 1221)
Duchess regnant of Brittany
Alix was the elder daughter of Vicomte Guy of Thouars, and his wife Duchess Constance of Brittany, the divorced wife of Ranulph de Blundeville, and before that widow of Geoffrey Plantagenet, the son of Henry II of England. Constance was the only child and sole heiress of Duke Conan IV of Brittany (died 1171). Her mother died in 1201, and with the murder of her half-brother Arthur I (1203) at the hands of King John, Alix succeeded as duchess of Brittany. Her elder half-sister Eleanor, the next direct heir, was the prisoner of King John and could not claim her inheritance. Her father Guy ruled for Alix during her minority.
It was agreed that Alix should marry Henry d’Avaugour (1209) if the necessary dispensation could be obtained, but this projected union never eventuated. As Alix, filia Comitis Britanniae, she granted lands to her younger sister Catherine on her own marriage (1212). Alix of Thouars was married (before Feb, 1213) to Pierre I of Dreux (1190 – 1250) popularly surnamed ‘Mauclerc,’and he succeeded to the dukedom of Brittany and to the English earldom of Richmond in her right. The duchess granted charters for the abbey of St Melanie at Rennes, and the abbey of St Martin de Lamballe, and she subsequently joined with her husband in a number of other grants. Alix later accompanied her husband on a pilgrimage to the abbey of Mont St Michel (1217).
Her personal seal survives, on which she was portrayed standing with a hawk on one wrist and wearing a coronet with the legend, S.AALIS, DUCISSE BRITANNIAE COIT RICHEMONTIS. The counterseal had a checkered seal with the legend, SECRETVM MEVM. Duchess Alix died (Oct 21, 1221) aged twenty-two, and was interred within the Church of the Cordeliers (Grey Friars) at Nantes. She was later reinterred with her parents at Villeneuve (1225). Her three children were,

• Jean (John) (1216 – 1285). Styled Count of Montfort, he succeeded his father as Duke Jean I of Brittany (1250 – 1285). He was married to Blanche of Navarre, and left numerous descendants.
• Princess Yolande of Brittany (1218 – 1272). She became the wife of Hugh XI de Lusignan (1221 – 1260), Comte de La Marche, and left issue.
• Prince Arthur of Brittany (born 1220). He died young after 1223.

Aliyah bin Thuwaini – (c1867 – 1946)
Sultana of Oman (1888 – 1913)
Aliyah was the daughter of Thuwaini bin Said, the sultan of Muscat and Oman. She was married (c1883) to Faisal bin Turki (1864 – 1913), the sultan of Oman, whom she survived for over three decades as Dowager Sultana (1913 – 1946). Aliyah was the mother of Taimur bin Faisal (1886 – 1965) who succeeded his father as Sultan of Muscat and Oman (1913 – 1932).

Alizette, Alizon of Schaerbeek    see   Aleydis of Schaerbeek

Alkelda – (d. c800)
Anglo-Saxon virgin martyr
According to her legend Alkelda was princess who never married and became a nun at Middleham in Yorkshire. She was murdered by Viking women during a pagan raid at Middleham. She was patron of the church of Middleham and Giggleswick and was revered as a saint (March 28). Modern church researchers have considered the possibility that the name Alkelda was a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon word haligkelda (healing spring) and that her existence is more than open to question.

Al-Khaizuran – (739 – 790)
Queen of Baghdad
Al-Khaizuran was originally a slave girl from Yemen. As a young girl she was noticed by Al-Mansur, the Caliph of Baghdad, who took her into the household of his son Al-Mahdi (743 – 786), to whom she bore two sons and a daughter, and after his accession to the caliphate, he freed and married her (774). In her new position as queen, Al-Khaizuran became a powerful influence at the court of Baghdad.
Her younger son Harun was her favourite, and Al-Khaizuran had tried to persuade her husband to make him the next caliph instead of their elder son, but Al-Hadi refused to be set aside. Soon after, while travelling in Baghdad, Al-Mahdi ate poisoned fruit and died (786). Harun then sent a message to his elder brother to ascend the caliphate in Baghdad, when, with his army, he could have taken it for himself. This act infuriated their mother. During the short reign of her elder son Al-Hadi, al-Khaizuran was confined to the women’s quarters of the palace, but amongst her attendants she plotted his downfall. The new caliph was smothered to death by his concubines, which murder was almost certainly planned by the queen mother, who had everything prepared for the proclamation of Harun al-Rashid as the next caliph. Queen Al-Khaizuran retained her pre-eminent position at court until her death.

Al-Khansa – (600 – 670) 
Arab poet
Al-Khansa was born in Najd, of the noble nomadic Madar tribe. Her life spanned the birth and spread of early Islam, and she was one of the greatest poets of the period. Al-Khansa refused to marry unless by her own choice, and eventually had three husbands, all of whom she outlived. Four of her sons were killed in the decisive battle of Qadasiyah, but she did not shed a tear, and accepted their deaths with religious equanimity.
Al-Khansa took special part in poetic competitions in a male dominated environment, and established an enduring reputation for her elegies, in an age of oral composition, which were said to have impressed the prophet Mohammed. Her poetry dealt with the lives of the warring tribes before Mohammed’s mission put an end to the feuds of the Jahikiya. Two of her own brothers, Sakhr and Mu’awiya were killed during this period of unrest, and some of Al-Khansa’s most famous works lament their heroic deaths. Her ra’iyya, dedicated to the memory of her favourite brother Sakhr, is considered the greatest elegy in classical Arabic poetry, and she is said to have worn a hair-shirt for the rest of her life, in memory of him.

Alkin, Elizabeth – (fl. c1640 – 1647)
English nurse and polemicist
A resident of Portsmouth, during the Civil War, she organized for wounded soldiers to be taken to London, to be cared for. She then performed the same service in Harwich, and demanded assistance and supplies from the government in order to carry out this necessitous work. She proved successful, and was granted funds by the Committee of Sequestration. She was later employed as a spy for the Parliamentarians, and became popularly known as ‘Parliament Joan.’

Alla    see    Abba

Allais, Catherine Elisabeth – (fl. 1760 – 1797)
French painter
Catherine Allais was the daughter of a sculptor and studied under the portraitist Aved. Some of her work was exhibited during the Exposition de la Jeunesse (1760). Her attempt to become a member of the Academie Royale proved unsuccessful (1769) and she later sent some of her pastel portraits to the Salon de la Correspondance. Her later career remains unknown.

Allan, Betty – (1905 – 1952)
Australian mathematician and statistician
Frances Elizabeth Allan was born at St Kilda, in Melbourne, Victoria. Betty graduated from Melbourne University (1926) and (1928) and then went to England for further studies at Cambridge University. Excelling at mathematics she returned to Australia where she was appointed as the first woman biometrician at CSIRO (1930) where she produced valuable work concerning climatic information and pest control. One of the founders of the Division of Mathematics and Statistics at CSIRO and the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science (1935) she worked part-time after her marriage (1940). Betty Allan died (Aug 6, 1952) aged forty-seven, in Canberra, ACT.

Allan, Catherine Mabel Joyce – (1896 – 1966)
Australian conchologist and painter
Catherine Allan was born (April 8, 1896) in Balmain in Sydney, New South Wales, the daughter of a New Zealand artist. She attended the Fort Street Girls’ High School before becoming assisstant to Charles Hedley, conchologist at the Australiam Museum in Sydney. She was later married (1949) to a cable officer. With Hedley’s retirement she worked under Tom Iredale and was then appointed as scuentific assistant (1931). She produced work in oils, water colour and ink, including drawings and paintings of molluscs. Allan wrote articles concerning various molluscs which were printed in the Australian Museum Magazine. During WW II she was attached to the National Emergency Services (1942) and organized the public information bureau at Air Force House in Sydney.
Catherine Allan was the first woman to be elected to the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (1943), and succeeded Iredale as conchologist (1944 – 1949) before be appointed as curator of molluscs and shells (1949). Allan attended the International Congress of Zoology in Copenhagen, Denmark (1953) and was a member of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales.
Allan was best known for her extensive work, Australian Shells (1959), which was followed by Cowry Shells of World Seas (1956) and The Sea-Horse and its Relatives (1958) which she co-wrote with the noted icthyologist Gilbert Whitley (1903 – 1975). Catherine Allan died (Aug 31, 1966) aged seventy, in Mosman, Sydney.

Allan, Elizabeth – (1908 – 1990)
British film actress
Allan was born (April 9, 1908) at Skegness, in Lincolnshire. She made her first movie appearance in, The Rosary (1931). Other credits included appearanced in such films as David Copperfield (1934), A Tale of Two Cities (1936) as Lucy Manette, He Stoops to Conquer (1944) and Grip of the Strangler (1958) with Boris Karloff. From 1933 – 1938) she worked in the USA, after which she returned to England. She later appeared on the popular television panel program What’s My Line. Elizabeth Allan died (July 27, 1990) aged eighty-two, at Hove, Sussex.

Allan, Elizabeth Randolph Preston – (1848 – 1933)
American biographer and memoirist
Elizabeth Preston was born in Lexington, Virginia, the daughter of author Mrs Margaret Preston, and was niece to General Stonewall Jackson (1812 – 1863). She married and was the author of The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston (1903), and the volume of posthumous memoirs entitled A March Past (1938).

Allan, Judith    see    Evelyn, Judith

Allan, Lois – (1905 – 1989)
American-Anglo inventor and manufacturer
Lois Day was born (May 16, 1905) in Morristown, New Jersey. She studied art and dress designe in Paris, and married Peter Allan, to whom she bore two children. The couple ran a travel agency together before going to live in England, residing at the estate of Farnham Common, in Buckinghamshire. During World War II Lois set up gasket production in the grounds of her home as a contribution to the war effort.
Off-cuts from gaskets led to the invention of ‘Fuzzy-Felt’ (1950) a popular and enduring children’s toy, which later evolved in to Allan Industries Ltd, which was later resituated in High Wycombe (1970). Lois designed nearly forty titles for her range of toys including, ‘Let’s Play House,’ ‘Teddy’s Playtime’ and ‘Jungle Jamboree.’ Lois Allan died (Aug 4, 1989) at Farnham Common.

Allan, Maud – (1874 – 1956) 
Canadian-Anglo actress
Maud Allan was born in Toronto, the daughter of a physician William Allan, and was educated in San Francisco, California where she studied the piano professionally. She received further musical education in Berlin, Prussia, before finally making her debut as a professional dancer (1903) at the Royal Conservatoire in Vienna. Appearing before King Edward VII at Marienbad (1907) she appeared at the Palace Theatre in London in the following year, to fantastic popular acclaim.
Miss Allan toured in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary, making many return visits to London, especially in the title roleof Oscar Wilde’s The Vision of Salome (1918) and as the abbess in The Miracle (1932). She published the memoir My Life and Dancing (1908). Maud Allan died (Oct 7, 1956) aged eighty-two.

Allan, Stella May – (1871 – 1962)
New Zealand lawyer and journalist
Stella Henderson was born at Kapoi, the daughter of Daniel Henderson, a Scottish immigrant. Her mother, Alice Conolly, was a native of Adare County, Limerick, Ireland. Educated at Christchurch Girl’s High School and Canterbury University, she gained a law degree and became the first woman to practice law in New Zealand, beoming a leading writer for the Lyttelton Times newspaper.
Stella was married to fellow journalist Edwin Frank Allan (1900), and the couple went to Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia, where both were employed by the daily newspaper, the Argus. Allan was the member of several prominent women’s associations, and was elected president of the Lyceum Club. Stella Allan died (March 1, 1962) aged eighty, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Allardyce, Elsie Elizabeth Stewart, Lady – (1875 – 1962)
British volunteer activist
Lady Allardyce organized hospital units and ambulances for the British troops during WW I (1914 – 1918). Two decades afterwards she performed the same valuable service during WW II and in recognition of this she was appointed CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1945) by King George VI. Lady Allardyce died (July 16, 1962) at Windsor Place in Dundee, Scotland.

Allart de Meritens, Hortense – (1801 – 1879)
French novelist, essayist, and letter writer
Hortense Allart de Meritens was born into a patrician background. Inlfuenced by the feminism espoused by Saint-Simon, she became a member of the literary circle which surrounded the Vicomte de Chateaubriand, whom she had a liasion during her youth, Georg Sand, the Comtesse d’Agoult (Daniel Stern), the firend of her youth, the critic Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804 – 1869), and the political theorist Hugues de Lamennais.
Allart espoused the cause of free love and empowerment of women, and was the author of La Femme et la democratie de notre temps (1836) (Women and Democracy today). Her best known work was the autobiographical Les Enchantements de Prudence (1872) (The Delights of Prudence) which mocked contemporary social and sexual mores. Allart’s other works included Lettres sur les ouvrages de Mme de Stael (1824) (Letters on the Work of Mme de Stael: L’Indienne (1832) (The Indian Girl), Histoire de la Republique de Florence (1837) (History of the Florentine Republic), and Essai sur l’histoire politique depuis l’invasion des barbares jusqu’en 1848 (1857) (Essay on Political History from the Barbarian invasion to 1848).
Her letters to Sand, Saint-Beuve, and others of their circle, together with extracts from others were edited by Leon Seche as Hortense Allart de Meritens dans ses rapports avec Chateaubriand, Beranger, Lamennais, Sainte-Beuve, George Sand, Madame d’Agoult (1908) and were published by the Societe du Mercure de France. Letters discovered in 1908 were afurther thirty year correspondence between Allart and Sainte-Beuve, and were published as Nouvelles Lettres a’ Sainte-Beuve (1832 – 1864) par Hortense Allart (1965).

Allbritton, Louise – (1920 – 1979)
American stage and film actress
Louise Allbritton was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and was educated at the University of Oklahoma, and received stage training at the Pasadena Playhouse. From 1942 – 1949 Louise was a popular blonde leading lady at Universal studios in Hollywood, appearing in such films as Not A Ladies’ Man (1942), Son of Dracula (1943), This is the Life (1944), Her Primitive Man (1944) and Walk a Crooked Mile (1948).
Louise Allbritton was married to the television news correspondent Charles Collingwood in 1946, and retired after her last film The Doolins of Oklahoma (also called The Great Manhunt) (1949). Louise Allbritton died of cancer.

Allee, Marjorie Hill – (1890 – 1945)
American novelist
Allee was born (June 2, 1890) in Carthage, Indiana. Her published work included Susanna and Tristram (1929) and, Anne’s Surprising Summer (1933). Marjorie Allee died (April 30, 1945) aged fifty-four.

Allegranti, Teresa Maddalena – (1757 – after 1801)
Italian soprano
Teresa Allegranti was born in Florence, and made her stage debut aged thirteen (1770). She studied under Holzbauer at Mannheim, in Germany, where she performed until 1778, when she returned to Venice to perform at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo (1779) and the Teatro San Samuele (1780 – 1781). From 1781 – 1783, Allegranti was performing in London, appearing at the King’s Opera as Bettina in Anfossi’s comical Il viaggitori felici (Dec, 1781).
Teresa appeared as Sandrina in Sacchini’s comic opera La contadina in corte (1782). Other roles during this period included, Giannina in Il trionfo della costanza, Zemira in Zemira e Azore, and the burletta role of Alfonsina in Il convito, which she performed to much critical acclaim. From 1783 – 1798, Allegranti performed in Dresden at a prima donna with the royal opera. Allegranti later appeared in Venice (1798) and London (1799), but age and illness had dimmed her former magnificent talent, and she quickly retired. She married and Englishman named Harrison, and went to live with him in Ireland, where she was employed as a singing teacher and died there. Her portrait by Richard Cosway was engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi.

Allegrini, Anna Angelica – (fl. c1650 – c1670)
Italian painter
She was associated with Plautilla Bricci.

Allen, Ada Rosalie Mason, Lady – (1862 – 1933)
Anglo-Australian civic benefactor
Born Ada Mason in England, Educated in England and Paris, Ada came to Sydney (1891) as governess in the household of the Countess of Jersey. She then married Sir Harry Brookes Allen in the same year. Lady Allen became involved with many worthy causes, becoming a member of the Women’s Work Committee (1907) as well as being a founding member, and later senior vice-president of the Victorian League.

Lady Allen became president of the Medical Red Cross Guild (1914) founded to assist at the front during WW I, and established the Army Nurses Club. Lady Allen was also foundation vice-president of the Mother’s Union in Melbourne, Victoria, of which organization she served as president (1918 – 1933). She was also actively involved with the Church of England Girls Grammar School (C.E.G.G.S.), and well as the Girl Guide Association with Lady Cullen, and was one of the founding members of the Women’s college at the University of Melbourne.

Allen, Adrienne – (1907 – 1993)
British stage and film actress
Adrienne Allen was born in Manchester, Lancashire, and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She made her stage debut in London in Noel Coward’s Easy Virtue (1926), and in New York in Cynara (1931). Adrienne received critical acclaim for her performance in Pride and Prejudice (1935) at the Music Box, and she was noted for her role of the distraught mother in Edward, My Son (1948) and as the annoying, interfering mother in the comedy The Reluctant Debutante (1956).
Other appearances were in films such as Loose Ends (1930) and Mr Malcolm (1954). Adrienne retired from 1958, and was married twice, firstly (1929 – 1939) to Canadian actor Raymond Massey (1896 – 1983), and secondly to New York lawyer, William D. Whitney. For some years she resided at Montreux, Switzerland. The son of her first marriage, actor Daniel Massey (1933 – 1998) appeared as Noel Coward in the movie Star! (1968). Adrienne Allen died in Montreux.

Allen, Ann – (c1722 – 1795)
British minor stage actress
Ann Allen performed at Covent Garden Theatre, in London, for over twenty-five years, though her name rarely appeared on the handbills. She performed at Richmond, in Surrey (1744), and appeared in such roles as Patience in Henry VIII (1749 & 1751), the maid in The Inconstant (1764), and Mrs Trippet in The Lying Valet (1765). Ann Allen was interred (March 29, 1795) in the Church of St Paul, in Covent Garden.

Allen, Betsy    see   Cavanna, Betty

Allen, C.M.     see    Escott, Margaret

Allen, Donna – (1920 – 1999)
American feminist and author
Donna Allen was born in Petoskey, Michigan, and graduated in history and economics from Duke University (1943). She then gained a master’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago (1953) and a doctorate in history from Howard University (1971). Specializing in conflict resolutions, Allen taught at the School of Industrial Relations at Cornell University in the 1950’s, and was the author of Fringe Benefits (1964).
Donna Allen was co-author of Communications at the Cross-roads: The Gender Gap Connection (1988). Associated with political activism from her youth on the West Coast, Allen wrote pamphlets for the American Federation of Labor in Washington, and was a prominent member of the National Organization for Women and the National Women’s Caucus. She later served as vice-chairman of the Committee Against Repressive Legislation (1975) and founded the Women’s Institute fro Freedom of the Press (1972) and established the newsletter Media Report to Women : What Women Are Doing and Thinking About the Communications Media, which she edited (1972 – 1987). Donna Allen died (July 19, 1999) in Washington of a heart attack.

Allen, Ethel Grace – (c1867 – 1929)
Australian civic leader
Ethel Lamb was the daughter of Walter Lamb and became the wife (1891) of Arthur Wigram Allen. She founded and established the Queen’s Club, in Sydney, New South Wales, serving as president (1914 – 1919) and becing later appointed as the first honorary life member of the association (1925). Active with the NSW Red Cross Society from 1916, and also with causes associated with the war in Europe and returned servicemen Mrs Allen was named president of the Limbless Soldiers’ Aquatic Club (1927) and was also president of the Australian Mothercraft Society (1926 – 1929).

Allen, Florence Ellinwood – (1884 – 1966)
American judge and feminist
Florence Allen was born in Salt Lake City, Ohio, being educated at the Western Reserve University in Cleveland (1900 – 1904). Florence was prominently involved with the New York League for the Protection of Immigrants (1910), and graduated from the New York University Law School (1913), being admitted to the Ohio bar the following year.
Allen was the first female judge to be appointed in Ohio to the Court of the Common Pleas (1920 – 1922) and became the first woman appointed to serve in the Ohio Supreme Court (1922 – 1934). President F.D. Roosevelt appointed her to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1934 – 1959). She retired in 1959 and wrote her memoirs, To Do Justly (1965).

Allen, Gracie – (1902 – 1964)
American actress, commedienne and radio personality
Born Grace Ethel Rosalie Allen in San Francisco, California, she became the wife and co-partner of comic George Burns (1896 – 1996). Gracie Allen appeared in several films such as Damsel in Distress (1937), The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939), and Two Girls and a Sailor (1944). Gracie Allen died (Aug 28, 1964).

Allen, Mary     see   Jerrold, Mary

Allen, Mary Sophia – (1878 – 1964)
British organization founder and writer
Mary Allen was born (March 12, 1878). She was the co-founder of the Women Police Violunteer Service (1914) with Margaret Damer Dawson. She then served as Sub-Commandant for five years (1914 – 1919), and then as commandant (1919 – 1938). Allen was the author of The Pioneer Policewoman (1925), Woman at the Crossroads (1934), and Lady in Blue (1936). Mary Sophia Allen died (Dec 16, 1964) aged eighty-six, at Croydon in Surrey.

Allen, Rose – (1885 – 1977)
American stage and silent film actress
Born Carrie Doran (March 31, 1885), she worked for many years on the stage with great credit before appearing in films during her later years. Her film credits included The Dark Hour (1936), Birth of the Blues (1941), My Favourite Blonde (1942), and East of Eden (1956). Rose Allen died (May 3, 1977) aged ninety-two, in Los Angeles, California.

Allen, Viola Emily – (1869 – 1948)
American stage and film actress
Viola Allen was born (Oct 27, 1869) in Huntsville, Alabama, the daughter of theatre performers. She made her first appearance on stage at the age of fourteen (1883). This was followed by her appearance as Madeleine De Volnay in the play, Dakolar (1885) and Gwendolyn Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) by Oscar Wilde. Her later stage roles included In the Palace of the King (1900), The Eternal City (1902), The Lady of Coventry (1911), and The Daughter of Heaven (1912).
Viola Allen also appeared as Lady Macbeth and in other Shakespearean works such as Cymbeline, Twelfth Night and As You Like It. However, she was best remembered for her appearances in the popular dramas Shenandoah and Little Lord Fauntleroy, written by Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett. Allen appeared in the silent film The White Sister (1915) as Sister Giovanna, having previously performed this role on stage (1909). Viola Allen died (May 9, 1948) aged seventy-eight, in New York.

Aller, Eleanor – (1917 – 1995)
American cellist
Eleanor Aller was born in New York, the daughter of the cellist Gregory Aller. She performed at Carnegie Hall at the age of twelve, and was educated at the Juilliard School of Music. From 1939 – 1968 she formed part of the Warner Brothers studio orchestra. Eleanor married the conductor and violinist Felix Slatkin, and the couple entertained music and acting personalities such as Igor Stravinsky, Frank Sinatr, danny Kaye and Arnold Schoenberg.
Eleanor and her husband performed with the Hollywood String Quartet from 1947 – 1961, and recordings were made of their classic and highly regarded performances. Widowed in 1963, Eleanor was chairwoman of the string department at DePaul University in Chaicago from 1968 – 1970. Eleanor Aller was the mother of the music director Leonard Slatkin and the cellist Frederick Zlotkin.

Alleyne, Ellen    see    Rossetti, Christina

Allfrey, Phyllis Shand – (1915 – 1986)
Caribbean poet, novelist, and politician
Phyllis Shand was born (Oct 24, 1915) in Dominica, the daughter of the Crown attorney Francis Shand. She was educated at home and abroad in England, France, and the USA. She was married to Robert Allfrey and resided in the USA and in England for several years. After returning to Dominica (1954) Allfrey became a co-founder of the Dominica Labour Party, and was later elected to government to serve as a federal minister (1958 – 1962).
After this she worked as a journalist, and was the founder and editor of The Dominica Star (1965 – 1982) publication. As a writer she wrote short stories, but was best known for her novel The Orchid House (1953). Allfrey also published several collections of verse such as Palm and Oak I (1950), Contrasts (1955) and Palm and Oak II (1974).

Allgood, Molly    see   O’Neill, Maire

Allgood, Sara – (1883 – 1950)
Irish actress
Sara O’Neill was born in Dublin, the sister of actress Maire O’Neill. Originally apprenticed to an upholsterer, Sara was attracted to the stage, and joined the Daughters of Ireland (Inghinidhe na hEireann) the society established by revolutionary Maud Gonne MacBride. Her first stage appearance was at the Abbey Theatre in the role of Mrs Fallon in Lady Gregory’s Spreading the News (1904). Sara made successful tours of England and America and then of Australia and New Zealand, where she achieved gret popularity with the stage comedy Peg O’My Heart, and made her first film, Just Peggy (1918).
Widowed during the influenza epidemic, Sara returned to London before returning eventually to Dublin stage. Best known for her performances in Juno and the Paycock (later made into a film of the same name in 1930 with Sara in the starring role) and as Bessie Burgess in The Plough and the Stars (1926). She went to Hollywood in California in 1940, and received an Oscar nomination as a supporting actress for her memorable role of the mother, Mrs Evans in the family saga, How Green Was My Valley (1941) with Roddy McDowell as her youngest son.
Her last roles were motherly ones, and Sara died in poverty in Hollywood, California.
Her British films included The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1932), Peg of Old Drury (1935) and Storm in a Teacup (1937). Her American appearances included That Hamilton Woman (1941) where she played Sarah Cadogan, the mother of Vivien Leigh/Emma Hamilton, Jane Eyre (1944), Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), and her last film Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) made shortly before her death.

Allibone, Jill Spencer – (1932 – 1998)
British architectural historian and campaigner
Jill Spencer Rigden was born (April 26, 1932) in Abadan, Iran, the daughter of an oil refinery manager. With the outbreak of WW II she was sent to England for her education and safety and attended school in Salisbury, Wiltshire. She studied fine art in London and then art history at the Courtauld Institute. She was married (1956) to David Allibone, a solicitor. She served as a Justice of the Peach for South Westminster (1966) and then went on to study the Gothic revivalist Anthony Salvin (1820 – 1880).
Jill Allibone published a book concerning Salvin and his work (1987) which was followed by a biography (1991) of the Victorian architect George Devey (1820 – 1886). She was an active campaigner with the Victorian Society and was later elected as vice-chairman (1995) and was particularly interested in the preservation of churches in Kent. Allibone later established The Monuments and Mausolea Trust (1996) to maintain surviving monuments and tombs considered to be of historical or architectural importance. Jill Allibone died (Feb 3, 1998) aged sixty-five.

Allibone, Susan – (1813 – 1854)
American letter writer and diarist
Apart from personal letters, she left a devotional diary beginning in 1833, which she continued until her death. These were later published in Philadelphia as A Life Hid with Christ in God: Being a Memoir of Susan Allibone, Chiefly Compiled from Her Diary and Letters (1856). She remained unmarried. Susan Allibone died aged forty.

Allies, Mary – (1852 – 1927)
British historian and author
Mary Allies was the daughter of Thomas William Allies, and his wife Eliza Hall, the daughter of Thomas Harding Newman of Nelmes, Essex. Convent educated at St Leonard’s-on-the-Sea, and in Paris, Mary studied further under her father’s guidance at home also. She remained unmarried.
Allies produced many excellent biographical and historical works including the Life of Pope Pius VII (1875), Leaves from St Augustine (1886), Leaves from St John Chrysostem (1889), and the History of the Church in England which was published in two volumes (1892 – 1897) as well as a biography of her father (1907). Mary Allies also adapted the novel The Heiress of Cronenstein from the original German.

Alliluyeva, Svetlana Iosipovna – (1926 – 1998)
Russian defector and memoirist
Svetlana Alliluyeva was the daughter of Soviet president Joseph Stalin and his second wife, Nadezhda Sergievna Alliluyeva (1902 – 1932). Svetlana later defected to the USA and became an American citizen (1966). She was the author of Twenty Letters to a Friend (1967) and later settled in Wisconsin (1986).

Allin, Rose – (1536 – 1557)
English Protestant martyr
Rose Allin was the stepdaughter of William Mount of Great Bentley near Colchester. With her mother and stepfather, and almost two dozen other Protestants, Rose was arrested (Sept, 1556) during the persecutions initiated by Queen Mary I (1553 – 1558) and sent to London, where they were all imprisoned in Aldgate and were interrogated by Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London (Sept, 1556).
Released due to the intervention of Cardinal Pole the family was permitted to return home but were still kept under observation by the authorities. One of the constables Edmund Tyrrel, accosted Rose and burnt her hand with a candle flame in an effort to return her to the Catholic faith, but she remained recalcitrant. Several months later she was re-arrested with her parents, and condemned when she refused the authority of the pope. Rose Allin was burnt alive at Colchester (Aug 2, 1557).

Allingham, Helen – (1848 – 1926)
British watercolour painter and author
Born Helen Paterson (Sept 26, 1848) at Burton-on-Trent, she was the daughter of a physician and was educated at the Royal Academy Schools. She was married (1874) to the poet William Allingham and became famous as a watercolour artist and graphic artist. Mrs Allingham was best known for her landscapes and portrayals of rural settings which she exhibited at the Fine Arts Society.
Her sketches appeared in the Cornhill magazine and other publications and co-wrote the works The Homes of Tennyson (1905) and The Cottage Homes of England (1909). Helen Allingham died (Sept 28, 1926) aged seventy-six, at Hampstead, London

Allingham, Margery Louise – (1904 – 1966) 
British crime novelist
Margery Allingham was born in London, the daughter of Herbert John Allingham, an author of boys’s fiction. Margery edited her own magazine, The Wagtail (1912) during her childhood. She attended school in Cambridge and London, and published her first novel Blackkerchief Dick (1921) when she was only seventeen. Allingham was best known for her creation of the fictional, aristocratic detective Albert Campion, first introduced in Crime at Black Dudley (1928).
Her witty and elegantly produced novels included such popular works as Mystery Mile (1929), Look to the Lady (1930), Police at the Funeral (1931), Sweet Danger (1933), The Fashion in Shrouds (1938), Flowers for the Judge (1936), More Work for the Undertaker (1949), The Tiger in the Smoke (1952), which is considered her best novel The China Governess (1963) and The Mind Readers (1965). Her work is considered to rank with that of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. At the request of her American publishers, Margery produced The Oaken Heart (1941), a volume about daily English life during the war. Margery Allingham died (June 30, 1966) at Colchester, Essex.

Allingham, Maria Caroline – (c1772 – 1811)
British minor actress
Maria Allingham was born in London, the daughter of a wine merchant, and sister to the dramatist, John Till Allingham. After appearing in amatuer theatricals, Allingham made her professional stage debut at Covent Garden Theatre, in London, in the role of Palmira in Mahomet (Oct, 1796). Her other roles included Juliet, Bellario in Philaster, and Hermione in The Distrest Mother.
Although beautiful her inexperienced auditory skills and her mechanical style of acting was noted by contemporaries. She later worked in Manchester, in Lancashire (1797), appearing as Belvidera in Venice Preserv’d, and appeared in Dublin before returning to London, where she joined the Orchard Street Theatre, in Bath. She retired from thje stage after her marriage (1799) with Samuel Ricketts, of Bristol, and accompanied her husband to Surinam in South America, where he became a planter. Maria Allingham died (April 9, 1811) in Surinam.

Allinson, Anne Crosby Emery – (1871 – 1932)
American journalist and educator
Anne Emery was born in Ellsworth, Maine, and became the wife of fellow educator and author, Francis Greenleaf Allinson (1856 – 1931), member of the classical philology department at Brown University. Anne had her own career as author of the newspaper column ‘ The Distaff ’ which was written for the Providence Evening Bulletin in Rhode Island.
With a firm and avid interest in classical sholarship, Anne collaborated with her husband to produce Greek Lands and Letters (1909). She survived her husband a little over a year. Her own works include Roads from Rome (1913), Children of the Way (1923), Friends With Life (1924), Selections from the Distaff (1932) and Selected Essays (1933) which was printed posthumously.

Alliquippa – (c1685 – 1754)
Native American Seneca queen and ruler
No details have been recorded of her early life. By the time of the decade of the 1740’s Alliquippa was the leader of a group of Mingo Indians residing along several rivers near modern Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. A decade later the settlement had removed to the region where the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers met (1753), where modern McKeesport evolved. The elderly queen was visited by George Washington (1754) who made her several gifts and left an account of their meeting.
Alliquippa remained an important local ally to the British durinh the French and Indian War. With her son and a number of Seneca warriors the old traveled to Fort Necessity to assist Washongton, but in the event, did not take part in the Battle of the Great Meadows (July 3 – 4, 1754). With the ensuing British defeat Alliquippa and her followers removed to Aughwick Valley for safety. Alliquippa died there soon afterwards (Dec 23, 1754).

Allis, Margeurite – (1886 – 1958)
American author
Allis was born in Ludlow, Vermont. Her published work included Connecticut Trilogy (1934) and The Rising Storm (1955). Margeurite Allis died (Aug 6, 1958).

Allison, Bess Waldo Daniels – (1886 – 1912)
American disaster victim
Bess Daniels was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Travelling home to America aboard the Titanic after a visit to London, she perished with her husband, Hudson Allison, and their daughter Lorraine, when the ship struck an iceberg and sank (April 14, 1912), being amongst the very few first class female passengers who did not make it to a lifeboat. Her baby son Trevor was rescued by his nurse, Alice Cleaver, but died from a childhood accident

Allison, Dorothy – (1925 – 1999)
American psychic detective
The daughter of a seer, she was always aware of her ‘gift’, though her mother had warned her never to use it for profit. A housewife and mother in Nutley, New Jersey, she first volunteered her services to the Nutley police, and succeeded in directing them to the body of a missing child who had accidentally drowned (1967). Allison worked on more than five thousand cases over three decades, and was credited with assisting to solve more than a dozen murders, and locate over fifty missing children.
Hired by Randolph Hearst to locate his kidnalled daughter Patty (1974), Allison did not locate her, but her ‘feeling’ that she was hiding out in Pennsylvania and New York proved correct, as did her prediction that Patty would join her captors in a bank robbery. She was also said to have correctly predicted that the ‘Son of Sam’ serial killer David Berkowitz would be picked up for a traffic violation. Dorothy Allison died aged seventy-four, of pneumonia.

Allison, May – (1890 – 1989)
American silent film actress
May Allison appeared in many early films, paired with Harold Lockwood (1887 – 1918) such as The Masked Rider (1916), The River of Romance (1916), Extravagance (1921), and The Telephone Girl (1927). She survived the fame of her youth by over six decades.

Allitsen, Mary Frances – (1848 – 1912)            
British composer
Mary Allitsen was born in London and studied at the Guildhall School of music. She was best known for her compositions, Sonata for Piano (1881), Suite de Ballet (1882), Overture Slavonique (1884), and Overture Undine (1884). Mary wrote well over one hundred other songs and duets including Song of Thanksgiving, Two Psalms, and Prince Ivan’s Song, as well as the settings of the poems of Lord Tennyson, Marie Corelli and Mallock. Her later works were, Cantata for the Queen (1911) performed at the Crystal Palace, and the romantic opera, Bindra the Minstrel (1911).

Allman, Dora – (1885 – 1960)           
Australian musician
Born Edith Dora Ranclaud, she became an accomplished violinist, having taught at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music, and participated in its orchestra. She toured with the State Orchestra under Henry Verbrugghen (1919 – 1920). Dora was married (1911) to George Faunce Allman (1883 – 1967), and was, together with him, the assistant founder of the Musical Association of NSW (1912). Dora later taught music at Ascham School, Darling Point. From 1947 – 1957 Dora Allman taught at Shore School, together with her husband, for whom she acted as general assistant. The couple specialized in the field of choral music.

Allport, Lily – (1860 – 1949)
Australian painter
Curzona Frances Louise Allport was born in Hobart, Tasmania. She travelled to England with her family prior to 1900, and studied art in London. Allport produced portraits, landscapes, and book illustrations. Exhibitions of her work were held at the Royal Academy in London, and at the Old Salon in Paris. Examples of her work were preserved at the Allport Museum in Tasmania.
Lily Allport died in Hobart.

Allport, Mary Morton – (1806 – 1895)
Australian painter and lithographer
Born in England, she was married to Joseph Allport, a lawyer, with whom she immigrated to Tasmania (1831). She produced miniatures, and landscapes, as well as paintings of native flowers and animals. Examples of her work were preserved in the Allport Museum in Tasmania.

Allsop, Joan Winifred – (1912 – 2000)         
Australian adult educator
Joan Allsop was born in Brisbane, Queensland, the daughter of a public curator and a civil servant. Educated at Sherwood State School and the Brisbane Girls Grammar School, she later attended the University of Queensland and the Queensland Teachers College. With the assistance of a grant, Allsop was able to attend Columbia University in New York, where she became the first Australian to obtain a doctor of education degree in the field of adult education.
Joan Allsop became a staff tutor for the Department of Tutorial Classes in Sydney University at Newcastle (1946), and later served as senior lecturer in the Department of Adult Education (1960 – 1977).  She was the editor of the Australian Journal of Adult Education, and was appointed delegate to the third UNESCO conference in Tokyo (1972). For her services as an executive with the Australian Association of Adult Education (1967 – 1976) and as a boardmember for Beehive, an organisation dedicated to education for the disabled, she was awarded an AM (Order of Australia Medal (1981).
Though she officially retired in 1977, Allsop continued to lecture, tutoring daytime and suburban adult education classes at the Pymble Uniting Church for a further twenty-five years (1977 – 1991). Joan Allsop died (Oct 12, 2000) in Roseville, Sydney.

Alluyes, Benigne de Meaux du Fouilloux, Marquise d’ – (1637 – 1720)        
French Bourbon courtier
Benigne de Meaux du Fouilloux first came to the court of Louis XIV to serve as a maid-of-honour to his sister-in-law, Henriette Anne, Duchesse d’Orleans. She was married (1667) to the Marquis d’Alluye, a scion of the Escoubleau family. A close friend of Olympe Mancini, Comtesse de Soissons, Madame d’Alluye and her husband both became entangled in the scandalous ‘Affair of the Poisons (1679 – 1681).
The marquis was exiled, and Mádame d’Alluyes accompanied Madame de Soissons into exile in Belgium, fleeing Versailles by carriage at night (Jan, 1680). She was permitted to return to France sometime prior to her husband’s death (1690). The marquise long remained a popular figure at the court of Versailles, notorious for her passion for gambling and her extravagant love affairs, and the Duc de Saint-Simon described her in his famous Memoires as ‘a woman totally devoid of malice.’

Allwyn, Astrid – (1909 – 1978)        
American film actress
Astrid Allwyn was born in South Manchester, Connecticut, and became the wife of actor Robert Kent. Her first film was Lady With A Past (1932) which established her as a blonde leading lady of the 1930’s and 1940’s, and she appeared in nearly two dozen films including a role in the classic Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939). Astrid retired from the screen after her last film appearance in Hit Parade of 1943.

Allyson, June – (1917 – 2006)            
American film and television actress and vocalist
Joan Allyson was popularly remembered for her wholesome roles as perfect girlfriend and wife during the 1940’s and 1950’s. She was born Ella Geisman in the Bronx, New York, and danced in several shows on Broadway from 1938 when she adopted her professional name. Joan was married (1945 – 1963) to fellow actor Dick Powell (1904 – 1963). Her wholesome attractiveness and sweet character summed up the idea of the perfect wife to men serving abroad in WW II.
Miss Allyson appeared in films such as Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) with Van Johnson, Music for Millions (1944), Little Women (1949) in the role of Jo March, The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and The Shrike (1955) in which she played a nasty role, a change of style which was not appreciated by the viewing public. Allyson also worked in television and had her own popular series The June Allyson Show (1959 – 1961). Her last movie role was as a lesbian killer in They Only Kill Their Masters (1972). She published her autobiography entitled June Allyson (1982). June Allyson died aged eighty-eight.

Alma, Linda – (1926 – 1999)           
Greek dancer
Linda Alma was born Eleni Malioufa in Athens. She married (1979) Manos Katrakis (died 1984) the famous Greek actor. Alma became the dance partner of Yannis Flery and moved to Paris prior to 1950, working with Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour and Yves Montand. Linda was best remembered for her appearances in dance sequences in Greek replicas of the Hollywood musicals of the 1950’s. Linda Alma died in Athens.

Almada, Philippa de – (c1435 – c1490)       
Portugese poet
Philippa se Almada was born of a noble family, and was an attendant at the Portugese court. Her literary career spanned the reigns of Alfonso V and Joao II. Her poetry features in the Cancioneiro Geral of Garcia de Resende, written in 1516.

Al-Mala’ikah, Nazik – (1922 – 2007)              
Iraqi poet
Nazik Al-Malaíkah was born (Aug 23, 1922), into a literary family in Baghdad, the daughter of a teacher. She attended the College of Arts in Baghdad, and then studied abroad at the University of Wisconsin in the USA. She was married and fled Iraq to Kuwait after the rise of the Baath Party and Saddam Hussein. When Hussein invaded Kuwait (1990), the family fled to Cairo in Egypt, where Nazik remained for the rest of her life.
Al-Mala’ikah wrote several collections of verse such as Ashiqat al-ayl (Lover of the night), Shazaya wa Ramad (Sparks and Ashes) (1949), Qararat al-mawjah (The bottom of the waves) (1957), and Tree of the Moon (1968), and is recognized as the first Iraqi poet to use free verse in Arabic. Nazik Al-Mala’ikah died (June 20, 2007) aged eighty-four, in Cairo.

Almania, Jacqueline Felicie de – (c1290 – after 1322)            
German-French medieval physician
Jacqueline de Almania was born of a noble family, and was perhaps German origin. Jacqueline practised medicine in Paris with considerable skill, and remarkable results. In 1322 she was prosecuted by the medical faculty of the University of Paris for practising without a license. During her trial many witnesses spoke in her favour, praising both her diagnosis and her treatments, pointing out that they had given up on treatments provided by legitimate male physicians.
Jacqueline provided her own defense, stating that her skills were proven by the attested fact of her cures. She added that many women were reluctant out of modesty to consult male physicians. Despite all the evidence in her favour, Jacqueline was found guilty, but the judges, perhaps impressed by her case, merely ordered her to desist from practising her trade.

Almaraide     see    Amalrada of Gueldres

Alma-Tadema, Laura Phipps, Lady – (1852 – 1909)     
British painter
Laura Phipps was the daughter of George Napoleon Phipps and his wife Charlotte Bacon, and became the second wife (1871) of the artist Sir Laurence Alma-Tadema (1836 – 1912). The artist Anna Alma-Tadema was her stepdaughter Laura Alma-Tadema established herself as a water-colour painter and her works were exhibited in Berlin and Paris. She was awarded the gold medal from Berlin (1896) and the silver medal from the Paris University Exhibition (1900). Lady Alma-Tadema died (Aug 15, 1909) aged fifty-six.

Almedha     see    Eiluned

Almedingen, E.M. – (1898 – 1971)                
Russian-Anglo novelist, biographer, and historian
Martha Edith Almedingen was born in St Petersburg, Russia, the daughter of a chemistry professor, and attended Xenia Nobility College and Petrograd University. She settled in England (1921), and became a lecturer in both Russian and English medieval history and literature at Oxford University, achieving for herself an impressive career as a distinguished academic historian. Almedingen wrote over sixty separate works, including novels, but was best known for her biographies, including Charles XII of Sweden (1938), Dom Bernard Clements : A Portrait (1945), So Dark a Stream : A Study of Emperor Paul I of Russia : 1754 – 1801 (1959) and Catherine the Great : A Portrait (1963), The Empress Alexandra, 1872 – 1918 : A Study (1961), and An Unbroken Unity : A Memoir of Grand Duchess Serge of Russia, 1864 – 1918 (1964), which are written in a well-balanced and extremely atmospheric style.
Other of her published works included a translation of The Lord’s Passion (c1940) by Hrabanus Maurus, the autobiographical Tomorrow Will Come (1941), The Almond Tree (1947), and Late Arrival (1952). Martha Almedingen died (March 5, 1971).

Almeida, Beatriz de (Brites) – (fl. 1385)               
Portugese heroine
Beatriz de Almeida was born in Faro, in Aljubarrota of very poor parentage, and was believed to have been a local baker. Beatriz led her fellow townspeople against the forces of the Spanish invaders in support of King Joao I. When her village was attacked, Beatriz joined the townspeople in successfully rerpelling a Spanish attack on the town. When she returned to her home she discovered seven Spanish soldiers, who had fled the defeat of Aljubarrota, and had hidden in the furnace. She famously killed all seven of them, using her own baking shovel. Large-boned and reputedly unattractive and argumentative, Beatriz became the public symbol of the successful Portugese struggle against the Spanish.

Almeric, Catherine d’     see    Sainte-Croix, Rose de

Almodis of La Marche – (c1020 – 1071)
French law codifier
Almodis was the daughter of Bernard I, Count of La Marche and Perigord and his wife Amelia de Montignac, the daughter of Gerard I, Seigneur de Montignac. She was married firstly (c1030) to Hugh V of Lusignan, Count of Marche (died 1060) from whom she was divorced after having borne a son and heir, Hugh VI le Diable (the Devil) (c1039 – 1110) who succeeded his father as Count of La Marche (1060) and participated in the First Crusade (1095 – 1099). Almodis was married secondly to Pons III Guillaume (1020 – 1061), Count of Toulouse, Albi and Dijon (1047 – 1061), as his second wife and became countess consort of Toulouse (1047). Almodis bore Pons five children,

• Guillaume IV (William) (1040 – 1094). He succeeded as Count of Toulouse (1063) and was also Count of Albi, Perigord, Carcassone and rodez, and Duke of Narbonne. He was married
  twice and left issue being killed at the battle of Huesca.
• Raymond IV (1042 – 1105). He succeeded his brother as Count of Toulouse (1094 – 1105) and left descendants.
• Matilda of Toulouse (c1045 – before 1094). She became the wife of Bertrand II (c1040 – 1094), Count of Provence, and left issue.
• Hugh of Toulouse. He died young.
• Almodis of Toulouse (c1050 – after 1132). She became the wife of Pierre (died 1085), Count of Melgueil, and left issue.

Whilst she was still the wife of Count Pons Almodis was abducted by Ramon Berenguer I el Viejo (1023 – 1076), Count of Barcelona who then made her his third wife. The count had enlisted the aid of the Muslim emir of Tortosa, with whose help the countess was successfully abducted from the city of Narbonne. They were then married and Almodis appears with Ramon Berenguer and their two sons in a surviving charter (1054). Pope Victor II declared the couple to be excommunicated (1055 – 1056) but this was later lifted.
Countess Almodis ruled jointly with her husband and assisted him to produce the code of law known as the Usages of Barcelona. She aroused the hatred of her stepson Pedro Ramon due to her attempts to influence the succession to Barcelona in favour of her own sons, in which she ultimately proved successful, but at a price. The countess was murdered (Oct 16, 1071) by her stepson, who was then disinherited by his father in favour of Almodis’s sons and sent into exile. The children of her last marriage were,

• Ramon Berenguer II Cabeza le Estopa (1054 – 1082). He succeeded as Count of Barcelona (1076 – 1082) but was murdered by his twin brother. He was married twice and left issue.
• Count Berenguer Ramon II (1054 – c1097). He murdered his elder twin brother and received the epithet el Fratricida. He died unmarried and left no issue.
• Ines of Barcelona (Agnes) (died after 1075). She became the second wife of Guigues VIII le Gros (the Fat) (c1025 – 1075), Count of Albon and Grenoble.
• Sanchia of Barcelona (died after 1079). She became the wife of Guillermo Ramon I (died 1095), Count of Cerdagne.

Almodis of Limoges – (c952 – c985)
French mediaeval noblewoman
Sometimes referred to as Aisceline, Almodis was the daughter of Giraud, Vicomte of Limoges and his wife Rothilda de Brosse, the daughter of Adhemar, Vicomte de Brosse. She was married (c967) to Adalbert I (c948 – 997), Count of La Marche and Perigord and was the mother of Bernard I (c971 – 1047), Count of La Marche (997 – 1047) and of Perigord. She was the paternal grandmother of Almodis of La Marche (c1020 – 1071).
Her husband remarried to Adalmode of Gevaudan, the stepdaughter of the Carolingian king Louis V (986 – 987). These two women have been much confused by both historians and genealogists, who sometimes call Almodis Adalmode and have her as still living in 1007, but these were certainly two separate people, and the woman living in 1007 refers to Adalbert’s second wife Adalmode (later wife of William V of Poitou).

Almodis of Toulouse – (c1050 – after 1132)
French mediaeval countess
Almodis was the daughter of Pons III Guillaume, Count of Toulouse (1047 – 1061) and his second wife Almodis of La Marche, the divorced wife of Hugh V of Lusignan, and later the wife of Ramon Berengar I, Count of Barcelona. She was named for her mother and her maternal great-grandmother Almodis of Limoges, the first wife of Adalbert I, Count of La Marche. Through her ancestress Emma of Perigord, wife of Boso I of La Marche, Almodis was a descendant of Charles Martel the ‘Hammer of the Franks.’
Almodis was married (1065) to Pierre, Count of Melgueil and Substantion, the son of Count Raymond I of Melgueil and his wife Beatrice of Poitou, the daughter of William V the Great, Duke of Aquitaine. Her mother travelled from Barcelona to attend the wedding, and she bore Pierre a daughter, Ermesende de Melgueil who became the second wife of Guillaume V (William), Seigneur of Montpellier. Through this marriage Almodis was a direct ancestor of Jaime I, King of Aragon (1213 – 1276) and of his many descendants. With the early death of her husband (c1086) Countess Almodis served as regent of Melgueil.

Almond, Lemuella Terza – (1872 – 1941)               
American poet
Lemuella Terza Garrett was born in Calhoun County, in the southern state of Mississippi, the daughter of James B. Garrett. She attended local public schools and became a teacher at the Normal School in Abbeville. She was married (1903) to Dan Almond. Lemuella wrote devotional poems such as Where is God, and Home, whilst other verses dwelt on the natural beauties of the Southern countryside. Lemuella Almond died at (Nov 3, 1941) at Oxford, Mississippi.

Almroth, Greta – (1888 – 1981)                  
Swedish film actress
Greta Almroth was born in Stockholm. She became a prominent silent film actress for over a decade (1912 – 1924), appearing in over two dozen movies, such as Blodets rost (The Voice of Passion) (1913), Havsgamar (Predators of the Sea) (1916) and Prastankan (The Witch Woman) (1920). Her last film credits, which were made after the advent of sound included Goda vanner och trogna grannar (Good Friends and Faithful Neighbours) (1938) and Vastkustens hjaltar (1940). Greta Almroth died in Stockholm (July 24, 1981) aged ninety-three.

Almy, Mary Gould – (1735 – 1808)
American Quaker diarist
Her husband served with the revolutionary forces, whilst she herself remained loyal to the British crown. Mary Almy left a written record of the occupation of Rhode Island by the British military (July-Aug, 1778). This was published posthumously as ‘Mrs Almy’s Journal’ in the Newport Historical Magazine (1880 – 1881).

Alngindabu (Alyandabu) – (c1874 – 1961)
Australian aboriginal elder
Born at Chapana, along the Finniss River, in the Northern Territory, she was a member of the Kungarakany tribe. Trained as a domestic servant, she was named Lucy, and embraced the Catholic faith. She was married to a white man, Stephen Joseph McGinness, a railway ganger, and bore him five children, whom she taught the Kungarakany language. With her husband’s death (1918), Alngindabu and her younger children were taken to live in the Kahlin Aboriginal Compound in Darwin (1918 – 1922).
Her brother discovered a tin ore mine, which became officially known as the Lucy Mine, which was worked by her won family until 1960. She herself continued to work as a laundress and a housemaid, and became an almiyuk (female elder) amongst her own people. Her son Joe McGinness served as the president of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (1961 – 1978). Alngindabu died (Sept 23, 1961) in Darwin.

Aloara of Capua – (c940 – 992)
Norman ruler in Sicily
Princess Aloara was the wife of Pandulf Ironhead, Prince of Capua and Benevento, to whom she bore five sons the eldest of which was Landulf. With her husband’s death at Capua (981) aloara’s eldest son was enthroned as Prince Landulf IV of Capua and Benevento. He perished fighting against the Saracens for the emperor Otto II (982) and Aloara’s younger son Laidulf was installed as his successor by the emperor who appointed the princess to be regent during her lifetime (982). This decree was later ratified by the regent Empress Theophano, mother of Otto III. A woman possessed of both ability and courage, she did not hesitate to order the death of her late husband’s nephew, fearing him as a rival to her sons.

Alodia    see    Nunilo

Aloe      see    Tucker, Charlotte Maria

Alonso i Bozzo, Cecilia – (1905 – 1974)                 
Spanish novelist and dramatist
Cecilia Manaut was born in Barcelona, the daughter of the dramatist Gasto Alonso Manaut. Also known as Cecilia Alonso Mantua, she wrote comic satires on Spanish customs and manners, which enjoyed great popular success. Cecilia wrote nearly thirty works, the best remembered of which are Ha passat una oreneta (A swallow has passed) (1936), a comedy in three acts, La Pepa maca (Pretty Pepa) (1955) a tragedy in three acts, and Le canco de la florista (the song of the florist) (1959).

Her play La virreina (The viceroy’s wife) (1965) won the Lluis Masriera literary prize. As well as writing Castilian novels for general consumption such as La princesa del Maharaja (1952), Cecilia also wrote Castilian scripts for Radio Barcelona. Cecilia Alonso i Bozzo died in Barcelona.

Alorna, Leonor de Almeida Portugal de Lorena e Lencastre, Marquesa de – (1750 – 1839)
Portugese poet and salon hostess
Her father had been involved in an abortive plot against King Joseph, and was sentenced to imprisonment (1758). Leonor and her mother were ordered to be confined within the convent of Chelas, where they remained for almost two decades (1758 – 1777), before finally being released. Leonor was then married (1779) to the German diplomat, Count von Oeynhausen, and resied with him in Vienna, where her two children were born.
With the count’s death, Leonor then remained in England for over two decades (1793 – 1814), before she finally returned to Portugal, where she succeeded in reclaiming properties and estates, which had formally been confiscated. After her second marriage, the Marquesa established her own influential literary salon in Lisbon. Her six volumes of poems were published posthumously (1844). The marquesa used the pseudonym ‘Alcipe.’

Alpais of Neustria (Aupais) – (c793 – 852)
Carolingian countess and nun
Alpais was the illegitimate daughter of the Emperor Louis I the Pious, by an unknown concubine, and was born prior to his marriage (794) to Ermengarde of Hesbayne. Some sources call her instead the illegitimate daughter of the emperor Charlemagne and his first wife Himiltrude, but the chronology is highly unlikley, and the historian Flodoard specifically names Alpais as Ludowecis Alpheidi filie sue. Thus she was the granddaughter of Charlemagne.
Alpais was either the sister or full-sister of Count Arnulf of Sens. She was married (806) to her kinsman, Count Bego I of Paris (c758 – 816) as his second wife, and bore him three children, Leuthard, count of Paris, Eberhard, and Susannah, the wife of count Vulgrin of the Angoumois. When recording the death of Bego, the Annales Hildesheimenses styled his widow as filiam imperatoris … Elpheid. Alpais was appointed as abbess of Saint-Pierre-le-Bas, at Rheims (817). She was still in office thirty-five years later (May, 852). Alpais died shortly afterwards (July 23, 852) aged about sixty, and was buried at Rheims.

Alpar, Gitta – (1900 – 1991)
Hungarian soprano and actress
Gitta Alpar was born (Feb 5, 1900) in Budapest and began her career as a soprano in Hamburg and Berlin. She appeared as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier at Covent Garden Theatre in London (1929) and appeared in operetta in Vienna and Budapest. She appeared in her first film Gitta Entdeckt ihr Herz (1932) with the German actor Gustav Frohlich, whom she married. She was best remembered for her film The Dubarry (1936) which she made in England, and also appeared in Guilty Melody with Anna Neagle, which was directed by Neagle’s husband Herbert Wilcox.
With the outbreak of WW II Gitta immigrated to the USA where she appeared with Marlene Dietrich in the film The Flame of New Orleans (1941) directed by Rene Clair. Gitta Alpar died (Feb 17, 1991) aged ninety-one, in Los Angeles, California.

Alphaida (Alpais) – (c670 – c720)
Carolingian concubine and progenatrix
Alphaida was the daughter of Childebrand, a Merovingian royal councillor, and his wife Emma. She became the mistress of Pepin II of Heristal, Duke of Austrasia and was the mother of Charles Martel, Duke of Austrasia, the ‘Hammer of the Franks,’ (687 – 741) and of his sister Adeloga, Abbess of Kitzingen. The French historian Philippe de Commines referred to Alphaida as, ‘a faire and beautiful gentlewoman, whom he loved beyond all respect of himself.’
St Lambert remonstrated with Pepin concerning his relationship with Alphaida. She complained to her brother Dodo that Lambert had insulted her, and that he had denied her the sacrament. Dodo and some of their supporters then murdered Lambert in the Church of St Cosimo and Damian near Liege (c705). With the death of Pepin (714), his widow Plectrude forced Alphaida from court, and she became a pentitent at the abbey of Orp-le-Grand, near Judoque, Brabant. Alphaida died (Sept 17, c720) aged about fifty, at Orp-le-Grand.

Alphant, Garsende d’ – (c1265 – 1320)
French governess and saint
Garsende was related to Elzear de Sabran, whose education she supervised. Being possessed of a reputation for religious sanctity, when her ward and his wife Delphine decided to take vows of celibacy in the quest for religious sanctity, Elzear wished Garsende to attend the ceremony in Naples. However, when Elzear heard that she could not travel because of illness, her travelled to Provence, where the ceremony was performed partly in the Church of St Ansois, and the rest in Garsende’s sickroom. She died several days afterwards. Garsende was immediately venerated as a saint and her feast (Nov 8) was mentioned in the prayerbook of the Franciscan Order.

Alport, Rachel Cecilia Bingham, Lady – (1917 – 1983)
British peeress (1961 – 1983)
Rachel Bingham was born (April 9, 1917) the only daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Charles Bingham (1885 – 1977) CVO (Commander of the Royal Victorian Order), of the family of the Earls of Lucan, and his wife Dorothy Louisa Pratt, the daughter of Edward Roger Murray Pratt, Justice of the Peace, of Ryston Hall, Norfolk. During WW II Rachel Bingham served as a third Officer with the WRNS (Women’s Royal Naval Service). She was married (1945) to Cuthbert James McCall Alport (1912 – 1998) to whom she bore three children, who were raised at the family estate at Layer de la Haye in Gloucestershire.
When her husband was created a life peer by Queen Elizabeth II as Baron Alport of Colchester, Essex (1961) Rachel became the Baroness Alport (1961 – 1983). She accompanied her husband to Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in South Africa when he was appointed British High Commissioner (1963 – 1963). Lady Alport died (July 13, 1983) aged sixty-six. Her children were,

• Hon. (Honourable) Arthur Edward Bingham Alport (born 1954). He married and left issue.
• Hon. Cecilia Alexandra Rose Alport (born 1946). She was married to the Reverend Geoffrey Wilfred Francis Lang, of St Margaret’s Vicarage, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, and left issue.
• Hon. Lavender Lilias Carole Alport (born 1950). She was married to Ian Colin Taylor (born 1945), and left issue.

Al-Rayes, Rafka – (1832 – 1914)
Lebanese Christian saint and mystic
Born Petronilla Al-Rayes in the village of Himlaya, under the guidance of her confessor Petronilla joined the Congregation of the Maries, where she became a teacher of young girls. Desiring a more contemplative life, she later left this order and joined the Maronite sisters at the convent of St Simeon (1871), after which she was known as Sister Rafka, which was a pet form of her mother’s name of Rebecca.
During the last years of her life she was afflicted with blindness, but continued to perform daily tasks in the convent, and inspired the sisters by her acceptance of her sufferrings, which ended in paralysis. The soil from her grave was credited with several thousand miracles and she was venerated as a saint.

Al-Said, ‘Aminah – (1914 – 1995)
Egyptian writer
‘Aminah Al-Said was born in Cairo, the daughter of a physician. She graduated from Cairo University (1935), and became a firm advocate for women’s suffrage. Al-Said became editor of the weekly women’s magazine Hawa (Eve).

Alschuler, Rose Haas – (1887 – 1979)
Jewish-American educator
Alschuler established the first private nursery school (1922) before going on to organize and direct the Winnetka Public kindergarten school for poor children in Chicago, Illinois. Prominently associated with the establishement of educational facilities for poor Negro families, Rose established kindergarten facilities at the Garden Apartments Negro Housing project.
Later appointed as chairperson for the National Commission for Young Children (1941 – 1943), her tireless work was publicly acknowledged by both her own Jewish countrymen, and the American public, when she received the Government of Israel Award (1958) and the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award (1966).

Alsen, Elsa – (1880 – 1975)
Polish soprano
Elsa Alsen was born in Obra. She made her singing debut as a contralto (1900), and then her operatic debut in Heidelburg, Germany (1902). With the encouragement of the conductors of the Berlin Staatsopera she trained as a soprano, and sang leading Wagnerian roles, the most famous of which was Isolde. She toured America 1923 with the Wagnerian Opera Company, and returned in 1924 – 1928 with the Chicago Civic Opera Company.
Elsa sang at the Hollywood Bowl, and appeared in the film The Rogue Story with Lawrence Tibbett. She performed in many concerts, appearing under such conductors as Arturo Toscanini, Leopold Stokowski and serge Koussevitsky. After her retirement from the stage, Elsa maintained a career as a vocal teacher, not retiring completely till the age of ninety.

Alsop, Edith – (c1879 – 1950)
Australian painter and printmaker
Alsop first exhibited her work at the National Gallery, as a student, and later travelled in France and Italy. She then studied under George Bell. Though she produced admirable portraits and landscapes, Alsop was particularly known for her etchings and wood engravings, and became a founder member of the Contemporary Art Group in Melbourne, Victoria. Exhibitions of her work were held with the Victorian artists’ Society, and with the Arts and Crafts Society.

Alsop, Gulielma Fell – (1881 – 1978)
American physician and author
Gulielma Alsop graduated from the Women’s Medical College in Pennsylvania (1908), after which she pursued a career as a medical missionary to China. Gulielma later returned to America (1917) and joined the staff of Barnard College. In that same year she founded the medical department at Barnard which she herself headed for thirty-five years. She wrote several works, including childhood memoirs and a history of the Women’s Medical College. Gulielma Alsop died (Jan 27, 1978) at White River Junction, Vermont.

Alsop, Mary O’Hara – (1885 – 1980)
American novelist and composer
Mary O’Hara Alsop was born (July 10, 1885) at Cape May Point, New Jersey, the daughter of Rev. Reese Fell Alsop, an Episcopal clergyman, and grew up in Brooklyn Heights, New York. She married firstly (1905) Kent Kane Parrot, from whom she was later divorced, and secondly to Helge Sture-Vasa. Always interested in horses, she moved to Wyoming at the time of her second marriage (1922) and remained there for twenty-five years until her second marriage ended in divorce (1947).
Her most famous novels concerned a young boy and his horse, and were set in Wyoming, My Friend Flicka (1941) and its sequel Thunderhead (1943). Both novels were best-sellers and were made into films, with fourteen year old Roddy McDowall as the ten year-old hero of My Friend Flicka (1943). Another of her extremely popular works was Green Grass of Wyoming (1946), which was also made into a film, and My Friend Flicka became a successful television series in 1967. Mary Alsop wrote adaptations and continuities for many films in the 1920’s and the 1930’s including Toilers of the Sea, Turn to the Right, and The Prisoner of Zenda. She also wrote the folk musical The Catch Colt. Mary Alsop died (Oct 15, 1980) aged ninety-five.

Alston, Theodosia Burr – (1783 – 1812)
American colonial society figure
Theodosia Burr was the daughter of Aaron Burr and his wife Theodosia De Visme. She was the great-granddaughter of the spiritual biographer Sarah Pierpont Edwards (1710 – 1758). She was married to Joseph Alston, governor of South Carolina and died in a shipwreck. Some of her correspondence has survived. She was the subject of the historical novel My Theodosia (1941) by British author Anya Seton.

Alswang, Betty – (1919 – 1978)
American interior designer and public relations specialist
Alswang served as a member of the board of trustees of the World Affairs Center in Westport, Connecticut. She wrote several works concerning the homes and décor of various painters and writers. Betty Alswang died (April 24, 1978) at Westport.

Alt, Salome – (1568 – 1633)
German concubine
Salome Alt was born (Sept 21, 1568) in Salzburg, Austria, the daughter of a clerk. She later became the mistress (1590) of Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg, to whom she bore a large family of fifteen illegitimate children. He later gave Salome and her children the surname of Alt von Altenau (1600) which raised them all to the nobility.
Raitenau built Castle Altenau for Salome and her family to reside and later granted her (1610) the Castle of Seehaus in Rupertiwinkel. She was portrayed in her youth as Mary Magdalene by the Italian painter Camillo Procaccini and this painting is preserved at Tettnang in Baden-Wurttemburg. Salome Alt died (June 27, 1633) aged sixty-four, at Wels.

Al-Taymuriyya, ‘Aisha Esmat – (1840 – 1902)
Egyptian poet
‘Aisha Al-Taymuriyya was born in Cairo to a patrician family. Widowed in 1885, she was composed verse in Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. Al-Taymuriyya was best remembered for the poem composed to lament the death of her daughter, whom she mourned for seven years.

Altenburg, Princess Alice von    see   Ankarcrona, Alice Elisabeth

Altenburg, Princess Elisabeth von    see    Resseguier de Miremont, Elisabeth

Altenburger, Alida    see    Valli, Alida

Althaus, Madame von   see   Porth, Gertrud

Altrincham, Joan Alice Katherine Dickson-Poynder, Lady – (1897 – 1987)
British socialite, ministerial wife and diplomatic figure
The Hon. (Honourable) Joan Dickson-Poynder was born (Sept 11, 1897) the only child and heiress of Sir John Dickson-Poynder, the first and last Baron Islington and his wife Diane Beauclerk Dundas, the daughter of Robert Henry Duncan Dundas, of Glenesk, Scotland. Through her father she was a descendant of Archibald Dickson (died 1771) of Pontefract, who was of Scottish ancestry. The name Poynder came from the marriage of her paternal grandfather Rear Admiral john Bourmaster Dickson (1815 – 1876) with his first wife, Sarah Matilda Poynder of Hilmarton, Wiltshire.
Joan was married (1923) to Edward William Macleay Grigg (1879 – 1955) who was later created the first Baron Altrincham by King George VI (1945). As Lady Grigg she was a socially prominent figure, accompanying her husband to South Africa, Kenya, and later during his diplomatic career to the Middle East (1945). She survived her husband for over thirty years as the Dowager Baroness Altrincham (1955 – 1987) and resided during her widowhhod at Tormarton Court at Badminton in Gloucestershire. Her three children were,

• Hon. John Edward Poynder Grigg (born 1924). He succeeded his father as the second Baron Altrincham (1955) but later disclaimed his peerage (1963). He was married and left issue.
• Hon. Annabel Desiree Grigg (born 1931). She remained unmarried.
• Hon. Anthony Ulick David Dundas Grigg (born 1934). He was an officer in the Grenadier Guards and was married and left issue.

Alva, Isabel Sinclair, Lady – (c1522 – 1567) 
Scottish murderess
Isabel Sinclair was the daughter of Alexander Sinclair of Dunbeath. Isabel was married firstly Gilbert Gordon, of Garty, younger son of Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland, to whom she bore a son, and secondly to Charles Erskine, Lord Alva. Lady Alva received as guests at Helmisdale Castle, her nephew by marriage, John Gordon, eleventh Earl of Sunderland and his wife Marion (April, 1567). Lady Isabel’s only child was the heir to the earldom of Sutherland after the earl and his son Alexander, and she, in her eagerness to see her boy possessed of these titles and wealth decided to murder her guests, by means of poison mixed with the ale served at supper.
Lord and Lady Sutherland fell ill, but managed to prevent their son partaking of the prepared supper, which had been put aside for his late arrival there. The earl and countess left Helmisdale and both died five days later. Lady Alva was tried for murder and sentenced to death. However, she managed to escape execution by committing suicide in her prison in Edinburgh (Aug, 1567).

Alva, Violet – (1908 – 1969)
Indian political leader and social reformer
Violet Alva was raised as a Christian and became involved with the nationalist politics of the period. She was associated with the Quit India Movement (Aug, 1942) and was elected three times to the Rajya Sabha (1952 – 1960 – 1966), serving both as deputy chairman, and later as deputy minister of home affairs (1957 – 1962). Alva was the member of many prominent international organizations and several times was chosen to represent India as a delegate.

Alver, Betti – (1906 – 1989)
Estonian poet and prose writer
Betti was the daughter of a railway worker and attended university at Tartu. She left her studied in 1927 to devote herself to her writing career. Alver married (1937) fellow poet Heiti Talvik (1904 – 1947) who died in exile after his arrest by the Soviet security forces. Her first work the novel Tuulearmuke (The wind’s darling) (1927) was written while she was still atschool, but she later became one of the poets whose work was represented in the famous Arbujad (Logomancers) anthology (1938). She combined pathos and parody to produce a dramatic conception of art as a romantic or rebellious gesture.
Alver also wrote the verse novel, Lugu valgest varesest (Story of rare bird) (19310 and a collection of lyric verse entitled Tom ja tuli (Power and Fire) (1936). A later volume of her verse, Luuletused ja poeemid (Lyric and narrative poems) was published in Stockholm, Sweden, and she wrote several other collections of verse later in her career, Tahetund (Star hour) (1966), Eluhelbed (Flakes of life) (1971), Tuju (Mood) (1976), and Korallid Emajoes (Corals in the River Emajogi) (1986).

Alvin, Juliette – (1897 – 1982)
French cellist music therapist
Alvin was born in Limoges, and attended the National Conservatory of Music and the Sorbonne in Paris. She then studied with Pablo Casals at the University of Paris, and was married to the British academic William A. Robson, to whom she bore three children. She established herself as a professional cellist and made several tours of the USA before becoming a professional music therapist in England where she became the director of the music therapy course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London for mentally challenged children.
Juliette Alvin lectured around the world in Japan, USA, South America, and Israel and founded the the Society of Music Therapy and Remedial Music (1958). Her published works included Music Therapy for the Handicapped Child (1965) and Music for the Autistic Child (1978).

Alyandabu    see    Alngindabu

Aly Khan, Joan Barbara Yarde-Buller, Princess – (1908 – 1997)
British socialite and international figure
The Hon. (Honourable) Joan Yarde-Buller was born (April 22, 1908), the eldest daughter of John Reginald Lopes Yarde-Buller (1873 – 1930), the third Baron Churston, and his wife Jessie (the actress Denise Orme), the daughter of Alfred John Smither. Joan was married firstly (1927) to Group Captain Thomas Bulkeley Guiness, from whom she was later divorced (1936). She received the rank of princess when she became the wife (1936) of Prince Aly Salomen Khan (1911 – 1960). She was the mother of Prince Karim (born 1936), who succeeded his father as Aga Khan IV.
After her second divorce (1949) Joan retained the princely title. She later remarried to Viscount Camrose (1909 – 1995).

Amabilia of Bohemia – (c1120 – c1180)
Princess and nun
Amabilia was the daughter of Vladislav I, Duke of Bohemia and his wife Richeza, the daughter of Heinrich, Count of Berg-Schelkingen, and was sister to King Vlasislav II (1110 – 1175). She never married and resided in the housrhold of her brother Diepold I, Duke of Jamnitz at his estate at Clatov. There she built the Benedictine convent dedicated to St Lawrence, and became the first abbess of that house.
Accredited with miracles during her life, after her death she was interred in her monastery, which was later turned over to the Dominicans. The noble Bohemian family of Swihorski or Schurhowski, who claimed descent from Duke Diepold, worshipped Amabilia with particular reverence as the patron saint of their family.

Amadas, Elizabeth – (c1500 – after 1532)
English gentlewoman and courtier
Elizabeth Amadas was the daughter of Hugh Brice the younger, court goldsmith to King Henry VIII (1509 – 1547). Elizabeth was married to Robert Amadas, who inherited his father-in-law’s position at court, as well as his trade. Elizabeth Amadas was later arrested for having spoken publicly against the king’s mistress, Anne Boleyn (1532). She claimed that the king had desired her to be his mistress, but revealed no more than this to her interrogators. Elizabeth was eventually released but she and her husband later sufferred from enormous debts, and lost their former positions at the court.

Amadea of Montferrat – (1429 – 1440)
Queen consort of Cyprus
Amadea was born (Aug 3, 1429) the daughter of Giovanni Jacopo, Marquis of Montferrat and his wife Johanna, the daughter of Amadeo VII, Count of Savoy. She was married as a child (1437) to John II (1413 – 1458), King of Cyprus, as his first wife. The marriage had been arranged by her uncle Duke Louis of Savoy and by Cardinal Hugh of Cyprus. The Venetians were suspicious of the motives behind the marriage, and Duke Louis had considered marrying Amadea to Lodovico Gonzaga, the Marquis of Mantua, who was a Captain-General with the Venetian forces. Eventually however the Venetians approved the alliance and it went forward as planned.
Queen Amadea was received in Venice with great magnificence by Doge Francesco Foscarini and was given the palace of Archbishop Giovanni Cornaro for her residence there. The young queen finally reached Cyprus late in May, 1440 and was married in the Church of Santa Sophia in Nicosia (July 3, 1440). The young queen died only ten weeks later (Sept 13, 1440), aged only eleven, with many of her Italian attendants, being the victims of a virulent fever or plague. The identity of the queen who attacked John’s mistress Marietta of Patras and bit her nose, much to the entertainment of the king, recorded by the historian Florio Bustron, was obviously a more mature lady and refers to the king’s second wife Helena Palaeologina.

Ama-duga – (fl. c1800 – c1770 BC)
Assyrian queen
Ama-duga was probably the widow of Shamshi-Adad I (reigned 813 – 1781 BC), and the mother of his successor, Ishme Dagon I. Like her husband, she was of aristocratic, but not royal, birth. Her second son Yasmah-Addu, ruled in Mari as governor with his sister Kunsimatum. After her husband’s death, Ama-duga resided at the palace in Mari, and attended to important administrative functions, which she continued to perform well into the reign of King Zimri-Lim. The name ‘Ama-duga’ may actually have been a title, her own personal name may have been Akatiya. During the reign of Zimri-Lim, Ama-duga remained an important figure within the palace hierarchy, and was in control of the vast palace staff. Later she left Mari, perhaps to live in retirement.

Amage – (fl. c350 BC)
Sarmatian warrior queen
During the fourth century BC, Queen Amage ruled for her husband, who was either crippled or ill. When a Scythian tribe came too close to her borders and refused to back down, the queen personally led a group of 120 warriors, and invaded Scythia. Her soldiers finished off the palace guards whilst Amage herself killed the Scythian prince in hand to hand combat. All the members of the prince’s family were executed, except his son, who was set up as a vassal ruler under Amage’s authority. Archaeological excavations of Sarmatian tombs reveal that many women were buried with the military accoutrements usual for a male tomb in other contemporary cultures. The Amazon queens of Greek legend were perhaps based on real-life warrior rulers like Amage.

Amalaberga of Cologne – (c433 – c478 AD)
Merovingian queen consort
Amalaberga was the daughter of Chlodwig II, King of the Franks at Cologne, and his wife Wedelpha of Saxony. She became the wife (c450 AD) of Childebert, King of the Franks (c425 – 483 AD) and was his consort (c450 – c478 AD). Queen Amalaberga was the mother of Sigebert the Lame (c453 AD – 506), King of the Franks at Cologne.

Amalaberga of Thuringia – (c490 AD – after 532)
Ostrogothic queen consort
Amalaberga was the niece of Theodoric I of the Ostrogoths, King of Italy (493 AD – 526), being the daughter of Amalafrida, the sister of Theodoric, by her first husband, whose identity remains unknown. She was the stepdaughter of thrasmundus, King of the Vandals and was married to Herminifredus, King of Thuringia (c480 AD – 532), who shared the kingdom with his brothers Berthacharius and Baderic.
The queen taunted her husband as a minor ruler by only setting a third of the table for him at supper. She bore Herminifredus, whom she survived as Dowager Queen of Thuringia, two children, Amalafridas (c515 – c580) who spent some time at the Byzantine court in Byzantium, and was married to a Bavarian princess of the Agilolfing dynasty, and Rodelinda who became the first wife of Audoin (c505 – c565), King of Lombardy, and mother of his successor King Alboin (c565 – 572). Through her daughter Queen Amalaberga was the ancestress of the Merovingian dukes of Friuli in Lombardy.

Amalafrida – (c463 AD – 525)
Germanic Ostrogothic princess
The daughter of King Theudemir and his wife or concubine Erilieva, she was a descendant of the Ostrogothic prince Achiulf (living c350 AD) and was the younger sister of Theodoric I the Great of the Ostrogoths, King of Italy (493 AD – 526).  She was the aunt of Amalasuntha and of Ostrogotha Areagni, the wife of Sigismund, King of Burgundy. She was the mother to Theodehadus (c485 – 536), who succeeded as King of Italy (535 – 536), and Amalaberga, the wife of Herminifredus, King of Thuringia by an unknown first husband. At the time of this marriage (c480 AD) her brother sent Amalafrida a guard of one thousand noble Goths, each of whom was accompanied by five armed followers, as her escort. She is perhaps to be identified with the unnamed sister of Theodoric whom John of Antioch recorded as a companion of the Empress Ariadne, and was sent by the Emperor Zeno to prevent her brother from attacking Constantinople (487 AD). Amalafrida and her mother were present at the siege of Verona (493 AD).
After becoming a widow Amalafrida was remarried (c500) to Thrasamundus, King of the Vandals (496 AD – 523) and became his queen consort. This marriage remained childless. With the death of Thrasamundus, she indignantly opposed the pro-Roman policy pursued by his successor Hilderic with the Emperor Justin I, which she considered an affront to the dignity of the Ostrogoths. As a result the king ordered the arrest of all the Ostrogoths in the queen dowager’s entourage and had them massacred. Soon afterwards Amalafrida fled for safety to the barbarian tribes of Byzacium. She was captured and arrested near Capsa, and was held in captivity there until her death. She was probably murdered. With her death her partisans opposed Hilderic and brought about his deposition (531).

Amalasuntha – (498 AD – 535)
Ostrogothic queen and ruler
Amalsuntha was the only surviving legitimate child of Theodoric I the Great, Ostrogothic king of Italy (493 AD – 526). Her mother, Theodoric’s second wife, was Audofleda, the sister of Clovis I, first Christian Merovingian king of France. Carefully educated, she was able to speak fluently in Greek and Latin, and was married (515) to Eutharicus Cilliga, an Ostrogothic noble and patrician, to whom she bore two children before his death (522).
With her father’s death Amalasuntha was left the guardian of her son Athalaric (518 – 534), and was appointed regent of Italy till his majority. Their daughter Matasuntha became successively the wife of the Gothic king Vitigisd, and then of the Byzantine prince Germanus the elder. As ruler she made conciliatory gestures towards the Roman senate, appointing pro-Roman ministers and favoured the Christians, but her relationship with her son became troubled, and the Goths themselves resented being ruled by a woman. A coup at Ravenna (527) saw Amalasuntha lose the custody of her son, but eventually regained control of the situation with the help of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, and successfully liquidated her three chief enemies amongst the Gothic faction at court.
When Athalaric died without an heir (Oct, 534) she married his successor Theodehadus, apparently on the understanding that she would rule, with the king remaining a figurehead, but the Goths refused to countenance this, and she was removed from court and imprisoned on a small island of Lake Bolsena. Theodehadus had Amalasuntha strangled in her bath (April 5, 535) by kinsmen of thise Goths she had previously executed. Her death cited the beginning of the Gothic wars.

Amalburga of Brescia – (c795 – 861) 
Carolingian abbess
Amalburga was almost certainly of patrician ancestry. Becoming a nun, she had succeeded Eremburga as abbess of San Salvatore, Brescia by 833, when the emperor Lothair I issued a decree granting free judgement concerning the monastery’s territory to the abbess, and appointed two abbots to assure that this right was observed. Lothair’s daughter Gisela was appointed rectrix of the abbey. His son the Emperor Louis II (855 – 875) issued three charters in favour of Amalburga. One document granted her the right to sell whatever she wished without the burden of paying tolls. With Amalburga’s death, the Imperial princess Gisela was appointed as her successor.

Amalburga of Maubeuge – (c634 – c690)
Carolingian nun and saint
Amalburga was born in Brabant, the daughter of Grimoald II (614 – 662), Duke of Austrasia, and the granddaughter of Pepin I of Landen, Duke of Austrasia. She was married firstly to an Austrasian lord named Theodoric, to whom she bore a daughter, Pharailde (died c735), who became a nun at Ghent. With Theodoric’s death she became the wife of Count Witger of Lorraine (died c680), to whom she bore several children,

• St Emebert (c656 – c713). He was Bishop of Cambrai and Arras.
• Ermelinda. She died young.
• St Reinilda (c659 – c680).
• Amalburga (c661 – Dec 12, c671). She was venerated as a saint.
• St Gudula (c663 – 712).
• St Gengulf (Jingo).

They later separated to join the religious life. Count Witbert retired to the Abbey of Lobbes to become a monk, whilst Amalburga became a Benedictine nun, being professed by Bishop Aubert of Cambrai. She was appointed as Abbess of Maubeuge in Flanders, and was a famous ascetic. Amalburga died (June 10, c690) and was venerated as a saint (July 10). She was buried firstly at Binche in Hainault, but her remains were later removed and interred with those of Witger at Lobbes.

Amalburga of Munsterbilzen – (c740 – 795)
Carolingian nun and saint
Amalburga fled her home to avoid an unwanted marriage, and was advised to become a nun at the abbey of Munsterbilzen. She became abbess (c772) as she was represented in religious art with a pastoral staff, the symbol of abbatial office. She died at Bilsen and was interred at the estate of Temsche on the Escaut River, which had been her personal property. Her remains were later translated to the Abbey of St Peter at Mont Blondin, near Ghent (870), during the reign of Count Baldwin I.
Amalburga was venerated as a saint (Dec 12). Various romantic legends identify Amalburga’s unwanted suitor as either Charles Martel (676 – 737), or the young Charlemagne (742 – 814) in the story recorded by Baldwin of Ninove, who makes her spiritual adviser to be St Willibrord (who actually lived much earlier). However all of these rather fanciful tales are completely spurious.

Amalia, Narcisa – (1852 – 1924)
Brazilian poet and essayist
Narcisa Amalia was born in Sao Joao da Barra, and later resided in Resende and Rio de Janeiro. Narcisa published two collections of verse, Nebulosas (Starry Skies) (1872), and, Flores do Campo (Flowers of the Field) (1874).

Amalia of Bavaria – (1490 – 1525)
German duchess consort of Pomerania-Wolgast (1523 – 1525)
Princess Amalia was born (July 25, 1490), the second daughter of Philip (1448 – 1508), Elector Palatine of Bavaria and his wife Margaret, the daughter of Ludwig IX (1417 – 1479), Duke of Bavaria-Landshut. Amalia was married (1513) to Prince George of Pomerania (1493 – 1531), who later succeeded to the ducal throne as Duke George I (1523). Duchess Amalia died (Jan 6, 1525) aged thirty-four. Her three children were,

• Boleslav XI (1514 – before 1531). He was nominally associated with his father as ruler, but predeceased him.
• Philip I (1515 – 1560). He succeeded his father as Duke of Pomerania-Wolgast (1531 – 1560) and left issue.
• Princess Anna Margaret of Pomerania-Wolgast (1518 – 1569). She became the wife of Ernst (1518 – 1567), Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen.

Amalia of Brunswick – (1739 – 1807) 
German ruler and patron
Princess Amalia was born (Oct 24, 1739) at Wolfenbuttel, the daughter of Charles I, Duke of Brunswick, and his wife Charlotte Philippina, the sister of Frederick II the Great, King of Prussia (1740 – 1786). Amalia was married (1756) to Ernst Augustus II, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, but was widowed less than two years larer (1758), leaving her to rule Weimar as regent for her infant son Charles Augustus (1757 – 1828), aged only nineteen. The duchess ruled Weimar for seventeen years (1758 – 1775) with great skill and prudence. During the Seven Years’ War (1756 – 1763) she was forced to fight against her uncle, King Frederick, but he understood her position, and treated her with respect.
Once peace was restored, Anna devoted herself to the education of her children and the governance of the affairs of the duchy. She founded the Weimar Museum and supported the revision of the University of Jena. When her son came of age to assume control of the government (1775), the duchess withdrew from public life, becoming a notable patron of literature and the arts. Her court at Weimar attracted the leading literary figures in Germany, such as Johann Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Gottfried von Herder, Wieland and Johann Karl August Musaeus. Charlotte von Stein, the maid-of-honour to Amalia, attracted Goethe’s attention, and was the inspiration for much of his poetry, whilst several of his plays notably Die Geschiest (1776) and Der Triumph der Empfindsamkeit (1777/78) were performed before Duchess Amalia and her court. Duchess Amalia died (April 10, 1807) aged sixty-seven, at Weimar.

Amalia of Cleves – (1517 – 1586)
Flemish princess
Princess Amalia was born (Nov 14, 1517) at Schwanenberg Castle, Dusseldorf, the third and youngest daughter of Duke Johann III of Cleves, and his wife Maria, the daughter and heiress of Wilhelm III, Duke of Juliers (Julich) and Berg. She was the sister to Duke Wilhelm V (1539 – 1592), and of of Anne of Cleves (Anna), the fourth wife (1540) of Henry VIII of England. Their eldest sister Sibylla was the wife of the Elector of Saxony. Princess Amalia was proposed as a bride for Henry VIII of England, together with her elder sister Anna. Nicholas Wotton and Robert Barnes, the well known Protestant figure, were sent to the court to arrange the marriage with one of the sisters. The miniature portraits of both sisters were painted by the king’s painter, Hans Holbein, as were companion full length portraits but both those of Amalia have been lost or remain unidentified, and her elder sister became the preferred bride. She was said to have been flaxen haired.
There were some tentative negotiations for Amalia concerning a double alliance with the house of Saxony. It was proposed that Amalia should be married to Duke Johann Ernst of Saxe-Coburg, the half-brother of her brother-in-law, Johann Friedrich I of Saxony, who was several years her junior, but this plan came to nothing, and the Duke was married instead (1542) to Duchess Catharina of Brunswick-Grubenhagen instead. Amalia remained unmarried and attached to the court of her brother and his wife, Maria of Austria in Dusseldorf. She remained unmarried and was mentioned in the will of her sister Anne who bequeathed her some jewels (1557). She was portrayed by actress Carol Macready in the English BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) series The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970) which starred Keith Michell as the king. Her sister Anne was played by Elvi Hale. Princess Amalia died (March 1, 1586) aged sixty-eight.

Amalia of Leuchtenburg – (1812 – 1873)
Empress consort of Brazil (1829 – 1831)
Born Princess Amelie Auguste Eugenie Napoleone, at Milan, Lombardy, in Italy, she was the daughter of Eugene de Beauharnais, Viceroy of Lombardy, and his wife Augusta Amalia of Bavaria. Thus she was granddaughter to the empress Josephine, and step-grandduaghter to the emperor Napoleon I. When her father was granted the hereditary duchy of Leuchtenburg, Amalia formally received the title of princess of Leuchtenburg, with the qulification of ‘Serene Highness’ (1817).
Amalia was married to Emperor Pedro I as his second wife, by proxy in Munich, Bavaria, before sailing to South America, where they were married in person in Rio de Janeiro (1829). Possessed of intelligence and considerable personal charm, despite her husband’s violent temper and loose morals, the empress, by the exercise of prudent tact and patience, was able to rid the palace of Pedro’s reigning mistress Domitilia de Santos, and eventually won his affection and love. With Pedro’s abdication (1831), the Imperial couple retired to Portugal, where Pedro died (1834).
Her stepdaughter, Queen Maria II, only seven years her junior, remained much under her influence, and it was the empress who arranged for Maria to marry, as her first husband, her own brother Augustus. Amalia survived her husband almost forty years as Dowager Empress of Brazil (1834 – 1873). Empress Amalia died (Jan 26, 1873) aged seventy, in Lisbon, Estramadura.

Amalia of Prussia – (1723 – 1787)
Prussian princess and composer
Princess Anna Amalia was the daughter of King Frederick William I, and his wife Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, sister of George I, King of England. Suffering an unhappy childhood with her siblings, with her father’s death (1740), Amalia and her elder sister Louisa Ulrica then resided with their widowed mother at the Palace of Monbijou. Prospective marriages with Peter III of Russia and Charles Theodore, Duke of Deux-Ponts-Neuburg were refused by her brother Frederick the Great. Not long after this, Amalia was involved in a love affair, though whether real or imagined is uncertain, with one of Frederick’s officers, Baron von Trenck. The king put an end to this affair by having the officer arrested after the battle of Soor (1745).
The king then ordered that Amalia should remain unmarried, so he would not have to provide her with a dowry, and appointed her (1756) as abbess of the Protestant abbey of Quedlinburg. Thereafter she devoted her life to the arts. She was the author of the oratorio, Le Mort de Jesus, and of several military marches. Her impressive manuscript collection, the Amalienbiblotek resides in Berlin. Princess Amalia died (Sept 30, 1787) aged sixty-three, in Berlin.

Amalia of Solms-Braunsfels – (1602 – 1675)
Dutch princess
Countess Amalia was born at Braunsfels, the daughter of Johann Albert I, Count of Solms-Braunsfels, and his first wife Countess Agnes of Sayn-Wittgenstein. Brough up in genteel poverty, Amalia served as lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, wife of Frederick V of the Palatine, with whose court she fled to Prague in Bohemia (1620). Countess Amalia was married (1625) to her cousin, Prince Frederick Henry of Orange (1584 – 1647), to whom she bore a son and heir, Prince William II (1626 – 1650) and four surviving daughters.
Possessed of a mercenary and acquisitive nature, Amalia assisted her husband in pursuing peace with Spain, though she was known to have actively resented his pro-French policy. With the death of her daughter-in-law, Mary Stuart (1660), Princess Amalia became official guardian of her grandson, William III till 1672. She tried unsuccessfully to arrange the marriage of her daughter Henrietta Catharine with Charles II of England, but managed to secure the marriage of her daughter Louisa Henrietta with Frederick William of Brandenburg. Princess Amalia died (Sept 8, 1675) at The Hague.

Amalia Agnes of Reuss-Schleiz – (1667 – 1729)
German duchess of Saxe-Weissenfels
Princess Amalia Agnes was born (Aug 11, 1667) the fourth daughter of Heinrich I (1639 – 1692), Count of Reuss-Schleiz, and his first wife Countess Esther von Hardegg (1634 – 1676), the daughter of Count Julius II von Hardegg. Countess Amalia Agnes was married firstly (1682) to Balthasar Erdmann, Count von Promnitz-Pless (1659 – 1703). By this marriage she was the mother of two sons,

• Count Erdmann II von Promnitz-Sorau (1683 – 1745). He was married twice, his first wife being Princess Anna Maria of Saxe-Weissenfels, the niece of his mother’s second husband. His second wife was Countess Henrietta Eleonore of Reuss-Lobenstein, a connection of his mother’s.
• Count Friedrich von Promnitz-Halbau (c1687 – 1712). He was married and left issue.

With the death of her first husband Amalia Agnes became the Dowager Countess von Promnitz-Pless (1703 – 1711). The countess remarried secondly (1711) to Friedrich (1673 – 1715), Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, almost a decade her junior, a non-reigning prince of that family, the marriage being arranged for dynastic reasons. This marriage remained childless. She survived Friedrich as the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Weissenfels (1715 – 1729). Duchess Amalia Agnes died (Oct 15, 1729) aged sixty-two.

Amalia Caroline Dorothea Louisa – (1772 – 1773)
German princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel
Princess Amalia was born (Nov 22, 1772) the younger daughter of Karl II Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel (1780 – 1806) and his wife Augusta Charlotte of Great Britain, the granddaughter of George II (1727 – 1760) and sister of George III (1760 – 1820). Her elder sister Caroline was the wife of George IV (1820 – 1830). Princess Amalia died (April 2, 1773) aged under five months.

Amalia Elisabeth of Hanau – (1602 – 1651)
German princess and ruler
Countess Amalia Elisabeth was the daughter of Philip Ludwig II, Count von Hanau-Munzenburg and his wife Catherine Belgica von Nassau, daughter of William I ‘the Silent.’ She married (1619) William V, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, to whom she bore fourteen children, of whom only four survived infancy. An extremely capable and energetic woman, with the early death of her husband (1637), the landgravine ruled the principality of Kassel as regent for her son William VI (1629 – 1663).
An able and successful regent during her son’s minority, it was largely due to Amalia Elisabeth’s exertions and political adroitness that the landgraviate of Hesse emerged united and unscathed from the Thirty Years’ War.’ She handed over the reigns of government when her son came of legal age (1645). Of her three surviving daughters, Amelia (Emilie) became the wife of the rich French peer, Henri Charles de La Tremoille, Prince de Tarente, Charlotte (1627 – 1686) became the wife of the elector Palatine Charles Louis I, and Elisabeth (1634 – 1688) was appointed as Protestant abbess at Herford, in Westphalia. Amalia Elisabeth was the maternal grandmother of Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatine, Duchesse d’Orleans (1652 – 1722), the mother of Philippe II d’Orleans, Regent of France (1715 – 1723). Landgravine Amalia Elisabeth died (Aug 8, 1651) aged forty-nine.

Amalia Frederica of Hesse – (1754 – 1832)
German princess, traveller, and letter writer
Princess Amalia Frederica was born (June 20, 1754) at Prenzlau, the third daughter of Louis IX (1719 – 1790), Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (1768 – 1790) and his first Caroline of Zweibrucken-Birkenfeld, the daughter of Christian III, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken-Birkenfeld (1717 – 1735). She was the sister of Ludwig I, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt and the Rhine (1806 – 1830) and of Frederica Louisa was the wife of Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia (1786 – 1797).
Princess Amalia was married (1774) to Karl Ludwig, the hereditary Prince of Baden, eldest son and heir of Grand Duke Karl Friedrich of Baden (1806 – 1811) and was the Herditary Princess (1774 – 1801). She never became grand duchess as her husband, a Field-Marshal with the Imperial army, predeceased his father. Amalia survived Karl Ludwig for three decades as the Dowager Hereditary Princess (1801 – 1832) and during the reign of her son (1811 – 1818) she was honoured with all the honours due to the mother of the Grand Duke.Some of her correspondence has survived as has her portrait by G.H. Schroder (1811). Princess Amalia Frederica died (July 21, 1832) aged seventy-eight, at Castle Bruchsal. Her children were,

• Princess Catherine of Baden (1776 – 1823). She remained unmarried and became a canoness at Quedlinburg Abbey.
• Princess Caroline of Baden (1776 – 1841). A twin with Catherine she became the second wife of Maximilian I Joseph (1756 – 1825), King of Bavaria (1806 – 1825) and left issue.
• Princess Louise of Baden (1779 – 1826). She became the wife of Alexander I (1777 – 1825), Tsar of Russia, as Elizabeth Akexandrovna, and left issue.
• Princess Frederica of Baden (1781 – 1826) She was married to Gustav IV Adolf (1778 – 1837), King of Sweden (1792 – 1809) and left issue.
• Princess Maria Elisabeth of Baden (1782 – 1808). She became the wife of Wilhelm I (1771 – 1815), Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel (1806 – 1815) but left no surviving issue.
• Prince Karl Friedrich of Baden (1784 – 1785). He died in infancy.
• Karl (1786 – 1818). He succeeded his grandfather as the second reigning Grand Duke of Baden (1811 – 1818) and was married and left issue.
• Princess Wilhelmina of Baden (1788 – 1836). She became the wife of Ludwig II (1777 – 1848), Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine (1830 – 1848) and left issue.

Amalia Maria Frederica Augusta – (1818 – 1875)
Queen consort of Greece (1836 – 1862)
HGDH (Her Grand Ducal Highness) Princess Amalia of Oldenburg was born (Dec 21, 1818) the daughter of Augustus I, Grand Duke of Oldenburg and his wife Adelaide of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg. Amalia became the wife (1836) of Otho I (1815 – 1867), the Bavarian born elected King of Greece (1832 – 1862). The marriage was happy despite the differences in religion, as the king was Roman Catholic and Queen Amalia remained Protestant, but was childless. Nevertheless she was much angered by Otho’s brief flirtation with the adventuress Lola Montez.
Queen Amalia made herself unpopular with her Greek subjects by what was viewed as her interference in political affairs. Such was the detestation of her influence over the king and government that when a student, Aristidios Dosios, tried to assassinate her (Sept, 1861), he was hailed as a national hero. In the following year whilst the king and queen were in the Peloponese, General Theodoros Grivas, backed with troops from Akarnarnia, declared Otho to be deposed. A provincial government was then established in Athens. The king and queen returned by sea to Peiraeus, and left Greece aboard a British warship the following day (Oct 24, 1862). They then settled in Bamberg, Bavaria, where King Otho later died.
Amalia survived her husband as Queen Dowager of Greece in exile (1867 – 1875). Queen Amalia died (May 20, 1875) aged fifty-six. Her death was said to have been caused by the shock she received when King Ludwig II made an ungallant remark concerning her corpulence.

Amalia Therese Louise of Wurttemburg – (1799 – 1848)
Duchess consort of Saxe-Altenburg – (1834 – 1848)
Princess Amalia was born (June 28, 1799) at Wallisfurth, the second daughter of Duke Ludwig of Wurttemburg (1756 – 1817) and his second wife Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg, the daughter of Prince Karl of Nassau-Weilburg. Through her mother Princess Amalia was a descendant of George II, King of England (1727 – 1760) and his wife Caroline of Ansbach, through their eldest daughter Anne, Princess Royal, the wife of William IV of Orange. She was sister to Duke Alexander of Wurttemburg and was the paternal great-aunt of Mary of Teck, consort of King George V of England (1910 – 1936). She was married (1817) to Joseph (1789 – 1868), the reigning Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1834 – 1848). Duchess Amalia died (Nov 28, 1848) aged forty-nine, at Altenburg in Saxony. With her death Duke Joseph abdicated in favour of his younger brother George (1848 – 1853). Her four daughters were,

• Duchess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg (1818 – 1907). She became the wife of George V (1819 – 1878), King of Hanover (1851 – 1866) and left issue.
• Duchess Therese of Saxe-Altenburg (1823 – 1915). She remained unmarried.
• Duchess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg (1826 – 1896). She became the wife of Peter II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg (1853 – 1900) and left issue.
• Duchess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg (1830 – 1911). She became the wife of the Russian Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievitch (died 1892), a younger son of Tsar Nicholas I Romanov
  (1825 – 1855) and became the Grand Duchess Alexandra Josipovna, and left issue.

Amalrada of Gueldres (Almaraide) – (c962 – 1001)
Flemish mediaeval noblewoman
Countess Amalrada was the daughter of Megingaud, Count of Gueldres, and his wife Gerberga of Lorraine, who was the granddaughter of Charles III the Simple, the Carolingian king of France (879 – 923), and a descendant of Charlemagne. Amalrada was the great-niece of Louis IV Outremer, King of France (936 – 954), and was sister to two saints, Adelaide, Abbess of Willich, and Bertrada, Abbess of Cologne.
Amalrada became the first wife (before 980) of Otto I (c952 – 1013), Count of Chiny, Warcq, and Labengau, the son of Count Arnold I of Lahngau. Some genealogies make Otto’s second wife, Ermengarde of Namur (c993 – after 1022), the great-granddaughter of King Louis IV, the mother of his children, but this is incorrect. Through her elder son Countess Amalrada was the ancestress to most of the royal and aristocratic families of Europe. Her three children included Louis I (c981 – 1025), Count of Ivoix in Luxemburg and succeeded his father as Count of Chiny (1013 – 1025). He was killed in battle and left descendants.

Amalteo, Quintilia – (c1572 – after 1611)
Italian painter
Quintilia Amalteo was the granddaughter of the Venetian master Il Pordenone (1483 – 1539), and was taught to paint in the style of her father, who arranged her marriage with the painter Guiseppe Moretto. Amalteo gained something of a reputation for her self as a professional portraitist.

Amalthea – (fl. c10 BC – c40 AD)
Roman seeress
Amalthea was trained as a priestess and served as the Sibyl of Cumae during the reigns of the emperors Augustus and Tiberius.

Amanishakhete – (c70 – after 19 BC) 
Ethiopian ruler of Kush in the Sudan
The original ‘Queen Candace’ mentioned in biblical sources. Candace comes from the Ethiopian title ‘Kotoke’ which translates from Meroitic inscriptions as ‘queen,’ and which was long thought to be a personal name. A one-eyed, masculine woman, she and her son fought against the Roman army of C. Petronius, the governor of Egypt.
The queen mother established her base in the northern stronghold at Napata. She sent envoys to treat for peace, but Petronius refused her terms, and the war continued. The queen returned with force to attack the town of Primis, but Petronius succeeded in relieving the town and strengthening its fortifications, with the result that the queen gave up the fight, and re-opened negotiations. Ethiopian envoys were sent to the court of the Emperor Augustus at Samos (21 – 20 BC) and obtained peace terms. Queen Amanishakhete may have reunited the two kingdoms of Napata and Merae before her death.

Amann, Betty – (1905 – 1990)
German-American actress
Betty Amann was born (March 5, 1905) in Pirmasens, Bavaria, Germany. She began her film career in Germany, and then made films in Britain and in Hollywood. She first appeared in America in The Kick Off (1928) and she then worked with Alfred Hitchcock in England and appeared in The Perfect Lady (1931). Other credits included In Old Mexico (1939) and Isle of Forgotten Sins (1944). She later received an award for her contribution to German film (1987). Betty Amann died (Aug 3, 1990) aged eighty-five, in Connecticut.

Amaral, Tarsila do – (1886 – 1973)
Brazilian painter and artist
Amaral was born (Sept 1, 1886) in Fazenda Sao Bernardo, Capivari, near Sao Paulo, the daughter of Jose Estanislau do Amaral. She studied as a painter and was married (1906) to Andre Teixeira Pinto. She later participated in the Semana de Arte Moderna (Week of Modern Art) (1922) and attended the Exposition in Paris (1926).
Tarsila do Amaral was a member of the famous ‘Grupo dos Cinco’ (Group of Five) which included Menotti del Picchia and Oswalde de Andrade. Her works included her portrait of Oswald de Andrade (1922), Abaporu (man who eats) (1928), a present for Oswald de Andrade, and Operarios (1933). Tarsila do Amaral died (Jan 17, 1973) aged eighty-six, in Sao Paulo.

Amastris – (c341 – 289 BC)
Queen of Thrace
Sometimes called Amastrine, she was the daughter of the Persian prince Pharnakes, and his wife, who was a sister to King Darius III (336 – 330 BC). Captured by the forces of Alexander the Great at Issus (333 BC), she was raised in the household of the Persian queen mother, Sisygambis, at Susa. Amastris was married firstly to the Macedonian general Craterus (c360 – 323 BC), and secondly (322 BC) to Dionysius, tyrant of Herakleia in Bithynia, Asia Minor, who took the title of king (306 BC), and to whom she bore several sons. Dionysius later choked to death, it was said on his own fat (c303 BC), and the queen ruled Herakleia as regent for her sons. She then remarried (302 BC) to the Macedonian general Lysimachus (c355 – 281 BC).
This marriage provided Lysimachus with much prestige and after the battle of Ipsus (301 BC), he received the greater part of Asia Minor and proclaimed himself king of Thrace. He soon decided to make a greater political alliance by marrying Arsinoe II (q.v.), the daughter of Ptolemy I of Egypt (299 BC). Queen Amastris was divorced and retired to Herakleia, which Lysimachus restored to her as compensation. There, Amastris made herself a principality, which included Tios and Ciceros, and founded the city of Amastris, which was named in her honour.
Amastris resided at Herakleia peacefully for ten years, until her sons connived to arrange her death by drowning (289 BC), being impatient to inherit their patrimony. Lysimachus, under guise of vengeance for the death of the queen mother, had her sons treacherously put to death, and then annexed Herakleia, which isolated Bithynia and improved his trading relations, and finally made a gift of the province to his wife Arsinoe II.

Amat-Mamu – (fl. c1780 – c1740 BC)
Assyrian scribe
Amat-Mamu formed part of the official household of the royal women cloistered as naditu priestesses of the god Shamash at Sippar. Her period in office lasted throughout the reigns of three kings, Hammurabi, Samsu-Iluna and Abi-Esuh. Eristi-Aya, the daughter of Zimri Lim, King of Mari and his wife Shibtu were amongst those ladies that Amat-Mamu served with devotion for decades.

Amat-Shamash – (fl. c1780 – c1770 BC)
Assyrian princess
Amat-Shamash was the daughter of Samu-addu, King of Karana. Her sister Iltani was the wife of Aqba-Hammu, king of Karana. Amat-Shamash never married and was appointed to serve as cloistered priestess (naditum), of the cult of the god Shamash at the city of Sippar for several decades. Erist-Aya, the daughter of Zimri-Lim, king of Mari served with Amat-Shamash during this period. The priestess formed part of the royal cult and prayed continuously for the well being and success of the king.

Amaya, Carmen – (1913 – 1963)
Spanish dancer
Carmen Amaya was born in Barcelona in Aragon, the daughter of a gypsy family. She appeared at the Barcelona International Exposition (1919), and later performed at Buenos Aires in Argentina, whewre the Amai Theatre was built especially for her. She was awarded the Grand Cross of Isabella in recognition of her work, just prior to her early death.

Ambibula, Eggia – (fl. c70 – c100 AD)
Roman patrician and Imperial progenatrix
Eggia Ambibula was the sister or daughter of Gaius Eggius Ambibulus Pomponius Longinus Cassianus L. Maecius Postumus, the Imperial legate of Macedonia. She became the wife of Publius Calvisius Ruso Julius Frontinus, consul suffect (79 AD) and Imperial legate in Cappodocia. Ambibula was the mother of Publius Calvisius Tullus Ruso, consul (109 AD) and of Lucius Catilius Severus Julianus Claudius Reginus, consul (120 AD), thus becoming the great-grandmother of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161 – 180 AD).

Ambrose, Alice – (1906 – 2001)
American philosopher and logician
Ambrose was born (Nov 25, 1906) in Lexington, Illinois, the daughter of a florist, and studied philosophy and mathematics at Millikin University. She later studied the University of Wisconsin and at Cambridge in England under Wittgenstein and G.E. Moore, and her article ‘Finitism in Mathematics’ was published in the philosophical journal Mind (1935). She later co-edited Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy and Language (1972) with her husband Morris Laserowitz, a fellow academic and scholar.
Ambrose later taught at Smith College in Northamptonshire, Massachusetts as a professor (1943 – 1964) and was appointed to the chair of philosophy (1964 – 1972) which she held until her retirement. Ambrose was a member of the American Philosophical Association and the Association for Symbolic Logic and was the editor of the Journal of Symbolic Logic (1953 – 1968). Her published works included Essays in Analysis (1966) and edited Philosophical Theories (1976). Alice Ambrose died (Jan 25, 2001) aged ninety-four.

Amelia of Great Britain – (1783 – 1810)
British Hanoverian princess
Princess Amelia was born at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, the youngest child of King George III, and his wife Charlotte Sophia, daughter of Karl Ludwig, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Always delicate she was the favourite child of her doting father, she was attractive like her elder sisters, and was an accomplished pianist. Her health began to fail in 1798, and she was later sent to live at Weymouth with her governess for the benefit of her health. It was there that she formed a romantic attachment (1801) with General Charles Fitzroy (1762 – 1831).
The affair developed and was eventually noticed by Queen Charlotte and members of the court. It is thought that the couple may have married secretly and her letters appear to refer to a child that died in infancy. From 1808 she was an invalid, subject to recurring attacks of erysipelas, though Fitzroy managed to visit her secretly whilst she was gravely ill. On her deathbed the princess sent her father a mourning ring, set in crystal and diamonds, with a lock of her hair and the inscription ‘Remember me’ inscribed upon it. Princess Amelia died (Nov 2, 1810) aged twenty-seven, at Augusta Lodge, at Windsor Castle. The grief-stricken king could not bear her loss and he became intirely insane (1811), remaining so until his own death (1820).

Amelia Sophia Eleanora – (1711 – 1786)                           
British Hanoverian princess
Princess Amelia was born at Herrenhausen, Germany, the second daughter of King George II (1727 – 1760) and his wife Caroline, the daughter of Johann George, Margrave of Ansbach, and stepdaughter of Johann IV, Elector of Saxony (1691 – 1694). Brought to England in 1714, until 1733 it was thought that Amelia would marry her cousin Frederick II of Prussia, but this marriage never eventuated.
Princess Amelia remained unmarried, and held her own small court at Bath, and she is supposed to have carried on a clandestine affair with the Duke of Grafton. The princess held the rangerships of Richmond Park and in her last years resided at Cavendish Square, London, or at Gunnersbury. Princess Amelia died (Oct 31, 1786), and was buried in the Chapel of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey, London.

Ameline – (fl. 1313 – 1325)
French physician
Ameline was established in her practice on the rue Guillaume Poree in Paris in 1313. Ten years later however, in 1324 – 1325 Ameline was indicted in the courts on a charge of practising her profession illegally. The verdict of the case remains unknown.

Amery, Florence – (c1890 – 1975)
British diarist and letter
She was born Adeliza Florence Hamar Greenwood. Florence was married to the Conservative Member of Parliament Leopold Amery (1873 – 1955).

Ames, Adrienne – (1907 – 1947)
American actress
She was born Adrienne Ruth McClure (Aug 3, 1907). Her third husband (1934 – 1937) was the actor Bruce Cabot (1907 – 1972). Adrienne Ames appeared in films such as The Death Kiss (1932), From Hell to Heaven (1933), Ladies Love Danger (1935) and The Zero Hour (1939). Adrienne Ames died (May 31, 1947) aged thirty-nine.

Ames, Blanche Ames – (1878 – 1969)
American feminist, suffragist campaigner, and botanical illustrator
Blanche Ames was born (Feb 18, 1878) in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Adelbert Ames, a Civil War general. She received her education at the Rogers Hall School in Lowell, and then attended Smith College. She was married (1900) to Oakes Ames, a botanical instructor attached to Harvard University. The couple had four children.
With her husband she collaborated to produce an extensive reseach and illustration of the world’s orchids. Blanche produced the drawings and sketches of hundreds of new species of the genus, which were published in the seven volume study entitled, Orchidaceae: Illustrations and Studies of the Family Orchideceae (1905 – 1922). She accompanied her husband on his various travels throughout the world collecting specimens, and together they produced the Ames Charts, which used water colours produced by Blanche to portray the phylogenetic relationships which existed between the more important plants.
Blanche Ames was always a supporter of suffrage for women, as was her husband, and she became an officer of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage League. She was a co-founder of the Birth Control League of Massachusetts (BCLM) (1916), using her social position to enlist the help of important and prominent people, and even entered in public debate with the leaders of the Roman Catholic church in the USA on the matter. Ames later resigned from this organization in protest (1935).
Ames produced a biography of her father entitled Adelbert Ames: Broken Oaths and Reconstruction in Mississippi, 1835 – 1933 (1964). Her own oil portrait of General Ames is preserved at the state capital in Jackson, Mississippi. Others of her paintings were preserved in collections kept at Dartmouth College and Columbia University. Blanche Ames died (March 1, 1969) aged ninety-one, at Borderland.

Ames, Blanche Butler – (1847 – 1939)
American letter writer
Blanche Butlerwas the wife (1870) of Adelbert Ames, the Governor of Mississippi. Blanche Ames later organized and compiled (1935) the private correspondence of herself and her husband, which included her own love letters. This was published in Massachusetts after her death in the two volume work Chronicles of the Nineteenth Century: Family Letters of Blanche and Adelbert Ames (1957).

Ames, Eleanor Maria Easterbrook – (1831 – 1908)
American author
Born (Oct 7, 1831) at Warren, Rhode Island, she used the pseudonym ‘Eleanor Kirk.’ She was the author of Information for Authors (1888).

Ames, Jennifer    see    Greig, Maysie Coucher

Ames, Jessie Daniel – (1883 – 1972)
American anti-lynching reformer and suffrage campaigner
Jessie Daniel was born (Nov 2, 1883) in Palestine, Texas, the daughter of a telegraph operator and a schoolteacher. She was married (1905) to an army physician, Roger Post Ames, to whom she bore two children, but the union remained uncongenial, and the couple resided much apart. Jessie Ames served (1924 – 1929) as director of the Texas council of the Altanta-based Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC), and then founded (1930) and directed the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (ASWPL) until it was eventually dissolved (1942) due to the general decrease in numbers of lynchings. Jessie Daniel Ames died (Feb 21, 1972) aged eighty-eight, in Austin, Texas.

Ames, Louise Bates – (1908 – 1996)
American child psychologist and academic
Louise Ames was born (Oct 29, 1908) in Portland, Maine, and graduated from the universities of Maine and Yale, joining the staff of Yale as a research assistant to the famous psycholgist Arnold Gesell (1936) Ames was later appointed as an intructor and assistsnt professor at the School of Medicine there. Ames served as curator of Yale Films on Child Development (1944 – 1950) and then joined with fellow psyshologists Frances Ilg and Janet Rodell to establish the Gesell Institute (1950).
Ames produced books such as Infant and the Child in the Culture of Today and The Child from Five to Ten, hosted a weekly television advice to parents program and had her own syndicated newspaper column. Her work was publicly   recognized and she received the Bruno Blopfer Distinguished Contributions Award and the University of Maine Alumni Career Award, as well as being cited by the influential Ladies Home Journal as amongst the group the most noteworthy of contemporary American women (1983). Ames retired in 1993. Louise Bates Ames died of cancer (Oct 31, 1996) aged eighty-eight, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Ames, Marion Patterson – (1917 – 1992)
American legal reformer
Marion Patterson was born in Manhattan, New York. She graduated firstly from Barnard College (1937) and then from Fordham Law School (1943). As a practising lawyer Ames specialized in labor laws and trusts. She married fellow lawyer George Ames, a partner in the law firm of Lazard Freres and Company. Ames served as president of the State League of Women Voters, and worked tirelessly in advocating reform of the antiquated legal system, assisting to eliminate political corrpution and provide modern financial management.
For her efforts in this field she was honoured by The American Judicature Society and was appointed vice-Chairwoman of the State Committee for Modern Courts. And then head of the State Judicial screening Committee by Governor Nelson Rockefeller (1973). Deeply involved with such social programs like the State Association for Community Services and the Health and Welfare Network, Ames also managed to find time and energy to serve as board chiairwoman of New Rochelle College and vice-chairwoman of Barnard College, her old alma mater. Marion Patterson Ames died (Aug 14, 1992) of bone cancer in Manhattan.

Ames, Mary – (1831 – 1903)
American educator and diarist
Mary Ames worked as a teacher on Edisto Island, South Carolina, at the Freedman’s Bureau, educationg the newly freed slaves. Her letters from the period of May, 1865 till September, 1866 were published in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1906, in a volume entitled From A New England Woman’s Diary in Dixie in 1865. It was later reprinted in New York (1969).

Ames, Mary Clemmer – (1839 – 1884)
American journalist, poet and novelist
Born (May 6, 1839) she wrote a daily column for the Brooklyn Daily Union newspaper. Mary Clemmer Ames died (Aug 18, 1884) aged forty-five.

Amestris – (c513 – 424 BC)
Queen consort of Persia
Amestris was the daughter of Otanes, satrap of Dascylium and became the wife (c499 BC) of King Xerxes I (486 – 465 BC). A woman of strong and imperious character she obtained great influence over Xerxes, but did not manage to curtail his uxorious activities. At her request Xerxes caused a harem building to be erected in Persepolis which was a tier of six apartments to house the royal women, and of this smaller court Queen Amestris was sole ruler.
When she was offended by the behaviour of her daughter-in-law Artaynte, wife of her eldest son Darius, and daughter of the king’s own brother Masistes, she successfully schemed for her revenge and had Masistes, his wife and children all brutally killed (478 BC). The full story of this family vendetta was recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus. Her childless elder son Darius predeceased his father and with the death of Xerxes and the accession of her second son Artaxerxes I (465 – 424 BC) Queen Amestris retained considerable influence at the court. With her daughter Princess Amytis she pleaded successfully for the life of her son-in-law Megabyzus, who was then exiled for five years instead of being executed.
When her grandson Zopyrus was killed leading an assault upon the city of Athens, Queen Amestris caused the assassin Alcides to be crucified. Amestris survived for four decades at the court of her son as queen mother and died aged almost ninety, only a few months before the deaths of Artaxerxes and his wife Damaspia. Her children were,

• Darius (c497 – 465 BC). He was crown prince but left no issue and predeceased his father.
• Princess Amytis of Persia (c485 – c430 BC). She was the wife of Megabyzus and left issue.
• Artaxerxes I Longimanus (483 – 424 BC). He succeeded his father as King of Persia (465 – 424 BC) and left issue.
• Prince Hytaspis of Persia (c481 – after 465 BC).
• Princess Rhodogune of Persia (died after 465 BC). She died young or remained unmarried.

Amestris of Persia – (c440 – c401 BC)
Achmaenid princess
Princess Amestris was the daughter of King Darius II Nothus and his half-sister and queen Parysatis. She was named in honour of Amestris, the wife of Xerxes I. Her father caused her to be married to Terituchmes (c450 – 409 BC), satrap of Hyrcania, whose sister Statira later became the wife of her brother Artaxerxes II. The marriage appears to have remained childless and Terituchmes was instead much attached to his own sister Roxana.
Being unable to divorce Amestris Terituchmes became resolved to murder her instead. However the plot was uncovered and Terituchmes was killed instead by his own armour bearer Udiastes, at the instigation of Darius II (409 BC). Her mother Parysatis, in a cruel revenge, caused almost the complete annihilation of Terituchmes’ family. Princess Amestris died during the reign of Artaxerxes II.

Amezquita, Lucille Silvia Derbez    see    Derbez, Silvia

Amherst, Alice Margaret – (1865 – 1941)
British author
Alice Amherst was the daughter of Lord Amhert of Hackney, and was born in Norfolk. Intelligent and well read in Latin, she had availed herself of her father’s rare horticulutral library from childhood. Searching for rare gardening manuscripts at Norwich Priory and the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, she produced A History of Gardening in England (1895) based upon the earlier unfinished work of the young botanist Percy Newberry, but rewritten by Alice. After her marriage (1895) with Evelyn Cecil, Lord Rockley (1865 – 1941), with whom she travelled wideley, Alicia wrote five more horticultural works, one on gardens for children, and husband and wife worked together to save and restore the Chelsea Physic Garden.

Amherst, Elizabeth Frances – (c1716 – 1779)
British poet and naturalist
Elizabeth Amherst was the daughter of Jeffrey Amherst (1677 – 1750) or Riverhead, near sevenoaks, Kent, and his wife Elizabeth Kerrill. She was the sister to Field Marshal Jeffrey Amherst (1717 – 1797), first Lord Amherst who was the leader of the British troops when they took Montreal in Canada (1776). Elizabeth was the paternal aunt of William Pitt Amherst, the first Earl Amherst, the noted diplomat who served as ambassador to the Chinese emperor Jianqing (1816) and was Governor-General of Bengal in India (1823 – 1828).
Elizabeth became the wife of the Reverend John Thomas of Welford, Gloucestershire, later Rector of Notgrove, near Northleach in the Cotswolds. There were no children and they adopted Reverend Thomas’s nephew. Her lively but unpublished verse was preserved in the Bodleian manuscript ‘The Whims of E.A. afterwards Mrs Thomas’ which had been penned for the entertainment of relatives and friends. An avid amateur naturalist Elizabeth corresponded (1757 – 1760) with Emanuel Medes da Costa, the author of A Natural History of Fossils (1757) and sent him specimens that she had recovered. With her husband’s death (1770) Elizabeth Thomas retired to Newbold in Warwickshire, where she died (May, 1779).

Amherst, Gertrude Percy, Countess – (1814 – 1890)
British Victorian peeress
Gertrude Percy was born (Aug 30, 1814) the daughter of Reverend Hugh Percy, Bishop of Carlisle, of the family of the dukes of Northumberland, and his fist wife Mary Manners-Sutton, the daughter of Charles Manners-Sutton, Archbishop of Canterbury. She was married (1834) to William Pitt Amherst (1805 – 1886), Lord Holmesdale, the son and heir of William Pitt, first Earl of Amherst (1826 – 1857), and entered society as the Viscountess Holmesdale.
Lady Holmesdale bore her husband many children and when he succeeded his father in the peerage as second Earl Lamherst Lady Gertrude became the Countess Amherst (1857 – 1886). She then became chatelaine of the family estate of Montreal at Sevenoaks in Kent. Lady Gertrude survived her husband as the Dowager Countess Amherst (1886 – 1890). Lady Amherst died (April 27, 1890) aged seventy-five, at her residence in Rutland Gate, London. She was interred with her husband at Riverhead. Her children included,

• William Archer Amherst (1836 – 1910). He was styled Viscount Holmesdale (1857 – 1886) and succeeded his father as the third Earl Amherst. He married but left no issue.
• Lady Mary Sarah Amherst (1837 – 1892). She became the wife of Wilbraham Egerton (1832 – 1909), second Baron Egerton of Tatton and left issue.
• Lady Gertrude Elizabeth Amherst (1838 – 1862). She remained unmarried.
• Lady Constance Harriett Amherst (1843 – 1879). She became the wife of Sir Arthur Edward Middleton (1838 – 1933), seventh baronet and left issue.
• Lady Margaret Catherine Amherst (1848 – 1939). She remained unmarried.
• Lady Elinor Amherst (1850 – 1939). She became the wife of Captain William Evelyn Denison (died 1916) of Ossington, Newark, and left issue.
• Hon. (Honourable) Hugh Amherst (1856 – 1927). He succeeded his elder brother as fourth Earl Amherst (1910 – 1927) and left issue.

Amherst, Mary Rothes Margaret – (1857 – 1919)
British peeress (1909 – 1919)
Miss Mary Amherst was born (April 25, 1857), the eldest of the seven daughters of William Amherst Tyssen Amherst, the first Baron Amherst of Hackney and his wife Margaret Susan Mitford, the only child of the Admiral Robert Mitford. When her father was created Lord Amherst of Hackney by Queen Victoria (1892) Mary became the Hon. (Honourable) Miss Amherst. As Lord Amherst had no sons the peerage had been created with special limitation in default of male heirs, to his eldest daughter Mary, and her male heirs. Miss Amherst was married (1885) to Lord William Cecil (1854 – 1943), the third son of the third Marquess of Salisbury, and bore him four children.
Lady Mary Cecil succeeded her father as the second Baroness Amherst of Hackney (1909). During WW I Lady Amherst performed valuable volunteer work for the war effort, organizing hospital units and ambulances for the front. In recognition of this work she was appointed OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by King George V and D.J.ST.J (Dame of Justice of the Order of St John of Jerusalem). Lady Amherst died (Dec 27, 1919) aged sixty-two. Her children were,

• Captain Hon. William Amherst Cecil (1886 – 1914). An officer with the Grenadier Guards, he was killed in action at the battle of Aisne during WW I and was the father of the third Baron
  Amherst of Hackney.
• Captain Hon. Thomas James Amherst Cecil (1887 – 1955). He was married and left issue.
• Hon. John Francis Amherst (1890 – 1954). He was appointed as First Secretary in the Diplomatic Service and was married and left issue.
• Commander Hon. Henry Mitford Amherst Cecil (1893 – 1962). He was married and left issue.

Amherst, Sybil Margaret – (1859 – 1926)
British volunteer activist
The Hon. (Honourable) Miss Amherst was the second daughter of William Amherst Tyssen Amherst, the first Baron Amherst of Hackney and his wife Margaret Susan Mitford, the daughter of Admiral Robert Mitford. She was the sister of Mary Rothes Margaret Amherst Cecil, second Baroness Amherst of Hackney and remained unmarried.
Sybil possessed an avid interest in automobiles. She learnt to drive as a recreation, becoming a member of the Ladies’ Automobile Club. During WW I she organized hospital units and ambulance services for the troops and was appointed L.G.St.J (Lady of Grace of St John of Jerusalem). Sybil Amherst died (June 21, 1926) at Foulden Hall, in Brandon, Norfolk.

Amie     see    Aine

Amies, Geraldine Christein Wilhelmina Collee, Lady – (1906 – 1982)
Dutch-Australian physician
Geraldine Colleee was born (Aug 26, 1906) in Delft, Holland, and was educated in Europe and in Edinburgh, Scotland, before qualifying as a dental surgeon. Geraldine Collee established her own practice in Scotland and in Harley Street in London before she became the wife (1930) in Adelaide, South Australia, of the noted dental professor, Arthur Barton Pilgrim Amies (1902 – 1976) who was later knighted by Queen Elizabeth II (1957).
In Australia the couple settled in Melbourne, Victoria, where Mrs Amies established herself in private practice and was later appointed the medical officer in charge of the diabetic clinic at the Royal Children’s Hospital (1946). She survived her husband as the Dowager Lady Amies (1976 – 1982). Lady Amies died (Nov 13, 1982) aged seventy-six.

Amina – (c1533 – 1610) 
Queen of Nigeria (1576 – 1610)
Amina was one of the two daughters of Turunku Bakwa, a female ruler in her own right, who had founded the city of Zaria in north central Nigeria. Amina was put forward and accepted as the heir to the throne, being brought up as a warrior. She refused all offers of marriage and accompanied chief Karama on his war expeditions. On his death (1576) Amina took the throne, and remained a powerful and influential ruler until her death thirty-five years later.
As queen Amina was much occupied with conquests, and extended her kingdom south and west to the mouth of the Niger River. She also dominated the two northern cities of Kano and Katsina. Realising the importance of trade, the queen opened new east-west trade routes, as well as utilizing the existing Saharan trade routes. She received enormous amounts of tribute, and the Chronicles of Kano record that, ‘At this time Zaria, under Queen Amina conquered all the towns as far as Kwarafara and Nupe. Every town paid tribute to her. The Sarikin Nupe sent forty eunuchs and ten thousand kolas (a nut famous for its aphrodisiac qualities) to her. She was the first to have eunuchs and kolas in Haussaland. Her conquests extended over thirty-four years.’
According to tradition, Amina took a lover in each city that she conquered, beheading him the next morning. Her sipposed habit of building a walled camp wherever she travelled ahs led to the ancient Haussa fortifications being referred to as ‘Amina’s walls.’  Praise of her strength and prowess has been recorded in Nigerian tradition which refers to her as, ‘Amina, daughter of Nikatu, a woman as capable as a man.’

Ammia – (fl. c250 – c274 AD)
Roman Christian patrician
Ammia was a native of Caesarea and Cappodocia and was born into a senatorial family. She reared St Mamas after his Christian parents, Theodotus and Rufina, died in prison. The early church revered her together with the parents of Mamas (Aug 31).

Amodei, Elisabetta – (1465 – 1498)
Italian saint
Elisabetta Amodei was born at Palermo, Sicily, the daughter of Giovanni Amodei. She never married and devoted her short life to the practise of religious piety and sanctity, her austerities gaining her much notoriety and thus many pilgrims and visitors. The church venerated her memory (Feb 4).

Amor, Pita – (1918 – 2000)
Mexican poet
Born Guadalupe Teresa Amor Schmidtlein (May 30, 1918) in Mexico City, she was a member of the lesser gentry, the daughter of Don Emmanuel Amor Subervielle, who was of French antecedents. She achieved fame by her beauty and was a model for Diego Rivera and Raul Anguiano, who painted and photographed her. She was a friend to the actress Maria Felix and of David Alfaro Siqueiros.
Using the pseudonym ‘Pita Amor’ her style of writing was influenced by the work of Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz and of Francesco de Quevedo. She published the works Puerta obstinada (1947), Decimas a Dios (1953), Todos los siglos del mundo (1959) and Soy duenna del universo (1984).

Amphelisia – (fl. 1185 – 1214)
Anglo-Norman nun
Amphelisia served as the prioress of Higham in Kent, also known as Lillechurch. She is the first recorded head of this convent which had been established by Stephen of Blois, King of England (1135 – 1154), and his wife Matilda of Boulogne. Charter evidence reveals that Amphelisia was prioress from at least 1185, during the reign of Henry II, until 1214 in the reign of King John. She was succeeded by a sister named Alice, who twice served as prioress for separate terms.

Ampthill, Emily Theresa Villiers, Lady – (1843 – 1927)
British courtier and peeress (1881 – 1884)
Lady Emily Villiers was born (Sept 9, 1843) the daughter of George William Villiers, fourth Earl of Clarendon and his wife Lady Katharine Grimston, daughter of James Grimston, first Earl of Verulam. Lady Emily served as bridesmaid to Princess Alexandra of Denmark at her marriage with Edward, Prince of Wales (1863) son of Queen Victoria. She was married at Watford (1868) to Lord Odo William Russell (1829 – 1884) to whom she bore six children, four sons and two daughters.
Odo Russell was crated the first Baron Ampthill by Queen Victoria (1881) and Emily became the Baroness Ampthill (1881 – 1884). She survived her husband for over forty years as the Dowager Baroness Ampthill (1884 – 1927). As a widow Lady Ampthill served at court as lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria (1885 – 1901) and in recognition of her loyal service she was awaded the VA (Royal Order of Victoria and Albert. Two of her sons, Sir Odo William Russell (1870 – 1951) and Brigadier-General Alexander Russell (1874 – 1965) pursued successful careers in the diplomatic service and the military. Lady Ampthill died (Feb 22, 1927) aged eighty-three.

Amrit Kaur, Rajkumari – (1889 – 1954)
Indian politician
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur was born (Feb 2, 1889) at Lucknow, Avadh (Oudh), a princess of the Kapurthala family. Educated in England, Rajkumari served Mahatma Gandhi as private secretary for over fifteen years, and was one of the founder members of the All India Women’s Conference (1927). Prominent in the Congress movements, for this activity she suffered two years’ imprisonment.
Later appointed deputy leader of the Indian delegation to UNESCO (1945 – 1946), she was accorded the honour of being appointed India’s first minister of health, a position she would hold for ten years 1947 – 1957. Rajkumari also held charge of the ministry of Communications from (1951 – 1952), and was chairman of the Indian Red Cross Society, also serving as the vice-president of the International Red Cross. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur died (Feb 6, 1954) aged sixty-four.

Amrouche, Fadhma Ait Mansur – (1882 – 1967)
Algerian novelist
Amrouche was born in the Berber region, of illegitimate birth, and was raised in a Catholic convent, and converted to Christianity. She was married young, and wrote the autobiographical novel, Histoire de ma vie (The Story of My Life) (1968), which was published posthumously, and dealt with her longing for her homeland. She was the mother of the novelist Marie Louise Amrouche.

Amrouche, Marie Louise – (1913 – 1976)
Algerian novelist
Marie Louise Amrouche was born in Tunis, the daughter of Fadhma Ait Mansur Amrouche. Her mother was a descendant of the Berbers from the Kabylie region, and her Berber name was Taos. When the family was converted to Christianity, she received the names of Marie Louise. Amrouche translated and performed Berber songs into French, and received the La Casa Velasquez scholarshiop, which permitted her to study in Madrid, Spain.
Upon her return to Algerian she worked in radio broadcasting. With the end of WW II she retired to France, where she resided for the remainder of her life. Her published work included Jacinthe noire (Black Hyacinth) (1947), the first novel to be published by an Algerian woman, and, L’Amant imaginaire (The Imaginary Lover) (1975). Her Berber works were published as, Le Grain Magique (The Magic Seed) (1966).

Amsterdam, Birdie – (1902 – 1996)
American State Supreme Court Justice in New York
Birdie Asmsterdam was the daughter of immigrant Jewish parents from Manahttan. Amsterdam began practising law at the age of twenty-one (1923), and eventually became active in Democratic Party politics. She was the first woman ever to be elected as a New York County municipal judge (1940), and was re-elected ine years later (1949), becoming the first woman to ever be appointed as an acting New York City court justice. Re-elected to that office (1955), Amsterdam was the first woman to be elected a state Supreme Court justice (1958). She retired in 1975.
Birdie Amsterdam died (July 8, 1996) in New York.

Anacaona – (c1470 – 1503)
West Indian queen
Anacaona was the ruler of the kingdom of Xaragua, located on the west of the island. She was involved in resistance to Spanish rule being implemented by Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus). The new Spanish administrator, Father Nicolas de Ovando became determined to impose Spanish rule by force. He issued an invitation to the queen and her courtiers to his palace to dine. Ovando then caused the queen to be treacherously arrested by his agents, Diego Velazquez and Juan de Esquivel, on the grounds of involvement in a spurious conspiracy, and was hanged. Her followers were burned alive.

Anados    see   Coleridge, Mary Elizabeth

‘Anan – (d. c846)
Arab poet
‘Anan was a slave woman, whose poetic talents so impressed her master, that he established her in Baghdad, where poets and philosophers visited her. She herself exchanged verses with the poet Abu Nuwas, and love poems with fellow poet, Abbas ibn al-Ahnaf, who was in love with her. The Caliph of Baghdad, the famous Harun Al-Rashid, was said to have purchased ‘Anan at her own invitation, and then returned her to her former master when he realized that many poets had written scurrilously of her in their own verses.

Anapsychia – (fl. c390 – 405 AD)
Roman Christian patrician
Anapsychia was the wife of Flavius Marcellinus, the proconsul of Africa. She and her husband received a letter from St Jerome preserved in his Epistulae.

‘Anastasia’   see    Schanzkowska, Franziska

Anastasia – (fl. c500 – 519)
Roman letter writer
Anastasia was of patrician birth and married Pompeius, consul 501 (c468 AD – 532), nephew to the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I (491 AD – 518). Anastasia was resident in Constantinople, where she and Anicia Juliana, the daughter of the Roman emperor Olybrius, met the ascetic St Sabas (512).
Heavily concerned with public philanthropic activities, Anastasia was a devout Chalcedonian, and corresponded with Pope Hormisdas concerning the Acacian schism (519), of which three letters survive. Also acquainted with Cyril of Scythopolis, to whom she confided the details of Sabas’ visit, she founded the monastery of the Mount of Olives and became a nun there before her death.

Anastasia, Aelia (1) – (c530 – 593)
Byzantine Augusta (578 – 582)
Anastasia was originally named Ino and was a native of Daphnudium, which may be identified with the island of Daphusia, situated off the Black Sea coast of Bithynia in Asia Minor.
Ino was married firstly to the patrician Joannes, to whom she bore a daughter who was betrothed to Tiberius (c530 – 582), the future emperor. However, her husband and daughter both died, and Ino was married to Tiberius herself (c559). She bore her husband two daughters, of whom the elder, Chariot, became the wife of Germanus prior to 582, whilst the younger, Constantina (c562 – 605) married the future emperor Maurice (539 – 602), and bore him many children. A third child died before her husband‘s accession.
When Tiberius was appointed Caesar (574), Ino and her daughters resided in secret in the palace of Hormisdas, as the empress Sophia would not permit them to reside in the Imperial palace. Tiberius was chosen to succeed the Emperor Justin II as Emperor Tiberius II Constaninus (578), where upon Ino adopted the more regal name of Anastasia, and was accorded Imperial rank. The political factors of the Hippodrome demanded the name of the new empress, and both the people and the Dowager Empress Sophia were astonished by the proclamation of Anastasia as Augusta. With the death of her husband Anastasia enjoyed the position and prerogatives of Empress Dowager (582 – 593) at the court of her son-in-law, the Emperor Maurice.

Anastasia, Aelia (2) – (652 – c713)
Byzantine Augusta
Anastasia was born into a patrician family, and became the wife (668) of the emperor Constantine IV (652 – 685), and was the mother of the Emperor Heraklius I (669 – 711). With the downfall of her son, and his execution at the hands of the usurper Philippicus Bardanes, Anastasia fled with her infant grandson, Tiberius IV, to the church of the Virgin of Blachernae, but the new emperor’s agents slaughtered the child in her arms. She was left unmolested and permitted to enter a convent. Philippicus permitted Anastasia to be interrred beside her husband Constantine.

Anastasia Glebovna – (c1199 – 1238)
Russian princess
Anastasia was the second daughter of Gleb, Prince of Tschernigov and his wife Anastasia, the daughter of Rurik II, Grand Prince of Kiev. Anastasia became the wife of Prince Vladimir Vseveolodovich of Perejaslavl (1194 – 1229), a younger son of Vsevolod III, Grand Prince of Kiev. There were no children and Anastasia survived her husband as Princess Dowager of Perejaslavl (1229 – 1238).
Princess Anastasia was amongst the members of the royal family of Tschernigov, who were beseiged by the invading Taratar armies in the city of Ryazan (Feb, 1238). The nobles and members of the royal family, including Anastasia, where blessed by the Bishop in the Church of Our Lady in Ryazan. Several of the women, including Anastasia were then veiled as nuns. They then waited for the worst, and when the Tartars forcibly entered the city, the church was set on fire. The princess perished with many others in the ensuing conflagration.

Anastasia Nikolaievna – (1901 – 1918)
Russian Romanov grand duchess
Anastasia Romanovna was born at the Peterhof Palace, the fourth and youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna (Alexandra of Hesse-Darmstadt), the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Exiled with her family to Siberia (Nov, 1917), she was murdered with her family in the cellar of the house in Ekaterinburg (July 16, 1918).
The most famous of the Imperial children, mystery surrounded her death for nearly eight decades, and the claims of Anna Anderson to be officially recognized as Anastasia were finally refuted by DNA research (1994) which proved Anderson to be Franziska Schanzkowska, a former Polish factory worker. She had been rescued from a suicide attempt in a Berlin canal (1920), and for more than thirty years fought for legal recognition of her claims. Despite the personal misgivings of several of the real Anastasia’s friends and relatives, Anderson’s claims were treated with extreme scepticism and hostility by surviving members of the Romanov family.
The tragic story of her life inspired two films, Anastasia (1956), starring Ingrid Bergman in the title role, and with Helen Hayes as her grandmother, the Empress Dowager Marie Feodorovna, and Is Anna Anderson Anastasia? (1956) which was made in Germany with Lilli Palmer. In the film Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) Anastasia was portrayed by actress Fiona Fullerton. Fifteen years later a television mini-series retold the story in Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986) with Amy Irving in the title role, Olivia de Havilland as the Empress Dowager, Omar Sharif as Nicholas II, and Claire Bloom as the Empress Alexandra.

Anastasia of Brandenburg – (1478 – 1557)
German princess
Anastasia was born (March 17, 1478), the daughter of Albert Achilles, Elector of Brandenburg, and his wife Margaret of Baden. Princess Anastasia was married (1500) to Wilhelm IV (1478 – 1559), Count of Henneberg-Schleusingen, and became countess consort of Henneberg for almost six decades (1500 – 1557). Countess Anastasia died (July 4, 1557) aged seventy-nine. She left fourteen children,

• Count Wilhelm of Henneberg-Schleusingen (1500 – 1503). He died young.
• Countess Anna of Henneberg-Schleusingen (born and died 1502). She died in early infancy.
• Count Johann III of Henneberg-Schleusingen (1503 – 1541). He entered the church and was appointed as Abbot of Fulda (1529).
• Unnamed countess of Henneberg-Schelusingen (1505 – 1506). She died in infancy.
• Count Wolfgang II of Henneberg-Schleusingen (1507 – 1537). He was married but left only illegitimate issue.
• Countess Margaret of Henneberg-Schleusingen (1508 – 1546). She became the second wife of Johann VII (1488 – 1551), Count of Sayn.
• Countess Catherine of Henneberg-Schleusingen (1509 – 1567). She became the wife of Heinrich XXXII (1499 – 1538), Count of Schwarzburg-Blankenburg, and left issue.
• Count Christopher of Henneberg-Schleusingen (1510 – 1548). He was married twice but left no surviving issue.
• George Ernst (1511 – 1574). He succeeded his father as the reigning Count of Henneberg-Schleusingen (1559 – 1574). He was married twice but left no surviving issue.
• Countess Dorothea of Henneberg-Schelusingen (born and died 1512). She died in early infancy.
• Count Poppo XII of Henneberg-Schleusingen (1513 – 1570). He was married twice, but left no issue.
• Count Kaspar of Henneberg-Schelusingen (born 1514).
• Countess Walpurga of Henneberg-Schleusingen (1516 – 1570). She was married firstly to Count Wolfgang of Hohenlohe-Schillingfurst-Weikersheim (c1508 – 1545), and then became the first wife of Karl III (1517 – 1599), Count von Gleichen-Blankenhaim, by whom she left issue.
• Countess Elisabeth of Henneberg-Schleusingen (1517 – 1577). She became the wife of Count Johann von Salm-Reifferscheid (died 1556).

Anastasia of Montenegro – (1868 – 1935)
Slavic princess
Princess Anastasia was born (Jan 4, 1868) at Cetinje, the daughter of Nikola I, King of Montenegro, and his wife Milena Vukotich. Known as ‘Stana’ within the family she was married firstly (1889) to George de Beauharnais (1879 – 1912), sixth Duke of Leuchtenburg, as his second wife. She bore George two children,

• Sergei de Beauharnais, Prince of Leuchtenburg (1890 – 1974). He succeeded his half-brother as eighth Duke of Leuchtenburg.
• Helena de Beauharnais, Princess of Leuchtenburg (1892 – 1971). She became the wife of Count Stephan Tyszkiewicz (1894 – 1976).

The marriage proved unsuccessful on a personal level, and Duchess Anastasia and her husband were later divorced (1906). She was then remarried at Yalta in the Crimea (1907) to the Romanov grand duke Nicholas, for whom she had divorced her first husband. With her sister Militsa, also the wife of a Romanov grand duke, Anastasia was a prominent member of the Imperial court, and was a practitioner of the pseudo-oriental branch of mysiticism then in vogue in elegant Moscow society. She and her sister were the ones responsible for introducing the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and Nicholas II to the mad monk, Grigori Rasputin, and were amongst his most prominent supporters. The tsar noted in his personal diary that, ‘Militsa and Stana dined with us. They talked about Grigory the whole evening.’
However, once Rasputin’s real nature was revealed, the Grand Duchess withdrew her patronage and refused to receive him. When she tried to warn the empress, Stana was received with disdain. Anastasia and the Grand Duke Nicholas survived the horrors of the Revolution (1917), and immigrated to France, where they retired to the Cap d’Antibes to live. She survived her husband as the Dowager Grand Duchess (1929 – 1935). Grand Duchess Anastasia died (Nov 15, 1935) aged aged sixty-seven, at Cap d’Antibes, France.

Anastasia of Poland – (1162 – 1240)
Princess and saint
Anastasia was the daughter of Duke Mieszko III and his second wife, Eudokia of Kiev. She married (1177) Bogislav I, Duke of Pomerania-Stettin to whom she bore two sons, dukes Bogislav II and Kasimir II who ruled jointly. During her long five decade long widowhood, the duchess built the Red Monastery in the diocese of Spalato, in Slavonia, where she brought ten nuns of the Praemonstratensian Order from the Bethlehemite monastery in Frisia. After dividing her lands and possessions between her two sons, Anastasia retired from the court to her monastery. Duchess Anastasia died (Dec 8, 1240) aged seventy-eight.

Anastasia Romanovna – (1531 – 1560)
Russian tsarina
Anastasia Romanovna was the daughter of the boyar Roman Yurievich Zakhari-Koshlar, and his wife Juliana Federovna. She became the first wife (1547) of the notorious Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible (1530 – 1584), and was mother of six children, including the tsarevitch Ivan (1554 – 1581), later murdered by his father in a fit of rage, and the emperor Feodor I (1557 – 1598).
The archpriest Sylvester, motivated by jealousy of the tsarina’s family, sought to condemn her by comparing her to the Byzantine empress Eudoxia, who persecuted St John Chrysostem. In this manner he hoped raise up the boyars in anger against the Romanov clan, but the tsar’s angered forced Sylvester into hiding.
Possessed of a gentle and virtuous nature, the tsar remained devotedly attached to Anastasia, and her benign influence mitigated some of her unstable husband’s more cruel decisions. During his absence on campaign against the Tartars, Ivan placed Anastasia, then pregnant, was placed under the protection of Ivan’s brother Yuri, the duke of Uglich. At this time the tsar granted her the right to free those prisoners that she judged most deserving. Her frail health was much weakened after the birth of her last child (May, 1557), and the tsarina died at Kolomenskoye, near Moscow aged twenty-nine (Aug 7, 1560), being interred in the Novodevichy convent there. When news of her death was announced in Moscow, the poor refused the alms that had been distributed to them, as a sign of their personal grief.

Anaxandra – (fl. c300 BC)
Greek painter
Anaxandra was the daughter of the artist Nealkes, who probably trained her. She later worked as a professional artist in Alexandria. None of her work survives, and it has been suggested that she was in fact identical with the artist Alexander, mentioned by the elder Pliny in his Natural History. It has also been theorized that her name may have been Alexandra.

Ancelot, Margeurite – (1792 – 1875)
French novelist and dramatist
Born Virginie Margeurite Chardon in Dijon, Burgundy, she became the wife of Jacques Ancelot, with whom she collaborated on some works. Madame Ancelot’s first published work Un marriage raisonnable (A Sensible Marriage) (1835) was published under her husband’s name. Her most successful work was the stageplay Marie ou les trois époques (Marie or the Three Eras) (1836).
During the reign of Louis Philippe, she established her own fashionable salon in Paris, and left two volumes of memoirs which left descriptions of this period of her life, Les Salons de Paris, foyers éteints (The Paris Salons: Dead Flames) (1858), and, Un salon de Paris 1824 – 64 (1866). Her novels included Une route sans issue (A Road to Nowhere) (1857) and Un noeud de ruban (A Ribbon Bow) (1858).

Ancilla – (c300 – c343 AD)
Persian Christian martyr
Ancilla was accused by local Jews of being a Christian, and perished with two other women, Tarbula and Themia. She was venerated as a saint (April 5).

Anckarsvard, Karen Inez Maria – (1915 – 1969)
Swedish children’s writer
Her published work included The Mysterious Schoolmaster (1959), The Robber Ghost (1961), Bonifacius and Little Bonnie (1963), Doctor’s Boy (1965), The Riddle of the Ring (1966), which was illustrated by Michael Hampshire, Struggle at Soltuna (1968), and Madcap Mystery (1970), which was published posthumously.

Ancrum, Xenia Andreievna     see    Xenia Andreievna

Andalo, Cecilia degli – (1201 – 1290)
Italian nun and saint, she was born into a patrician family of Bologna and was the younger sister of Diana degli Andalo. She was originally a novice in the convent of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome, which was reformed by St Dominic. She transferred with these nuns to the convent of San Sisto (1218) which had been established by Dominic, and they adopted his observances. Pope Pius V later removed the nuns of San Sisto to the monastery of Magnanapoli, a favoured convent for ladies of the patrician class (1223), and Cecilia remained there for sixty-five years, and died aged almost ninety. Regarded a saint her feast (Aug 4) is recorded in the Acta Sanctorum. She was also honoured jointly with her sister Diana (June 10).

Andalo, Diana degli – (c1200 – 1236)
Italian virgin saint
Diana degli Andalo came from one of the most prominent families of Bologna. Diana early resolved upon taking up the religious life, and took a vow of virginity in the prescence of St Dominic and several pious matrons (1219), but illness prevented her from being present at the saint’s deathbed (1221). Diana became a Dominican nun, and founded the convent of St Agnes in Monte, Bologna (1223) where she removed with four other Dominican nuns.
They wrote to Pope Honorius III in Rome, asking that some of the nuns of St Sixtus might be permitted to come to Bologna to instruct Diana and her nuns in the proper Dominican observance. Diana died aged thirty-five, and was succeeded as prioress by Sister Cecilia, who had been sent from Rome. Regarded a saint her feast (June 10) is recorded in the Acta Sanctorum.

Anders, Luana – (1940 – 1996)
American actress
Luana Anders was acting in Hollywood from her teenage years in film such as Reform School Girls (1957) and Life Begins at Seventeen (1958). She is perhaps best remembered as the scheming Louise in the Francis Ford Coppola horror classic Dementia 13 (1963) filmed in Ireland, who comes to a grisly end. Luana played both leading and support roles throughout her career which continued until her death. Her later appearances in films such as Easy Rider and Shampoo (1975) were continued by appearances in low budget films throughout the 1980’s. Her last film American Strays (1996) was released the year of her death.

Andersen, Dorothy Hansine – (1901 – 1963)
Southern American pathologist and paediatrician
Dorothy Hansine Andersen was born (May 15, 1901) in Asheville, North Carolina, the daughter of a Danish emigrant. Her mother, Louise Mason Andersen was a descendant of Sir John Wentworth, the colonial governor of New Hampshire.  Andersen received her education at Mount Holyoke College and the John Hopkins Medical School. Her painstaking research concerning the congenital defects in infant hearts revealed the existence of the hitherto unknown disease cystic fibrosis. For this medical discovery she received the E. Mead Johnson Award (1938).
Her continuing research throughout the following decades led to the publication of various important papers on the subject, such as the use of chemotherapy for respiratory tract infections in cystic fibrosis, and papers which researched the genetics of the disease itself. She also produced papers concerning cardiac malformations. Dr Andersen was later appointed (1958) as full professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and received the Borden Award (1948) for her research into nutrition. The distinguished service medal of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center was conferred upon her posthumously. Dorothy Andersen died of lung cancer (March 3, 1963) aged sixty-one.

Andersen, Marie    see    Hamsun, Marie

Anderson, Dame Adelaide Mary – (1863 – 1936)
Australian feminist, civil servant and factory inspector
Adelaide Anderson was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the daughter of Alexander Gavin Anderson, a Scottish ship owner. The family returned to England, and she was raised in London, where she was educated, as well as abroad in France and Germany. After graduating from Girton College, Cambridge, she became a lecturer on philosophy and economics for the Women’s Co-operative Guild. This path would inevitably lead to her future career. Created a ‘lady factory inspector’ (1894) Anderson was later promoted to principal lady inspector (1897). The proven success of using women as replacement imspectors for men during WWI, led to the femaale branch of the service being discontinued (1921) and inspectors of both sexes were fused togther in one cohesive unit.
Adelaide retired in 1921 and was the author of Women in the Factory: an Administrative Adventure, 1893 – 1921 (1922).  Adelaide later worked in China, where she continued to work tirelessly for improvement to the conditions of women and children generally. A member of the municipal council of the international settlement of Shanghai’s commission on child labour (1923 – 1924) and published an account of her esperiences in Humanity and Labour in China: an Industrial Visit and its Sequel, 1923 – 1926 (1928). In recognition of her valuable she was appointed CBE (Commander of the British Empire) (1918) and DBE (Dame Commander of the British Empire) (1921) by King George V. Dame Adelaide Anderson died in Chelsea, London.

Anderson, Agnes Campbell – (1637 – 1716)
Scottish printer
Agnes Campbell was born in Edinburgh, a member of the lower nobility. She was married (1656) to the royal printer, Andrew Anderson, to whom she bore eight children. With the early death of her husband (1676) his debts forced her to take over the business in order to maintain herself and their children. Her second marriage with a widowed merchant was not congenial and the couple seperated, she retaining her first married name.
Agnes was appointed as the official printer of the Acts of the General Assembly, which gained her a significant business monopoly, and she styled herself ‘His Majesty’s Printress.’ With the money she made from this office Anderson acquired the estate of Roseburn, near Edinburgh, and she then styled herself ‘Lady Roseburn.’ Agnes Anderson died aged eighty.

Anderson, Alice Elizabeth Foley – (1897 – 1926)
Australian mechanic and editor
Alice Foley Anderson was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the daughter of engineer Joshua Thomas Noble Anderson (1865 – 1949). Interested in the mechanics of cars from an early age, Alice drove to Alice Springs in te Northern Territory in ‘Baby Austin’ with Jessie Webb, and later became the proprietor of a garage, and ran her won chauffeur service from (1917 – 1926), complete with all female staff. She was the author of several articles on motoring which were published in the Melbourne magazine Women’s World (1926). Alice died in Melbourne as the result of an accidental gunshot wound.

Anderson, Anna      see     Schanzkowska, Franziska

Anderson, Charlotte Morrisson – (1915 – 2002)
Australian paediatrician and children’s health researcher
Anderson was born (March 20, 1915) in Melbourne, Victoria and studied paediatrics at the University of Melbourne. She became a leading researcher in the field of paediatric gastroenterology and studied diseases such as cystic fibrosis. She later became the first female professor of paediatrics in the United Kingdom and was appointed OAM (Member of the Order of Australia) (1997) in recognition of her valuable medical research. Charlotte Anderson died (April 15, 2002) aged eighty-seven, in Toorak, Melbourne.

Anderson, Daisy Graham – (1901 – 1998)
Black American slave widow and author
Daisy Graham was born in Hardin, Tennessee, the daughter of a poor sharecropper and taught neighbourhood children for a meagre living. Racial tensions forced the family to move to Forest City, Arkansas, where she married (1922) Robert Anderson (1843 – 1930), a farmer almost sixty years her senior, who was killed in a car accident eight years later. Anderson recalled her husband’s stories in the memoir she wrote From Slavery to Affluence: Memoirs of Robert Anderson, Ex-Slave (1927).
The Depression lost her most of her property, and Anderson eventually acquired a poultry farm in Strawberry Park, Colorado, ran a restaurant, and worked as a tour guide to supplement her income. Considered a local celebrity, she met Pope John Paul II during his visit to Denver (1993) and presented a copy of her book to President Bill Clinton (1997). Daisy Graham Anderson died aged ninety-seven, in Denver, the oldest survivor of the last three recorded Civil War widows.

Anderson, Elda Emma – (1899 – 1961)
American physicist
Elda Anderson was born in Green Lake, Wisconsin, and graduated in physics from the University of Wisconsin (1924). She became a high school teacher and university lecturer and was then employed as a researcher with the atomic bomb project at Princeton University. Her research made her an internationally recognized specialist in the field of radiation protection. Anderson was later appointed as the chief of education (1949) at the Health Physics Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

Anderson, Elizabeth Garrett – (1836 – 1917)
British physician
Elizabeth Garrett was the daughter of Newson Garrett, of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, and was educated at home. Desiring to undertake the study of medicine, she applied to Middlesex Hospital, but was refused because of her sex. She managed to obtain private instruction concerning anatomy, and finally the Society of Apothecaries in London permitted her to study with them, and she obtained her license in 1865. In 1866 Elizabeth was appointed general medical attendant to St Mary’s dispensary, London, which allowed poor women to seek medical advice from one of their own sex.

This institution later developed into The New Hospital for Women, later renamed the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital. In 1870 she passed the medical requirements of the University of Paris, and qualified as a doctor. From 1883 to 1908, she was the dean of the London School of Medicine for Women, and in 1908 was elected mayor of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, becoming the first woman in England to hold the mayoral office. Elizabeth was married (1871) to James Skelton Anderson, a shipping magnate, and bore him several children including Louisa Garrett Anderson, the prominent surgeon.

Anderson, Elizabeth Milbank – (1850 – 1921)
American philanthropist and social welfare promoter
Elizabeth Milbank was born in New York. A liberal contributor to various social welfare causes and organizations over a period of decades, Elizabeth was a benefactor of the Children’s Aid Society of New York, and of Barnard College. She herself founded the Milbank Memorial Fund to help continue her work.

Anderson, Ella    see    Wolfe, Elsie de

Anderson, Emily – (1891 – 1962) 
British scholar, linguist and author
Emily Anderson was born (March 17, 1891) the daughter of Alexander Anderson, the president of University College, Galway, Ireland. She studied abroad at the German universities of Berlin and Marburg. Emily taught at Queen’s College, in Barbados, and at the University College in Galway. Later employed by the Foreign Office, for three years during World War II, 1940 – 1943, Emily was seconded into the war office, being involved with intelligence work in the Middle East. For this valuable contribution she was later awarded the OBE (Order of the British Empire) by King George VI.
Emily Anderson remained unmarried. Her first published work (1923) was a translation of the life of the German poet and dramatist, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, by Benedetto Croce. This was followed fifteen years later by her three volume work The Letters of Mozart and His Family (1938). Retiring from the Foreign Office (1951) she devoted her last years to producing The Letters of Beethoven (1961) in three volumes. Emily Anderson died (Oct 26, 1962) aged seventy-one.

Anderson, Erica Collier – (1914 – 1976)
Austrian-American film producer and photographer
Erica Collier was noted for such documentary films as Henry Moore, Sculptor (1947) and. Grandma Moses (1950). She then spent several years in Africa and Europe in preperation for her most famous production, Albert Schweitzer (1957). Erica also produced two photographic studies, The World of Albert Schweitzer (1955) and, The Schweitzer Album (1965) before establishing the Albert Schweitzer Friendship House in Massachusetts (1966). Erica Collier died in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Anderson, Ethel – (1883 – 1958)
Anglo-Australian writer
Ethel was born in Leamington, Warwickshire. She was married to an army officer and resided some years in India. Mrs Anderson wrote two collections of poetic verse, Squatter’s Luck (1942) and Sunday at Yarralumla (1947), but was best remembered for her collection of stories concerning the underside of ‘respectable’ middle class life At Parramatta (1956).
Her other published work included the collections of short stories entitled Indian Tales (1948) and The Little Ghosts (1959). Ethel Anderson also produced the oratorio The Song of Hagar (1958) the music for which piece was composed by John Antill.

Anderson, Eve    see    Finley, Evelyn

Anderson, Gene – (1931 – 1965)
British actress
Gene Anderson was born (March 28, 1931) and studied drama and acting at the Central School of Dramatic Art, and was married to fellow actor Edward Judd (born 1932). Anderson appeared in films such as The Intruder (1953), The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) and The Madras House (1965). Gene Anderson died (May 5, 1965) aged thirty-four.

Anderson, Hedli – (1907 – 1990)
British actress
Antoinette Millicent Hedley Anderson was born in Surrey. Later she adopted the name of ‘Hedli Anderson’ and became a noted screen writer, producing the screenplay for the movie Hullo Fame (1940), and later an actress as well, starring in the role of Millicent in Colonel Bogey (1948). Hedli Anderson died in Paris, France.

Anderson, Isabel Weld Perkins – (1876 – 1948)
American author and poet
Anderson was born (March 29, 1876) in Boston, Massachusetts. Her published work included The Spell of Japan (1914) and Circling South America (1928). Isabel Anderson died (Nov 3, 1948) aged seventy-two.

Anderson, Jean – (1907 – 2001)
British stage and screen actress
Jean Anderson was born at Eastbourne, Sussex, the daughter of Scottish parents. She trained for the stage at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), and was married to the theatrical director Peter Powell. Usually cast as stoic, helpful women, and later as eccentric dowagers, her film credits included, her first uncredited appearance in The Mark of Cain (1947), followed by roles in Elizabeth of Ladymead (1949), Miss Tuff in The Franchise Affair (1950), Sister Gator in White Corridors (1951), Mrs Sloan in The Brave Don’t Cry (1952), Grandma Mackenzie in The Kidnappers (1953), the brave and resolute Miss Horsfall in A Town Like Alice (1956), and the maid Wilson in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957). She appeared in further films such as Lucky Jim (1957), SOS Pacific (1959), Solomon and Sheba (1959), The Night Digger (1971), playing the Baroness Kisling in The Lady Vanishes (1979) with Cybill Shepherd, and appearing as Mildred in the horror flick Screamtime (1983).
Anderson also worked much in television, and appeared in the series The Brothers (1971 – 1976) and as Lady Joss (Jocelyn) Holbrook in Tenko (1981 – 1984), which series dealt with the lives of women prisoners of the Japanese during World War II, and as Miss Heliotrope in Moonacre (1994). She appeared in many well known and popular television series throughout her career, such as Police Surgeon, Look and Read, Oil Strike North, The House of Eliott, as Mrs Spencer-Ewell, Heartbeat, Inpsector Morse, and Hetty Wainthrop Investigates with Patricia Routledge. Notable amongst her last performances on film was the role of Madam Gullmington in television adaptation of Catherine Cookson’s The Black Velvet Gown (1991), Lady Alice Hurleston in The Beggar Bride (1997), and Nell in Endgame (2000). Jean Anderson died (April 1, 2001) aged ninety-three.

Anderson, Dame Judith – (1898 – 1992)
Australian actress
Born Frances Margaret Anderson (Feb 10, 1898) in Adelaide, South Australia, she was of British parentage. She made her debut on the stage in Sydney, New South Wales in A Royal Divorce (1915) and appeared in New York several years later (1918). Judith toured throughout America in the 1920’s, and had great success as Elise in Cobra (1924) and in Strange Interlude (1928 – 1929). She made her first film appearance in Madame of the Jury (1930) but preferred stage acting to that of film.
On stage her reputation as a classical actress was greatly enhanced by her well remembered performances in Eugene O’Neill’s, Mourning Becomes Electra (1932), as Delia in Zoe Atkin’s, The Old Maid (1935), and as Queen Gertrude in Hamlet (1936) opposite Sir John Gielgud, and the gruesome queen in Macbeth (1937). Her theatre credits included the title role in the adaptation of Medea, by Robinson Jeffers (1947 and 1982), The Seagull (1960), and the title role in Hamlet (1970 – 1971). She was created DBE in 1960 for her distinguished contributions to the theatre.
Despite her stagecraft, Judith was best remembered for her role of the chillingly forbidding housekeeper of the Manderley, Mrs Danvers, in the Alfred Hitchcock adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel, Rebecca (1940), as well as for similar performances in Laura (1944) and the Diary of a Chambermaid (1946).
Other film credits include her performances as Queen Herodias in Salome (1953), in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and as an old Indian woman named Buffalo Cow Head in A Man Called Horse (1970), Inn of the Damned (1974) and Star Trek III (1984). A Broadway theatre was named in honour (1984), and she joined the cast of the popular and successful television soap opera, Santa Barbara, as matriarch Minx Lockridge from 1984 – 1987. She married twice, both unions ending in divorced in 1939 and 1950. She remained childless. Dame Judith Anderson died (Jan 3, 1992) in Santa Barbara, California.

Anderson, Dame Kitty – (1903 – 1979)
British educator and administrator
Kitty Anderson was born (July 4, 1903) in Middlesborough, the daughter of an accountant. Anderson served as headmistress of Kings Norton Grammar School in Birmingham, Lancashire (1939 – 1944), and then served for over two decades as headmistress of the North London Collegiate School for Girls (1944 – 1965). Dame Kitty Anderson died (Jan 15, 1979) aged seventy-five.

Anderson, Lale – (1912 – 1972)
German popular vocalist
Lale Anderson was the daughter of a German sea captain and becaame a Berlin cabaret singer. Lale achieved fame with the German and British troops during WW II, with her rendition of the popular wartime song Lilli Marlene, already made famous in America by Marlene Dietrich. She performed ‘Lilli Marlene’ as the theme song on the German armies’s radio program out of Belgrade. From the German troops alone she is estimated to have received over one million fan letters.

However, her popular career was cut short when she was investigated for anti-Nazi activities, and was banned from performing for the duration of the war. Over the next two decades she remained a popular European performer in cafes and officer clubs. Lale Anderson died in Vienna, Austria, whilst on a tour to promote an autobiographical novel.

Anderson, Lily – (1889 – 1963)
Australian painter and artist
Anderson was born on Kangaroo Island, and studied art in Sydney, and then in Adelaide, South Australia, under William Ashton. She produced flower paintings and landscapes in both oils and watercolours. Examples of her work were preserved in the National Gallery of Victoria. Her husband was fellow painter John Giles.

Anderson, Louisa Garrett – (1873 – 1943)
British surgeon and suffragist
Louisa was the daughter of James Skelton Anderson of the Orient Shipping Line, and his wife Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the famous physician, the daughter of Newson Garrett of aldeburgh, Suffolk. Like her mother Louisa trained for a career in medicine, and qualified as a surgeon. She became famous for the reforms she instigated to the way army surgical theatres were organized.
Louisa remained unmarried. She was the maternal piece of Millicent Fawcett Garrett, and was an active champion in the cause of female suffrage.

Anderson, Lucy – (1790 – 1878)
British pianist and concert performer
Lucy Philpot was born (Dec 12, 1790) in Bath, Somerset, the daughter of the musician and teacher John Philpot. She was married to George Frederick Anderson (1793 – 1876) who later served as Master of the Queen’s Musick to Queen Victoria (1848 – 1870). Mrs Anderson taught the piano to Queen Victoria and her children and became the first woman to be engaged as a soloist performer by the Philharmonic Society. Lucy Anderson died (Dec 24, 1878) aged eight-eight, in London.

Anderson, Madge Martha Merrion, Lady – (1904 – 1993)
Australian political wife
Born Madge Merrion she worked as a cashier before her marriage (1926) to Kenneth McColl Anderson (1909 – 1985), then an auctioneer and property valuer. They had an only daughter. Her husband entered local politics and was elected as the Lortd Mayor of Ryde in Sydney (1949 – 1950). As Lady Mayoress Mrs Anderson was called upon to fill a more prominent social role than before and this continued with her husband’s closer involvement in politics at a State level. She became Lady Anderson (1970 – 1985) when her husband was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and he was then appointed KBE (Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire) (1972). Sir Kenneth died at Lane Cove (March 29, 1985) and she survived him as the Dowager Lady Anderson (1985 – 1993). Lady Anderson died (April 4, 1993) and her ashes were interred in St John’s Cemetery in Gordon, North Sydney.

Anderson, Margaret Carolyn – (1886 – 1973)
American editor and publisher
Margaret Carolyn Anderson was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mrs Anderson was the founder (1914) of the famous literary periodical, the Little Review which published work by Amy Lowell, Ernest Hemingway, Carl Sandburg and Ezra Pound amongst others. When she published extract of Ulysses by James Joyce (1917 – 1920), parts of which were then considered to be indecent, Margaret Anderson and her assistant were convicted and fined for selling indecent material. She later lived in Paris where she was editor of the Little Review for five years (1924 – 1929).

Anderson, Marian – (1897 – 1993)
Black American contralto
Marian Anderson was born (Feb 17, 1897) into a poor Baptist family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her talent as a young gospel vocalist inspired her church to set up a fund that financed her vocal training. She studied in New York under Boghetti and spent most of her not inconsiderable career, as a concert vocalist. Her first public appearance was with the New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium (1925). She made several European trips between 1927 and 1933, and began gaining a reputation as a professional singer, notably at Carnegie Hall (1929), managing to rise above problems caused by her poverty and racial discrimination.

However, when she was prevented from performing at Constitution Hill, Washington DC (1939) on the grounds of race, there was such a public outcry, that Eleanor Roosevelt and others arranged for Marian to perform in concert at the Lincoln Memorial, where her triumphant performance in front of seventy-five thousand people, including members of the Supreme Court and the Congress, has been preserved on film.

Famous for her rich and magnificent voice, she was the first black woman to perform at the White House, and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she sang the role of Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball) (1955). Marian was appointed as a delegate to the United Nations (1958) by President Eisenhower, and was awarded the President’s Medal for Freedom (1963). She left memoirs, My Lord, What a Morning: an Autobiography (1956) and retired in 1963. Marian Anderson died aged ninety-six.

Anderson, Marjorie Ogilvie – (1909 – 2002)
Scottish historian, editor and paleographer
Born Marjorie Ogilvie Cunningham (Feb 9, 1909) in St Andrews, where she attended school before going on to study English at Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford University. She then became the assistant to the paleographer Alan Orr Anderson (died 1958) whom she married (1932). She was the author of Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland (1973) and received an honorary degree in literature from the University of Saint Andrews (1973) in recognition of her scholarship. Mrs Anderson edited the later edition (1990) of her husband’s earlier work Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers: AD 1500 – 1286, originally published in 1922. Marjorie Anderson died (May 27, 2002) aged ninety-three.

Anderson, Mary (1) – (1859 – 1940) 
American actress
Mary Anderson was born in Sacramento, California. During her childhood her family moved to Kentucky, where Mary attended the Ursuline Convent in Louisville. She made her stage debut at the age of sixteen in Louisville, in the role of Juliet. On the advice of actress Charlotte Saunders Cushman, she went to New York for further acting training, making her debut there (1877) in The Lady of Lyons. She proved a popular and talented actress from the outset, and gained great popularity at home in America, before travelling to perform at the Lyceum Theatre in England, in the role pf Parthenia in Ingomar (1883), winning equal acclaim.
Famous for her classical and restrained style, by the age of thirty, Mary had eighteen leading roles in her repertoire, including many Shakespearean roles such as Rosalina, Perdita, and Hermione. Mary retired after sufferring a nervous breakdown (1889), and married (1890) Antonio de Navarro, the couple settling in Worcestershire, in England. She gave concert performances during World War I, as her contribution to the war effort, and left two volumes of memoirs including A Few Memories (1896). Mary Anderson died (May 29, 1940).

Anderson, Mary (2) – (1872 – 1964)
Swedish-American trade unionist
Mary Anderson was born at Linkoping, and immigrated to the USA with her sister as a young woman (1889). She worked as a housemaid in Illinois and then as a fatory worker. She joined the International Boot and Shoe Workers’ Union (1894) and later became the president of the local branch of this organization. Anderson later joined (1903) the WTUL (Women’s Trade Union League) and was employed as a representative of the Garment Workers’ Union (1910 – 1920). She was appointed as the first director of the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor (1920 – 1944), the first working woman to rise to that position which she held for over two decades. She retired in 1944 and produced the work Woman at Work (1951).

Anderson, Mary Reid       see     MacArthur, Mary Reid

Anderson, Maybanke Susannah – (1845 – 1927)
Australian feminist and reformer
Maybanke Anderson was born at Kingston-on-Thames, London, and later immigrated to Australia, arriving in Sydney, New South Wales in 1855. Educated as a teacher, Maybanke established the Maybanke College, a girls’ school, in order to support herself after being deserted by her husband. Gradually becoming prominently associated with the Womanhood Suffrage League of NSW, she became editor of the League’s fortnightly periodical, Women’s Voice from 1894 – 1895.

Maybanke remarried to Frank Anderson, professor of philosophy at Sydney University (1899), and she was able to devote herself to the two causes which most aroused her interest, namely education for women and children, and was prominent in assisting to establish free kindergartens in Sydney. As another means to this same agenda of social reform, Maybanke became active in the Workers’ Educational Association of NSW (WEA). She was the author of Mother Lore (1919). Maybanke Anderson died in Paris whilst on holiday there.

Anderson, Sophie Gengembre – (1823 – 1903)
French-Anglo painter
Sophie Gengembre was born in Paris, the daughter of the architect Charles Gengembre and his British wife. She studied art under Charles Auguste de Steuben in Paris, and immigrated to the USA with her family after the 1848 Revolution. She became the wife of the British painter Walter Anderson in Manchester, Pennsylvania, and worked as a portrait painter. Her work was exhibited with the Royal Academy in London (1854) where she and her husband eventually settled (1863).
Sophie Anderson was especially known for her genre paintings of women and children in rustic landscapes such as Birdsong, Love in a Mist, Shepherd Piper (1881), and Christmas Time Here’s The Gobbler. Her style was influenced by the works of the Pre-Raphaelite artists as is revealed in her Elaineor, The Lily Maid of Astolat. Sophie Anderson died (March 10, 1903) in Falmouth, Cornwall.

Anderson, Vivienne – (1914 – 1991)
American educational promoter
Vivienne Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Temple University before obtaining a doctorate from Columbia University. For three decades (1951 – 1981) Anderson was employed by the New York State Education Department, serving as assistant commissioner for general education and curriculum services and associate commissioner for instructional services.
Her last appointment was as director of the humanities and arts division. Anderson was founder of Imagination Celebration, a program initiated by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which sponsored arts projects in American schools. She served on the board of the National Fine Arts Committee on the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid.
Vivienne Anderson died (Sept 1, 1991) in Albany, New York.

Anderson Manahan, Mrs Anna    see   Schanzkowska, Franziska

Andrea, Bettina d’ – (c1299 – 1335)
Italian lawyer and philosopher
The younger sister to Novella d’Andrea, she was born in Bologna, the daughter of Giovanni d’Andrea, the professor of canon law at the University of Bologna. Bettina received an excellent legal education at the hands of her father, to which was added a particular interest in philosopher. She became a teacher at the University of Padua.

Andrea, Novella d’ – (c1295 – 1333) 
Italian lawyer and scholar
Novella d’Andrea was born in Bologna, the elder sister of Bettina d’Andrea, and daughter of Giovanni d’Andrea, the professor of canon law at the University of Padua. She received an excellent education, being instructed by her father. Novella herself delivered lectures at the university on behalf of her father, when he was ill, though modesty dictated that she was screened by a curtain, as it was feared that her beauty would distract the young male students from their work. She became the wife of Johannes Caldesimus. Details of her life were preserved in, Le livre de la city des dames (1405) by Christine de Pisan.

Andreasi, Osanna dei – (1449 – 1505)
Italian nun and saint
Osanna dei Andreasi was born in Mantua into a noble family and reportedly sufferred visions from early childhood. She became a Dominican nun (1453) and with the deaths of her parents soon afterwards, Osanna dedicated herself to the care of her relatives. Some male members of the clergy doubted the veracity of her religious reputation, fearing she was only seeking notoriety, and they threatened to remove her from the order, but Osanna’s humble and simple virtues caused the friars to end their persecution and apologize to her for their errors. She was highly regarded at the court of Gian Francesco di Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua and his highly educated wife Isabella d’Este, who named one of her daughters Livia Osanna in the saint’s honour. Osanna was revered as a saint (June 18) her feast recorded in the Acta Sanctorum.

Andreas-Salome, Lou – (1861 – 1937)
Russian-German novelist, psychoanalyst and literary critic
Louise Andreas-Salome was born in St Petersburg, the daughter of a Russian soldier and was a descendant of French Huguenot immigrants. She became one of the first women to attend lectures at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche fell in love with her and and she recorded this experience in her Im Kampf um Gott (1884). She refused his proposal of marriage. Lou then became the mistress of the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke and produced the work Rainer Maria Rilke (1928), and was closely associated with Sigmund Freud. She also published the feminist work Die Erotik (1910).

Andree, Elfriede – (1841 – 1929)
Swedish organist and composer
Elfriede was born (Feb 19, 1841) at Visby, and studied at the Stockholm Conservatory and with Niels Gade in Copenhagen, Denmark. She studied simultaneously to become a telegraph operator and became the first woman in Sweden to work as such. She was later appointed as the organist of Goteborg Cathedral (1867), where she established a series of popular concerts and wrote four symphonies. Her work was so admired that Elfriede was elected as a member of the Swedish Academy of Music. Elfriede Andree died (Jan 11, 1929) aged eighty-seven, at Goteborg.

Andreeva, Maria Feodorovna – (1868 – 1953)
Russian actress and political figure
Maria Andreevna was born in St Petersburg, the daughter of Feodor Andreev. She and began her stage career in 1894. She later joined the Bolsheviks and during the 1905 Revolution she became the publisher of the party newspaper, Novaia Zhizn.’ Andreevna was the wife of a party official named Zheliabuzhinskii, but left him to become the mistress of the famous novelist, Maxim Gorky (1868 – 1936), with whom she later immigrated abroad to the USA where they lived in exile. They later returned to Russia (1913) where Maria returned to the stage. Maria Andreeva died (Dec 8, 1953) aged eighty-five, in Moscow.

Andreeva, Zoia Ananevna – (1899 – 1982)
Russian politician
Andreeva was born in rural Russia, and originally worked as a village schoolteacher from the time of the Revolution (1917). She then became involved in politics after joining the Bolshevik Party (1928). She was appointed as the social security minister during the 1930’s and held several other government posts before she retired (1959).

Andregoto Galindez – (c907 – 972)                                    
Spanish heiress and ruler
Andregoto was the daughter and heiress of Galindo II Aznarez, Count of Aragon and his second wife Sanchia, daughter of Garcia II Jimienez, King of Navarre. She became the first wife (920) of Garcia III Sanchez, King of Navarre (913 – 970), and was the mother of King Sancho II Abarca (c936 – 994). The marriage united Aragon and Navarre, but Garcia still divorced her c940. After this, the queen withdrew to her estates in Aragon.
With the accession of her son Sancho in 970, Andregoto was granted the sub-kingdom of Lumberi (Lumberri), on the frontier between Navarre and Aragon, which she ruled in her own right. A document, dated to 970, and preserved in the cartulary of Leire, gives her the title of queen, and reveals that Andregoto personally intervened to solve a dispute between two landowners, and the church of St Maria and St Saturninus at Lisabe.

Andreini, Isabella – (1562 – 1604)
Italian actress and writer
Isabella Andreini’s pastoral fable Mirtilla (1588) went through several editions over three decades. Praised for her beauty and wit, she appeared in the play La Pazzia di Isabella in Florence (1589) to celebrate the marriage of the Medici grand duke Ferdinando I. Isabella Andreini died from the effects of childbirth.

Andreu-i-Rubio, Monserrat – (1929 – 1974)
Spanish poet
Montserrat was born in Barcelona and studied at the Escuela Profesional de Asistentas Sociales, and became an educator of physically handicapped children. Educated in literature at prestigious schools such as the Foyer de Vaconces in France, she became a talented poet. Entering into the prestigious poetry competition, the ‘Jocs Florals,’ at Perpignan, she was awarded several prizes in recognition of her work.

Andrews, Cicely Fairfield    see    West, Dame Rebecca

Andrews, Ellen     see    Patey, Janet Monach

Andrews, Irene Osgood – (1879 – 1922)
American writer and activist
Irene Osgood was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was educated in New York and at the University of Wisconsin. She became her working career as an agent for a charity and was thenemployed as a special agent for relief work with the American Red Cross. She married John Andrews and was appointed as factory inspector to monitor the conditions of women workers in industry and became the head of the Northwestern University Settlement in Chicago (1907). Mrs Andrews later became a member of the YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) National industrial Commission to Europe (1918). Her published work included The Economic Effects of War upon Women and Children in Great Britain (1918).

Andrews, Jane – (1833 – 1887)
American children’s author
Jane Andrews was born in Massachusetts. Educated to be a schoolteacher, Jane wrote a series of didactic books, in which history, geography and natural history were taught by the story-telling method. She was best known for The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball That Floats in the Air (1861) and Ten Boys Who Lived on the Road from Long Ago to Now (1886). Her last work The Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children was published posthumously in 1888.

Andrews, Marietta Minnigerode – (fl. c1900 – 1929)
American memoirist
Marietta Andrews was the compiler of a group of letters, which was comprised of those of her relations, and included extracts from the journal of Mrs Henry Grafton Dulany (1862 – 1863), from the correspondence of Kate Powell (1863), and from the diary of Frances Westwood Ellzey, all from the Civil War period. Included with these reminiscences was the correspondence of Marietta herself with Lucy Minnigerode from Kiev, Russia (1914 – 1915) during WW I. Her compilation of the family writings was published in New York as Scraps of Paper (1929).

Andrews, Mary Maria – (1915 – 1996)
Australian deaconess
Mary Andrews was born at Dry Plains Station, near Cooma, New South Wales. Early in life she had devoted herself to religion and knew that her calling was to become a missionary to China. Andrews came to Sydney where she trained at the admission ward of the Gladesville Psychiatric Centre (1933). Anrewsd later enrolled at the Croydon Missionary Bible College (1935 – 1938).
Andrews travelled to the College of Chinese Studies in Beijing (then Peking) via Hong Kong and Shanghai, but the Japanese invasion forced her to flee to Linhai. With the destruction of Linhai by the Japanese, Andrews remained and worked with the Church Missionary Society Hospital. She refused an offer of evacuation by Americans because of the Chinese children she was caring for, but events forced her hand, and she removed to Calcutta, in India where she remained till the end of the war.
Returning to Australia in 1945, Andrews became involved in a campaign to gain independent recognition for the work of deaconesses within the church hierarchy, and was the principal of Deaconess House for over twenty years (1952 – 1975). She was appointed a member of the Order of Australia (1981) because of her services to religion. Mary Andrews died (Oct 16, 1996) aged eighty-one, in Sydney.

Andrews, Mary Raymond Shippen – (1860 – 1936)
American novelist
Andrews was born in Mobile, Alabama. She was the author of The Perfect Tribute (1906) and Yellow Butterflies (1922). Mary Shippen Andrews died (Aug 2, 1936).

Andrews, Maxene – (1916 – 1995)
American popular vocalist and actress
Maxene Andrews was sister to singers LaVerne (1917 – 1967) and Patti (born 1920). She was born (Jan 3, 1916) in Minneapolis. The sisters began working on the RKO radio circuit in their teens, Maxene and LaVerne singing soprano and contralto harmonies, and Patti singing the lead lines. Their excessively popular English recording of the yiddish song Bel Mir Bist Du Schon (1937) led to huge wartime success for the trio, and these hits were followed by the now now classic hits The Beer Barrel Polka, I’ll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time (1940), Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, and Pistol Packin’ Mama with Bing Crosby (1943), Don’t Sit under the Apple Tree, and Rum and Coca Cola (1944).
Worldwide the Andrews Sisters have sold neary sixty million records, and have outsold almost every female singing act in the history of music. The sisters retired as a group before 1960, but Maxene kept working and became the dean of women at Tahoe Paradise College in Lake Tahoe, California (1970). In 1974 she worked with her sister Patti for a year on Broadway in Over Here, but the sisters remained estranged afterwards. Maxene continued to perform until her death, lecturing, giving concerts, and performing in nightclubs and musicals. Just prior to her death she had been playing herself in the Swingtime Canteen revue at the Blue Angel in New York. Maxene Andrews died of a heart attack in Hyannisport, Massachusetts.

Andrianou, Kyveli     see    Kyveli

Andropelagia – (d. 250 AD)
Greek Christian martyr and saint
Andropelagia was put to death in Alexandria, in Egypt. She died with her sister Thekla, a woman named Calodota, and nine men, including a priest and a deacon, during the persecution of the Emperor Traianus Decius (249 – 251 AD). The Acta Sanctorum recorded their feast (Sept 6).

Andrus, Ethel Percy – (1884 – 1967)
American educator, founder, and managing executive
Ethel Andrus was born (Sept 21, 1884) in San Francisco, California, the daughter of a lawyer. Her mother was the daughter of a British sea captain. Raised in Chicago, Illinois, Andrus attended the university there and then became a teacher in English and German at Hull House. Andrus devoted herself to teaching and became the first woman high school principal in the state of California (1916) when she became headmistress of the Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles. Andrus retired in 1944, and was the founder of the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA) (1947).
Later, due to the importunement of persons whi appreciated her qualities, Andrus assumed the leadership of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) (1958). Her work on behalf of elderly and retired people was recognized at the presidential level when Andrus was appointed to the advisory committee of the White House Conference in Aging (1961). The Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California was established and dedicated (1973) in memory of her life-long on behalf of elderly and retired people. Ethel Percy Andrus died (July 13, 1967) aged eighty-two, at Long Beach, California.

Anduze, Clara d’ – (c1165 – after 1224)                            
French trobairitz
Clara d’Anduze was the daughter of Bernard VII, Seigneur d’Anduze, in Languedoc, and his wife Marquise. She seems originally to have had the name of Elips of Azalais. The name Clara may have been adopted by her as a poetic fiction. Clara married Odilon de Mercoeur, but the only other details known of her life are those recorded by the biographer Uc de Saint-Circ (c1180 – c1254) who stated that he was her lover, and that he made her so famous by writing songs in her honour, that many other women of her class sent her presents and formal greetings out of admiration and respect. Only one of Clara’s poems, which begins: The lauzengiers and deceitful spies…., has survived. Her brother, Bernard VIII d’Anduze sided with Toulouse during the Albigensian Crusade, which began in 1209.

Andzhaparidze, Veriko Iulianovna (Vera) – (1900 – 1987)
Georgian stage and film and actress
Vera Andzhaparidze was born in Kutaisi, the daughter of a public notary. Educated in Tbilisi, and trained for the theatre, she spent the earliest years of her career with the Rusthavelli Theatre (1920 – 1926). She later performed at the Moscow Realistic Theatre where she appeared in the title role of Maxim Gorky’s Mother (1932) to great acclaim. Andzhaparidze was appointed as director of the Mardzhanishvilli Theatre in Tbilisi, a position she held for two years (1957 – 1959).
During this time she continued to act and it was then that she gave her famous and peic performance as the grandmother in Kasson’s The Trees Die Standing. Her unique craft was also appreciated in the more traditional roles such as Cleopatra and Margeurite Gauthier. Her part in her last film Monanieba (Repentance) (1987), released shortly after her death made her a cultural icon. Andzhaparidze was the mother of actress Sofiko Chiaureli, with whom she appeared in Sergei Parajanmov’s production of Ambavi Suramis tsikhitsa (Legend of Suram Fortress) (1984). Considered one of the founders of the modern Georgian theatre, she was awarded the prestigious Stalin Prize three times, and received the Order of Lenin for her contributions to the theatre. Veriko Andzhaparidze died (Jan 31, 1987) aged eighty-six.

Anemaina, Theodora – (fl. 1157 – after 1185)
Byzantine princess
Theodora Anemaina was the granddaughter of Manuel Anemas and his wife Princess Theodora Komnena, the daughter of Emperor Johannes II Komnenus (1118 – 1143). She was married to the noted general Andronikos Lapardas who was killed in 1183. She was later sought as a bride by Bela III of Hungary but became a nun.

Anfruns de Gelabert, Maria – (1889 – 1965)
Spanish poet and dramatist
Maria Anfruns de Gelabert was born at Cornella de Llobregat in Barcelona and studied lace-making during her youth. She was married to Angel Marsa. Maria joined the local religious organization, the Associacio de Filles de Maria, for which she wrote the play El retorn de la tia d’America (The Return of the American Aunt) (1933). Her poems and verses where published by her husband under the title, Calaixet de blondes. Flaires de tardor (1960). She wrote the children’s Christmas play, Florida de virtuts (A Flowering of Virtues) (1966) was published posthumously. Maria Anfruns de Gelabert died at Cornella de Llobregat.

Angel, Heather – (1909 – 1986)
British film actress
Heather Angel was born (Feb 9, 1909) and made films in Hollywood from 1933. She appeared in movies such as Berkeley Square (1933), Last of the Mohicans (1936) and Pride and Prejudice (1940). Angel also worked in television and appeared on the popular television series Peyton Place (1964 – 1969). Heather Angel died (Dec 13, 1986) aged seventy-seven.

Angela of Brescia     see    Merici, Angela

Angela of Foligno – (1248 – 1309)
Italian mystic and saint
Angela was born into a wealthy patrician family. She became a Franciscan tertiary, and with the deaths of her husband and children she established herself as an anchorite. Her mystic visions were recorded in her work Liber Visionem et Instructionem which she dictated to her confessor. Angela of Foligno was later beatified (1693) by Pope Innocent XII (1691 – 1700).

Angelburga      see      Engilburga

Angeles, Victoria de Los    see   Los Angeles, Victoria de

Angelina Arianita – (c1442 – 1516) 
Queen consort of Serbia
The wife of King Stephen the Blind, she was the elder daughter of George Arianiti Topia Golem, lord of Durazzo and Valona, one of the greatest patricians of southern Albania, and was descended from the Imperial family of the Komneni. Her sister Andronica Arianita was the wife of the famous George Scanderberg (Castriota), the ‘Dragon of Albania.’ Married at Scutari, in Turkey (1461), the couple resided for some years in Albania, until advancements by the Turks became more menacing, and forced them to remove to Kupinik. In 1467 the royal family were amongst the 30, 000 Albanians that migrated to Naples, founding the colony of San Demetrio. King Stephen died at Belgrade (1476), whereupon Queen Angelina, accompanied by their two sons, went to Transylvania, later returning to reside at Kupinik. Of her two daughters, Maria (1466 – 1495) became the second wife (1485) of Bonifacio IV, Marquis of Montferrato, whilst Militsa (c1474 – 1554) married Neagoe Bassarab, Lord of Wallachia.
In 1496 her son elder Djordje (George) (c1462 – 1516) became a monk, taking the name of Maxim, and became Archbishop of Belgrade. He later resigned these dignities and retired to the abbey of Krusedol, which he had built, dying Jan 18, 1516. Queen Angelina had also entered this house, becoming a nun and taking the name of Theodora in religion. She survived her son only a few days. The bodies of the queen, her husband, and their two sons, Djordje and Iovan, Despot of Raitzen (c1465 – 1502), were preserved there for two hundred years until the Turks plundered the monastery and destroyed these relics (1716). The queen mother was long revered by the Serbian people as ‘Mother Angelina’ because of her pious and charitable disposition. The Serbian church revered her as a saint, and her feast was observed on July 30.

Angelina, Praskovia Nikitichna – (1913 – 1959)
Russian tractor driver
Praskovia Angelina was born in Starobeshevo, Donetsk Oblast. At the age of sixteen (1929), she became the first woman to complete a tractor driving course, and then proceeded to organize a brigade of female drivers. Praskovia was used as the symbolic figurehead of Josef Stalin’s campaign for the education of women in the technological fields. She signed the 1938 proclamation, Hundred thousand women friends take to the tractor, and later graduated from the Moscow Agricultural College (1940).

Angell, Helen Cordelia – (1847 – 1884)
British painter
Helen Coleman was born in Horsham, London, the daughter of a doctor, and the sister of artist William Stephen Coleman (1829 – 1904), and became the wife (1875) of Thomas William Angell, London postmaster. A pupil of her brother, Helen became an accomplished artist, and specialized in watercolour paintings of flowers, fruit and birds. In her youth she exhibited at the Dudley Gallery, and assisted her brother with the ceramic decorations at Minton’s Establishment, South Kensington.

In 1875 Helen Angell was elected a member of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours, but resigned in 1878. In 1879 she was elected an Associate of the Old Water Colour Society and was appointed Flower Painter in Ordinary to Queen Victoria. Her work was exhibited at the Royal Academy and by the New Water Colour Society, and at various other exhibitions. Helen Angell died in Kensington, London.

Angelo, Helena Elizabeth – (1817 – 1908)
Anglo-Indian diarist
Born Helena Gordon-Cumming, she became the wife of a military officer, Frederick Cortlandt Angelo (1825 – 1857), who was killed at Kanpur during the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny.
Helena, who was then pregnant, managed to escape Kanpur by river with her two children, aided by loyal servants, and the group managed to reach safety. Her journal of these experiences was later edited by a cousin and published in the Notes and Queries historical magazine (1955).

Angelona, Margherita    see   Agullona, Margherita

Angennes, Julie Lucine    see    Montausier, Duchesse de

Anger, Jane – (fl. c1580 – 1589)
English feminist author
Her name may have been a pseudonym. She was educated in Latin and penned and published, Jane Anger, her protection for women (1589) in response to the work, Boke his Surfeit in Love, which no longer exists. Anger believed that women were superior to men because they were created after man and were therefore the purer creation, and also due to the very necessary services they provided as nurses, mothers, and household managers.

Angerer, Margit – (1903 – 1978)
Hungarian soprano
Margit von Rupp was born (Nov 6, 1903) in Budapest. She studied at the Budapest Academy and made her stage debut in Vienna as Leonora in La forza del destino (1926). She remained with the Vienna opera till WW II when she appeared with particular success as Aithra in Die agyptische Helena. Angerer retired to London after Hitler took over Austria (1938) and worked there as a singing instructor. Margit Angerer died (Jan 31, 1978) aged seventy-four, in London.

Angers, Marie Louise Felicite   see   Conan, Laure

Angeville, Henriette d’ – (1795 – 1871)
French mountaineer
Henriette became the first woman to make a solo climb to the summit of Mount Blanc. She was remembered for climbing the Oldenhorn wearing a crinoline. Henriette d’Angeville died in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Angharad ferch Mareddud – (c995 – c1040)
Welsh queen consort (1018 – 1023)
Angharad was the daughter of Mareddud ap Owain, King of North Wales. She was married firstly (c1010) to Llewellyn ap Seisyll, King of North Wales and was the mother of King Gruffyd ap Llewellyn (c1015 – 1063). Queen Angharad married secondly (c1024) to Cynfyn ap Gweryston, Prince of Powys.

Angharad ferch Meurig – (c835 – c880)
Welsh queen consort
Angharad ferch Meurig was the daughter of Meurig, king of Ceredigion. She was married (c850) to King Rhodri the Great, (c830 – 878), whom she survived as queen dowager. She was the mother of kings Anarawd (c855 – 916) and Cadell (c857 – c909) who ruled jointly.

Angharad ferch Owain – (c1080 – 1162)
Queen consort of North Wales
Angharad ferch Owain was the daughter of Owain ap Edwin, Prince of Gwynned and Lord of Englefield, and his wife Angharad, widow of King Llewellyn ap Seisyll. She was married (c1095) to Gruffyd ap Cynan, King of North Wales (1054 – 1137), to whom she bore eight children. Angharad was queen consort for over forty years, being present at her husband’s deathbed (1137), when he bequeathed her one half of his considerable possessions, together with two shares of land and the profits of the port of Abermenai.
Queen Angharad was lavishly praised by her husband’s biographer, an unidentified Welsh monk, who recorded her as tall, blonde, and beautiful, and a faithful and exacting observer of her queenly duties. She survived twenty-five years into the reign of her son Owain ap Gruffyd, honoured and respected as queen mother.

Angiolini, Carolina Pitrot – (c1760 – after 1797)
French-Italian dancer
Carolina Pitrot was the daughter of choreographer and ballet master Antoine Bonaventure Pitrot and his first wife Anna Madeleine Rabon. Pitrot was performing at the Teatro dell Pergola in Florence (1777) where sshe met the Italian dancer and choreographer Pietro Angiolini (c1761 – after 1834) whom she had married by 1784. Exceptionally beautiful, Pitrot joined the company of the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice. She and Angiolini joined the troupe brought by Charles Le Picq to the king’s theatre in London.
There she performed in the grand ballet Le Parti de Chasse d’Henri IV, with her husband in the title role. They both appeared in Le Judjement de Paris (1785) and were noted for the versatility of their dance routines. When they left England Carolina performed continuously for over a decade at Turin, Venice, Trieste, Vicenza, Milan, and Naples. The last record of her was her performed in Il Balbo del papa at Milan (Feb 25, 1797).

Angivilliers, Elisabeth Josephine de La Borde, Comtesse d’ – (1723 – 1808)
French letter writer and salonniere
Elisabeth Josephine de La Borde was married firstly (1747) to Gerard Binet, Baron de Marchais. The baronne then remarried to Charles Claude Flahault, Comte de la Billardiere d’Angivilliers. Madame d’Angivilliers and her husband were prominent figures at the court of Louis XV at Versailles. She attended the fashionable salons of the period such as that of Madame Du Deffand in Paris but managed to survive the horrors of the Revolution. Madame de Angivilliers was mentioned in the correspondence of the British antiquarian Horace Walpole.

Anglada i Sarriera, Lola – (1893 – 1985)
Spanish children’s writer and illustrator
Lola Anglada i Sarriera was born in Barcelona. She studied painting under Joan Laverias at the La Llotja de Barcelona, which enabled her to illustrate her own works. A scholarship enabled Lola to study in Paris after WW I. Angalda i Sarriera’s published works included Contes del Paradis (Stories of Paradis) (1920) and En Peret (Peret) (1928), which were written in Catalan. Some were preserved in the collection housed in the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Modern History in Barcelona.
Her other published works included Clavelina i crisantem (1933), Contes marvellosos (1947), Martinet (1962) and Monsenyor Langardais (1980). She received the Medal for the Promotion of the Decorative Arts (1981). Lola Anglada i Sarriera died in Tiana.

Anglin, Margaret – (1876 – 1958)
Canadian stage and film actress
Margaret Anglin was born in Ottawa, the daughter of a politician. She made her stage debut in Bronson Howard’s production of, Shenandoah (1894) in New York. Best remembered for her portrayals of the darker sides of human nature, she retired in 1943. Margaret Anglin died (Jan 7, 1958) aged eighty-one.

Angosse, Louise Petronille d’Usson de Bonac, Marquise d’ – (fl. 1767 – 1780)
French courtier and letter writer
The daughter of Francois Armand d’Usson, Marquis de Bonac, the French ambassador to Holland, she was niece to Jean Louis d’Usson de Bonac, Bishop of Aigen. Louise Petronille was married (1768) to Jean Paul, Marquis d’ Angosse. A member of the literary circle which surrounded Madame Du Deffand with whom she corresponded, the marquise also had apartments at the convent of St Joseph in Paris, and was mentioned in the correspondence of the British antiquarian Horace Walpole. She was the mother of Claude Alexandre Casimir, Comte d’Angosse (1779 – 1838) and of Louise Pauline Petronille Charlotte d’Angosse (1770 – 1779) who died young.

Angouleme, Charlotte de Montmorency, Duchesse d’ – (1571 – 1638)
French royal
Charlotte de Montmorency was the daughter of Henry de Montmorency, Duc de Danville and de Montmorency. She became the first wife (1591) at Pezenas of Charles de Valois (1573 – 1650), Duc d’Angouleme, the illegitimate son of King Charles IX (1560 – 1574) and his mistress Marie Tuchet. Charlotte inherited the fief of Alois in Languedoc which she passed to her third son Francois. The Duchesse d’Angouleme died (Aug 12, 1638) in Paris. Her children were,

• Henry de Valois (1594 – 1668). He became Comte de Lauraguais but was disinherited by his father (1609).
• Louis Emanuel de Valois (1596 – 1663). He succeeded his father as Duc d’Angouleme (1650 – 1663), and left issue.
• Francois de Valois (1598 – 1622). He became Comte d’Alois but died without issue.
• Marie de Valois. She was married firstly to Daniel d’Hazeville and secondly to David Dade.
• Anne de Valois. She remained unmarried and became nun at the Abbey of Morienval.

Angouleme, Francoise de Narbonne, Duchesse d’ – (1622 – 1713)
French courtier
Madame d’Angouleme was a prominent figure at the court of Louis XIV. She was married (1644), as his second wife, to Charles de Valois, Duc d’Angouleme (1573 – 1650), the natural son of King Charles IX (1560 – 1574) and his mistress Marie Tuchet. Their marriage was childless. With the death of her stepson Louis Emanuel and his daughter, Marie Francoise de Valois, the duchesse held the duchy of Narbonne (1696 – 1713).
The Duchesse d’Angouleme was a member of the court at Versailles that surrounded the king’s favourite, Mme de Montespan, and she became implicated in the infamous ‘Affair of the Poisons’ (1679 – 1680). Her involvement was not considered serious and the duchesse quickly returned to the court. The Duchesse d’Angouleme died (Aug 10, 1713) aged ninety-one, at the Chateau de Montemor, in Champagne.

Angouleme, Henriette de La Guiche, Duchesse d’ – (1597 – 1682)
French courtier
Henriette de La Guiche was born in Paris, the daughter of Philibert de La Guiche, Seigneur de Chaumont and his wife Antoinette de Daillon du Lude. She was married firstly to Jacques de Matignon, Comte de Thorigny, and secondly (1629) to Louis de Valois (1596 – 1653) second Duc d’Angouleme. She attended the court of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria and that of Louix XIV at Versailles. Henriette survived her husband for almost three decades as the Dowager Duchesse d’Angouleme (1653 – 1682). The Duchesse d’Angouleme died (May 22, 1682) in Paris, aged eighty-five and was interred at Chaumont in Burgundy. She left four children from her second marriage,

• Louis de Valois, Comte d’Auvergne (1630 – 1637). He died in childhood.
• Marie Francoise de Valois (1632 – 1696). She succeeded her father as the third Duchesse d’Angouleme and became the wife of Louis de Lorraine (died 1656), seventh Duc de Joyeuse.
• Armand de Valois, Comte d’Auvergne (1635 – 1639). He died in infancy.
• Francois de Valois, Comte d’Auvergne (1639 – 1644). He died in infancy.

Angouleme, Jeanne d’ – (c1490 – after 1538)
French heiress
Jeanne was the illegitimate daughter of Charles de Valois, Comte d’Angouleme and his mistress of Antoinette de Polignac, Dame de Combronde, the daughter of Foucaud de Polignac, Seigneur des Fontaines. She was half-sister to King Francois I (1515 – 1547) and Queen Margeurite of Navarre. Jeanne was raised in her father’s household at Cognac and served as lady-in-waiting to his wife, Louise of Savoy. She was legitimated by Louis XII shortly before her marriage (1501) with Jean Aubin, Seigneur de Malicorne. This union remained childless.
Jeanne was then remarried to Jean IV de Longwy (died 1520), Seigneur de Givry and Baron de Pagny and Mirabeau. With the death of her husband his titles were inherited by their eldest daughter, and King Francois then created Jeanne (1522) Countess of Bar-sur-Seine. Jeanne was living in 1538, and at her death the county of Bar was inherited by her youngest daughter Jacqueline, through whom she was ancestress of the British royal house of Hanover and their descendants. Her granddaughter Charlotte de Bourbon was the third wife of William I the Silent, Prince of Orange. Her three daughters were,

• Francoise de Longwy (c1510 – 1561). She was married firstly to Philippe de Chabot, Comte de Charny (c1492 – 1543), and secondly to Jacques de Perusse, Seigneur d’Escars. She left
  children from both marriages.
• Claude Louise de Longwy. She became a nun and was appointed as Abbess of Jouarre.
• Jacqueline de Longwy (c1518 – 1561). She was married to Louis III de Bourbon, Duc de Montpensier (1513 – 1582) and left children.

Angouleme, Marie Therese Charlotte de Bourbon, Duchesse d’ – (1778 – 1851)
Princess of France
Known as ‘Madame Royale,’ she was born (Dec 20, 1778) at the Palace of Versailles, the elder daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette of Austria. Her birth after her parents had already been married for eight years was celebrated throughout France as a national event. She was most carefully educated, though with considerable freedom and was her father’s favourite child her nickname being ‘little mouse’ (Mousseline). During the revolution she at first shared the imprisonment of her parents, but after her mother’s execution (Oct, 1793), she remained into the company of her aunt Elisabeth until that lady’s execution (July, 1794).
Thereafter she was imprisoned in the Temple where her plight attracted much public sympathy, and finally, in 1795, the princess was exchanged for prominent republicans held prisoner in Austria. She went into exile in Germany, and eventually (1799) married her cousin Louis Antoine, Duc d’Angouleme, the son of the future Charles X 1824 – 1830, and resided in England. The marriage remained childless, and the princess remained scarred for life by the early tragedy that had engulfed her family. Madame returned to France with the Bourbon restoration of Louis XVIII (1814). During the disturbances of 1830, between the abdication of Charles X and the Duc d’Angouleme’s renunciation of the throne on the same day, she was was Queen of France. Still known as ‘Madame Royale’, she returned into exile in England, and died (Oct, 1851) aged seventy-two, at Frohsdorf Castle, Austria. She left memoirs which gave her account of the family’s imprisonment and the deaths of her relatives entitled Memoires particuliers, formant, avec l’ouvrage de M. Hue et le journal de Clery, l’histoire complete de la captivite de la famille royale a’ la Tour du Temple (1817). Her personal Journal was published in 1893.

Anguissola, Europa – (c1542 – 1578)
Italian painter
Europa was born in Cremona, the daughter of Amilcare Anguissola, a member of the lesser nobility. She was raised and educated by her father in Cremona with her five sisters including Sofonisba, from whom she may have been taught, and Lucia and Elena Anguissola. She became the wife of the Cremonese patrician Carlo Schinchinelli and produced several paintings for his family.

Anguissola, Lucia – (c1536 – 1565)
Italian painter
Lucia was born in Cremona, the daughter of Amilcare Anguissola, a lesser nobleman. With her sisters Sofonisba, Elena and Europa she was educated with great care by their father. She produced portraits of which the only identified one is Pietro Maria (c1560), the likeness of a Cremonese physician, is preserved in the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain.
Lucia is known to have produced and untraced Virgin and Child and a half-length self-portrait (c1557). Two portraits of Minerva Anguissola, another sister, may have been painted by Lucia and are preserved in Brescia and Milan. Lucia Anguissola died in Cremona.

Anguissola, Sofonisba – (1531 – 1625) 
Italian painter
Sofonsiba Anguissola was born in Cremona, the daughter of Amilcare Anguissola, a minor patrician. With her five sisters she was educated in humanist ideals, being taught Latin, music, and painting. With her sister Elena she studied under the Mannerist painter Bernardino Campi for three years (1546 – 1549). She continued her studies after 1549 with Bernardino Gatti. Famous as a portraitist, her use of genrelike scenes in her work attracted international acclaim, and her impressive career spanned seven decades.
Praised by the critic Giorgio Vasari and the sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti, she received the patronage of Philip II of Spain, being appointed painter to his third wife Isabel de Valois. She painted the portrait of the queen at the request of Pope Pius IV. After having resided in Genoa for some years, Anguissola retired to Palermo, in Sicily, with her second husband, Orazio Lomellino. Here she was visited in extreme old age by the Dutch master, Antony Van Dyck (1624), who included a drawing of her in his Italian Sketchbook. Some fifty examples of her work survive.

Anicia Juliana     see    Juliana, Anicia

Anicia Postuma   see   Postuma, Anicia

Anisimova, Nina Alexandrovna – (1909 – 1979)

Russian ballerina
Nina Anisimova was born in St Petersburg, and graduated from the Leningrad Choreographic School (1926), becoming the pupil of Agrippina Vaganova. Nina began her career at the Leningrad Malyi Theatre, before joining the Lirsov Ballet Theatre (1927). Becoming a choreographer herself, Nina taught ballet for ten years (1963 – 1974) at the Leningrad Conservatory.

Anitua, Fanny – (1887 – 1968)
Mexican mezzo-soprano
Fanny Anitua was born in Durango and studied at home in Mexico, and abroad in Rome. She made her stage debut as Eurydike in Gluck’s Orfeo at the Teatro Nazionale there (1910). Imposing in both voice and physique, for forty years (1910 – 1939) she performed in Italy, Latin-America, and the USA. Notes especially for her agility in maintaining notes, both high and low, Anitua was the first to perform the role of Etra in Pizzetti’s Fedra. Her most popular operatic roles included Il Trovatore, Ulrica in Ballo in Maschera, Aida, and Samson and Delilah.
Fanny Anitua died aged eighty, in Mexico City.

Anjuman, Nadia – (1980 – 2005)
Afghan poet
Nadia Anjuman was born in Heart. During the regime instigated by the Taliban, their respressive edicts forbade female education, so Anjuman joined a group of women who met at a local sewing club, where they secretly instructed on foreign literature by a university lecturer. With the fall of the Taliban (2001), Anjuman married Farid Ahmad Majid Mia and bore him a son, but her husband severely curtailed her scholarly activities.
Within weeks of the publication of her first volume of poetry Gule Dudi (Dark Flower) (2005) her husband killed her during a domestic argument (Nov 5). When arrested he tried to claim that she had committed suicide. Her tragic death drew attention to the problem of domestic violence in Afghanistan.

Ankarcrona, Alice Elisabeth – (1888 – 1985)
Swedish courtier and morganatic royal
Alice Ankarcrona was born (Dec 18, 1889) at Tullgarn, the daughter of Oskar ankarcona and his wife Anna Elisabeth Carleson. She was married firstly to Count Ludwik Badeni. After his death she then became the wife (1920) at Zywiec of the Hapsburg Archduke Karl Albrecht of Austria (1888 – 1951) to whom she bore four children. The Imperial family did not recognize the union and it was regarded as morganatic. Alice was created Princess von Altenburg (1949 – 1985) and died (Nov 26, 1985) aged ninety-six, at Saltsjobaden.

Anker, Nini Roll – (1873 – 1942)
Norwegian novelist and dramatist
Nini Anker was born in Molde. She used her novels as vehicles to express her concern in certain areas of social reform. Apart from writing books for children, she produced the famous feminist novel, Kvinnen og den svarte fuglen (The Woman and the Black Bird), which was published posthumously (1945).

Ankers, Evelyn – (1918 – 1995)
British film actress
Evelyn Ankers appeared in such films as The Wolf Man (1941), The Lone Wolf in London (1947) and No Greater Love (1960).

Ankhesenamun – (c1360 – c1337 BC) 
Queen of Egypt
Ankhesenamun was the third daughter of King Amenhotep IV and his wife Nefertiti. She was married firstly to her father, as a secondaty wife. With his death, she then became the wife of her half-brother, Tuthankhamun, but they had no son. Their only surviving child, Neferneferure Tashery, later became the wife of the King of Ugarit. Traces on inscriptions confirm that the king and queen made sacrifices to the god Harmarkhis on the Giza plateau. A fragment of decorated gold found on Tuthankhamun’s tomb, portrays the queen escorting her young husband during the ensuing celebrations.
With his death, she was forced to marry the elderly Ay, who was probably her grandfather. He was supported by General Horemheb, who hoped to succeed him. A surviving ring with twin cartouches, bearing the the names of Ay and Ankhesenamun, indicates that the new pharaoh, either married Ankhensenamun, or made her his co-regent, though his own elderly wife, Tey, received the royal title as well. The marriage helped ay legitimate his claim to the throne, and briefly silenced the claims of a pretender who was supported by the Memphite army and the priests of Amun. Queen Ankhesenamun bore King Ay no known children and quickly faded from public view. She may have been murdered, and her tomb has not been uncovered.

Ankhnespepi I (Ankhsenmerira I) – (c2325 – c2300 BC)
Queen consort of Egypt
Ankhnespepi I was the first wife of King Pepi I of the VIth Dynasty (2325 – 2175 BC). Her name means ‘She lives for King Pepi I’ and she was the daughter of a local dignitary or prince named Khui who appears to have come from the Abydos region, and was sister to the court vizier Djau. She bore the throne name of Ankhnesmery-Re and was the mother of Pepi’s first son King Merenre I Nemtyemsaf (c2300 – c2246 BC). She appears to have died soon after his birth when Pepi then married her sister Ankhnespepi II who became the mother of Merenre’s much younger half-brother, the child king Pepi II. Her daughter Neith became the wife and consort of her half-brother Pepi II. Her tomb survives at Saqqara near that of her husband and she is named on a surviving inscription in Berlin.

Ankhnespepi II (Ankhsenmerira II) – (c2315 – c2250 BC)
Queen consort and regent of Egypt
Ankhnespepi II was the second wife of King Pepi I of the VIth Dynasty (2325 – 2175 BC). She was the younger daughter of the powerful prince Khui from the Abydos region of Upper Egypt. Like her elder sister Ankhnespepi I she bore the same throne name of Ankhnesmery-Re which proved a source of confusion to historians. She was the wife of Pepi’s old age and was the mother of Pepi II (c2281 – c2187 BC) who was made joint-king with his elder half-brother, Merenre I Nemtyemsaf, when a child of six years, in their aged father’s lifetime. With the death of Pepi I (c2265 BC) for some years at least Queen Ankhnespepi II and her brother the vizier Djau, ruled parts of Egypt as regents for Pepi II until he came of age. There is evidence that she made a politically expedient marriage with her stepson and nephew.
Queen Anhnespepi II was buried at Saqqara, near Cairo, near her late husband and was given a magnificent funerary complex which was discovered in 1997. The queen mother is known from a surviving inscription from Wadi Maghara and there remains a record of her commissioning public works to be carried out by the civil administration. An broken alabaster statue bearing her name and preserved in the Brooklyn Museum in New York gives her the titles of ‘Mother of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, the God’s Daughter, the revered one beloved of Khnum’ and she was depicted wearing the vulture headdress, whilst she sits holding her young son protectively in her lap. Surviving texts reveal that she was buried with full pharaonic honours.

Ankhnespepi III (Ankhesenpiopi) – (c2240 – c2170 BC)
Queen consort and regent of Egypt
Ankhnespepi III was the daughter of King Merenre I Nemtyemsaf of the VIth Dynasty (2325 – 2175 BC). She became one of the wives of King Pepi II and bore her husband several children. She was interred in a pyramid at Saqqara near Cairo, near that of her husband. Her massive stone sarcophagus has survived bearing her names and royal titles. The tomb was robbed in antiquity and some of her bones were found scattered about the chamber. Remaining fragments of a decree of Pepi II in which the queen was honoured were found near the enclosure in the north wall of the funerary complex.

Ankhnespepi IV – (fl. c2200 – c2150 BC)
Queen consort of Egypt
Ankhnespepi IV was one of the later wives of King Pepi II of the VIth Dynasty (2325 – 2175 BC) and was the mother of a short-lived king named Neferkare II Nebi, who is thought to have reigned sometime during the eighth Dynasty (2175 – 2125 BC). The lid of her stone sarcophagus was recovered from the pyramid complex of Queen Iput II at Saqqara.

Anle – (684 – 710)                                        
Chinese princess and political intriguer
The princess was born near Fang Chou, during the exile of her parents, Emperor Zhongzhong (Chung Tsung) and his wife, Empress Wei. Her father’s youingest andf favourite child, she was married firstly Wu Ch’eng-hsun, and secondly (707) Wu Yen-hsiu. Her father-in-law, Wu San-ssu, Prince Liang, nephew of her grandmother, the Empress Wu Zetian, hoped to gain the Imperial throne through Anle.  
Anle conspired to be declared crown princess (705), and in 707 became involved in a conspiracy to achieve that end. Her second marriage was wideley considered incestuous, but was celebrated with great magnificence, and the emperor gave clear indications that his considered his daughter as his heiress. Her ascendancy continued until 710 when opposing palace forces, with the support of her aunt, Princess T’ai-ping caused her father to be poisoned, and her half-brother, Ruizong to be proclaimed emperor. Caught by surprise at her mirror, the princess was beheaded where she sat (July 21, 710).

Anna     see also     Anne

Anna – (d. c380 AD)
Gothic Christian martyr
Anna was put to death with five other women and thirty men by order of King Jungerich of the Goths, who them imprisoned within a church which was then set on fire. Anna was one of the earliest Christians to be commemorated amongst the Gothic people and her feast (March 26) was recorded in the Acta Sanctorum.

Anna Abachidze – (c1728 – 1749)
Queen consort of Kakheti (1745 – 1749)
Princess Anna Abachidze was the daughter of Prince Zaal Abachidze and his wife Mkheidze. She became the second wife (1745) of Irakli II, King of Kakheti in Georgia. Her daughter Princess Tamara became the wife of King Giorgi XII (1749 – 1801). Queen Anna died (Dec 18, 1749) at Tiflis in Georgia.

Anna Anachutlu Komnena – (c1310 – 1342)
Byzantine Augusta of Trebizond
Anna Anachutlu Komnena was the elder daughter of the Emperor Alexius II Komnenus and his wife, Djadjak of Samatzkhte. She remained unmarried and took vows as a nun, but political considerations forced her into the limelight as empress (1341 – 1342). Her reign proved ephemeral, and she was quickly removed from power and strangled.

Anna Barathachvili – (c1727 – 1784)
Queen consort of Kartli (1746 – 1762)
Anna was the daughter of Bejan Barthachvili. She was married (Aug, 1746) to Theimuraz (c1680 – 1769), King of Kartli in Georgia, as his third wife. They had two daughters. She survived her husband as the Dowager Queen of Kartli (1769 – 1784) and entered a convent in St Petersburg in Russia, where she died.

Anna Carlovna      see     Anna Leopoldovna

Anna Comnena      see       Anna Komnena

Anna Dalassena – (c1027 – c1101)
Byzantine Augusta
Anna Dalassena was the daughter of Alexius Pharon, prefect of Italy. Her mother was a descendant of Damianus Dalassenus (died 998), Duke of Antioch. She became the wife (1042) of Johannes Komnenus (1015 – 1067), and was granted the title of Despoina. She bore Johannes bore several children including Alexius Komnenus (1048 – 1118). She was widowed young but never remarried and devoted her energies to the political and dynastic advancement of her children.
When her eldest son was installed as the first emperor of the Komneni dynasty (1081), Anna was given the title of Augusta by her son. She was twice appointed by Alexius to rule Constantinople as regent during his absence, in (1081) and again (1094 – 1095), a position she filled with ability. She later founded the Abbey of Pantopopte to which she eventually retired, and where she died (between Nov 1, 1100 – April 27, 1102) aged in her early seventies. She appears in the famous Alexiad chronicle, written by her granddaughter Anna Komnena.

Anna Dandolo – (c1199 – after 1263)
Queen consort of Serbia (1217 – 1227)
Anna Dandolo was the daughter of Rainero Dandolo, procurator of San Marco in Venice. She was married (1216) to Stephen Prvovencani (c1170 – 1227), King of Serbia, as his third wife. She survived her husband for almost forty years as Queen Dowager of Serbia and was still living in 1263. Queen Anna was the mother of Stephen Urosh I the Great (c1218 – 1280), King of Serbia.

Anna Diogena – (c1087 – c1130)
Queen consort of Serbia (c1105 – c1130)
Princess Anna Diogena was the daughter of Prince Constantine Diogenes. She was married (c1105) to Urosh I (c1080 – c1140), King of Serbia whom she predeceased. Queen Anna was the mother of the Serbian kings Urosh II (c1110 – after 1161), who abdicated, and Desa (1155 – 1162). Her daughter Helena of Serbia became the wife of Bela II (1109 – 1141), King of Hungary.

Anna Dmitrievna    see   Anna of Kashin

Anna Feodorovna – (1781 – 1860)
Russian grand duchess
Born Princess Juliana Henrietta at Coburg, Thuringia, Saxony, she was the daughter of Franz Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his second wife, Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorff. She accompanied her mother and two elder sisters to the Russian court at St Petersburg (1796), and was married to the Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich, grandson of Catherine the Great, taking on the Russian Orthodox faith, and the name Anna Feodorovna.
The marriage was unhappy and remained childless. They were formally seperated (1799) but Anna agreed to return and cohabit with Constantine. He demanded all sorts of favour from her in public, whilst his behaviour in the bedchamber was said to be indescribable. Eventually she consoled herself with a lover, was caught, and left Russia, never to return (1801). Constantine again begged her to return, but she flatly refused (1814). A divorce was later granted by Tsar Nicholas I (1820) and Constantine remarried to an opera singer, Johanna Grudzinska. The Grand duchess retired to Berne, in Switzerland, where she resided another forty years. Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna died (Aug 15, 1860) aged seventy-nine.

Anna Ivanovna – (1693 – 1740)
Russian Tsarina (1730 – 1740)
Grand Duchess Anna Ivanovna was born in Moscow, the daughter of Tsar Ivan V, and his second wife Praskovia Saltykova. She was raised by her mother with her two sisters Catherine and Praskovia, but at the insistence of Tsar Peter the Great western influences were introduced to their education. Anna was married in St Petersburg (1710) to Frederick William, Duke of Kurland (1692 – 1711), but this union remained brief and childless, the groom dying from the excessive celebrations.
By arrangement of her uncle, Peter the Great, Anna continued to rule in Kurland until 1730, keeping her court at Mittau. In that year she succeeded the child emperor Peter II on the Russian throne. Most of the government was left in the hands of Anna‘s favourite Ernest Biron, whom Anna installed as duke of Kurland. She intervened in the War of the Polish Succession (1733 – 1739), and fought a war against the Turks in alliance with Austria (1736 – 1739). Anna also secured for Russia the port of Azov by the Treaty of Belgrade in 1739. The Empress Anna died childless (Nov 28, 1740) aged forty-seven. She appointed Biron to rule as regent for her great-nephew Ivan VI, but her cousin Elizabeth Petrovna finally secured the throne for herself (1741).

Anna Jagiella (1) – (1476 – 1503)
Princess of Poland
Anna was born (March 12, 1476) the daughter of Kasimierz IV Jagiellon, King of Poland (1445 – 1492) and his wife Elisabeth of Hungary, the daughter of Albert V, King of Hungary and Bohemia. She was married at Stettin (1491) to Bogislav X the Great (1454 – 1523), Duke of Pomerania (1476 – 1523) as his second wife and was duchess consort (1491 – 1503). Duchess Anna died (Aug 12, 1503) aged twenty-seven, at Ueckermunde, not recovering from the birth of her last child. She left seven children,

• George I (1493 – 1531). He succeeded his father as Duke of Pomerania-Wolgast (1523 – 1531) and was married twice leaving issue.
• Prince Kasimierz of Pomerania (1494 – 1518). He died unmarried.
• Princess Elisabeth of Pomerania – (1496 – 1518). She died unmarried.
• Prince Barnim of Pomerania (1497 – 1501). He died young.
• Princess Sophia of Pomerania (1498 – 1568). She became the second wife of Frederik I (1471 – 1533), King of Denmark and left issue.
• Barnim IX (1501 – 1573). He succeeded as Duke of Pomerania-Stettin (1523 – 1573) and left issue.
• Prince Otto of Pomerania (1503 – 1518). He died young.

Anna Jagiella (2) – (1503 – 1547)
Queen of Hungary and Bohemia (1526 – 1547)
Princess Anna was born (June 23, 1503) at Ofen, near Buda, the daughter of Vladislav II, King of Hungary and his wife Anne de Foix-Candale. She was the sister and heiress of King Louis II (Lajos) who died childless (1526), killed in battle at Mohacs. Anna was married (1521) at Linz to the Hapsburg archduke Ferdinand (1503 – 1564) (later Holy Roman emperor 1555 – 1564), the brother of Emperor Charles V.
The couple ruled Hungary as king and queen from 1526, and Hungary remained under Austrian control until the dismantling of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1918). Queen Anna was also the author of a devotional work, Cylpeus pietatis. Queen Anna was the mother of the Emperor Maximilian II (1527 – 1576). Queen Anna died from the effects of childbirth (Jan 27, 1547) aged forty-three, in Prague.

Anna Jagiella (3) – (1523 – 1596)
Queen consort of Poland
Princess Anna was the daughter of King Sigismund I of Poland, and his second wife, Bona Sforza, the daughter of Gian Galeazzo, Duke of Milan. Carefully and thoroughly educated, Anna had remained unmarried till past the age of fifty, despite several marital proposals during her youth which never eventuated.  The Polish senate elected the Hapsburg emperor Maximilian II to the vacant Polish throne (1575), ignoring the claims of Anna, the eldest surviving Jagiellon princess.
However, the Polish gentry chose Stephen Bathory, Prince of Transylvania as a husband for Anna, and secured his election to the throne by force. The couple were married and crowned on the same day (May 1, 1576). With Bathory’s death (1586), Queen Anna worked together with the chancellor Jan Zamoyski to ensure the election of her nephew Sigismund III to the Polish throne (1587).

Anna Jaroslavna (1) – (1036 – 1078)
Queen consort of France (1051 – 1060)
Princess Anna Jaroslavna was the daughter of Jaroslav I Vladimirovich, Grand Prince of Kiev, and his second wife Ingegarde, daughter of Olaf II, King of Sweden. She became the third wife (1051) of Henry I of France, to whom she bore two sons, Philip I (1052 – 1108) and Hugh I, Comte de Vermandois. The king’s death (1060) left Anna and Baldwin V of Flanders, as joint regents for Philip I, then aged eight.
Despite this arrangement, and with no powerful relatives to spupport her, Queen Anna possessed little real power. She was forcibly abducted by Raoul IV de Crepy, Comte de Valois (1066), and their subsequent marriage aroused the anger and indignation of the French barons. However, the abduction had merely been a foil to preserve the queen’s dignity, and she proceeded to cohabit with the count as his wife, though he was still legally contracted to his former wife, whom he had dismissed. Even though Raoul was excommunicated for incest, the couple refused to separate. Queen Anna survived Raoul, who died in 1074, but was never again prominent in public affairs during her son’s reign.
Queen Anna has been credited with introducing some of the ritual of the Greek Orthodox Church to the French Catholic church, and of fostering some interest in Russian art in France. Queen Anna died (Sept 5, 1078) aged about forty-two, and was interrred in the Abbey of Villiers, near La-Ferte-Alais, at Essone.

Anna Jaroslavna (2) – (1151 – c1175)
Queen consort of Hungary (1163 – 1167)
Princess Anna was the daughter of Jaroslav, Prince of Galicia and his wife Olga Yurievna, the daughter of Yuri I Dolgoruky, Prince of Suzdal. Anna married firstly (c1162) to Stephen III (1147 – 1172), King of Hungary as his first wife. There were no children and he divorced her (1167). Queen Anna remarried secondly (c1169) to Mstislav (c1152 – 1180), Prince of Novgorod as his first wife. She was the mother of Mstislav Mstislavitch (c1170 – 1228), Prince of Novgorod.

Anna Koltovskaya – (1555 – 1626)
Russian tsarina
Anna Alexievna Koltovskaya was the daughter of a government official, Alexis Koltovsky. She was married to Ivan IV the Terrible (1530 – 1584) in 1572 as his fourth wife. The couple spent their honeymoon in Novgorod, but the marriage remained childless, and Ivan divorced her in 1574, sending her to a convent from where she never emerged. There she was known as Sister Daria, and survived her divorce for over fifty years. Empress Anna died (April 5, 1626). 

Anna Komnena – (1083 – 1153)
Byzantine Imperial princess and historian
Princess Anna Komnena was born in Constantinople, the daughter of the emperor Alexius I Komnenus, and his second wife Irene Dukaina. Betrothed in childhood to Constantine Dukas, the son and heir of the Emperor Michael Michael VII, she was educated in the classics, history, mathematics, astronomy, geography, pharmacology, medicine and philosophy. Her betrothed died in 1094, and in 1097 Anna married Nikephorus Bryennius, to whom she bore four children.
During the wars against the Scythians, Turks, Normans, Franks and Saracens, who all sought to secure the Byzantine throne, Anna accompanied the armies of her father and husband. Her famous work, the Alexiad, written in Byzantine literary Greek in fifteen books, shows Anna to have been an excellent military historian. Although she idealizes her father’s character and achievements, her work gives a vivid portrayal of the important part Byzantine women played in political events. It also provides modern readers with a clear picture of the morality of the times, both classical and Christian, and portrays the Crusaders as they really were.
Anna was later involved in an unsuccessful intrigue with her mother, against her brother John II, whom they had tried to persuade Alexius to disinherit in favour of Anna’s husband. John dealt lightly with her, merely forcing Anna to retire from court life. Widowed in 1128, she retired to a convent, and died in Constantinople at the age of seventy, during the reign of her nephew Manuel I Komnenus.

Anna Leopoldovna – (1718 – 1746)
Russian grand duchess and ruler
Born Princess Elisabeth Catherine Christina at Rostock, Mecklenburg, she was the daughter of Charles Leopold, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and his wife Grand Duchess Ekaterina (Catherine) Ivanovna, the daughter of Tsar Ivan V. Raised in Russia from 1721, the Tsarina Anna, her maternal aunt, arranged for her marriage (1739) with Antony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel (1714 – 1776) when she assumed the Russian name of Anna, and to whom she bore several children including Tsar Ivan VI.

In Oct, 1740 the empress died leaving Anna’s infant son as tsar. Dismissing the former empress’s favourite, Ernest Biron, Anna proclaimed herself regent for her son. In Nov, 1741 she was eventually removed from power after a palace coup organized by the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Petrovna, who deposed Ivan VI, and was proclaimed tsarina. Anna and her family were imprisoned in the fortress of Dunnemunde at Riga, and later at the Kholmogory Palace. Anna died in childbirth aged only twenty-seven (March 18, 1746), and was interred at the monastery of Alexander Nevsky.

Her son Ivan VI (1740 – 1764) having become mentally deranged was removed to a prison where he died. Her daughters, who all remained unmarried, were eventually permitted by Empress Catharine II to return to the court of their aunt Queen Juliana Maria, the widow of Frederick V, formerly a princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, in Denmark.

Annaly, Lavinia Emily Spencer, Lady – (1899 – 1955)
British courtier
Lady Lavinia Spencer was the daughter of the sixth Earl Spencer, and was sister to Lady Delia Peel, and the great-aunt to Diana, Princess of Wales. She was married (1919) to Luke White (1885 – 1970), fourth Baron Annaly to whom she bore two children including Luke Robert White (1927 – 1990) who succeeded his father as the fifth Baron Annaly (1970 – 1990). Lady Annaly served at court as extra lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, wife of George VI, when she was Duchess of York, and for nearly forty years remained one of her closest friends. Lady Annaly died (May 9, 1955) aged fifty-five.

Anna Megale Komnena (1) – (1357 – after 1406)
Queen consort of Georgia (c1374 – 1395)
Princess Anna was the daughter of Manuel II Komnenus, Emperor of Trebizond. She was married to Bagrat V (1324 – 1395), King of Georgia as his second wife. Queen Anna was the mother of King Constantine II of Georgia (1405 – 1412). She was taken into captivity by the Mongols.

Anna Megala Komnena (2) – (1447 – c1490)
Byzantine princess of Trebizond
Anna Megala Komnena was the the younger daughter of emperor David Komnenus, and his second wife Helena Kantacuzena. When the Turkish fleet of the Ottoman sultan Mehmet II reached Trebizond (July, 1461), the emperor offered Anna to the sultan as a bride. However, in August following the Turks entered Trebizond as conquerors, and Anna was forced to accompany her family to Constantinople as the sultan’s prisoner, though they were well treated.
Forcibly converted to Islam, Anna was placed in the sultan’s harem at Adrianople, and later, for a short time, she was given to Zaganos Pasha, the governor of Macedonia. Later, probably after Mehmet’s death (1481), Anna was allowed to retire to the rural area around her former home in Trebizond. There she founded a village named ‘Kyranna’ after her, and endowed a Greek Orthodox Church.

Anna of Austria (1) – (1279 – 1328)
Hapsburg princess
Princess Anna was the eldest daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Albert I and his wife Elisabeth of Gorz-Tyrol. She was betrothed to Hermann (c1274 – 1308), Margrave of Brandenburg (1295 – 1308) and was married to him (1293) at Gratz, in pursuance of her father’s opposition to Adolf of Nassau. She bore Hermann several children before his early death (1308),

• Princess Matilda of Brandenburg (1296 – 1321). She became the wife of Heinrich IV (1292 – 1342), Duke of Sagan and left issue.
• Princess Agnes of Brandenburg (1297 – 1334). She was married firstly to Waldemar (1280 – 1319), Margrave of Brandenburg, and secondly to Otto the Mild (1292 – 1344), Duke of
  Brunswick-Grubenhagen.
• Princess Judith of Brandenburg (1301 – 1353). She became the wife of Heinrich XII (died 1347), Count of Henneberg.
• Johann V (1302 – 1317). He succeeded his father as Margrave of Brandenburg (1308 – 1317) and was married but died childless.
• Her family arranged her second marriage (1310) with Heinrich VI (1294 – 1335), Duke of Silesia-Leignitz, fifteen years her junior, in order to secure his loyalty to the Hapsburg family.
  Duchess Anna died (March 19, 1328). She left three daughters by her second husband,
• Princess Elisabeth of Silesia-Leignitz (1311 – 1328). She became the wife of Konrad I (died 1366), Duke of Oels.
• Princess Euphemia of Silesia-Leignitz (1312 – after 1383). She became the wife of Boleslav I (died c1365), Duke of Falkenburg.
• Princess Margaret of Silesia-Leignitz (1313 – 1378). She became a nun and was appointed as Abbess of Poor Clares at Breslau.

Anna of Austria (2) – (1319 – 1343)
Hapsburg princess
Princess Anna was the younger daughter and heiress of Friedrich III der Schonen (the Handsome), King of Germany (1314 – 1322), and his wife Isabella, the daughter of Jaime II, King of Aragon (1291 – 1327) and his first wife Blanche, the daughter of Charles II of Anjou, King of Naples. She was the paternal granddaughter of Albert I, King of Germany (1282 – 1308).
From 1327 she resided in comfortable imprisonment with her parents and elder sister Elisabeth, within the Castle of Gutenstein in Upper Tyrol. With the deaths of both of their parents (1330) the two princesses became the wards of the Emperor Ludwig IV, who had replaced their father on the German throne.
According to the dictates of Imperial policy, Princess Anna was married firstly (1328) to Heinrich III (1312 – 1333), Duke of Upper Bavaria, whom she survived as Dowager Duchess (1333 – 1338). This marriage was childless. Anna was remarried secondly (1336) to Johann Heinrich IV (1323 – 1338), Count of Gorz. This marriage remained childless. With the death of her elder sister Elisabeth, unmarried (1336) Princess Anna became the sole heiress of the properties of their parents. As a widow the countess became a nun at the Abbey of St Clara in Vienna. Princess Anna died (Dec 14, 1343) aged twenty-four, in Vienna.

Anna of Austria (3) – (1432 – 1462)
Hapsburg archduchess
Archduchess Anna was born (April 12, 1432) in Vienna, the eldest daughter of Albert V, King of Hungary and Bohemia, Holy Roman emperor elect, and his wife Elisabeth, the daughter of the Emperor Sigismund I. She was married (1446) at Jena in Saxony, to Wilhelm III Der Tapfere (the Brave) (1425 – 1482), Duke of Saxony and Thuringia, and was duchess consort of Saxony (1446 – 1462). Her daughter, Margaret of Saxony (1449 – 1501), became the wife of Johann Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg (1486 – 1499) and left issue. Duchess Anna died (Nov 14, 1462) aged thirty, at Eckartsberga.

Anna of Austria (4) – (1528 – 1590)
Hapsburg archduchess
Archduchess Anna was born (July 7, 1528) in Prague, Bohemia, the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I (1555 – 1564), and his wife Anna of Hungary. She brought up a pious Catholic, and was originally betrothed to Prince Theodor, the son of William IV of Bavaria. With his death (1534) she was betrothed to Charles de Valois, Duc d’Orleans, the younger son of Francois I, king of France. When he too died (1545) Anna was eventually married (1546) to Duke Albert V of Bavaria (1528 – 1579), the brother of her first betrothed, and became the Duchess consort of Bavaria (1550 – 1579).
Anna was the mother of Duke William V (1579 – 1626) whilst her eldest daughter Maria became the wife of the Hapsburg archduke Charles of Inner Austria, and was mother to the emperor Ferdinand II (1619 – 1637), and her youngest son Duke Ernst (1554 – 1612) received the bishoprics of Freising (1566), Hildesheim (1573), Liege (1581), and Munster (1585) and was elected archbishop of Cologne (1583). The duchess and her husband were fervent supporters of the Renaissance world, and founded museums and patronized the arts, notably the painter Hans Muelich and the Italian composer Orlando di Lasso. Her personal book and manuscript collection forms part of the Bavarian State Library. With her husband’s death (1579) Anna retired to her dower residence in Munich, where she resided in magnificent style. Archduchess Anna died (Oct 16, 1590) aged sixty-two, in Munich. 

Anna of Bohemia – (1204 – 1265)
Duchess consort of Silesia in Poland (1238 – 1241)
Princess Anna was born in Prague the daughter of Ottokar I, King of Bohemia and his second wife Constance of Hungary, the daughter of Bela III, King of Hungary. Her younger sister was St Agnes of Bohemia (1205 – 1282). She was married (1218) to Duke Henry II of Silesia and Krakow (1196 – 1241), to whom she bore ten children before he succeeded his father Henry I as reigning duke (1238). The Chronicon Polono-Silesiacum referred to her as, Anna sorore Regis Boemie monoculi.
During the Tartar invasions the duchess was sent with the other female members of the royal family to the safety of the fortress of Krossen. Duke Henry was killed at the battle of Wohlstadt (April 9, 1241), his body being so decimated that the duchess had to tell those searching for his corpse to recognize him by the peculiarity of a sixth toe on his left foot. Duchess Anna caused her husband to be interred in the Franciscan convent which she had begun to build at Breslau, and which was completed soon afterwards (1242). Anna survived for over two decades as the Dowager Duchess of Silesia (1241 – 1265) and as a widow she suffered from the violent temper of her son Boleslav II.
Anna founded the monastery of St Clara at Treibnitz and died there (June 23, 1265) aged sixty-one. The Notae Sanctae Clarae referred to the duchess as Anna ducissa, filia Regis Bohemis, coniunx ducis Henrici. Several religious sources call her a saint. Her children were,

• Princess Gertrude of Silesia (1219 – 1244). She became the first wife of Boleslav I (1208 – 1248), Prince of Sandomir and Duke of Masovia, and left children.
• Princess Constanze of Silesia (1221 – 1257). She became the second wife of Kasimierz (1211 – 1267), Duke of Kiuavia.
• Boleslav II Rogatka (1223 – 1278). He succeeded his father as Duke of Silesia (1241 – 1278) and was married twice leaving issue.
• Prince Mieszko of Silesia (1225 – 1241). He died unmarried.
• Henry III the White (1227 – 1266). He became Duke of Silesia-Breslau (1246 – 1266) and was married twice leaving issue.
• Princess Elisabeth of Silesia (c1229 – 1265). She became the wife of Przemysl I of Poland (1221 – 1257), Prince of Poznan.
• Konrad I (1231 – 1274). He was made Duke of Silesia-Glofau (1241 – 1274) and was married leaving issue.
• Princess Agnes of Silesia (c1236 – after 1277). She became a nun and was appointed as Abbess of St Clara at Treibnitz.
• Prince Vladislav of Silesia (1237 – 1270). He took holy orders and was appointed as Bishop of Bamberg, Elector of Passau and Archbishop of Salzburg.
• Princess Hedwig of Silesia (c1240 – 1318). She never married and became Abbess of St Clara at Treibnitz.

Anna of Brunswick-Luneberg – (1390 – 1432)
German princess
Anna was born in Brunswick the daughter of Friedrich I, Duke of Brunswick-Luneberg and his second wife Anna of Thuringia, the daughter of Balthasar, Landgrave of Thuringia. She became the second wife (1410) of Friedrich IV (1382 – 1439), Duke of Austria and Tyrol, the marriage having been arranged by her uncles Duke Bernard and Duke Heinrich I of Brunswick-Luneberg. Anna and her dowry were escorted by her uncles and a suitable retinue to Tussen, on the frontier of Tyrol, where she was received by her future husband in impressive ceremony. Anna was duchess consort of Austria-Tyrol for over two decades (1410 – 1432). Duchess Anna died (Aug 11, 1432) aged forty-two.
The cartulary of the convent of Stams recorded the death of  ‘nobilissima Domina Anna, ducissa die Braunschweig, secunda conthadara Domini Fredericis, ducis Austriae, quae hic honorifice nobiscem in navo sepulchro est sepulto.’ She was interred in the convent of Stams though her organs were deposited within the Church of St Jacob at Innsbruck in Austria. The couple had four children,

• Archduchess Margaret of Austria-Tyrol (1423 – 1424). She died in infancy and was interred at Stams.
• Archduchess Hedwig of Austria-Tyrol (1424 – 1427). She died in infancy and was interred at Stams.
• Archduke Wolfgang of Austria-Tyrol (1426). He died in infancy and was interred at Stams.
• Archduke Sigismund of Austria-Tyrol (1427 – 1496). He was married twice but left no surviving issue.

Anna of Byzantium (1) – (c886 – c904)
Greek Augusta (899 – c904)
Anna was the daughter of the Emperor Leo VI and his second wife Zoe Zautsina. It remains uncertain whether Anna was born before or after her parents’ subsequent marriage. Princess Anna was betrothed (June/July, 900) to Louis III Beronides (880 – 928), the Western Carolingian emperor (901 – 905), but the marriage did not take place according to the contemporary sources. Modern genealogies which place Anna as the emperor’s first wife appear to be in error. Anna is not mentioned in any surviving Imperial charters and such a prestigious foreign alliance would have been well documented, as no such previous betrothals between the imperial dynasties of the east and west had ever resulted in a marriage.
Anna was crowned Augusta in Constantinople (899) after the death of her mother, the Empress Zoe, and prior to her father’s third marriage with Eudocia Baiana (900). The Empress Anna died unmarried sometime between (May 11, 903, and early 904).

Anna of Byzantium (2) – (963 – 1011)
Greek Imperial princess
Anna was born (March 13, 963) in Constantinople, the second daughter of the Emperor Romanus II (959 – 963) and his wife Theophano of Lakonia, and was sister to Emperor Basil II. Her stepfather was Emperor Nikephoros II (963 – 969). Grand Prince Vladimir I of Kiev (956 – 1015) aided her brother Basil (988) against the Imperial ambitions of General Bardas Phokas, and in return Basil promised Vladimir the hand of his sister Anna, on the condition that Vladimir accepted the Christian religion.
Anna was not impressed with her proposed choice of husband and said to her brother,‘ You send me into slavery, I would rather die here.’ It seems that the emperor may have regretted his promise as Vladimir awaited Anna’s arrival at Kiev until late in 989. In retaliation Vladimir captured Cherson and sent Basil an ultimatum. Anna was then escorted to the Crimea and was married to Vladimir at Cherson. The couple were then escorted to Kiev by the local clergy and in a gesture of goodwill, Vladimir then returned Cherson to the emperor. This marriage was one of great political importance and greatly increased Russia’s prestige abroad. However on a personal note it was not a congenial marriage. The romantic chroniclers make much of Anna’s private sorrows but she was the instrument of the Christianization of Russia, and from her line descended the Bourbon kings of France.
Anna died aged forty-eight. She was placed among the Russian saints but there are many contradictions in the religious accounts of her life, and it is doubtful whether she really belongs with them. Her two sons, Boris Vladimirovitch (990 – 1015), Prince of Rostov, and Gleb Vladimirovitch (992 – 1015), Prince of Murom, were both assassinated and regarded as saints, and Anna’s inclusion as a saint is probably as a compliment to her Imperial birth and for being the mother of men who were properly regarded as Christian martyrs.

Anna of Chatillon    see    Agnes of Chatillon

Anna of Cilly – (1381 – 1416)
Queen consort of Poland (1401 – 1416)
Countess Anna of Cilly (Cselje) was the daughter of Count William of Cilly and his wife Anna, the daughter of Kaszimir III (1310 – 1370), King of Poland. She became the second wife (1401) of Vladyslav II (1354 – 1434), King of Poland. Her daughter Jadwiga (1408 – 1432) remained unmarried. Queen Anna died (March 21, 1416).

Anna of Cleves – (1552 – 1632)
Flemish princess
Princess Anna was born (March 1, 1552) in Cleves, the second daughter and eldest surviving heiress of Duke Wilhelm V (1539 – 1592) and his wife the Hapsburg archduchess Maria, the daughter of the Emperor Ferdinand II (1555 – 1564). She was married (1574) to Philip Ludwig (1547 – 1614), Count Palatine of Neuburg to whom she bore eight children including Wolfgang Wilhelm (1578 – 1653), Count Palatine of Neuburg and Augustus (1582 – 1632), Count Palatine of Sulzbach. Her eldest daughter Anna Maria of Neuburg (1575 – 1643) became the wife of Friedrich Wilhelm I (1562 – 1602), Duke of Saxe-Altenburg abnd left issue.
With the death of her childless uncle Duke Johann Wilhelm of Cleves (March, 1609), Anna and her two sisters, the Countess Magdalena of Zweibrucken and the Archduchess Sibylla of Austria became the joint heiress of the vast ducal estates which included Schwanenberg Castle in Dusselforf. With the death of her brother, Anna’s husband Philip Ludwig and the Elector Johann Sigismund of Brandenburg, the husband of her niece Anna of Prussia, occupied the dukedoms of Julich and Berg. The Emperor Rudolph II granted the dukedoms to the ducal family of Saxony, but Anna’s husband and Johann Sigismund continued to occupy and administer the lands. However the marriage (1613) of Anna’s son Wolfgang Wilhelm to the Catholic princess Magdalena, the daughter of the powerful Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria, after he converted to Catholicism, altered the political situation, and the intervention of England and France led to the treaty of Xanten (Nov, 1614) by which Brandenburg obtained Cleves and Mark, whilst Julich and Berg fell to Wolfgang Wilhelm by right of his mother. Anna survived her husband for almost two decades (1614 – 1632) as the Dowager Countess Palatine of Neuburg. Countess Anna died (Oct 16, 1632) aged eighty, in Hochstadt.

Anna of Denmark – (1532 – 1585)
Electress consort of Saxony
Princess Anna was born (Nov 22, 1532) the daughter of Christian III, King of Denmark and his wife Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg, the eldest daughter of Magnus I, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (1505 – 1543) and his wife Catherine of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel. She became the first wife of Augustus I (1526 – 1585), Elector of Saxony (1543 – 1586) and became his electress consort (1543 – 1585). Anna bore him a large family of children of whom one son and three daughters survived infancy.
Her son Christian I (1560 – 1591) succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony (1586 – 1591) and left issue, whilst her youngest daughter Anna of Saxony became the ill-fated wife of Duke johann Kasimir of Saxe-Coburg. A practitioner of herbal medicine the electress established a training school for midwives and wrote a medical treatise concerning the birthing and care of infants. Electress Anna died (Oct 1, 1585) aged fifty-two.

Anna of Egmond – (1553 – 1558)
Princess consort of Orange
Countess Anna von egmond was baptized (March, 1533) at Gavre, the daughter of Maximilian of Egmont, Count van Buren. The Emperor Charles V gave Anna in marriage (1551) to William I the Silent (1533 – 1584), Prince of Orange as his first wife. The marriage lasted six years most of which time Prince William spent on military campaigns and public service.
Almost fifty letters written by William to Anna have survived, and are written in French in a kindly and confidential style and he makes the declarations that ‘All in the world I have is yours ‘ and ‘ Next to God, you are the one I love best, and if I did not known that your love for me is the same, I could not be so happy as I am.’ William returned from Frankfurt to Breda in March, 1558 stricken with fever only to find Anna in the throes of her final illness. She died there (March 24, 1558) aged twenty-five, and was buried there. Her two children were,

• Count Philip William of Nassau (1554 – 1618). He succeeded his father as Prince of Orange (1584 – 1618). He was married to Eleonore de Bourbon-Conde (1587 – 1619) but died childless.
• Countess Maria of Nassau, Princess of Orange (1556 – 1616). She became the wife of Count Philip of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1550 – 1606).

Anna of France    see    Agnes Capet

Anna of Hohenberg (Gertrude) – (1225 – 1281)
Queen consort of Germany (1273 – 1281)
Anna was the daughter of Burchard III, Count of Hohenberg and Haigerloch, and his wife Matilda, the daughter of Rudolf I, Count Palatine of Tubingen. Originally called Gertrude, she was married (1241) to Rudolf I, Duke of Austria, King of Germany 1273 – 1291, as his first wife, and she bore him many children including King Albert I (1255 – 1308). Of her two youngest daughters, Judith (1271 – 1297) became the wife of Wenzel II, King of Bohemia, whilst Clementia (1274 – 1295) became the wife of Karl Martel, King of Hungary. At her coronation as queen at Aachen she took the name of Anna (1273).
The queen had brought large fiefs and estates in the province of Alsace into the patrimony of the Hapsburg family, and retained a working relationship with the towms of Rheinfelden and Basel in Switzerland, which came under her aegis. Queen Anna died at Vienna aged fifty-five (Feb 16, 1281), and was initially interred in Basel Cathedral, which had been her own wish. In 1770 her remains were removed from Basel and reinterred within the crypt of the Capuchin Church in Vienna.

Anna of Georgia – (fl. 1660 – 1668)
Queen consort of Luristan
Anna was the daughter of Vakhtung V, King of Georgia (Shah Nawaz II). She was married firstly (1660) to Abbas II (1633 – 1666), Emperor of Persia and was styled Princess Anaka. As a widow she remarried (1668) to Shah Werdi, King of Luristan.

Anna of Hungary (1) – (1228 – 1270)
Tsarina of Bulgaria (1258 – 1264)
Anna was the daughter of Bela IV, King of Hungary and his wife Maria Laskarina, the daughter of Theodore I Laskaris, Emperor of Byzantium. She was married (1244) to Rotislav of Galicia (1225 – 1264), tsar of Bulgaria, whom she survived. Tsarina Anna’s daughter Kunigunde of Galicia became the second wife of Ottokar II, King of Bohemia.

Anna of Hungary (2) – (1260 – 1284)
Byzantine Augusta (1282 – 1284)
Princess Anna was the daughter of Stephen V, King of Hungary (1270 – 1272) and his wife Elisabeth, the daughter of Kuthen, Khan of the Kumans. She became the first wife (1273) of the Emperor Andronikus II Palaeologus (1259 – 1332), who succeeded his father Michael VIII on the Imperial throne (1282). Empress Anna died aged twenty-three and left three children,

• Michael IX Palaeologus (1277 – 1320). He became co-ruler with his father and left issue.
• Prince Constantine Palaeologus (1281 – after 1329). He became Emperor of Thessalonika and left issue.
• Princess Maria Palaeologina (1283 – after 1320). She became the wife of the Catalan crusader Roger de Flors (died 1304).

Anna of Kashin – (c1280 – 1368)
Russian princess and saint
Princess Anna Dmitrievna was the daughter of Prince Dmitri Borisovitch of Rostov and the great granddaughter of Prince Vassily of Rostov. She was educated from her earliest years by St Ignatius, Bishop of Rostov, and became the wife (1294) of Prince Mikhail Yaroslavitch of Tver, the ceremont taking place in the Preobrazhensky Cathedral in Tver. The mikhailovsky Church was built to commemorate the marriage and an annual feast instituted at the Upensky Cathedral in Kasin (Nov 8). Anna bore Mikhail five children.
Several of her children died young and Anna and her husband were then rescued from a fire in their own palace (1296). Her husband was brutally murdered by the Mongols (1318) and Anna caused his body to be interred within the Preobrazhensky Cathedral. Her son Alexander (1301 – 1339) and his son Feodor continued their battle against the Mongol incursions but Anna retired to the Sophia convent in Tver, where she became a nun as Sister Evfrosiniya. She later removed to the Upensky monastery in Kashin at the entreaty of her son Vassily. Princess Anna died (Oct 2, 1368) aged about eighty-eight. When Kashin was later threatened by Lithuanian troops (1611) Anna was said have delivered the city from danger and her relics were reported to work miracles. She was declared a saint by the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (1650) and her feast observed (June 24).
Moves to later have Anna decanonized came to nothing, and were instigated because of the great veneration in which she was held in by the so-called ‘Old believers’ in Russia. Her general cult was sanctioned by the Russian Orthodox Church in the twentieth century (1909) just prior to the Revolution. A religious community was established in Grozny and dedicated to St Anna, as was the Church of St Anna in St Petersburg (1910).

Anna of Lithuania – (1309 – 1339)
Queen consort of Poland (1333 – 1339)
Princess Aldona was the daughter of Gedymin, Grand Prince of Lithuania and his third wife Jewna Ivanovna, the daughter of Ivan, Prince of Polotsk. She became the first wife (1325) of Kaszimir III (1310 – 1370), King of Poland, and adopted the new name of Anna. Her daughter Elisabeth of Poland became the first wife of Bogislav V (1316 – 1373), Duke of Pomerania. Queen Anna died (May 26, 1339).

Anna of Mecklenburg-Schwerin – (1346 – 1415)
German princess and dynastic heiress
Princess Anna was the younger daughter of Albert II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and his first wife Princess Euphemia Eriksdotter, the granddaughter of Magnus I, King of Sweden. She became the wife (1362) of Adolf VII, Count of Nassau. Through her joint descent from Magnus I of Sweden and Haakon V of Norway, Anna possessed a claim to the thrones of Sweden and Norway. As she remained childless these claims became extinct at her death. Anna survived Adolf for twenty-five years (1390 – 1415) as the Dowager Countess of Nassau.

Anna of Munzingen      see    Munzingen, Anna von

Anna of Oldenburg – (1501 – 1575)
German ruler and reformer
Countess Anna of Oldenburg was born at Oldenburg, the daughter of Count John XIV, and was married to Enno II, Count of East Friesland. With Enno’s death in 1540, Anna ruled as regent in Friesland, and she introduced the police statutes of 1545. Through her personal influence with the emperor Charles V, Anna managed to obtain the combined enfeoffment for her three sons, which disregarded the ancient, but still valid, law of primogeniture in Friesland.
An adherent of Lutheranism, the countess promoted Johannes a Lasco to foster the Reformation in East Friesland. Despite her efforts in this regard, in the areas of acquisition of church properties, the countess’s plan to entrench the religious principles of Calvin failed due to the financial considerations and interference of the estates. Countess Anna died (Nov 10, 1575) aged seventy-three, at Greetsiel, East Friesland.

Anna of the Palatinate – (1329 – 1353) 
Queen consort of Bohemia (1349 – 1353)
Princess Anna was born (Sept 26, 1329) the daughter of Rudolf II, elector Palatine of the Rhine and his first wife Countess Anna, the daughter of Otto II of Gorz-Tyrol, Duke of Carinthia. She was married (1349) Charles of Bohemia, King of Germany (1316 – 1378) (later emperor Charles IV) as his second wife, and was crowned queen at Aachen by Baldwin, Archbishop of Trier.
Though not politically prominent personally during her short reign, Queen Anna was at the centre of a dynastictake over of the Palatinate region by her husband. This plan won the approval of the Wittelsbach family of Brandenburg, without the vote of the German electors, but eventually fell apart due to the deaths of both the queen and her son Wenceslas. Nevertheless, Anna’s dowry, complete with the inherited debts of her father Rudolf enabled King Charles to acquire extensive possessions in the Upper Palatinate. Queen Anna died (Feb 2, 1353) aged onlt twenty-three, in Prague. Her daughter Elisabeth of Bohemia (1358 – 1374) became the wife of Albert III, Duke of Austria.

Anna of Prussia – (1576 – 1625)
Electress consort of Brandenburg
Anna of Prussia was born at Konigsberg, the daughter of Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia and his wife Maria Eleonora, the daughter of William V, Duke of Cleves. She became the wife (1594) margrave Johann Sigismund of Brandenburg, who later became elector (1608), and was the mother of the elector George Sigismund (1595 – 1644). Her daughter Maria Eleonora (1599 – 1655) became the wife of Gustavus II Adolphus, king of Sweden and was the mother of the famous Queen Christina.
The electress Anna played an important role in the politcs of the state of Brandeneburg, especially concerning disputes over the succession to her own inheritance, the duchies of Cleves and Julich. In this she triumphed over the claims of her kinsman, the Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm. The Treaty of Xanten (Nov, 1614) guaranteed the electress the rights to the duchies of Cleves and Mark as her portion of her family’s maternal inheritance. Though her husband converted to Calvinism, the electress remained firmly Lutherna, and extended her friendship and protection to her Lutheran subjects in Brandenburg and Prussia. It was on her advice and urging that her daughter agreed to marry Gustavus of Sweden, and the electress herself supervised the negotiations and arrangements for the wedding. Electress Anna died (April 9, 1625) aged forty-eight, in Berlin, Prussia.

Anna of Rostov    see   Anna of Kashin

Anna of Savoy – (1306 – c1365)
Byzantine Augusta
Born Countess Johanna of Savoy, she was the daughter of Amadeus V, Count of Savoy and his second wife, Marie of Brabant. She travelled to Byzantium for her marriage (1326) with the widowed emperor Andronikus III Palaeologus (1297 – 1341). She converted to the Greek Orthodox religion and took the name of Anna. Neither well educated nor intelligent, the empress attracted criticism because of the favours shown her Italian retinue.
With her husband’s death she was left as regent for their nine year old son Johannes V (1332 – 1391). Weak, capricious, and credulous by nature, the empress had little knowledge of affairs of state, and her decisions were generally guided by her misplaced passions and affections. She was assisted with governing by her late husband’s advisor, Johannes Kantacuzenus, who was credited with coveting the throne himself. His enemies, including her own Italian favourites and the Parakoimomenos Alexius Apokaukos ensured the continuing enmity between the empress and her advisor, who proclaimed himself as joint-emperor (Oct, 1341) as Johannes VI, to avoid his own destruction as well as that of the monarchy. He and Johannes V were then crowned together.
The empress never relented in her opposition to Kantacuzenus, even offerring to cede the province of Macedonia as far as Christopolis to the king of Serbia, and give him her daughter in marriage, if he would deliver Kantacuzenus to her, dead or alive. She finally achieved her revenge over her rival when her son forced Kantacuzenus to abdicate and enter a monastery (1354).
After this she retired to Thessalonika, which the dowager Empress appears ro have ruled as her own province.

Anna of Saxony (1) – (1544 – 1577)
Princess of Orange
Anna was the daughter of Maurice, elector of Saxony, and his wife Agnes of Hesse-Kassel. Despite the disapproval of Philip II of Spain, Anna became the second wife (1561) of William the Silent, Prince of Orange. Already showing signs of mental instability, she bore William several children including the future Prince Maurice (1567 – 1628) before it was recognized that she was also an alcoholic. The princess eventually seduced her financial adviser, who fathered her youngest child, and was divorced (1571). Five years later (1576), now completely and violently deranged, Anna was returned to her family in Saxony, who caused her to be confined within Dresden Castle, where she died aged thirty-three (Dec 18, 1577).

Anna of Saxony (2) – (1567 – 1613)
Duchess of Saxe-Coburg
Anna was the daughter of Augustus I, elector of Saxony and his first wife Anna, the daughter of Christian III, King of Denmark. Anna was married to Duke Johann Kasimir of Saxe-Coburg (1564 – 1633), but her marriage remained childless and unhappy. The duchess became romantically involved with a young courtier, Ulrich von Liechtenstein, but their criminal liasion was discovered and exposed. The couple were both arrested and sent to stand trial (1593). Anna was divorced from the duke and sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. She was confined at Eisenach, Sonnenfeld, and later at Coburg, in Thuringia. Duchess Anna died (Jan 27, 1613) aged forty-five, at Coburg. Liechtenstein died, imprisoned at Coburg as well, two decades later (1633).

Anna of Saxony (3) – (1836 – 1859)
Grand duchess consort of Tuscany (1856 – 1859)
HRH (Her Royal Highness) Princess Anna Maria Maximiliane Stephanie Caroline Johanna Luise Xaver Nepomuk Aloysia Benedikta was born (Jan 4, 1836) in Dresden, the daughter of Johann I, King of Saxony and his wife Amalia, the daughter of Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria. She was married in Dresden (1856) to Ferdinando IV (1835 – 1908), Grand Duke of Tuscany, as his first wife. Grand Duchess Anna died (Feb 10, 1859) aged twenty-three, in Naples. Her only child the Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria-Tuscany (1858 – 1883) remained unmarried.

Anna of Schweidnitz – (1339 – 1362)
Holy Roman empress (1355 – 1362)
Anna was the only child of Henry II, Duke of Silesia-Schweidnitz-Jauer and his wife Catherine of Hungary, the daughter of Charles II Robert, King of Hungary. She was betrothed firstly (1350) to Vaclav of Bohemia, the son of the Emperor Karl IV, in agreement with her uncle, Duke Bolko, in a dynastic move for the emperor to control the fiefs of Schweidnitz and Jauer, to which Anna was the sole heiress. The match was broken off with the death of Vaclav’s mother, Anna of the Palatinate, and the emperor married Anna himself at Buda, Hungary (1353) as his third wife. She was the mother of Wenceslas IV of Bohemia (1361 – 1419). Queen Anna died (July 11, 1362) and was buried in the Cathedral of St Veit, Prague.

Anna of Tyrol – (1585 – 1618) 
Holy Roman empress (1612 – 1618)
Archduchess Anna was born at Innsbruck (Oct 4, 1585), the daughter of the Hapsburg archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol and his second wife Anna Catherina di Gonzaga, the daughter of Guglielmo di Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. She was married at Vienna (1611) to her cousin, the Archduke Matthias (1557 – 1619) who became emperor in 1612, the couple being crowned together in Frankfurt-am-Main. She was later crowned queen of Hungary (1613) and queen of Bohemia (1616).

The empress supported the estates of the Capucins (Kapuziner) monks at Innsbruck, and Cardinal Khlesl strongly influenced her. In their joint wills, the empress and her husband left details for the founding of the crypt of the Capucins at Vienna, which became the official mausoleum of the Hapsburg Imperial family. Empress Anna died (Dec 14, 1618) in Vienna, without having provided an Imperial heir.

Anna Palaeologina (1) – (1260 – 1300)
Byzantine Imperial princess
Anna was the eldest daughter of the Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus (1259 – 1282) and his wife Theodora Dukaina Vatatzina. She became the first wife of Demetrius Michael Angelus Kutrules (c1242 – after 1301), the Prince of Epirus, and bore him two sons,

• Prince Konstantine Pavlos Angelus of Epirus (c1281 – c1346). He was married and left issue.
• Prince Andronikos Angelus (c1284 – c1328). He was appointed as archon of Belgrade, and was married and left issue.

Anna Palaeologina (2) – (1298 – 1321)
Byzantine Augusta
Anna was the daughter of Michael IX Palaeologus, Emperor of Byzantium and his wife Rita of Armenia, the daughter of Leo III, King of Armenia. She was married firstly to Thomas Angelus (died 1318), Despot of Epirus in Greece, and secondly to Niccolo Tocco, Lord of Kephallenia.

Anna Petrovna (1) – (1708 – 1728)
Russian Romanov Grand duchess
Anna Petrovna was the elder surviving daughter of Tsar Peter I the Great (1682 – 1725) and his second wife Catherine Alexievna (formerly Martha Shavronska) who succeeded him as the Empress Catherine I (1725 – 1727). When her parents were eventually legally married Anna and her sister Elisabeth were accorded the Imperial styles and honours as HIH (Her Imperial Highness). She was married to Duke Karl of Holstein-Gottorp and her surviving son was the Emperor Peter III (1761 – 1762), the designated heir of his aunt the Tsarina Elisabeth (1740 – 1761), and ill-fated husband of Empress Catherine II the Great. Grand Duchess Anna from a chill she received whilst standing near an open window during a court reception.

Anna Petrovna (2) – (1757 – 1759)
Russian Romanov grand duchess
HIH (Her Imperial Highness) Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna was born (Dec 20, 1757) at St Petersburg, the second child of Tsar Peter III (1761 – 1763) and his wife Catherine II the Great (1763 – 1796) and was sister to Tsar Paul I (1796 – 1801). Though the Tsar accepted paternity of the child which he himself was said to have questioned the paternity, the real father was said to be the Empress’s current lover Count Stanislas Poniatowski.
The Empress Elizabeth also recognized the child and arranged for her to be named in honour of her late elder sister Anna Petrovna, Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, the daughter of Peter I the Great and mother of Peter III. The empress wrote to Louis XV of France requesting that he be one of the child’s godfathers but he refused on religious grounds. Anna was separated from her mother, as had been her elder brother Paul, and was cared for in the empress’s household. Anna Petrovna was baptized (Jan 5, 1758) though her mother was not well enough to attend the ceremonies. The infant grand duchess died at the Peterhof (March 19, 1759) aged fifteen months. She was interred within the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul in Moscow.

Anna Premyzlida – (1290 – 1313)
Queen regnant of Bohemia (1306 – 1313)
Anna was born (Oct 13, 1290) the second daughter of Wenzel II (Wenceslas), King of Bohemia and his first wife Judith of Austria, the daughter of the German king Rudolf I (1273 – 1291). She eventually succeeded her childless elder sister Agnes, Countess of Nassau, as the heiress presumptive to their brother Wenzel III. With Wenzel’s assassination (Aug 4, 1306) Anna became queen regnant of Bohemia. She was married (1307) to Heinrich of Carinthia (1270 – 1335) who was recognized as king of Bohemia in her right until 1310 when the throne was wrested from them by John of Luxemburg, the husband of Anna’s next sister Elisabeth who was then proclaimed King of Bohemia. Queen Anna died (Sept 3, 1313) aged twenty-two. She had remained childless.

Anna Svyatoslavna – (c1356 – 1418)
Lithuanian queen consort (1387 – 1418)
Anna Svyatoslavna was the daughter of Svyatoslav, Grand Prince of Smolensk and his wife Natalia Alexandrovna, the daughter of Alexander II, Grand Prince of Vladimir. Anna was married (1373) to Witold (1350 – 1430), king of Lithuania, as his second wife. Their daughter, Sophia Vitoldovna (c1375 – 1453) became the wife of Vassily II, Grand Prince of Moscow, and left descendants. Queen Anna died (Aug 1, 1418).

Anna Vasilchikova – (1557 – 1578)
Russian tsarins (1574 – 1576)
Anna Vasilchikova was the daughter of a minor court official. Anna became the mistress of Tsar Ivan III the Terrible (1530 – 1584) in 1574, and he married her as his fifth wife, after his divorce from Anna Koltovskaia, who was banished to a convent. Anna bore Ivan no children and was later divorced (1576). The dramatist Akexander Nikolaievitch Ostrovsky (1823 – 1886) wrote a famous play in which Anna was the unsuccessful rival for the tsar’s affections with Vasilissa Melentievna. The former empress died (Jan 7, 1578) by violent means, at the orders of her former husband, the reason being unknown.

Anna Vasilievna – (1403 – 1417)
Russian-Greek princess
Anna Vasilievna was the daughter of Vassily II, Grand Prince of Russia and his wife Sophia Vitoldovna, the daughter of Vitold (Witold), Grand Prince of Lithuania. Princess Anna Vasilievna became the first wife of Prince Johannes Palaeologus (1392 – 1448), who became the emperor Johannes VIII (1421), the marriage being arranged by his father, the Emperor Manuel II (1391 – 1425). The Russian chronicle, the Sofiskaya Pervaya lietopis, recorded the princess’s betrothal and her journey to the court of Constantinople (1410 – 1411) in order to marry ‘Ivan Manuelovitch of Tzargrad,’ as they described her husband.
However, the Turkish wars of succession delayed Anna’s arrival in the capital till 1414, when she was aged eleven years. Dukas in his Historia Byzantia states that the princess was not crowned Augusta at the time of her marriage because of her tender age. Anna was installed in the Imperial palace of Blachernae, to be educated for her future role as empress, and in order to learn and adopt Greek customs. Her education and upbringing were closely supervised by her mother-in-law, the Empress Helena Dragases. For the most part of her short married life Anna’s husband remained absent from Constantinople, being occupied with military campaigns in the Morea, and her was absent at the time of her death. Princess Anna died (Aug, 1417) aged fourteen, dying during a plague epidemic.

Anna Amalia     see     Amalia, Anna

Annabella Drummond – (1350 – 1402)
Queen consort of Scotland
Annabella Drummond was the daughter of Sir John Drummond, of Stobhall, and his wife Mary de Montefex. She married (1367) John Stuart, eldest son of Robert, the high steward, who ascended the throne as Robert II (1370). Annabella and her husband, then known as the earl and countess of Carrick had seven children, including James I (1394 – 1437). Her husband succeeded as Robert III, and Annabella was crowned queen consort (Aug 15, 1390).  The parliament granted her an annuity of 2,500 marks from the counties of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Perth, Linlithgow, Dundee, and Montrose (1391).
Queen Annabella corresponded with Richard II of England, concerning the proposition that one of her children should marry into the English royal family, but these negotiations came to nothing. At the council of Scone (1398), the queen complained of the tardiness with which her annuity was being paid, and letters were directed to order their payment without further delay. Queen Annabella and the royal council favoured the marriage of her eldest son David, Duke of Rothesay with Marjory Douglas (1399). Several of her letters survive. Queen Annabella died aged fifty-five, at Scone, and was interred within Dunfermline Castle.

Annabella Stuart – (1434 – 1494)
Princess of Scotland
Annabella Stuart was the sixth and youngest daughter of King James I and his English wife, Lady Joan Beaufort, the great-granddaughter of Edward III (1327 – 1377). With the early death of her father she remained in the custody of her mother Queen Joan (1437 – 1445).  With her mother’s death her brother, James II, arranged an international marriage for her (1447) with Louis of Savoy, count of Geneva (1436 – 1482). This marriage had been disapproved of by Charles VII of France for dynastic reasons. As the union remained childless Charles was able to successfully intrigue to bring an end to it, and the couple were eventually divorced (1458). Louis later became the titular king of Cyprus after he remarried to Charlotte of Lusignan. Annabella returned to her brother’s court in Edinburgh and was quickly remarried (1459) to George Gordon, second earl of Huntley (c1440 – 1501), several years her junior, as his second wife. James II granted her two hundred marks of land and the lordship of Aboyne, resigned by Lord Huntley, as her dower. Annabella bore Huntley seven children, including Alexander Gordon, third earl of Huntley (c1460 – 1524).
Nevertheless Huntley which to make a more politically advantageous marriage with the family of Nicholas Hay, earl of Erroll, and applied for a divorce (1466) on the grounds that Annabella was unlawfully related to his first wife, Elizabeth Dunbar, from whom he had also been divorced. The divorce was granted at Aberdeen five years later (1471) though Annabella was still bearing Huntley children until the final pronouncement. Annabella finally remarried to her third husband, Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, and died over twenty years later (before March in 1494). Annabella’s second son Sir William Gordon (c1467 – 1513) killed at the Battle of Flodden was the ancestor of the Gordons of Gight, from who was descended Catherine Gordon Byron (1765 – 1811), the mother of the famous poet, Lord George Gordon Byron.

Anna Caterina di Gonzaga – (1566 – 1621)
Italian-Austrian letter writer and nun
Anna Caterina was born (Jan 17, 1566) in Mantua, the daughter of Guglielmo (William) di Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and his wife the Hapsburg Archduchess Eleanora, daughter of Emperor Ferdinand I (1555 – 1564) and niece to Emperor Charles V (1519 – 1555). Her godfather was Philip II of Spain. Extremely religious from early childhood, she was credited with visions of the Virgin Mary, and had a strong desire for the religious vocation. Political considerations prevailed and her father arranged for Anna Caterina to become the second wife (1582) of her cousin the Hapsburg archduke Ferdinand (1529 – 1595), younger brother to the Emperor Maximilian II (1564 – 1576), who was appointed as Archduke of Tyrol as Ferdinand II. Despite her religious desires she had voiced no opposition to the marriage. Archduke Ferdinand was angered by the lack of a son, and Anna Caterina suffered quietly his fits of temper. Eventually he repented of his harsh behaviour, and, by way of making amends, granted the Archduchess the castles of Wohlgemutheium and Thaur. Anna Caterina survived Ferdinand for twenty-five years as the Dowager Archduchess of Tyrol (1595 – 1621). She became quite corpulent during her later years, and eventually joined the Order of the Servants of Mary (Servites), becoming Sister Anna Juliana. Her letters to her brother Duke Vincenzo di Gonzaga have survived. Archduchess Anna Caterina died (Aug 3, 1621) at Innsbruck, aged fifty-five. Her three daughters were,

• Archduchess Anna Eleanora of Austria-Tyrol (1583 – 1584). She died in infancy.
• Archduchess Maria of Austria-Tyrol (1584 – 1649). She remained unmarried and became a nun.
• Archduchess Anna of Austria-Tyrol (1585 – 1618). She became the wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Matthias I (1612 – 1619) but died childless.

Anna Catherine of Brandenburg – (1575 – 1612)
Queen consort of Denmark (1597 – 1612)
Princess Anna Catherine was born (June 26, 1575) the daughter of Joachim Friedrich, Elector of Brandenburg and his first wife Catherine of Kustrin, the daughter of Johann I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kustrin. She became the first wife of Christian IV (1577 – 1648), King of Denmark, and was the mother of King Frederik III (1648 – 1670). Possessed of a quiet and gentle disposition, Queen Anna Catherine never played a significant part in politics at the Danish court. Queen Anna Catherine died (March 29, 1612) aged thirty-six.

Anna Cristina Louisa – (1704 – 1723)
German princess of Sulzbach
Anna was born (Feb 5, 1704) the fifth and youngest daughter of Theodor, Count Palatine of Sulzbach in Bavaria, and his wife Maria Eleonore Amalia, the eldest daughter of Wilhelm, Landgrave of Hesse-rheinsfels-Rothenburg. Princess Anna was married by proxy (Feb 16, 1722) and then in person (March 15) at Vercelli in Italy, to Prince Carlo Emanuele of Savoy (1701 – 1773), Prince of Piedmont, the son and heir of King Vittorio Amadeo II of Sardinia.
As wife to the heir to the throne Anna became princess consort of Piedmont (1722 – 1723). Only after her death did her husband succeed to the throne of Sardinia as King Carlo Emanuele III (1730). Princess Anna died (March 12, 1723) aged nineteen, at Turin, from the effects of childbirth. Anna was buried firstly in Turin Cathedral, but her remains were later transferred to the Cathedral of Superga (1790). Her only child was Prince Vittorio Amadeo Teodoro of Savoy (1723 – 1725). He was created Duke of Aosta, but died in infancy, and was interred at the Cathedral of Superga with his parents.

Anna Dorothea of Saxe-Weimar – (1657 – 1704)
German princess and abbess
Princess Anna Dorothea was the daughter of Duke Johann Ernst and his wife Elisabeth of Holstein-Sonderburg. She never married, became a nun, and served as dean in the abbey of Quedlinburg, before being elected as abbess and confirmed in this position by the Leopold I (1685). Anna Dorothea revised the abbey’s code of statues, but several years later, without any prior consultation of even notification, the Saxon elector Frederick Augustus sold Quedlinburg to the elector Frederick of Brandenburg for three hundred thousand thaler (1697). The abbess refused to recognize the new guardian, and this resulted in the city being occupied by troops from Brandenburg (1698). She was forced to resign both the possessions and priveliges of the abbey’s territory. Anna Dorothea died (June 24, 1704) aged forty-six, at Quedlinburg.

Anna Dorothea of Schwarzburg – (1645 – 1716)
German princess and ruler
Countess Anna Dorothea was born (Aug 18, 1645) the eldest daughter of the Count of Anton Gunther I, Count of Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen, and his wife Maria Magdalena, the daughter of George Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Birkenfeld. Anna Dorothea became the wife (1672) of Count Heinrich IV of Reuss-Gera (1650 – 1686), to whom she bore eight sons, all called Heinrich, three of whom died in infancy. The countess ruled Gera as joint-regent with Count Heinrich I of Reuss-Schleiz (1686 – 1698) during the minority of her son Heinrich XVIII. When her son came of age she retired from the government as Dowager Countess. Countess Anna Dorothea died (July 1, 1716) aged sixty-five.

Anna Eleanore of Hesse – (1601 – 1659)
German duchess consort of Brunswick-Luneburg (1617 – 1641)
Landgravine Anna Eleanore was born (July 30, 1601) the second daughter of Louis V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, and his wife Magdalena, the daughter of Johann George (1525 – 1598), Elector of Brandenburg. Anna Eleanore was married (1617) to Duke George of Brunswick-Luneburg (1582 – 1641) and the couple took up residence in Herzberg Castle, where all her eight children was born. The duke died at Hildesheim (1641) and the duchess later caused his body to be transferred to the family vault at Celle.
Her main concern as Dowager Duchess (1641 – 1659) was the upbringing and marriage of her only surviving daughter Sophia Amalia, and of the household administrative affairs at her dower residence at Herzberg. Though deeply devoted to all her sons throughout all of their scandalous sexual escapades, the duchess often declared they would be ‘the death of her.’ Duchess Anna Eleanore died (May 6, 1659) aged fifty-seven, at Herzberg. She was interred with her later husband in the church at Celle, where their tombs survive. Her children were,

• Duchess Magdalena of Brunswick-Luneburg (born and died 1618). She died in early infancy and was interred in the church of St Bartholomew.
• Christian Ludwig (1622 – 1665). He succeeded as Duke of Brunswick-Celle and died childless. His widow, Dorothea of Holstein-Glucksburg, became the second wife of Friedrich Wilhelm, elector of Brandenburg.
• George Wilhelm (1624 – 1705), he succeeded his brother as Duke of Brunswick-Celle (1665 – 1705). He was married to his mistress Eleonore d’Olbreuse, and their only surviving child Sophia Dorothea became the ill-fated wife of George I of England (1714 – 1727).
• Johann Friedrich (1625 – 1679). He became duke of Hanover and converted to Roman Catholicism. He was married but left only four daughters.
• Duchess Sophia Amalia of Brunswick-Luneburg (1628 – 1685). She was married to Fredrick III (1609 – 1670), King of Denmark, and left issue.
• Duchess Dorothea Magdalena of Brunswick-Luneburg (1629 – 1630). She died in infancy and was interred in the church of St Bartholomew.
• Ernst Augustus of Brunswick-Luneburg (1629 – 1698). He was a twin with his elder sister and was later created elector of Hanover (1692 – 1698). He married Sophia of Bohemia and their son was George I of England, the first of the Hanoverian dynasty.
• Duchess Anna Eleanore of Brunswick-Luneburg (1630 – 1636). She died in childhood and was interred with her two sisters in the church of St Bartholomew.

Anna Eleonore of Stolberg – (1651 – 1690)
German princess and ruler
Countess Anna Eleonore of Stolberg was born (March 26, 1651) the daughter of Heinrich Ernst, Count of Stolberg-Wernigerode. She became the wife (1670) of Emanuel (1631 – 1670), Prince of Anhalt-Kothen, who died only eight months after their marriage. Princess Anna Eleonore was then pregnant, and after the birth of her son Emmanuel Lebrecht (1671 – 1704) she was appointed as joint-regent (1670 – 1691) of Kothen during his minority, with Prince Johann George of Anhalt-Dessau. She was confirmed in her position as regent by an Imperial decree from the Emperor Leopold I (1671). Anna Eleonore died (Jan 26, 1690) aged thirty-eight.

Anna Frederica Philippina – (1665 – 1748)
German duchess consort of Saxe-Pegau-Neustadt (1702 – 1713)
Princess Anna was born (July 4, 1665), the fifth daughter of Philip Ludwig, Duke of Holstein-Wiesenburg, and his second wife Anna Margaret, the daughter of Friedrich I, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg. Princess Anna was married (1702) to Friedrich Heinrich of Saxe-Zeitz (1668 – 1713), the reigning Duke of Saxe-Pegau-Neustadt, to whom she bore two children. She survived her husband as the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Pegau for thirty-five years (1713 – 1748). Duchess Anna died (Feb 25, 1748) aged eighty-two. Her children were,

• Duke Moritz (Maurice) Adolf of Saxe-Pegau (1702 – 1759). He converted to Roman Catholicism and was appointed Archbishop of Pharsalia (1730) and was Bishop of Koniggratz (1731 – 1733) and Leitmeritz (1733 – 1759).
• Duchess Dorothea Charlotte of Saxe-Pegau (May 20 – Sept 8, 1708). She died in infancy.

Anna Isabella di Gonzaga – (1648 – 1703)
Italian duchess of Mantua
Anna Isabella was the elder daughter of Ferdinando III di Gonzaga, Duke of Guastalla and his wife Margarita d’Este, daughter of Alfonso I, Duke of Modena. She and her younger sister Maria Vittoria, who later married their cousin Vincenzo di Gonzaga, Duke of Guastalla, were the coheirs of their father. Anna Dorothea was married (1670) to her cousin, Carlo IV Farnese, Duke of Rethel, and this marriage permanently reunited the Guastalla branch of the Gonzaga family with the ducal branch for the first time since 1519. With her father’s death (1678), Guastalla passed to her husband Carlo. Her only child Giovanni di Gonzaga (1671 – 1743) did not succeed to the ducal throne which was annexed by the Austrians (1708) and died childless.

Anna Maria of Anhalt – (1561 – 1605)
German-Polish ruler
Princess Anna Maria was born (June 13, 1561) the eldest daughter of Joachim Ernst, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau (1551 – 1586) and his first wife Countess Agnes von Barby-Muhlingen. Her stepmother was Eleonore of Wurttemburg, later the wife of George I, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. She became the wife (1577) of Duke Joachim Friedrich of Silesia-Leignitz and bore him several children. With her husband’s death the duchess ruled as the regent of the dukedom of Silesia-Leignitz (1602 – 1605) for their son Duke Johann Christian (1591 – 1639). Duchess Anna Maria died (Nov 14, 1605) aged forty-four.

Anna Maria of Ansbach – (1526 – 1589)
German duchess consort of Wurttemburg (1550 – 1568)
Princess Anna Maria was born at Jagerndorf (Dec 28, 1526), she was the daughter of Margrave George of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1536 – 1543) and his second wife Hedwig of Silesia, the daughter of Karl I, Duke of Silesia-Munsterburg. Anna Maria became the wife (1544) of Duke Christopher of Wurttemburg (1515 – 1568) and became his duchess consort. Anna Maria bore her husband ten children including Ludwig III (1554 – 1593) who succeeded his father as Duke of Wurttemburg (1568 – 1593). Anna Maria survived Christopher as the Dowager Duchess of Wurttemburg for two decades (1568 – 1589). Duchess Anna Maria died (May 20, 1589) aged seventy-two, at Tubingen.

Anna Maria of Austria – (1549 – 1580)
Queen consort of Spain (1570 – 1580)
Archduchess Anna Maria was born (Nov 2, 1549) at Cigales, near Vallodolid, the daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian II (1564 – 1576) and his wife Maria of Spain, the daughter of the Emperor Charles V (1519 – 1555). Anna Maria became the fourth and last wife (Nov, 1570) at Segovia, of her maternal uncle, Philip II of Spain (1527 – 1598). She bore him several children, many of whom died in infancy. Queen Anna Maria was the mother of Philip III (1578 – 1621), who succeeded his father as King of Spain (1598 – 1621) and left descendants. Queen Anna Maria died (Oct 26, 1580) aged thirty, at Badajoz. She was interred within the Escorial Palace, Madrid.

Anna Maria of the Palatine – (1561 – 1589)
Swedish duchess of Sodermanland
Princess Anna Maria was born (July 24, 1561) in Heidelburg, the daughter of Ludwig VI, Elector Palatine of the Rhine (1576 – 1583) and his wife Landgravine Elisabeth of Hesse, the daughter of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (1509 – 1567). She became the wife (1579) at Heidelburg of Prince Karl Vasa of Sweden (1550 – 1611) and became the duchess of Sodermanland (1579 – 1589).
Her husband was the younger brother of King Johann III (1568 – 1592), they both being sons of King Gustavus I Vasa (1523 – 1560) and his second wife Margaret Leijonhufvud. It was only after the death of Duchess Anna Maria that her husband succeeded to the Swedish throne as King Karl IX (1604 – 1611). The Duchess of Sodermanland died (July 29, 1589) aged twenty-seven, at Eskilstuna, near Nykoping, two months after the death of her youngest child. Her children were,

• Princess Margareta Elisabeth of Sweden (1580 – 1585). She died young.
• Princess Elisabeth Sabina of Sweden (1582 – 1585). She died young.
• Prince Ludvig of Sweden (1583). He was born and died in infancy in Heidelburg.
• Princess Katarina of Sweden (1584 – 1638). She became the wife of Johann Kasimir (1589 – 1652), Count Palatine of Zweibrucken and left issue.
• Prince Gustavus of Sweden (1587). He died in infancy.
• Princess Maria of Sweden (1588 – 1589). She died on infancy.

Anna Maria Vasa – (1545 – 1610)
Princess of Sweden
Princess Anna Maria was born (June 19, 1545) in Stockholm, the third daughter of Gustavus I Vasa, King of Sweden (1523 – 1560) and his second wife Margareta Leijonhufvud, the daughter of Erik Abrahamsson Leijonhufvud pa Loholmen, Governor of Westergotland (Vastergotland). She was married (1563) to George Johann I (1543 – 1592), Count Palatine of Veldentz in Bavaria, and became countess consort of Veldentz. Her husband was the son and successor of the Count Palatine Ruprecht of Veldentz and his wife the Countess and Rheingravine Ursula von Salm-Kyburg. She survived her husband as the Dowager Countess of Veldentz (1592 – 1610). Princess Anna Maria died (March 30, 1610) aged sixty-four. Her children were,

• Count George Gustavus (1564 – 1634). He succeeded his father as Count Palatine of Veldentz (1592 – 1634) and was also Count of Lauterecken. He married twice and left issue.
• Countess Anna Margareta of Veldentz (1565 – 1567). She died young.
• Count Johann Ruprecht of Veldentz (1566 – 1567). He died in infancy.
• Countess Anna Margaret of Veldentz (1571 – 1621). She was married to the Count Palatine Richard of Simmern (1569 – 1598) but remained childless.
• Countess Ursula of Veldentz (1572 – 1635). She became the wife of Ludwig III (1554 – 1593), Duke of Wurttemburg (1568 – 1593).
• Countess Johanna Elisabeth of Veldentz (1573 – 1601). She remained unmarried.
• Count Johann August (1575 – 1611), Count Palatine of Veldentz. He was married to Anna Elisabeth, Countess Palatine of the Rhine (1549 – 1609) but remained childless.
• Count Ludwig Philip of Veldentz (1577 – 1601). He remained unmarried.
• Countess Maria Anna of Veldentz (1579). She died in infancy.
• Countess Katharina Ursula of Veldentz (1582 – 1595). She died young.
• George Johann II (1586 – 1654). He became Count Palatine of Lutzelstein and left issue.

Anna Matilda     see    Cowley, Hannah

Anna Palaeologina Kantacuzena – (c1246 – after 1313)
Greek empress (despina) of Epirus
Anna Palaeologina Kantakuzena was the daughter of Johannes Komnenus Kantacuzena and the Princess Eulogia, sister of the Emperor Michael VIII. She became the wife of the Despot Nikephorus I Angelus, who ruled (1271 – 1296). Anna retained control of political power due to her extensive connections with the Imperial family in Constantinople, and maintained a pro-Byzantine outlook. She ruled for the next fifteen years as regent of Neopatras (1296 – c1313), maintaining her position despite an abortive anti-Byzantine revolt organized by the Albanian Catholic faction within Epirus, which was led by Philip of Taranto (1306). Empress Anna retired from power when her son Thomas came of age to rule (c1313).

Anna Pavlovna – (1795 – 1865) 
Queen consort of the Netherlands
Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna was the daughter of Tsar Paul I (1796 – 1801) and his wife empress Maria Feodorovna (formerly princess of Wurttenburg). She was the paternal granddaughter of Catharine II the Great and the sister of tsars Alexander I and Nicholas I. Anna was originally betrothed (1808) to Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. The emperor Napoleon desired to marry her (1810) after he had divorced Josephine, but her mother refused. Finally her German matach was also broken off (1812) when Tsar Alexander learnt of the duke’s liasion with Pauline Panam.
Alexander later proposed (1814) that Anna should marry the the Bourbon prince, Charles, Duc de Berry, the son of Charles X, in order to improve relations with France, but Prince Talleyrand opposed the match on the grounds of the difference in religion, and because he himself regarded such a union as a mesalliance. Finally, Anna was married (1816) to the Dutch crown prince William (1792 – 1849), who succeeded his father as William II, King of the Netherland (1840) and was the mother of King William III (1817 – 1890). Popular as queen, Anna was famous for her involvement in charitable concerns and her devotion to exacting court ceremonial. Her correspondence has survived and been published.

Anna Perenna – (fl. c800 BC) 
Roman public benefactor and priestess
Anna Perenna was a hard-working elderly woman who resided near the city of Bovillae. During the first Secession of the Plebs in Rome, Anna Perenna provided food for those people, baked daily herself. In gratitude a statue was erected to her memory. This event was later comemorated by a festival held annually on March 15, at the first milestone along the Via Flaminia, north of Rome. Eventually Anna Perenna became metamorphosed into a deity, a personification of the yearly cycle.

Anna Petrovna – (1708 – 1728)
Russian grand duchess
Anna Petrovna was born in Moscow (Feb 7, 1708), the daughter of Tsar Peter I the Great and his second wife Catherine I. She was raised and educated at the palace of Kolomenskoe in the western fashion, though under the strict supervision of the Tsaritsa Praskovia, the widow of Ivan V. Her mother arranged her marriage (1725) to Duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp (1698 – 1739), by whom she was the mother of the ill-fated Tsar Peter II (1728 – 1762), the husband of Catherine II the Great. Grand Duchess Anna died of a chill caught during a reception at Kiel in Holstein, held to celebrate her son’s birth, aged only twenty-one (May 15, 1728). She was interred within the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul in Moscow.

Anna Radziwill – (1476 – 1522)
Polish duchess and ruler
Anna Radziwill was the daughter of Nicholas II Priscus Radziwill, Voivode of Vilna, and the aunt of Barbara Radziwill, the wife of King Zygmunt II Augustus. Anna married (1495) Conrad III, Duke of Masovia to whom she bore four children. His early death in 1503 left her as regent for her two young sons. A woman of strong personality and intellect, she was rather admiringly known by contemporaries as ‘Das unertragliche weib’ (the unbearable wife).
Duchess Anna strove to maintain Masovia’s independence from Poland, and with this aim in mind attempted to bring about the marriage of either herself or her daughter Anna to King Zygmunt I. In this she was thwarted by the emperor Maximilian I. After many years of civil unrest the duchess was deposed from power in 1518, in favour of her elder son Stanislas. Her last years were spent in arranging the marriages of her two daughters, Anna and Sophia, and being harassed by financial difficulties. Her death was popularly believed to have been caused by poison or witchcraft, but there was some mystery concerning her death.

Anna Sabina of Holstein-Sonderburg – (1593 – 1659)
German ruler
Princess Anna Sabina was born (March 7, 1593) the daughter of Johann I, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg (1564 – 1622) and his second wife Julius Friedrich (died 1635), the Duke of Juliusburg in Wurttemburg and became his duchess consort. With her husband’s death the duchess ruled as regent of the dukedom of Juliusburg (1635 – 1638) for her young son Duke Sylvius (1622 – 1664). Duchess Anna Sabina died (July 18, 1659) aged sixty-six.

Anna Sophia of Denmark – (1647 – 1717)
Electress consort of Saxony
Princess Anna Sophia was born (Sept 11, 1647) the eldest daughter of Frederik III, King of Denmark and his wife Sophia Amalia, the daughter of George, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg. Through her mother she was the first cousin of George I, King of Great Britain (1714 – 1727). Princess Anna Sophia became the wife (1666) of Johann George III, Elector of Saxony, and was electress consort for twenty-five years (1666 – 1691). She bore her husband two sons, Johann George IV (1668 – 1694) and Augustus I, Elector of Saxony, and King of Poland, who left many descendants.
Anna Sophia survived her husband for almost three decades (1691 – 1717) as Dowager Electress of Saxony. During the scandalous reign of her elder son, the Electress Dowager played no part in public affairs, despite the fact that she was the first lady of Saxony until Johann George’s marriage (1692) with the Dowager Margravine of Ansbach, as she refused to receive his mistress, Magdalena von Neitschitz. She ineffectually remonstrated with her younger son concerning his amorous intrigues with her ladies-in-waiting, and was the innocent instrument in introducing the elector to his most famous mistress, Maria Aurora von Konigsmarck. A staunch Protestant, when Friedrich Augustus converted to Roman Catholicism in order to receive the Polish throne, the electress supported the decision of his wife, her daughter-in-law, Queen Christine Eberhardine, to remain in the Protestant faith.
As a widow the electress resided at her dower estate, the castle of Lichtenberg, near Prettin, in Saxony, together with her widowed sister, the Dowager Electress Wilhelmina Ernestina of the Palatine-Rhine. Her son remained ever dutiful towards her, but the scandalous atmosphere of his court made her determined to live in retirement.

Anna Sophia of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt – (1700 – 1780)
German duchess consort of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1729 – 1764)
HSH (Her Serene Highness) Princess Anna Sophia of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was born (Sept 9, 1700) at Rathsfeld, the sixth daughter of Ludwig Friedrich I, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1710 – 1718) and his wife Princess Anna Sophia of Saxe-Gotha, the eldest daughter of Friedrich I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha (1675 – 1691). She was the elder sister of Ludwig Gunther IV, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1767 – 1790). Anna Sophia was married (1723) to Prince Franz Josias of Ssaxe-Coburg (1697 – 1764), the son and heir of Duke Johann Ernst of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
When Franz Josias succeeded to the ducal throne (1729) Anna Sophia became the Duchess consort of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1729 – 1764). Anna Sophia survived her husband as the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1764 – 1780) and was a maternal ancestor of Queen Victoria (1837 – 1901). Duchess Anna Sophia died (Dec 11, 1780) aged eighty, at Romhild Castle in Saxony. Her children were,

• Ernst Friedrich of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1724 – 1800). He succeeded his father as reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1764 – 1800) and was married and left descendants.
• Prince Johann Wilhelm of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1726 – 1745). He died unmarried being killed in battle.
• Prince Christian Franz of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1730 – 1797). He remained unmarried.
• Princess Charlotte Sophia of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1731 – 1810). She became the wife of Duke Ludwig of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1725 – 1778). There were no children.
• Princess Frederica Caroline of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1735 – 1791). She became the first wife of Margrave Karl Alexander of Ansbach (1736 – 1806). There were no children.
• Prince Friedrich Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1737 – 1815). He remained unmarried and was a Field Marshal in the Imperial army.

Anna Sophia von Reventlow – (1693 – 1743)
Queen consort of Denmark
Countess Anna Sophia von Reventlow was the daughter of the Danish chancellor Count Conrad von Reventlow. She attracted the attention of King Frederik IV (1671 – 1730) and became his mistress. Later, over the objections of the royal family he married Anna Sophia as his second wife, soon after the death of his first queen Louise of Mecklenburg-Gustrow. Though she was accorded the rank of queen consort her three children all died young.
With the death of Frederik Anna Sophia became the Queen Dowager of Denmark (1730 – 1743) but her stepson Christian VI and his wife Sophia Magdalena of Brandenburg-Kulmbach forced her to retire from the court to her private estates where she remained the rest of her life. Queen Anna Sophia died (Jan 7, 1743) aged forty-nine, at Clausholms, near Randes in Jutland.

Anna Sophia of Hesse – (1638 – 1683)
German princess and abbess
Landgravine Anna Sophia was the daughter of George II, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and was raised a Lutheran. She never married and was appointed as prioress of the Protestant abbey of Quedlinburg. Anna Sophia later served as abbess (1680 – 1683). She wrote a collection devotional works, which contained over thirty hymns which she had composed herself. These devotional songs included the popular ‘Jesu starke meinen Glauben’ which was later included in the Protestant hymn books. Anna Sophia died (Dec 13, 1683) aged forty-five, at Quedlinburg.

Anna Victoria of Savoy – (1683 – 1763)
Italian princess
Princess Anna Victoria was the daughter of Tommaso of Savoy, Prince di Carignano and his French wife Uranie, the daughter of Francois de la Cropte de Beauvais. She became the sole heiress (1734) of the Soissons branch of the Savoy dynasty in Piedmont, and in consequence of this, was married (1735) to Duke Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1702 – 1787) in the desperate hope that she might produce an heir.
However, the duke was twenty years her junior, and she herself past child-bearing age. The union ended in divorce seventeen years later (1752). Princess Anna Victoria died (Oct 11, 1763) aged eighty, having ceded the county of Soissons to the house of Orleans, who retained it until the Revolution (1789).

Anne     see  also     Anna

Anne – (c50 BC – c25 AD)
Hebrew religious figure and saint
Anne was mentioned firstly in the Protevangelium of St James, written in the second century AD. According to this work, she was born in Nazareth or Bethlehem, and was the wife of Joachim. Long childless, she finally produced a daughter Mary, whom she dedicated to the service of god, as she had promised before the child’s birth. Mary became the mother of Jesus Christ. With the rise of the importance of the cult of the Virgin Mary during the middle ages, so did the importance of Anne and Joachim. Anne was considered the patron saint of Brittany and Canada, and her feast is observed annually (July 26).

Anne Boleyn – (c1501 – 1536)
Queen consort of England (1533 – 1536)
Anne Boleyn was born at Blickling Hall, near Norwich, Norfolk, the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, and his wife Lady Elizabeth Howard, the daughter of Thomas, second Duke of Norfolk. Raised at Hever Castle in Kent from 1505, Anne spent several year from c1513 being educated at the French court, and was influenced by Margeurite d’Angouleme, and other patrons of literature and the arts. Unlike her sister Mary, Anne refused the attentions of the French king Francois I. Returning to England in 1522 she became romantically involved with Henry Percy, heir to the earl of Northumberland. The king, who had already noticed her, and was himself tiring of an affair with her sister Mary, forbade the match, and ordered Cardinal Wolsey to be his messenger in the matter. This would rouse Anne’s hatred of Wolsey, and she would never forgive him.
Anne seems to have kept her distance from the king, though his letters to her survive, and fell dangerously ill with the sweating sickness in 1527, but recovered. When negotiation began in earnest for Henry’s divorce from Catharine of Aragon in that year, Anne seems to have relented and her association with the king quickly became common knowledge, and her influence was noted in the records of foreign amabassadors. They were then secretly married (Jan, 1533), when Anne had become pregnant. Thomas Cranmer declared Anne to be Henry’s legal wife in May, 1533, and she was crowned with great magnificence at Westminster. With the birth of her daughter Elizabeth (I) in Sept, 1533, the king’s disappointment quickly cooled his passion for her. The birth of a stillborn son in Jan, 1536, sealed her fate, and in May she was, with Henry’s approval, arrested and brought to the Tower of London. Charged with adultery with four courtiers, Sir Thomas Weston, Sir Henry Norris, Sir William Brereton, and her music teacher Mark Smeaton, and of incest with her brother George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, Anne was tried and convicted, her uncle the Duke of Norfolk pronouncing the verdict of the judges.
Queen Anne was beheaded on Tower Green, May 19, 1536, and was buried in the nearby Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. Queen Anne was portrayed by Dorothy Tutin in the BBC (British Broadcasting) series, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970) with Keith Michell as Henry VIII. In the film, Anne of the Thousand Days (1970), with Richard Burton as the king, Anne was portrayed by French actress Genevieve Bujold. In the films, Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972) the queen was portrayed by Charlotte Rampling. Anne was played bu Jodhi May in the BBC film The Other Boleyn Girl, with Jared Harris as King Henry and in the later version of The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), with Eric Bana as the king, she was portrayed by Natalie Portman. In the British series The Tudors (2007), the queen was played by Natalie Dormer, with Johnathon Rhys Meyers as the king, and Sam Neill as Cardinal Wolsey.

Anne de Foix – (1484 – 1506)
Queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia (1502 – 1506)
Anne de Foix was born in France, the daughter of Gaston II de Foix, Comte de Candale and de Benauges, and his wife Catherine de Foix, Infanta of Navarre. She was married (1502) at Buda to Vladyslav I Jagiellon (1454 – 1516), King of Hungary, as his second wife. Queen Anne was the mother of King Louis I (1506 – 1526) and of Anna Jagiella (1503 – 1547), the wife of the Emperor Ferdinand I. Queen Anne died (July 26, 1506) aged twenty-two, from the effects of childbirth, in Buda, Hungary. She was interred at Szekesfeherver.

Anne de Valois – (1461 – 1522)
Princess of France
Anne was born (April, 1461) the elder daughter of Louis XI, King of France (1461 – 1483) and his wife Charlotte of Savoy, the daughter of Louis, Duke of Savoy and Anne of Lusignan, the daughter of Janus, King of Cyprus. She was married to Pierre, Seigneur de Beaujeu (died 1503), who succeeded as Duc de Bourbon, to whom she bore an only daughter Suzanne de Bourbon (1493 – 1521), the wife of Charles, Duc de Montpensier. Anne ruled France as regent for her brother Charles VIII (1483 – 1488). Princess Anne died (Nov 14, 1522) aged sixty-one.

Anneke, Mathilde Franziska – (1817 – 1884)
German feminist and author
Born Mathilde Giesler at Lerchenhausen, near Blankenstein in the Ruhr valley, she was the daughter of a landowner. After divorcing her first husband (Anneke), she became editor of the newspaper Neue Kolnische Zeitung (New Cologne Times), which she caused to be revamped and renamed as the Frauen-Zeitung (Women’s Journal). With the arrest of her husband during the 1848 revolution, Anneke fled to the USA with her family, and became greatly involved with the women’s suffrage movement there being led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Her best known works were her short novels, Die Sclaven-Auction (The Slave Auction) (1862) and Gebrochene Ketten (Broken Chains) (1864), attacks upon the slave trade. Mathilde Anneke died (Nov 25, 1884) aged sixty-seven, at Wilwaukee, in Wisconsin.

Anne Neville – (1456 – 1485)
Queen consort of England (1483 – 1485)
Lady Anne Neville was born (June 11, 1456) at Warwick Castle, the younger daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the Kingmaker, and his wife Anne de Beauchamp, the daughter of Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Her elder sister became the wife of George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV, and she was married firstly (or betrothed) (Dec, 1470) at the Chateau d’Amboise in France, to Prince Edward (1453 – 1471), the only son of Henry VI, which union remained childless, and secondly (1472) to the Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III, younger brother of Edward IV. Anne was crowned with Richard (July 6, 1483) in Westminster Abbey, Norfolk. Their only child Edward Plantagenet, Prince of Wales (1473 – 1484) died in childhood. Despite her husband’s well known affection for her, Richard was accused of causing her death by poison so that he could marry his niece Elizabeth of York, in order to consolidate his position as king. Queen Anne died (March 16, 1485) aged twenty-eight, from consumption.

Annenkova, Nadejda Sergeievna – (1840 – 1891)
Russian countess
Nadejda Annenkova was born (July 17, 1840) at St Petersburg, the daughter of Sergei Petrovitch Annenkov and his wife Ekaterina Dmitrievna Shidlovskaia. She was married firstly to Vladimir Nikolaievitch Akinfov from whom she was later divorced. Madame Akinfova became the mistress of Prince Nicholas (1843 – 1891), the fourth hereditary Duke of Leuchtenburg, a descendant of the French empress Josephine. Duke Nicholas married Nadejda (Oct, 1868) just prior to the birth of their first child. The marriage was not recognized by the Imperial family and was regarded as morganatic. A decade later Nadejda was created Comtesse de Beauharnais by Imperial decree of Tsar Alexander II (Feb, 1879). A decade after that Tsar Alexander III decreed (Nov, 1890) that Nadejda’s sons Nicholas (1868 – 1928) and George (1872 – 1929) were granted the qualification of Dukes of Leuchtenburg with the qualification of Serene Highness. Duke Nicholas died (Jan, 1891) and Nadejda survived him barely six months. Comtesse Nadejda de Beuharnais died (June 6, 1891) aged fifty.

Anne of Austria – (1601 – 1666)  
Queen consort and regent of France
Infanta Ana Maurizia of Spain was born (Sept 22, 1601) at Valladolid in Castile, the eldest daughter of Philip III, King of Spain, and his wife Margaret of Austria, the daughter of Archduke Karl, and sister to the Emperor Ferdinand II. She bore the additional titles of Archduchess of Austria and Princess of Hungary and Bohemia. She was married Louis XIII of France (1601 – 1643) in 1615 at Bordeaux. The marriage was unhappy, and due to the malign influence of the king’s chief minister Cardinal Richelieu, much of the couple’s life was spent in virtual seperation. Suspicion of her involvement in a plot against the king in 1626, and again in 1637 caused her much personal humiliation. Queen Anne’s elder son was Louis XIV, borne after twenty years of marriage (1638), and he succeeeded Louis XIII as king, at the age of five (1643).
Queen Anne was appointed regent for her son, and Cardinal Richelieu having died in 1642, she wielded power with her own favourite, Cardinal Jules Mazarin, as prime minister. They steered France through the difficult upheavals of the wars of the Fronde, and, although Louis came of age in 1651, the two continued to rule jointly. The truth of their relationship will probably never be known. There is much circumstantial evidence to support a secret marriage, but not single shred of evidence either in France, or Rome, which conclusively supports the idea of a marriage between the queen mother and Mazarin.
With Mazarin’s death (1661) Anne’s influence declined as Louis began to assert his power, and eventually she retired from the court to the convent of Val de Grace. Queen Anne died of breast cancer (Jan 20, 1666) in Paris, aged sixty-four, and was interred beside her husband in the Abbey of St Denis, Rheims, leaving the enormous bequest of a million livres to her granddaughter Marie Louise d’Orleans, later the wife of Charles II of Spain.

Anne of Bohemia – (1366 – 1394) 
Queen consort of England (1382 – 1394)
Archduchess Anna was born (May 11, 1366) in Prague Bohemia, the daughter of the Holy Roman emperor, Charles IV of Bohemia, and his fourth and last wife Elisabeth of Pomerania, the daughter of Bogislav V, Duke of Pomerania-Wolgast. Highly educated, she was fluent in Bohemian, German and Latin. She was married (1382) at Westminster Abbey, London, to Richard II of England (1367 – 1400), who became devotedly attached to her, though they remained childless.
Anne had persuaded Richard by letter, prior to her arrival in England, to issue a general pardon for those participants in the 1380 Peasant’s Revolt, for which act she earned the love of the English people who granted her the epithet of ‘good’ Queen Anne. She also intervened successfully on behalf of the religious reformer John Wyclif (1382) whose ideas caused so much condemnation from the ruling classes, and was indirectly responsible for his ideology being spread to the reformer Jan Huss in Prague. She interceded with the king on behalf of the Londoners (1392) and he rescinded his demands for exhorbitant loans.
Fashion wise this queen is noted for introducing the style where ladies wore caps with tall, wide horns supporting large veils, for introducing pins for ladies’ dresses, and with making fashionable the use of side-saddles for ladies. Geoffrey Chaucer dedicated to her his Legend of Good Women. Queen Anne died of the plague (June 7, 1394), at Shene Palace, Richmond. She was interred in Westminster Abbey, London where her monument remains.

Anne of Brittany – (1477 – 1514)
Queen consort of France
Anne was born (Jan 25, 1477) in Nantes, the elder daughter and co-heiress of Duke Francis II of Brittany and his second wife Margeurite de Foix. She succeeded her father on the ducal throne (1488), and the death of her only sibling Isabella unmarried (1490) left Anne as sole inheritor. Her struggle to retain her country’s independence from France led Anne to form an alliance with Maximilian I of Austria, to whom she was married by proxy (Dec 19, 1490). However, state affairs left Maximilian unable to protect his claim, and Charles VIII of France invaded Brittany, forcing Anne to break off her Hapsburg betrothal and marry him instead (Dec 6, 1491), which marriage set in motion the inexorable progress of events that led to Brittany becoming formally united to the French crown.

Charles died suddenly at Amboise (1498) after a game of tennis, and Anne, whose only son, the Dauphin Charles Orlando had predeceased his father (1495), married his successor (Jan 8, 1499), Louis XII (1462 – 1515) thus retaining her pre-eminent rank. A notable patron of the arts and learning, the poet Brantome accounted her to be the most beloved French queen since Blanche of Castile, the mother of St Louis IX. Anne continued to control Brittany, occupying herself personally with the Breton government, but in 1514, her elder daughter Claude d’Orleans, the heiress of Brittany, married the future king Francis I, which set seal to the end of all hopes for Breton autonomy. In Jan, 1512, Queen Anne gave birth to a stillborn son, but never properly recovered. Queen Anne died (Jan 11, 1514), aged only thirty-seven, and was buried in the Abbey of St Denis at Rheims, near Paris. Her younger daughter by Louis XII, Renee d’Orleans (1510 – 1575) married Ercole II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara and Modena.

Anne of Cleves – (1515 – 1557)
Queen consort of England (1540)
Anne was born (Sept 22, 1515) at Schwanenberg Castle, Dusseldorf, the elder daughter of Johann III, Duke of Cleves, and his wife Maria, heiress of the duchies of Julich and Berg. Both her father and her brother, Duke William V, were noted champions of the Protestant religion, and Anne and her sister Amelia were brought up simply at the court of Cleves.

Her career as the fourth wife of King Henry VIII had been instigated by the political manoeuverings of the king’s minister, Thomas Cromwell, who believed that an alliance between England and the Protestant rulers of Germany would offset the threatening alliance between the Holy Roman Empire and Francis I of France. However, the failure of this threat to materialize, combined with the new queen’s lack of courtly sophistication, and the king’s disappointment with Anne’s personal appearance, led to the marriage being annulled by the English parliament after only six months (1540), on the grounds of her pre-contract with the duke of Lorraine.

Anne was officially adopted as the king’s ‘sister,’ was received with honour at his court, and was beloved by her stepchildren, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth. Granted an extremely generous allowance, which was continued for the rest of her life, with Henry’s death (1547) she was advised that she could now return to Cleves, but she desired to remain in England. During the coronation procession of Mary I (1553), Anne travelled in a chariot behind the Princess Elizabeth, as the third lady of the land, and was converted to Roman Catholicism before her death. Her exquisite miniature portrait by Hans Holbein has survived, complete with its ivory frame in the shape of a Tudor rose, and is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The full-length portrait that he painted soon afterwards is preserved in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Her portrait by the Flemish painter, Barthel Brughel the Elder, remains at St John’s College at Oxford. This is less glamorous a depiction and may be closer to her real appearance. She was probably painted by Lucas Cranach, her brother’s official painter, but no portrait is known to survive. Anne of Cleves died (July 17, 1557) aged forty-one, at Chelsea Old Palace, London. She was interred in Westminster Abbey. Queen Anne has been variously portrayed on the screen, firstly by Elsa Lanchester in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) with Charles Laughton, then by Elvi Hale in the BBC television series The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970) with Keith Michell, and then by Jenny Bos in the movie Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972).

Anne of Denmark – (1574 – 1619) 
Queen consort of Great Britain (1603 – 1619)
Princess Anna was born (Oct 14, 1574) at Skanderborg Castle in Jutland, the daughter of Frederick II, King of Denmark, and his wife Sophia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the daughter of Ulrich III, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She was married (1589) to James VI of Scotland and was crowned queen at Holyrood Abbey (1590). James later succeeded as James I of England (1603) and Anne was crowned queen in Westminster Abbey, London (July 25, 1603).
Queen Anne bore James everal children, including Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (1594 – 1612), who died unmarried, Elizabeth Stuart, the ‘Winter Queen’of Bohemia, and the ill-fated Charles I (1600 – 1649). The queen’s frivolous nature made her unpopular with the dour Scottsih Presbyterians, but she established herself as a successful and extravagant patron of the arts and architecture. She herself appeared in dramatic roles, in lavish court masques, composed by the famous dramatists, Ben Jonson and Thomas Dekker. Much of the costuming for the extravaganzas actually came from the wardrobe of the last Queen Elizabeth. Queen Anne died (March 2, 1619) aged forty-four, at Hampton Court Palace, and was interred within Westminster Abbey. Her children were,

• Prince Henry Frederick Stuart (1394 – 1612). He was invested as Prince of Wales (1610) but died unmarried.
• A stillborn child (July, 1595).
• Princess Elizabeth Stuart (1596 – 1662). She became the wife of Friedrich V (1596 – 1632), King of Bohemia and was famous as the ‘Winter Queen.’ She left many children and her
  grandson the Elector George Ludwig of Hanover succeeded to the British throne as George I (1714 – 1727) on the death of Queen Anne Stuart.
• Margaret Stuart, Princess of Scotland (1598 – 1600). She died young.
• Charles I (1600 – 1649). He succeeded his father as King of Great Britain but was put to death by Oliver Cromwell. He was married to Henrietta Maria of France and left issue.
• Prince Robert Bruce Stuart, Duke of Kintyre (Jan – May, 1602). He died in infancy.
• A stillborn son (May, 1603).
• Princess Mary Stuart (1605 – 1607). She died young.
• Princess Sophia Aletea Stuart (1606). She died in infancy.

Anne of England      see     Anne Stuart

Anne of Hanover – (1709 – 1759)
British Princess Royal and princess consort and regent of Orange
Princess Anne was born (Nov 2, 1709) at Herrenhausen Castle, near Hannover, Germany, the eldest daughter of the future George II of England, and his wife Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Of an extremely arrogant and haughty nature, she was married (1734) to William IV, Prince of Orange. She ruled as regent for their son William V. Princess Anne died (Jan 12, 1759) aged forty-nine, at The Hague.

Anne of Kiev     see    Anna Jaroslavna (2)

Anne of Lorraine – (1522 – 1568)
French princess
Anne was born (July 25, 1522) the daughter of the Duke of Lorraine. She was proposed as a possible bride for the widowed Henry VIII of England (1539). Anne married firstly Rene de Chalons, Prince of Orange and secondly to Philippe II, Duc de Croy-Aerschot. Duchess Anne died (May 15, 1568) aged forty-five, at Diest.

Anne of Lusignan – (1418 – 1462)
Princess of Cyprus
Anne of Lusignan was the daughter of King Janus, and his second wife Charlotte of Bourbon. Originally betrothed to Amadeus, the elder son of Amadeus VIII of Savoy, his early death led to her married (1433) to his brother, Louis, Duke of Savoy (1402 – 1465) to whom she bore a large family of seventeen children, including duke Amadeus IX (1465 – 1472). A beautiful and extravagant woman, her influence and that of her Cyprian compatriots at the Savoyard court proved to be quite disastrous, as she urged her husband to make war upon the Turks in order to vainly help preserve the eastern empire. By this marriage Anne’s children received titular claims to the thrones of Cyprus and Jerusalem.

Anne of York (1) – (1439 – 1476)
English Plantagenet princess
Anne was born (Aug 10, 1439) at Fotheringay Castle, Northamptonshire, the eldest daughter of Prince Richard Plantagenet (1411 – 1460), Duke of York and his wife Lady Cecilia Neville, the daughter of Sir Ralph Neville, first Earl of Westmorland and his second wife Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and his third wife Katherine Swynford, and granddaughter to King Edward III (1327 – 1377) and Philippa of Hainault. Anne was the elder sister to the Yorkist kings Edward IV (1461 – 1483) and Richard III (1483 – 1485) and the paternal aunt of Edward V (1483) who died in the Tower of London with his younger brother Richard.
Anne was married when only eight years old (1447) to Henry Holland (1430 – 1475), third Duke of Exeter. This marriage produced an only daughter and heiress, Anne Holland (1457) but otherwise remained unhappy. Following the forfeitures of the Holland lands after the defeat of the Lancastrians (1461), King Edward gave most of them to his sister and her daughter. These estates were later vested formally with Anne’s young daughter (1467) with remainder to the duchess and any other heirs of her body. The duchess and her husband were present at the coronation of her brother Edward (1462) but they finally separated (1464), the duchess retaining custody of their daughter. An Act of Parliament (1463 – 1465) pertaining to some matters relating to the ownership of land treated the duchess as as ‘woman sole.’ She was present at the coronation of her sister-in-law Elizabeth Woodville (June 25, 1465) at Westminster Abbey. The duchess of Exeter had betrothed her daughter to George Neville, Duke of Bedford, but after a large financial settlement she allowed the girl to be betrothed (1466) instead to the queen’s son from her first marriage, Sir Thomas Grey (1455 – 1501), later the first Marquess of Dorset. Together with the Countess of Rivers, the king and queen, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham, Duchess Anne attended a banquet held at Westminster in honour of the Earl of Winchester (Oct, 1472).
Her marriage with the Duke of Exeter was dissolved by divorce the following year (Nov, 1473). Very soon afterwards she remarried to Sir Thomas St Leger (died 1483). She died in childbirth (Jan 14, 1476) aged thirty-six, and was buried in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in Berkshire. St Leger later caused a chantry to be built at Windsor in her memory (1481). Her elder daughter died without issue (1473) whilst the child of her second marriage, Anne St Leger (1476 – 1526) became the wife of Sir George Manners (died 1513), twelfth Baron Roos of Belvoir, and was the ancestress of the earls and dukes of Rutland.

Anne of York (2) – (1475 – 1511)
English Plantagenet princess
Anne of York was the daughter of King Edward IV and his wife Elizabeth Woodville. She was born at Westminster Palace, London. She spent sometime in the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey with her mother and sister during the usurpation of her uncle Richard III, but was later permitted to attend his court and granted an allowance, though declared to be illegitimate (1484).
Her sister, Elizabeth of York, the wife of Henry VII, arranged her marriage with (1495) Lord Thomas Howard (1473 – 1554), later earl of Surrey (1513) and duke of Norfolk (1524), which was celebrated with the court at Greenwich Palace. The marriage produced four children, who all died in infancy including Thomas Howard (died 1508). Princess Anne died (Nov 23, 1511) aged thirty-six, and was interred at Thetford Priory, Norfolk. Her remains were later removed to Framlingham Church, Suffolk.

Anne Marie de Jesus    see    Epernon, Anne Louise Christine, Duchesse d’

Anne Marie d’Orleans – (1669 – 1728)
Queen consort of Sardinia (1718 – 1728)
Princesse Anne Marie d’Orleans was born (Aug 27, 1669) at the Palace of St Cloud, near Paris, the younger surviving daughter of Philippe I, Duc d’Orleans and his first wife Henrietta Anne Stuart, the daughter of Charles I, King of Great Britain (1625 – 1649). Her sister Marie Louise was the first wife of Carlos II, King of Spain. Known as Madamoiselle de Valois she was raised by her stepmother, Elisabeth Charlotte de la Palatine.
Though possessed of an amiable and dignified temperament the princess was not considered a beauty. She was married (1684) at Chambery in the Dauphine to Vittorio Amadeo II (1666 – 1732), Duke of Savoy, as his first wife. The duchess fell in love with her handsome husband and despite his neglectful treatment of her during their long marriage she remained always attached to him. When he was stricken with smallpox (1688) she nursed him back to health with two of her ladies. Not an intellectual and shocked by the manners of the Savoyard court the duchess retired more and more from the court of Turin, to her country villa of La Vigna di madama, where her children were carefully educated, the duchess herself supervising their religious instruction. Despite her sadness with the prolonged war between Savoy and France (1690 – 1697) the duchess remained loyal to Savoy and took no part in the political intrigues of her mother-in-law, the Dowager Duchess Maria Giovanna Battista. She became queen consort of Sicily (1713) when her husband received that kingdom and the couple wre later proclaimed king and queen of Sardinia (Aug 2, 1718).
The queen’s last years were saddened by her husband’s liaison with the widowed Contessa di San Sebastiano. Queen Anne Marie died (Aug 26, 1728) at Turin, in Piedmont, the day before her fifty-ninth birthday, and was interred within the Cathedral of Superga. Through her the eventual representation of the House of Stuart passed to the House of Savoy. For many years the queen kept up a lively correspondence with her stepmother but none of these letters have survived. Her letters to her daughter the Duchesse de Bourgogne was probably destroyed during the siege of Turin (1706). Six of her children died in infancy. The survivors were,

• Princess Marie Adelaide of Savoy (1685 – 1712). She married her cousin Louis de Bourbon (1682 – 1712), Duc de Bourgogne (Burgundy) and was the mother of Louis XV (1710 – 1774).
• Princess Marie Louise Gabrielle of Savoy (1688 – 1714). She was the first wife of Philip V (1683 – 1746), King of Spain, as his first wife and left issue.
• Prince Vittorio Amadeo of Savoy (1699 – 1715), Prince of Piedmont. He died aged fourteen.
• Carlo Emanuele III (1701 – 1773). He succeeded his father as King of Sardinia (1730) and married three times and left issue.

Annesley, Priscilla Cecilia Moore, Countess of – (1808 – 1891)
Irish society figure and letter writer
Priscilla Moore was the daughter of Hugh Moore, of Eglinton House, Lisburn, and his wife Priscilla Cecilia Armitage Shaw. An elegant titian-haired beauty, much admired in Dublin society, she enraged three suitors by become engaged to all three at one, and was forced to choose. She was married (1828) to William Richard, third earl of Annesley (1772 – 1838), to whom she bore six children.
The marriage had proved unhappy, and when she was widowed at the age of twenty-nine, the countess refused to remarry, even refusing the suit of William Waldorf Astor. She remained the Dowager Countess of annesley for over five decades (1838 – 1891). Her Correspondence (1909) was edited and published posthumously by Lady Rose Weigall. Lady Annesley died (March 29, 1891) aged eighty-two, at Donard Lodge, Newcastle.

Anne Stuart – (1665 – 1714) 
Queen regnant of Great Britain (1702 – 1714)
Princess Anne Stuart was born (Feb 6, 1665) at St James’s Palace, London, the younger surviving daughter of the future James II, and his first wife Anne Hyde, the daughter of Lord Clarendon. Anne and her elder sister Mary were constant comapnions. In 1682 Anne refused the hand of her cousin (and eventual successor) George Louis of Hanover, and developed an attachment for John Sheffield, earl of Mulgrave. Her uncle, Charles II, refused to permit them to marry, and in (1683) Anne was married to another royal cousin, George (1653 – 1708), brother of Christian V of Denmark.
One of the ladies of her bedchamber, Sarah Churchill, wofe of the famous Duke of Marlborough, became her intimate friend, but though Anne’s friendship was trude and unfeigned, that of Lady Churchill was only pretence for self-advancement. The two women frequently corresponded and took the informal names lf ‘Mrs Morley’ (Anne) and ‘Mrs Freeman’ (Sarah) when addressing each other. A staunch Protestant, Anne, persuaded by Lady Churchill, took the side of William of Orange, the husband of her sister Mary, which partly enabled her sister and brother-in-law to become king and queen of England and to the displacement of their father, James II (1688). The king, together with Queen Mary Beatrice, and their son, James Edward Francis Stuart were forced to flee to France. Anne disliked King William intensely, but the two became formally reconciled after the death of Mary II (1694). In 1698 the succession was given, in default of issue from William or Anne, to her cousin Sophia, Electress Dowager of Hanover, and her heirs. The death of William, duke of Gloucester (1700), the only one of Anne’s nineteen children to survive infancy, was a great personal blow to her.
With William’s death, Anne was crowned queen at Westminster Abbey (April 23, 1702) During her reign, the Duke of Marlborough successfully fought the War of the Spanish Succession against Louis XIV of France, and was amply rewarded by her. It was Anne who bestowed Blenheim Palace on the Marlborough family. In 1707 the Union of Scotland became effective. By this act, sixteen Scottish peers were to be elected by the Scottish peerage to sit in the British House of Lords, the entire number to be elected at the beginning of each parliament, and forty-five members were to be elected by the people to sit in the House of Commons. The ancient Scottish parliament was thenceforward abolished. Inclining towards the Tories and High Church, Queen Anne did not get on well with her Whig ministers, and she strongly disapproved of the trial of Dr Henry Sacheverell (1708).
The influence of Mrs (later Lady) Masham, who succeeded the duchess of Marlborough in the queen’s affections around this time, did much to bring about the fall of the Whigs, and to place in power Robert Harley, earl of Oxford. Queen Anne died (Aug 1, 1714) aged forty-nine, at Kensington Palace, London, after a long and protracted illness. A letter found at her death, and believed to contain depositions concerning her half-brother, the Stuart pretender James, Prince of Wales, was destroyed unopened, and her cousin succeeded to the throne as George I. Queen Anne was interred within Westminster Abbey in London.

Anne Henriette de Bourbon – (1727 – 1752)
Princess of France
Anne Henriette was born (Aug 14, 1727) at Versailles, the younger of the eldest twin daughters born to King Louis XV (1715 – 1774) and his wife Queen Marie Leszcsynka, the daughter of Stanislas I Leszcsynski I, King of Poland. Her elder sister Lousie Elisabeth became the wife of Philip, Duke of Parma. During childhood she was known officially as ‘Madame Seconde’ and her education was supervised by the Marquise de La Lande. Pretty and graceful, Nattier painted her as ‘Flora’ when she was only fifteen (1742).
There had been proposals to marry Anne Henriette to Vittorio Amadeo (III), the elder son of Carlo Emanuele III, King of Sardinia, and to Maximilian Joseph, the elder son of the Bavarian elector Karl Albert (later emperor of Austria as Karl VII, 1742). However, the princess had formed an attachment for the Duc de Chatres, the grandson of the later regent, Philippe II d’Orleans. However, the King refused Chartres permission to court his daughter, and the Marquis d’Argenson recorded that Cardinal Fleury had destroyed this romance, due to his personal enmity to the Orleans family. Anne Henriette was later desired in marriage by the Stuart pretender, Charles Edward Stuart (1745). King Louis viewed the match favourably at first, and stipulated that he would only agree in Charles succeeded in his attampt to regain the English throne from the Hanoverians. After the failure of the Scottish rebellion that year, King Louis politely declined Prince Charles’s request for Anne Henriette’s hand.
A later suggested match for the princess with the Duke of Savoy was also dropped as the king did not wish to offend the Spanish. During the last years of her life, Anne Henriette’s health continually declined. Princess Anne Henriette died (Feb 10, 1752) aged twenty-four, at the Palace of Versailles. Her body was laid in state at the Tuileries Palace in Paris, whilst her heart was interred at the convent of Val-de-Grace. She was buried in the royal Abbey of St Denis.

Annia Cinna – (fl. c100 – 84 BC)
Roman Reublican patrician
Annia came from a wealthy consular family and became the wife (c95 BC) of the famous political leader Lucius Cornelius Cinna (c160 – 84 BC). She became the mother of Lucius Cornelius Helvius Cinna (c90 – 44 BC) who was one of the conspirators against Julius Caesar, and of two daughters, Cornelia Cinna, the wife of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, and Cornelia Cinilla, the wife of Julius Caesar. With Cinna’s murder at the hands of his own troops in 84 BC Annia was remarried to Marcus Pupius Piso Frugi. However when Piso deserted his allegiance with Lucius Scipio for that of Cornelius Sulla, Sulla forced him to divorce Annia because of her former marriage connections.

Annia Cornifica Faustina – (c122 – 152 AD)
Roman Imperial patrician
Annia Cornificia Faustina was the daughter of Marcus Annius Verus, and his wife Domitilla Lucilla, the daughter of P. Calvisius Tullus Ruso, consul ord. (109 AD). She was the only sister of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (161 – 180 AD), and was married (136 AD) to her first cousin, C. Ummidius Quadratus Annianus Verus, consul (146 AD).  Annia was the mother of Marcus Ummidius Quadratus, cos. ord. (167 AD), who was executed for conspiracy on the orders of his cousin, the emperor Commodus (182 AD), and a daughter, Ummidia Cornifica Faustina. During her youth her brother Marcus showed her considerable generosity in the division of the family estates, and, after her death, he secured for her son Quadratus, a share of the property of their mother, Domitilla Lucilla, who survived her.

Annia Aurelia Faustina – (182 – after 221 AD) 
Roman Augusta (221 AD)
Annia Aurelia Faustina was the daughter of Titus Claudius Severus Proculus, consul (200 AD), and was closely related to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161 – 180 AD). Annia was married firstly (c197 AD) to senator Pomponius Bassus, to whom she bore a daughter. Bassus was executed for conspiracy (220 AD) against the young emperor Elagabalus (218 – 222 AD), and for political and dynastic reasons.
Annia Faustina was then prevailed upon by the Augusta Julia Maesa, the empreror’s grandmother and regent, to marry her grandson (Aug, 221 AD), over twenty years her junior (218 – 222 AD), in an attempt to gain the allegiance of the patrician classes, in an attempt to stabilize his regime, which had become endangered by emperor’s own weaknesses and sexual degeneracies. The marriage lasted only several months before the emperor divorced her and recalled his former wife, the former Vestal priestess Aquilia Severa.
A surviving brass sestertius coin issued in Rome (221 AD), shows a bust of the empress on the obverse with the inscription ANNIA FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, whilst the reverse portrays her and Elagabalus with clasped hands and a star between them with the inscription CONCORDIA.

Annia Faustina – (c160 – before 218 AD)
Roman Imperial patrician
Annia Faustina was the elder daughter of Gnaeus Claudius Severus (later the son-in-law of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161 – 180 AD), who served twice as consul (163 AD) and (173 AD), by his first marriage with Ummidia Cornificia Faustina, the niece of Marcus Aurelius. She was the niece of Ummidius Quadratus, consul (167 AD) and was the aunt of Annia Aurelia Faustina, the wife of Emperor Elahgabalus (218 – 222 AD). She is attested by a surviving inscription set up in Pisidia in Phrygia, Asia Minor and dated either (c200 AD) or (207 – 218 AD).

Annia Fundania Faustina – (c127 – 190 AD)
Roman Imperial princess
Annia Fundania was the daughter of Marcus Annius Libo and his wife Fundania, the daughter of Lucius Fundanius Lamia Plautius Aelianus, consul ord. (116 AD), and was first cousin to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161 – 180 AD). She was married to Titus Pomponius Vitrasius Pollio who served as consul suffect (c138 – 140 AD) under Emperor Antoninus Pius, and consul ord. (176 AD) under Marcus Aurelius, and bore him two children, Titus Fundanius Vitrasius Pollio and Vitrasia Faustina. When her two children were executed by the Emperor Commodus after the conspiracies of 183 AD, Annia withdrew from Rome to reside at Achaia in Greece. Nevertheless she later became one amongst a group of nobles put to death by the order of Commodus for supposedly abetting a palace conspiracy against him.

Annia Galeria Aurelia Faustina – (151 – 174 AD)
Roman Imperial princess
Annia was born (Nov 30, 151 AD) the daughter of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161 – 180 AD) and his wife Faustina II, the daughter of Emperor Antoninus Pius (138 – 161 AD). She was the elder sister of the Emperor Commodus. She was married not long after her father’s accession to the imperial throne to Gnaeus Claudius Severus who served twice as consul (163 AD) and (173 AD) as his second wife. She was the stepmother of Titus Claudius Severus Proculus, consul (200 AD) and died young. She left daughters and her descendants were attested until the third century AD. She died young and brief details available of her life were recorded on an inscription discovered at the site of the Temple of Diana in Ephesus, Greece.

Annia Regilla – (c120 – 160 AD)
Roman patrician and Imperial courtier
Appia Annia Regilla Atilia Caucidia Tertulla was the daughter of consul Appius Annius Gallus, and was siter to Appius Annius Atilius Bradua, consul (160 AD). She was probably the granddaughter of Appius Annius Trebonius Gallus, consul (108 AD) during the reign of Emperor Trajan (98 – 117 AD). She became the wife of Herodes Atticus (c101 – 178 AD), consul (143 AD), the noted Greek born sophist and friend of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and bore him four children.
The so-called Temple of Deus Regulus on the Via Latina in Rome which is very ornate and possesses a gable roof is now believed to have been the tomb of Annia Regilla. It had once stood by the Via della Caffarella which had once formed part of her husband’s estate, left of the Via Appia Antica. He also constructed the Odeion in Athens in her memory. Philostratus in his life of Herodes Atticus in his work Lives of the Sophists recorded the story of how Annia Regilla had died in childbirth after being the recipient of a beating, ordered by her husband and administered by his freedman Alcimedon. Her brother Braduas supposedly publicly accused Atticus of murdering his sister but his great grief at er death, hanging his house in black and the offering of her garments at the Temple of Eleusis, seems to indicate that this story was mere calumny and spiteful gossip. Her children were,

• Tiberius Claudius Appius Atilius Bradua Regillus Atticus.
• Lucius Claudius Vibullius Regillus Herodes.
• Appia Annia Atilia Regilla Elpinike Agrippina Atria Polla, who became the wife of Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus.
• Marcia Claudia Alcia Athenais Gavidia Latiaris. She died young.

Anning, Mary – (1799 – 1847)
British palaeontologist
Mary Anning was born at Lyme Regis in Dorset. Especially interested in ancient marine reptiles, she unearthed a ten metre icthyosaurus at the age of twelve, and she discovered the remains of a plesiosaur (1828) and a pterodactyl.

Anopama – (fl. 500 – c480 BC)
Indian Buddhist poet
Anopama was the daughter of Majjha, a wealthy merchant, and was extremely beautiful. Though her hand was desired by several highborn suitors, she dedicated herself instead to the teachings of Gautama Buddha, and became a wandering mendicant. One of her verses in recorded in the Therigatha.

Ansa Verissima – (c725 – before 794)
Queen consort of Lombardy (756 – 774)
Ansa was the daughter of Verissimo, a patrician from Brescia in Italy. She married (c740) Desiderius, King of Lombardy (756 – 774), to whom she bore a son Adelchis, Lombard king in exile (774 – 788), who died in Constantinople, and several daughters, including Anselperga, Adalperga, wife of Arichis II, Prince of Benevento, and Liutberga, the wife of Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria.

Sometime before Jan, 757, the queen founded the Benedictine convent of San Salvatore, at Brescia. Her husband and son richly endowed Ansa’s foundation, and her daughter Anselperga was installed as the first abbess. Her father and brothers were also interred there. The king and queen later added the monastery of St Maria, in Pavia, to the possessions of their new foundation. Later, when Cunimond of Sermione killed one of the king’s officials, instead of forfeiting his estates, at Ansa’s intervention, Cunimond kept his lands for his lifetime, and willed them to San Salvatore at his death. In Oct, 762, the monastery was granted a papal privilege from Pope Paul I, at the request of Queen Ansa. In June, 774, the king and queen were captured at Pavia after Charlesmagne’s successful conquest of the Lombard kingdom.

The king and queen were then taken into captivity in France, and both were forced to take holy orders, being incarcerated within a monastery at Liege, in Flanders. Desiderius died in captivity (c786), and Ansa survived him. Paul the deacon (Paulus Diakonus), who had tutored her daughters, wrote her funerary inscription the Super sepulcrum Domnae Ansae reginae and died himself sometime between 794 and 800. Her daughter Geperga (incorrectly called Desiderata) was the repudiated second wife of Charlemagne, who had been married to her for political reasons (769).

Ansbach, Anspach, Margravine of     see    Berkeley, Elizabeth

Anscombe, Elizabeth – (1919 – 2001)
British philosopher
Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe converted to Roman Catholicism during her teenage years, and was educated at Sydenham High School, and won a scholarship to attend St Hugh’s College, Oxford, where she graduated in classics and philosophy (1941). She married (1941) Peter Geach, sometime author and logician at the University of Leeds, to whom she bore seven children. Elizabeth held fellowships in Oxford, and at Newnham College, Cambridge (1941 – 1944), and was a research fellow at Somerville College, Oxford from 1946 – 1970.  She received much public attention when she opposed the granting of an honorary degree being given to the American president Harry Truman, because he had been responsible for the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Becoming a professor of philosophy at Cambridge from 1970 – 1986, she also became a Fellow of New Hall. Retiring in 1986, in 1996 she was appointed the first professor of ethics at Liechtenstein University.  Wideley regarded as a leading linguistic philosopher, being the translator and co-editor of the posthumous works of Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951), her most important works was a translation of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations (1953), Intention (1957), An Introduction to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, which she co-authored with her husband (1959), and which dealt with the influence of Friedrich Rege and Bertrand Russell on Wittgenstein’s work, and Three Philosophers (1961).

Ansell, Mary – (1877 – 1899)
British murderess
Born into an ordinary family, she was trained to work as a domestic servant. Ansell sent cake poisoned with phosphorus to her younger sister Caroline, an inmate of the Leavesden asylum in Watford, in order to benefit from a small insurance policy. Caroline Ansell died in agnony (March 9, 1899), and several of the other inmates who had eaten some of the cake became violently ill. Physicians performed an autopsy and discovered the poison, which resulted in Mary’s swift arrest by the police. She denied all guilt, but the evidence against her was overwhelming, and she was condemned to death. She confessed after the trial. Mary Ansell was hanged (July 19, 1899) aged twenty-two, within St Albans Prison.

Anselperga – (c741 – after 786)
Lombard princess
Anselperga was the eldest daughter of King Desiderius and his wife Ansa, the daughter of Verissimo. Her parents established the Benedictine abbey of San Salvatore at Brescia, and Anselperga was installed there as the first abbess before 757. The princess played an important role in establishing the abbey and devloping its economic viability. She was assisted in this task by the lavish donations of the royal family, and by her natural talent as an estate and business manager. Apart from trading lands and exchanging goods, the abbess obtained over two hundred acres of land in Modenese, and the large tract of land known as the Riatorto, for her abbey.  In 772 her father and her brother Adelchis donated to the abbey four thousand acres of land in the diocese of Capri, as well as the church of St Maria, in Vado Alfiano, in the Cremonese. With the capture of Lombardy by Charlemagne in 774, the king and queen were taken into captivity in France. Anselperga was permitted to retain her position by the new regime, with all her former powers intact, and in 781, a document issued by Charlemagne specifically stated that the abbess had all disgression in matters pertaining to her convent and its lands. Anselperga was succeeded as abbess by Radoara, sometime after 786.

Ansfride – (c1070 – c1110)
Anglo-Saxon concubine
Ansfride was the wife of a Saxon knight, Anskill, who was a tenant of Abingdon abbey, and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Her husband, whose properties included those of Sparsholt and Marcham, Berkshire, and Seacourt, Oxon, was imprisoned by William II (1087 – 1089), and died after a few days of brutal treatment. Their son William was disinherited, but managed, by clerver marriage with the Despenser family, to regain all his former lands.
After her husband’s death, Ansfride became the mistress of Prince Henry, the king’s brother, and bore him several children, including Richard of Lincoln, styled ‘the King’s son’ who drowned in the wreck of the White Ship (1120), and Fulk (born c1099), also styled ‘the King’s son’ who was brought up at Abingdon abbey by his tutor. He either died young or became a monk. Her two daughters by the king were, Juliana, the wife of Eustace de Pacy, Norman lord of Breteuil, who died a nun at the abbey of St Marie, at Fontevrault, and Matilda (Maud), the wife of Conan III, Duke of Brittany.

Ansgarde (Ansgardis) – (c846 – 882)
Carolingian queen consort
Ansgarde was the daughter of Harduin, Count of Neustria and Burgundy, and his wife Guarimburg, as recorded by surviving charter evidence (859). Ansgarde was married (862) to Louis II the Stammerer (846 – 879), the marriage being recorded by the historian Philippe de Commynges. The marriage had taken place without the knowledge of Louis’s father, the Emperor Charles II the Bald, and was symbolic of Louis’s rebellion against his father.
Her brother Count Eudes had encouraged Louis to marry Ansgarde, which earned him the enmity of the emperor. Commynges recorded that the Almaine Chronicles stated that upon hearing of the marriage, the emperor ordered Louis to divorce Ansgarde, which he did. In actuality, the couple remained married until 869, when Louis repudiated Queen Ansgarde in favour of Adelaide of Paris, despite the fact that she had borne him two sons. Ansgarde survived Louis’s death (879), when she and her powerful family successfully backed the claims of her own sons to the throne, instead of those of their younger half-brother, Charles III (877 – 929). Ansgarde was then received with honour as queen mother at the court of her sons. Ansgarde was living in 880, and died (before Nov 20, 882). Her four children were,

• Princess Hildegarde of Neustria (863 – after 896). She either died unmarried or became a nun.
• Louis III (864 – 882). He succeeded his father as King of the Franks (879 – 882) and ruled jointly with his younger brother. He died childless.
• Princess Gisela of Neustria (865 – 882). She became the wife of Robert I (died 886), Count of Troyes.
• Carloman III (866 – 884). He ruled jointly as King of the Franks (879 – 882) with his elder brother, and then succeeded as sole ruler (882 – 884). He was betrothed but died unmarried.

Anstice, Sophia – (1849 – 1926)
New Zealand businesswoman
Sophia Catesby was born at Marylebone, London, the daughter of a carpenter, Edward Catesby. She married (1873) Edwin King, a plant seed salesman, and the couple arrived in Nelson, New Zealand aboard the Chile (1874) with their young son, as assisted immigrants. The couple formed part of the colonial pioneer settlement which was established at Karamea, on the South Island, but her husband’s ill-health forced the family to move to the city of Nelson.
A skilled needlewoman and embroidress, Sophia re-established herself at St Alban’s House, in Nelson, the fledgling drapery and dressmaking business she had begun in Karamea. Widowed in 1880, she remarried to John Snook Anstice, a widowed baker, to whom she bore two children. From 1891 she re-established her business in Nelson, as S. Anstice, Son and Company, and proved so successful that branches were also established in Murchison, Takaka, and Motueka. She also travelled to London on buying trips, visiting relatives who had a similar business in Tottenham Court Road there. Sophia Anstice died (Aug 1, 1926) aged seventy-six, in Nelson.

Anteia – (fl. c70 – c100 AD)
Roman patrician
Anteia was perhaps the daughter and niece of Publius Anteius who perished during the reign of the Emperor Nero (62 AD). She was married the the younger Helvidius Priscus (c54 – 93 AD), consul (86 AD). She bore him a son Helvidius, anmed for his father and grandfather, and two daughters, Helvidia Maior and Helvidia Minor, who both died in childbirth after producing only daughters. Her husband was killed by order of the Emperor Domitian (93 AD) and the younger Pliny recorded a visit made to him by Anteia (c96 AD) in his Epistulae (letters) during which he urged her not to leave her husband’s death unavenged. Pliny also records that Anteia was a friend of the younger Arria and her daughter Fannia and was most probably a member of their circle of friends. A letter written by Pliny to C. Ummidius quadratus, consul (118 AD), and dated (c108 AD) reveals that Anteia’s daughter Helvidia Maior was appointed as the ward of C. Julius Cornutus Tertullus, consul suffect (100 AD), by the consuls, at their own request.

Antenorio, Carola – (fl. 804 – 810)
First recorded Dogaressa of Venice
Carola Antenorio was of patrician Carolingian parentage, her family of some prominence at the court of the emperor Charlemagne at Aachen. The Chronicon Venetum called her ipsa filia erat imperatori which implies that she was of noble Carolingian birth, rather than making her a relative of the emperor which is sometimes erroneously asserted. She was given in marriage to Doge Obelario Antenorio, and was escorted to Venice for the wedding by his brother Beato. Carola was later said to have become involved in an adulterous liasion with her brother-in-law, Valentino Antenorio. She was captured by the Greeks, together with her husband and other family members (809) and died in captivity in Constantinople.

Anthony, C.L.    see    Smith, Dodie

Anthony, Katharine Susan – (1877 – 1965)
American feminist and biographer
Anthony was born (Nov 27, 1877) in Roseville, Arkansas. She wrote the lives of Catherine the Great of Russia (1925) and Marie Antoinette (1933). Katharine Anthony died (Nov 20, 1965) aged eighty-seven.

Anthony, Susan Brownell – (1820 – 1906)
American feminist and social reformer
Susan Anthony was born in Adams, Massachusetts. In her late twenties she became interested, and then actively involved in the cause of temperance reform, and the abolitionist movement against slavery. In 1852 she founded the Woman’s State Temperance Society of New York, because women were not permitted to have roles in already established temperance societies presided over by males. Gradually she also became a champion for the rights of women, and forged friendships with such prominent suffrage figures as Amelia Jenks Bloomer and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Prominent in the Anti-Slavery Society from the mid 1850’s as a campaigner, speaker and organizer, she co-founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association (1869) with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and served as the first president of the American branch of the association from 1892 – 1900. She later organized the International Council of Women (1888) and the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Berlin (1904). With Stanton and Matilda Gage, she produced the four volume work, History of Woman Suffrage (1881 – 1886).

Anthousa Isauria – (757 – 809)
Byzantine Imperial princess
Princess Anthousa was the daughter of the Emperor Constantine V Copronymous (741 – 775) of the Isaurian dynasty, and his second wife Maria. She had been named in honour of the saintly abbess Anthousa of Mantineon in Constantinople, a friend of her mother’s, and was educated by her. Despite her father’s intense antipathy towards icon worship Princess Anthousa was rumoured to have retained her personal devotion to these forbidden images, within the secrecy of her apartments within the palace.
Anthousa never married and devoted her life to good works and charitable causes, and founded the first orphan asylum in the Christian world. She founded and organized several hospitals before her death. The story that the Empress Irene, widow of her brother Leo IV, wanted to share Imperial power with Anthousa is probably exaggerated given what is known of Empress Irene’s ruthless personality. The Greeks venerated Anthousa as a saint and her feast was observed (April 17).

Anthusa of Aegae – (fl. c460 – c468 AD) 
Greek divinatrix
Anthusa of Aegae was believed to have been a descendant Orestes, the son of King Agamemnon, who settled at Comana, in Cappadocia. During the reign of the Byzantine emperor Leo I (457 – 474 AD) she discovered a method of divination using cloud formations, and claimed that she foresaw the fall of the emperor’s henchman, Aspar. Damascius records in his Epitome Photiana that Anthusa’s husband was sent to war in Sicily, probably the Vandal war (468 AD), when the eastern fleet sailed via Sicily.

Anthusa of Seleucia – (c240 – c285 AD)
Greek Christian saint
Anthusa was the daughter of rich pagan parents form Seleucia. She was baptized a Christian by St Athanasius, Bishop of Tarsus, together with her two servants. Her parents then refused her their house and she retired to live as a solitary in the desert for the last twenty-three years of her life. Meanwhile Bishop Athanasius and Anthusa’s two servants, Charisius and Neophytus, were arrested during the persecutions began by the emperor Valerian. The Roman Martyrology records her feast (Aug 22).

Antia Marcellina – (fl. c120 – c150 AD)
Roman patrician
Antia Marcellina was the wife of Marcus Antonius Zeno, Imperial legate in Thrace (140 AD) and consul suffect (148 AD). She was the mother of his son Marcus Antonius antius Lupus (living 190 AD) who held military rank during the reign of the Emperor Commodus (180 – 192 AD). An attested Antonia Vitellia, a kinswoman of Lupus, is thought to be from Antia Marcellina’s family. She left a daughter named Antia Marcellina after her and grandmother and granddaughter are attested together on a surviving inscription.

Antigny, Blanche d’ – (1840 – 1874)
French courtesan
Born Marie Ernestine d’Antigny, she was partly raised with an aunt at Mezieres-sur-Brenne. At the age of ten (1850), she joined her mother in the household of the Marquise de Gallifet, who arranged for Marie to attend the Couvent des Oiseaux. Later employed as a salesgirl in a draper’s shop in Paris, and formally adopted the name of Blanche, which had been accorded her because of the loveliness of her complexion. Seduced and abandoned in Bucharest, in Romania, she worked for a while with a band of gypsies, but was mistreated and fled poverty to become the mistress of a Romanian archbishop.
Eventually however, she returned to Paris, where she became famous among the courtesans of the Second Empire fore her extravagance. Antigny danced at the Bal Mabille, and was then contracted to perform at the Theatre de la Porte Saint-Martin, where she appeared as a statue of the classic beauty, Helen of Troy. Later she appeared in the production of Le Chateau a Toto, wearing a dress that cost fifteen thousand francs. Antigny later dismissed her wealthy admirers, for love of a tenor from the Folies Dramatiques. His death from consumption two years later left her in financial distress.
Blanche d’Antigny died of a fever at the age of thirty-four, having spent the last days of her life in the luxurious apartment of fellow courtesan, Caroline Letessier, who tended her faithfully to the end. Emile Zola used Blanche as the model for the title role of his novel about Parisian prostitution, Nana (1880).

Antigone of Macedonia – (c370 – after 321 BC)
Macedonian noblewoman
Antigone was either the daughter of Antipater (397 – 319 BC), Regent of Macedonia for Alexander III the Great, or his niece, being the daughter of one of his unidentified brothers. Antigone was married (c350 BC) to the Macedonian nobleman Magas (died c340 BC). Their daughter was Berenike I (c344 – 279 BC), the mistress and then fourth and favourite wife of Ptolemy I Soter, King of Egypt (305 – 280 BC) which made Antigone and her husband the earliest identifiable Macedonian ancestors of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt (305 – 30 BC).
Antigone was remarried to Prince Alexander of Lyncestis and survived his death (336 BC). Antigone then became the second wife of Lagos, lord of Eordea, whose first wife Arsinoe had been the daughter of King Amyntas II. She was living in 321 BC when her daughter travelled to the court of Alexandria in the train of Eurydike, Antigone’s younger half-sister, who was then being married to Ptolemy as his second wife. Thus her daughter was the wife of her step-brother and Antigone became the maternal grandmother of Magas I, King of Kyrenaica, of Antigone of Thrace, the wife of Pyrrhus I of Epirus, and of Ptolemy II, King of Egypt (280 – 246 BC) and his sister wife Arsinoe II.

Antigone of Pannonia – (d. c303 AD)
Graeco-Roman Christian martyr
Antigone was arrested as a Christian, perhaps in Rome, during the persecutions initiated by the Emperor Diocletian. She refused to abjure her faith and was executed. Antigone was venerated as a saint her feast being recorded on the Acta Sanctorum (Feb 27).

Antigone of Thrace – (c327 – 295 BC)
Greek queen consort of Epirus
Antigone was the daughter of Philippus of Thrace and his wife Berenike I, the granddaughter of the Macedonian regent Antipater (336 – 319 BC). She was the full sibling of Magas I, King of Kyrenaica and their stepfather was Ptolemy I, King of Egypt. Pyrrhus I of Epirus was driven from his kingdom (301 BC), and he obtained Antigone’s hand in marriage, and the help of her family to regain his throne.
Finally, with the death of the Macedonian king Cassander (297 BC), Pyrrhus regained the kingdom of Epirus, and he and Queen Antigone were escorted to safety as far as Cyprus by an Egyptian squadron. Queen Antigone died from the effects of childbirth, leaving two children,

• Ptolemaeus of Epirus (c297 – 272 BC). He died on the battlefield with his father, but was the father of King Pyrrhus II.
• Olympias of Epirus (c295 – 232 BC). She was the heiress and queen and married her half-brother, King Alexander II (291 – c240 BC), by whom she left issue.

Antigonia Matrona – (fl. c180 – c220 AD)
Graeco-Roman public benefactor
Antigonia Matrona was the daughter of the patrician Thelumitros, of Didyma, on the island of Miletus, Greece. She served the priesthood of the Kouretes cult for life, and held the civic offices of stephanephorus and archereia to the Imperial cult.

Antikleia – (c1245 – c1190 BC)
Greek queen consort
Antikleia was the daughter of Autolycus who was supposedly the son of the god Hermes. She became the wife of King Laertes and the mother of King Odysseus of Ithaka, the island kingdom. She was the mother-in-law of Penelope and grandmother of Telemachus. Later works written by Sophokles maintain that her son Odysseus was fathered by the god Sisyhus, and that she then married Laertes giving her son semi-divine parentage.
Queen Antikleia committed suicide by drowning herself because of grief at her son’s long absence during the Trojan War and the aftermath. In Homer’s Odyssey the hero sees the shade of his mother when he descends into Hades, and is thus made aware of her death. In the television film The Odyssey (1997) with Armand Assante as Odysseus, Antikleia was portrayed by Irene Papas.

Antill, Elizabeth – (1909 – 1997)
Australian novelist, traveller and diplomatic figure
Elizabeth Antill was the wife of a prominent ambassador and became Lady Middleton by marriage.

Antin, Francoise Gillone de Montmorency, Duchesse d’ – (1704 – 1768)
French Bourbon peeress and society figure
Francoise de Montmorency was born (July 1, 1704) and became the wife (1722) of Louis Pardaillon de Gondrin (1707 – 1743), Duc d’Antin, the legitimate grandson of the Marquise Athenais de Montespan, the famous mistress of Louis XIV. The Duc and Duchesse d’Antin attended the court of Louis XV and Queen Marie Leszcynszka at Versailles and the duchesse was mentioned in the correspondence of the British antiquarian Sir Horace Walpole. She survived her husband as the Dowager Duchesse d’Antin (1743 – 1768). The Duchesse died (March 20, 1768) aged sixty-three. Her children were,

• Louis de Pardaillon de Gondrin (1727 – 1757). He succeeded his father as the last Duc d’Antin. The peerage died with him.
• Julie Madeleine Victoire de Pardaillon de Gondrin (1731 – 1799). She was married to the Duc d’Uzes.

Antin, Mary – (1881 – 1949)
Jewish-American author
Mary Antin was born in Russia and immigrated to the United States with her family (1894). She graduated from Barnard College and later from Colombia University. Mary established herself as a lecturer, and wrote three volumes concerning immigration, including From Polotsk to Boston (1899) which related her own first-hand experiences, and They Who Knock at Our Gates (1914).

Antinori, Cora Maria – (1896 – 1974)
Italian interior designer
Cora Antinori was born (Feb 27, 1896) in Florence, the daughter of the Marchese Piero Antinori and his wife Nathalie Fabbri, the daughter of Ernesto Fabbri (1830 – 1884) and his American born wife Sarah Ann Randall. She became the wife (1920) of Prince Michael Caetani (1890 – 1941), the youngest son of Onorato Caetani, fourteenth Duke of Sermoneta. Their only child Topazia Caetani became the second wife of the noted Ukrainian composer and conductor Igor Markeivitch (1912 – 1983).
Using her maiden name the princess established her own successful and innovative interior design business and her style of decorating became popular with the English and Americans traveling abroad. She survived her husband for over three decades as the Dowager Princess Caetani (1941 – 1974) and died (Jan 10, 1974) aged seventy-seven, in Montreux, Switzerland.

Antiochis of Armenia – (fl. c205 – c200 BC)
Seleucid queen consort
Princess Antiochis was the daughter of the Seleucid ruler of Syria, King Seleucus II Kallinikus (247 – 226 BC) and his wife Laodike II, the daughter of Prince Andromakus and sister to Antiochus III the Great (223 – 187 BC). Antiochus III forced Xerxes, King of Armenia to marry his sister (c220 BC) after besieging him in his capital of Arsamosata, when he failed to pay his trbute due as a vassal of the Seleucids.
Not long afterwards Queen Antiochis caused her husband to be murdered (200 BC) and thus united the kingdom of Sophene to the extensive possessions of her powerful brother. Apart from her usefulness to her brother in accomplishing this objective no other details are recorded concerning this queen.

Antiochis of Cappadocia – (c208 – after 163 BC)
Seleucid queen consort
Princess Antiochis was the daughter of Antiochus III the Great (223 – 187 BC), the Seleucid ruler of Syria, and his first wife Laodike III, the daughter of Mithridates III, King of Pontus (c220 – 185 BC). Her father arranged for her marriage (c192 BC) with Ariarathes VI Eusebius (c240 – 163 BC), King of Cappadocia in Asia Minor, but for many years her marriage remained childless.
Fearful of losing her position as queen, Antiochis presented her husband with two sons including Orophones, whom she later admitted to have been suppostitious. These sons were passed over by Ariarathes for the succession, but then the queen did succeed in gaining the throne for her late born son Mithridates, who succeeded his royal father as King Ariarathes V (c175 – 130 BC). With her husband’s death Queen Antiochis retained some influence over affairs of state, but was soon overshadowed by her ambitious daughter-in-law Nysa of Pontus, and she retired into comfortable seclusion.

Antiochis of Commagene – (fl. c130 – c100 BC)
Greek princess
Princess Antiochis was the daughter of Samos II Theosebes Dikaios, King of Commagene (c130 – 96 BC) and his wife Queen Isias. Her paternal grandfather was the Persian satrap Ptolemaeus who served as governor of Commagene before taking the royal diadem as the first king of this dynasty (162 BC). She was the only known sibling of King Mithridates I Kallinikus (c96 – c70 BC) and was the paternal aunt to King Antiochus I (c70 – c38 BC) and his brother Mithridates II (c38 – c20 BC).
Antiochis was married to an unidentified prince or nobleman to whom she bore a daughter named Aka. She died young and was commemorated with other female members of the royal dynasty on surviving inscribed tablets which described Antiochis as sister to the king (Antiochus) by the same mother, fairest of women, whose life was short, but honours long and lasting.

Antiochis of Pergamum – (fl. c290 – c250 BC)
Seleucid princess and royal matriarch
Princess Antiochis was the elder daughter of the Seleucid prince Achaeus, the second son of the Syrian ruler Seleucus I Nikator (322 – 280 BC), and younger brother of King Antiochus I Soter (324 – 261 BC). Her mother remains unidentified but may have been of the royal family of Pontus, whilst her paternal grandmother was Queen Apama I, the daughter of the Persian prince Spitamenes of Sogdia. Her younger sister was Laodike I, the wife of their first cousin King Antiochus II Theos (261 – 247 BC).
Antiochus was given in marriage (c270 BC) with the consent of Antiochus II to the important magnate and nobleman Attalus of Pergamum, in Asia Minor, the nephew and heir of Philaterus (343 – 263 BC), the tyrant of Pergamum (283 – 263 BC). Her husband appears to have predeceased his uncle Philaterus, and Antiochis was the mother of an only child Attalus (269 – 197 BC) who succeeded his childless first cousin Eumenes I as the second king of Pergamum as Attalus I Soter (241 – 197 BC).
It remains unknown whether Princess Antiochis survived to see her son become king. She was the grandmother of kings Eumenes II Soter (197 – 159 BC) and Attalus II Philadelphus (159 – 138 BC), and great-grandmother to kings Attalus III (138 – 133 BC) and Aristonikus (133 – 128 BC).

Antiochis of Tlos – (fl. c80 – c100 AD)
Greek physician
Antiochis was unmarried and a native of Lycia in Asia Minor. She is attested by a surviving inscription set up in her honour by the council and people of Tlos. Antiochis herself commissioned the statue set up to comemorate this occasion. She may possibly be identified with the female physician of that name recorded by Galen.

Antiochis Teuthrantos – (c20 – c80 AD)
Graeco-Roman public benefactor
Antiochis Teuthrantos was the wife of Asklepiades Stratonikounes, priest and gymnasiarch of the city of Dorylaion in Phrygia, Asia Minor. Antiochis served with her husband as joint priestess of Theoi Sebastoi, and Theai Sebastai, of Homonoia Sebaste, Thea Rome, and Theos Sunkletos. The couple dedicated a public building on Dorylaion, the construction of which they probably financed.
A surviving dedicatory inscription reveals their religious titles, and the fact that Antiochis was granted the religious honour of Sebastophantes for her lifetime, and that she served as gymnasiarch for the women of the city, which duties and obligations she maintained from her own private fortune.

Antipatra – (fl. c550 – c570)
Byzantine patrician and religious dissident
Antipatra was the mother of the lady Georgia, the wife of Johannes who served as an honorary consul and was the Imperial envoy to Persia (576 – 577). During the reign of the emperor Justin II (527 – 565) Antipatra and another lady named Juliana were persecuted for their adherence to their Monophysite beliefs. Refusing to abjure they were exiled to a monastery in Chalcedon. Finally they pretended to acquiesce to the emperor’s wishes and were allowed to return to Constantinople. They were mentioned in the Ecclesiastical History of John of Ephesus.

Antiquiora – (d. c303 AD)
Graeco-Roman Christian martyr
Antiquoria was a native of Ankyra in Galatia, Asia Minor. She was arrested as a Christian during the persecutions intigated by the emperors Diocletian and Maximian Daia, and was imprisoned. She refused to abjure her faith and make public sacrifice to the pagan gods and was executed. She was venerated as a saint (Aug 31) her feast being recorded in the Acta Sanctorum.

Antoinette Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel – (1696 – 1762)
German duchess consort
HSH (Her Serene Highness) Duchess Antoinette Amalia of Brunswick was born (April 22, 1696) at Wolfenbuttel in Brunswick, the daughter of Duke Ludwig Rudolph of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel and his wife Christina Ludovica of Oettingen, the daughter if Albert Ernst I, Prince of Oettingen. Her sister was Elisabeth Christina of Brunswick, the wife of Emperor Karl VI (1711 – 1740) and mother of the Empress Maria Theresa. Antoinette Amalia was thus the maternal great-aunt to the ill-fated Queen Marie Antoinette of France.
The duchess was married (1712) to her kinsman Duke Ferdinand Albert of Brunswick-Bevern (1680 – 1735) and was the wife of a younger son. With her father’s death two decades afterwards (March, 1735) Antoinette’s husband succeeded in her right as Duke of Wolfenbuttel, but her reign as duchess consort lasted only six months as her husband died (Sept 3) following. Antoinette survived her husband for almost three decades as the Dowager Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel (1735 – 1762).
Their many children included Duke Karl I of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel (1735 – 1780), Duke Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, the favour of the ill-fated Russian tsar Ivan VI, Elisabeth Christina of Brunswick, the wife of Friedrich II the Great, King of Prussia, Sophia Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, the wife of Duke Franz Joseph of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Juliana Maria of Brunswick, the second wife of Frederik V, King of Denmark. Duchess Antoinette Amalia died (March 6, 1762) aged sixty-five, at Brunswick, near Hannover.

Antoinetta Ernestina Amalia – (1779 – 1824)
German princess and duchess of Wurttemburg
Princess Antoinetta was born (Aug 28, 1779) at Coburg, the second daughter of Franz Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his second wife Augusta, Countess of Reuss-Ebersdorff. She was raised with her numerous siblings at Ehrenburg Castle. Princess Antoinetta and several of her sisters were taken to the Imperial court at St Petersburg in Russia (1796), where her sister Juliana was chosen as the bride of the Romanov grand duke Constantine Pavlovitch, grandson of Catherine the Great. Antoinetta returned to Germany with her mother, where her marriage was then arranged (1798) at Coburg, with Alexander Friedrich Karl (1778 – 1833), Duke of Wurttemburg, nephew to King Freidrich I (1806 – 1816). This dynastic union brought the Coburg family the further goodwill of the Romanov dynasty, as the Empress Marie Pavlovna, wife of Tsar Paul I (1796 – 1801) was sister to Alexander. Duchess Antoinetta predeceased her husband, and died (March 14, 1824) aged forty-four, in St Petersburg, whilst on a visit to the Russian court. Her children included,

• Princess Maria of Wurttemburg (1799 – 1860). She became the second wife of Ernst I (1784 – 1844). Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, but died childless.
• Prince Alexander, Duke of Wurttemburg (1804 – 1885). He was married and left issue being ancestor of Mary of Teck, wife of George V, King of Great Britain.

Antoinette Charlotte Marie Josepha Caroline Frida – (1838 – 1908)
German princess and duchess consort of Anhalt-Dessau (1871 – 1904)
Princess Antoinette was born (April 17, 1838) at Bamberg, the second daughter of Duke Edward of Saxe-Altenburg (1804 – 1852) and his first wife Amalia Antoinette (1815 – 1841), the daughter of Karl Anton (1785 – 1853), Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Princess Antoinette was married (1854) at Altenburg, Saxony, to Prince Friedrich (1831 – 1904) the ducal heir of the dukedom of Saxe-Altenburg. He succeeded as Duke Friedrich I (1871 – 1904) and Antoinette became duchess consort. Antoinette survived her husband as the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Altenburg (1904 – 1908). Duchess Antoinette died (Oct 13, 1908) aged seventy, at Berchtesgaden. Her six children were,

• Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau (1855 – 1886). He was the Hereditary Prince but predeceased his father, leaving an only daughter.
• Friedrich II (1856 – 1918). He succeeded his father as Duke of Anhalt-Dessau (1904 – 1918) but died childless.
• Princess Elisabeth of Anhalt-Dessau (1857 – 1933). She became the wife of Adolf Friedrich V (1848 – 1914), Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a descendant of George III, King of England, and left descendants.
• Eduard I (Edward) (1861 – 1918). He briefly succeeded his brother Friedrich II as the last reigning Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1918). He was married and left descendants.
• Prince Aribert of Anhalt-Dessau (1864 – 1933). He was married to Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein, the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. The marriage proved disastrous, and was annulled. There were no children.
• Princess Alexandra of Anhalt-Dessau (1868 – 1958). She became the wife of Sizzo, Prince of Schwarzburg (1860 – 1926).

Antoinette Roberta Sophia Wilhelmine – (1899 – 1954)
Crown Princess consort of Bavaria (1921 – 1954)
Princess Antoinette was born (Oct 7, 1899) at Castle Hohenberg, Bavaria, the third daughter of Guillaume IV, Grand Duke of Luxemburg (1905 – 1912), and his wife the Infanta Maria Anna of Portugal, the daughter of King Miguel I (1828 – 1834), who was later deposed and became the Duke of Braganza. She was the younger sister to Grand Duchess Marie Adelaide (1912 – 1919) and Grand Duchess Charlotte (1919 – 1964). Her Grand Ducal Highness, who bore the additional title of Princess of Nassau, was married (1921) to Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria (1869 – 1955), the son and heir of King Ludwig III, as his second wife. They had originally been betrothed in 1918, but the necessities of war, in which Rupprecht was serving, and the political situation, which did not favour closer ties between Luxemburg and Bavaria at the times, caused the marriage to be delayed.
With the fall of the monarchy in Bavaria, Prince Rupprecht renounced his rights to the throne, and married Princess Antoinette. The couple had six children and the family resided at his castle of Sternberg. Both Antoinette and her husband were involved with unsuccessful plots to restore the monarchy. During WW II the prince and princess remained unimpressed by Adolf Hitler of his Nazi adherents, and were later forced to take their family into exile, firstly in Italy (1939) and then in Hungary. With the Nazi occupation of Hungary, Prince Rupprecht managed to escape, but Antoinette and her children were captured, and imprisoned at Sachsenhausen. With the worseneing situation for the Germans, the princess and her children were then transferred to the notorious concentration camp at Dachau (April, 1945). Though the family were liberated a few weeks afterwards and all her children survived, Princess Antoinette’s own health never recovered from the privations. Princess Antoinette died (July 31, 1954) aged fifty-four, at Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Her children were,

• Prince Heinrich of Bavaria (1922 – 1958). He was married but died childless.
• Princess Irmingard of Bavaria (born 1923). She was married to her cousin, Prince Ludwig of Bavaria (born 1913), and left issue.
• Princess Editha of Bavaria (born 1924). She was married firstly to Tito Tommaso Brunetti (1905 – 1954), and secondly to Dr Gustav Christian Schimmert (1910 - 1990) and left children from both marriages.
• Princess Hilda of Bavaria (1926 – 2002). She ebcame the wife of Juan bradstock Lockett de Loayza (1912 – 1987) and left issue who took the surname of Lockett de Wittelsbach.
• Princess Gabrielle of Bavaria (born 1927). She became the wife of Prince Charles Eamnuel de Croy (born 1914), who succeeded his father as Prince of Croy (1974), and left issue.
• Princess Sophia of Bavaria (born 1935). She became the wife of Jean Engelbert, Duc d’Arenberg (born 1921), who was recognised as the Head of the House of Arenberg (1993) and left issue.

Antoni, Leonilda Giacoma d’ – (1745 – after 1798)
Italian marchesa di Cammarota
Leonilda was the natural daugher of the famous adventurer Giacomo Casanova (1725 – 1798), and his mistress Lucrezia d’Antoni (Anna Maria). She was raised by her mother and her stepfather, Alessio Vallati. Groomed for society by her mother, she appeared in Neapolitan society in 1761, and became the mistress of Lelio Caraffa, Duke de Matalone (1734 – 1765), who promised to have her educated and prepared for an advantageous marriage. It was at this time that Casanova espied and fell in love with Leonilda, and went as far as to propose marriage to her, until Lucrezia stepped in an acquainted him with the fact that his beloved was actually his own daughter. Casanova presented her with five thousand ducats towards her marriage portion. Leonilda married the elderly marquis de Cammarota (1765), with whom she resided in Salerno. When her father was in financial straits (1770), the marquis persuaded him to accept Leonilda’s dowry that he had bestowed on her a decade earlier. Widowed in 1792, Leonilda survived her famous father.

Antonia, Sister – (c1890 – 1971)
Dutch religious figure
Sister Antonia was the last living Beguin sister in Holland, a lay-order which had been instituted in the Middle Ages.

Antonia del Balzo – (c1340 – 1374)
Queen consort of Sicily (1372 – 1374)
Antonia was the daughter of Bertrand del Balzo, Count d’Andria and Montescaglioso, by his second wife Margaret d’Aulnay, the daughter of Pierre II, Seigneur d’Aulnay. She became the second wife (Jan 17, 1372), when already aged over thirty, of Frederick III of Sicily (1342 – 1377). There were no children. Queen Antonia died (Jan 23, 1374).

Antonia Caenis     see    Caenis, Antonia

Antonia Clementiana – (fl. c30 – c70 AD)
Roman patrician
Antonia Clementiana was the daughter of Antonius Felix, the procurator of Judaea, and was the niece of Pallas, secretary to the Emperor Claudius I (41 – 54 AD). Her mother may have been Drusilla, the daughter of Juba II, King of Mauretania and his wife Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of Marcus Antonius and the famous Cleopatra VII of Egypt. She was married and left children though no details of her life remain. Her grandson (probably maternal) has been identified with Lucius Anneius Domitius Proculus, who was described as the great-grandson of Antonius Felix in a survivinh inscription.

Antonia Euergitia – (c51 – c33 BC)
Roman Republican patrician
Antonia euergitia was the daughter of the triumvir Marcus Antonius and his second wife, his first cousin Antonia Hybrida. She was betrothed by her father (44 BC) to the son of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, consul and triumvir, possibly Quintus Aemilius Lepidus, but this arrangement was broken and she was married to instead to Nysaeus Pythodorus (c70 – c15 BC), the rich asiarch of Tralles in Pontus, Asia Minor. She appears to have died before her father and left an only known child Pythodoris of Tralles (33 BC – 23 AD), the famous queen of Pontus, and she may not have survived the birth of this daughter.

Antonia Hybrida – (fl. c54 – 47 BC)
Roman Republican patrician
Antonia was the daughter of Gaius Antonius Hybrida and was born (c71 BC). She became the second wife (c54 BC) of her first cousin, the future triumvir Marcus Antonius (82 – 30 BC), they both being grandchildren of Marcus Antonius, consul (99 BC). She was divorced by Antonius (47 BC) on a charge of adultery with Publious Cornelius Dolabella, his former political ally. Antonia had borne him an only daughter Antonia Euergitia, the wife of Pythodorus the asiarch of Tralles in Asia Minor, and was the ancestress of the royal house of Pontus and their descendants.

Antonia Maior – (39 BC – after 32 AD)
Roman Imperial progenatrix
Antonia Maior was a member of the Augustan Imperial house, being the elder sister to Antonia Minor. She was the daughter and posthumous daughter of Claudius Marcellus and his wife Octavia Minor, sister to the emperor Augustus. Antony married her mother and adopted Antonia as his daughter, thus giving her his family name. Augustus arranged her later marriage with Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (c49 BC – 25 AD), whom she survived.
The histories of Rome remain strangely quiet concerning this rather prominent Roman lady, and her death passed unremarked by contemporary writers. It had been though that her death had predated that of the Emperor Augustus (14 AD), but a sparse refrence by the historian Suetonius to her son Ahenobarbus dated to his consular year (32 AD), reveals that Antonia Maior was still living at this time. The subject of this reference was a witty rejoinder from Asilius Sabinus to Antonia, who had made comments concerning the slothful habits of her son. Her five children were,

• Domitia Ahenobarba Maior (c7 BC – c12 AD). She died young.
• A son, possibly named Lucius Ahenobarbus. He probably died young before 9 AD.
• Domitia Ahenobarba Minor (c6 BC – 59 AD). She became the wife of Quintus Haterius Agrippa, then of Quintus Junius Blaesus, and then Passienus Crispus (died 48 AD).
• Domitia Ahenobarba Lepida (c4 BC – 54 AD). She was married firstly to Marcus Valerius Barbatus Messalla (c27 BC – c19 AD) and was the mother of the notorious Empress Valeria
  Messallina the third wife of Claudius I (41 – 54 AD), and mother of Britannicus Caesar and of Octavia the first wife of Nero.
• Gnaeus Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (c2 BC – 40 AD) was father to Nero, last emperor (54 – 68 AD) of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty.

Antonia Minor – (36 BC – 37 AD)
Roman Augusta (37 AD)
Antonia Minor was the younger daughter of Mark Antony, and of Octavia Minor, the sister of the emperor Augustus. She was married (23 BC) to Drusus Nero (Drusus the Elder) the son of the empress Livia, and stepson of Augustus. Her three surviving children were Germanicus Caesar, Emperor Claudius I (41 – 54 AD), and Livilla, the wife of the younger Drusus (son of Tiberius). Her grandson was the emperor Gaius Caligula (37 – 41 AD), whilst her granddaughter Claudia Octavia became the first wife of the emperor Nero (54 – 68 AD).
With her husband’s early death in 9 BC, Antonia resisted all pressure to marry again, and remained a model of matronly behaviour. Throughout the reign of Tiberius (14 – 37 AD) Antonia remained an influential public figure. After the death of her popular son Germanicus in 19 AD, Antonia remained absent from his funeral either because of grief, illness, or the wishes of Tiberius and the empress Livia, but this action, viewed as disrespect, was the only criticism ever made against Antonia by the Roman populace.
Through the undetected activities of her freedmen and slaves, Antonia is said to have played a vital part in the downfall of the hated Aelius Sejanus in 31 AD, and Antonia herself is said to have caused her daughter to be starved to death, one it had become clear that she had murdered her late husband, the only son of Tiberius, in collusion with Sejanus, her lover. Tiberius, out of respect for his sister-in-law, had left the punishment of Livilla in the hands of her mother. The slave (later freedwoman) who acted as Antonia’s agent during these activities was Antonia Caenis, who surivived to become the concubine of the emperor Vespasian.
With the death of Livia (29 AD) her grand children Caligula and his sister Drusilla were brought up in her home, together with several client princes from numerous eastern kingdoms, including Herod Agrippa I, the future king of Judaea, whose mother Berenike was a close friend of Antonia’s, and long resided at Rome. Antonia had inherited much goodwill and many connections, as well as laege amounts of property in the East from her father. With the accession of Caligula in March, 37 AD, he conferred upon Antonia the honours formerly enjoyed by Livia, though she declined the title of Augusta. She died (May 1) following, said to have been driven to suicide by Caligula, who had found her criticisms irksome.
Her son Claudius caused Antonia to be granted the title posthumously, upon his own accession in 41 AD, and she was still being honoured by official inscriptions ten years later. Coinage survives, including an aureus minted in Rome 41 – 45 AD, which bears a bust of Antonia on the obverse, with the legend ANTONIA AVGVSTA, whilst the reverse has two lighted torches bound togther by a ribbon, and the legend PRIESTESS OF THE DIVINE AVGVSTVS. She was portrayed in the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) series I Claudius (1976) by actress Margaret Tyzack with Derek Jacobi as her son.

Antonia of Florence – (1401 – 1472)
Italian nun and saint
Antonia was born in Florence. She was married and widowed in her youth, and left with an only son. She then took the veil with the cloistered nuns of the Third Order of St Francis in the convent of Sant’ Onofrio in Florence. Angelina Corbara placed Antonia as superior of the convent of Santa Anna at Fologno (1430). She founded two convents of her lorder in Aquila (1433) and eventually settled there herself (1447) with twelve nuns of her order to follow the rule of St Clara. Antonia was elected to head the convent (1465) and died in office (Feb 28, 1472) aged seventy-one. Her worship was approved by Pope Pius IX (1847) though her feast (Feb 28) was observed only within her own order.

Antonia of Nikomedia – (d. c305 AD)
Graeco-Roman Christian martyr
Antonia was a native of the province of Bithynia in Asia Minor. She was arrested and imprisoned during the persecutions against the Christians and their followers instigated by the emperors Diocletian and Maximian Daia. She refused to make sacrifice to the pagan gods and was kept in prison for two years. She was then hung by one arm for three days prior to being burnt to death. She was venerated as a saint her feast (May 4) being recorded in the Acta Sanctorum. She was referred to in the Martyrology of St Jerome.

Antonia of Portugal – (1845 – 1913)
Infanta
Born Infanta Antonia Maria Fernanda Micaela Gabriela Rafaela Francisca de Assis Ana Gonzaga Silveria Julia Augusta of Braganza and Portugal (Feb 17, 1845) at the Necessidades Palace in Lisbon, Estramadura, the third daughter of Queen Maria II da Gloria and her consort Fernando II, formerly Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. From her father she received the titles of Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Duchess of Saxony. She was married (1861) at Lisbon to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1835 – 1905). A beautiful and dominating woman, the princess held a marked influence over her second son Ferdinand who was always her favourite son.
When she and her husband visited Queen Victoria at Osborne in England (Dec, 1865) the queen wrote, rather surprisingly comparing Antonia favourably in comparison with the Princess of Wales; “ Oh, if Antoinette were in Alix’s (Alexandra’s) place, she is so much more sympathique and grande dame.” With an interest in botany, biology and natural history, and was a water colour painter of some small merit. Due to her narrow Roman Catholic upbringing she remained vain and self-centred but was considered one of the great beauties of her era and was painted by Franz winterhalter dressed in a sweeping low-necked crinoline.
Never an important political figure, Princess Antonia’s contribution was mainly to the social life of the Roumanian court, but this diminished after the arrival of her daughter-in-law, Marie of Edinburgh at the court of Sigmaringen (1892).  With the death of her husband she became the Dowager Princess of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1905 – 1913) and devoted herself to her grandchildren. Princess Antonia died (Dec 27, 1913) aged sixty-eight, in Sigmaringen. By her won request she was buried in the crypt of the kings of Portugal in the monastery of Sao Vicente. Her ill-fated grandson King Carol II was later allowed to be buried at Sao Vicente because his grandmother had been a Portugese infanta (1953).  Her children were,

• Prince William of Hohenzollern (1864 – 1927). He succeeded his father as the reigning Prince of Sigmaringen (1905 – 1927) and left issue Augusta Victoria, the wife of Manoel II, the last
  King of Portugal (1908 – 1910).
• Ferdinand I (1865 – 1927). He succeeded his childless uncle Carol I as King of Roumania (1914 – 1927) and left issue.
• Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1868 – 1919). He was married to Josephine, the niece of Leopold II of Belgium (1865 – 1909) and left four children.

Antonia Picentina   see   Picentina, Antonia

Antonia Prisca    see   Prisca, Antonia

Antonia Tryphaena – (c12 BC – 49 AD) 
Greek client queen of Thrace
Antonia Tryphaena was the daughter of Polemo I, King of Pontus, and his wife Pythodoris of Tralles, the granddaughter of Mark Antony. She married (c7 AD) Cotys IV, King of Thrace, who in 18 AD was murdered at the instigation of his uncle Rhescuporis II, who shared the throne with him. In 19 AD, the widowed queen travelled to Rome with her three young sons, and successfully accused Rhescuporis before the Senate. He was condemned and later executed, and the queen appears to have remained in Rome, where her sons were educated in the household of Antonia, the mother of Claudius I.
During the reign of Tiberius, Antonia Tryphaena became a priestess (flaminica) of the Imperial cult devoted to the emperor’s mother Livia in the city of Cyzicus in Asia Minor, and in the reign of Caligula she was again priestess at Cyzicus, involved in the cult of the emperor’s sister Drusilla, who was worshipped as the new Aphrodite. In 37 AD, her son Polemo II (c10 – 63 AD) was made king of Pontus, and the queen mother returned to court there to act as regent, issuing her own coinage. She was honoured as a munificent benefactress of the people of Cyzicus, and an inscription found at Cyzicus, gives thanks to the Isthmian Poseidon for the queen’s efforts to have the city’s port channels unblocked, which task she paid for out of her own private funds. In later years she may have resided in Antioch, as several early Christian legends connect the queen with the career of St Thekla.

Antonina – (c490 AD – c572)
Byzantine courtier and political intriguer
Antonina was the daughter of a circus charioteer, whilst her mother Thessalonika, was an actress. She was raised in the theatre and had borne several children, though whether of not they were legitimate remains unknown. Antonina had been a close friend of the Empress Theodora prior to her marriage with Justinian I (527), and retained this friendship after her friend’s rise to power. With the connivance of Theodora, Antonina became the wife (531 – 532) of the famous general Belisarius (504 – 565), who was fifteen years her junior. Her husband adored her, but she never bothered to alter either her character or her behaviour to suit her new station in life, and her activities caused Belisarius’ career some embarrassment over the years.
Antonina joined with the empress in bringing about the downfall of the praetorian prefect, John of Cappodocia (541), the enemy of Theodora. Her assistance in this matter enabled Antonina to call on the empress for help during her many domestic crises, in which Theodora always took her side. For several years she was involved in an adulterous affair with her husband’s own godson and adopted son, Theodosius. News of this affait was laid before Belisarius by Antonina’s own son Photius, who detested his mother and believed that she was trying to kill him. Antonina was arrested but appealed to the empress, who caused Photius to be imprisoned and tortured. The empress ordered Belisarius to be reconciled with Antonina, and caused Theodosius to be restored to her, though he soon died of dysentery (542). Her husband was been in command of the hopeless war against the Gothic invasion of Italy from 546, and Antonina accompanied him there. Realizing that the inevitable defeat was approaching, and being anxious ro preserve Belisarius from disgrace, she travelled to Constantinople to arrange his recall, which she managed, though Theodora had died (548) during her absence. Belisarius then returned to the capital, his military reputation intact (549).
The couple then retired from public life, and Antonina survived Belisarius for several years, residing in the household of Vigilantia, the widowed mother of Emperor Justin II, whom she persuaded to build the church of St Prokopius. She had borne Belisarius two daughters of whom the elder, Joannina, who was betrothed (544), but never married, to Anastasius, the grandson or nephew of Theodora. The name of Antonina’s younger daughter remains unknown, though she was married (543) to Ildiger, the Roman dux of Phoenicia. Antonina died aged in her early eighties, in Constantinople.

Antonini, Theresa – (1785 – 1809)
German murderess
Born Theresa Marschall in Berlin, Prussia, she was raised there. She was married to an Italian thief and bandit named Antonini, with whom she worked to commit many robberies. The couple were twice arrested and imprisoned for such crimes. When travelling with her husband and younger brother by coach from Danzig to Vienna, they shared the journey with a rich young woman named Dorothea Blankenfeld.
Whilst staying in an inn at Hof, they drugged her and planned how to kill her. When the victim revived, they panicked and Theresa and her husband beat the girl to death with a fire poker. They fled the next morning taking the victim’s body with them in the coach, but the innkeeper found evidence of foul play in the room, and notified the guards, who apprehended the coach and arrested Theresa and her husband. Theresa and her husband were tried in Nuremburg. Antonini starved himself to death in prison, whilst Theresa was publicly beheaded.

Antony, Jonquil – (1911 – 1980)
British author and radio scriptwriter
Antony was born (Oct 5, 1911) in London. She was the author of Mrs Dale’s Diary and other works and became the wife of the actor John Wyse (born 1904), who played Sir Richard in the popular early television series Puck of Pook’s Hill (1951). She began a newspaper column for girls (1962) in the The Children’s Newspaper. Jonquil Antony died (Dec 6, 1980) aged sixty-nine.

Antraigues, Marie Antoinette Cecile Clavel, Comtesse d’ – (1756 – 1812)
French soprano
Marie Antoinette Clavel was born in Toulouse, and adopted the professional name of Madame de Saint-Huberty. Madame de Saint-Huberty appeared successfully at the Grand Opera in Paris for twelve years (1777 – 1789). With the eruption of the revolution, she married (1790) her admirer, the diplomat and political adventurer, Emmanuel Henri Louis Alexandre de Launay, Comte d’ Antraigues, the nephew of the Comte de Saint-Priest, last minister to Louis XVI. The couple then left France to reside in England. Husband and wife were both murdered outside their London home, by a disgruntled servant whom they had dismissed.

Antremont, Marie Henriette Anne Payan d’Estang de Bourdic-Viot, Marquise de – (1746 – 1802)
French poet
Marie Henriette de Bourdic-Viot was born in Dresden, Saxony, and was the nieceof the classical scholar, Anne Le Ferre Dacier. From 1750 she resided in France, and was proficient in Latin, English, German, and Italian. She was best known for the poem, ‘Ode au silence’ (Ode to Silence), which was published in the L’Almanach des Muses (The Muses’ Almanac) (1769).
Some of her verses appeared in the, Journal des Dames (The Women’s Journal), as did the collection entitled, Poesies de Mme la marquise d’Antremont (Poems of Madame la Marquise d’Antremont) (1770). Madame de Antremont was later elected as a member of the Academie de Nimes (1782) and survived the horrors of the Revolution. One of her last works was the unpublished opera La Foret de Brama (The Forest of Brama) (1800).

Antrim, Louisa Jane Grey, Countess of – (1855 – 1949)
British courtier and memoirist
Louisa Grey was born (Feb 15, 1855) the third daughter of General Hon. (Honourable) Charles Grey, and his wife Caroline Elizabeth Farquhar, and was niece to the third Earl Grey. She was married (1875) at St James’s, Westminster, to William Randal MacDonnell (1851 – 1918), the sixth Earl of Antrim. She served at court as lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria (1890 – 1901) and then to Queen Alexandra, whom she served as Mistress of the Bedchamber, and became the queen’s close friend and confidante.
Lady Louisa survived her husband for three decades as the Dowager Countess of Antrim (1918 – 1949), and was granted an apartment at St James’s Palace. Her letters and private albums were compiled and edited by Lady Longford who published the work as Louisa: Lady in Waiting (1979). Lady Antrim died (April 2, 1949) aged ninety-four, at her apartment in St James’s Palace, London. Her children were,

• Lady Sybil Mary MacDonnell – (1876 – 1959). She was married to Vivian Hugh Smith (1867 – 1956), first Baron Bicester (1938 – 1956) and left issue.
• Randal Mark Kerr MacDonnell (1878 – 1932). He succeeded his father as seventh Earl of Antrim (1918 – 1932) and left issue.
• Hon. Angus MacDonnell (1881 – 1966). He served in WW I (1916 – 1919) and served during WW II (1941 – 1945) as Attache at the British Embassy in Washington. He left issue.

Antrim, Minna Thomas – (1856 – 1950)
American author
Minna Antrim was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her published work included A Woman of That Description (1896), Naked Truths and Veiled Illusions (1901), A Book of Toasts (1902), Don’ts for Girls: A Manual of Mistakes (1903), At the Sign of the Golden Calf (1905) and Don’ts for Bachelors and Old Maids (1908).

Anula – (c46 BC – 1 AD) 
Sri Lankan queen
Anula was the wife of King Coranaga. A woman of strong and unscrupulous character, she caused Coranaga to be poisoned, and set up her favourite, Kuda Tissa, as king and successor.
Anula then caused Tissa to be poisoned, and set up another favourite as king, Siva I. He was followed in one years by three other kings, all former favourites, Vatukam, Darubhatika, Tissa, and Niliya, all of whom Anula poisoned before finally retaking the throne for herself (5 BC), the first female ruler in Sri Lanka’s history.
Anula ruled as queen for four years, and was succeeded y Kutakanna Tissa, her son by her second husband, who, according to tradition, burnt Anula alive in her own palace, and then ruled for twenty-two years. Another tradition states that Anula ruled for only four months before being assassinated.

Anvers, Alice d’ – (1668 – 1725)
British poet and verse writer

Anville, Marie Louise Nicole Elisabeth de La Rochefoucald, Duchesse d’ – (1716 – 1797)
French society and political figure
Marie Louise de La Rochefoucald was the eldest daughter of Alexandre, Duc de La Rochefoucald and Comte de Montignac (1690 – 1762), and his wife Elisabeth Marie Louise Nicole du Caylard de Toiras d’Amboise, Comtesse d’Ambigoux. Her two elder brothers died in infancy, as did her youngest sister Adelaide, Madamoiselle de Marsillac (1737), after which Marie Louise, and her only surviving sibling, Marie, Duchesse d’Estissac (1718 – 1789), became joint heirs of their father’s estates. She was styled Madamoiselle de La Rochefoucald prior to her first marriage (1731) with Guy de La Rochefoucald, Duc de La Roche-Guyon. He died the same year and the marriage remained childless. The Duchesse de La Roche-Guyon then remarried (1732) to Jean Baptiste de La Rouchefoucald-Roye (1707 – 1746), Duc d’Anville. She survived her husband for fifty years as the Dowager Duchesse d’Anville (1746 – 1797).
The duchesse attended the courts of Louis XV and Louis XVI at Versailles, and was a prominent supporter of governmental reform, being present at many of the popular salons of the pre-Revolutionary period. She was a friend of the Duc and Duchesse de Choiseul, though Louis XV later forbade them to receive the Duchesse d’Anville at Chanteloup, where Choiseul and his wife retired after their exile from court (1770). Despite her liberal sympathies, she had to watch whilst her son was murdered by revolutionaries in front of her, though she and her daughter-in-law remained unmolested.
The duchesse copied the Memoires of the Duc de Saint-Simon in extracts, and was mentioned in the correspondence of the English antiquarian, Horace Walpole. The Duchesse d’Anville died in Paris. The surviving children of her second marriage were,

• Louis Alexandre (1743 – 1792). He became Duc de La Rochefoucald de La Roche-Guyon, and Prince de Marsillac. He was murdered by the mob at Gisors.
• Elisabeth Louise de La Rochefoucald (1740 – 1786). She became the wife of Louis Antoine Auguste de Rohan-Chabot, Duc de Chabot (died 1807) (later the Duc de Rohan).
• Adelaide Emilie de La Rochefoucald (1745 – 1765). She died unmarried.

Anzaldua, Gloria Evangelina – (1942 – 2004)
Chicana-American lesbian feminist, poet, and scholar
Anzaldua was born (Sept 26, 1942) in Rio Grande, Texas. She attended the University of Texas at Austin and trained to work as a schoolteacher. She later removed to California wherew she supported herself by writing and lecturing, and also continuing her education. She became famous as co-editor of This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981) which was awarded the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award (1986), and This Bridge We Call Home : Radical Visions for Transformations (2002).
Gloria also wrote several works for children including Prietita Has a Friend (1991) and Prietitia y La Llorona (1996). She received the Sappho Award of Distinction (1992) and the Lambda Lesbian Small Book Award. Her papers and manuscripts form part of the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. Gloria Anzaldua died (May 15, 2004) aged sixty-one, at Santa Cruz, California.

Anzizu i Guell, Merce – (1868 – 1916)
Spanish poet, biographer, and historian
Merce Anzizu I Guell was born in Barcelona. With the deaths of her immediate family she was partly raised at the home of her wealthy cousin, Eusebi Guell, where she became interested in literature and the arts. Though considered a beauty, she refused all offers of marriage, preferring to remain single. She later entered the Clarissan convent of Pedralbes in Barcelona, where she became a nun, taking the name of Sister Eularia. There she used her great fortune for the benefit of the convent.
Her published works included the Vida de Sant Joseph Oriol (Life of St Joseph Oriol) (1909), and a hymn written to celebrate his canonization. She also wrote a biography of St Eularia, the patron saint of Barcelona (1911), and a history and document record for Pedralbes entitled Fulles historiques del real monestir de Santa Maria de Pedralbes (Historial Pages of the Royal Monastery Saint Mary of Pedralbes) (1897). She composed two chorus books for Gregorian chant in her abbey entitled Officia novissima (1901), and the Psalterium e breviario romano. Merce Anzizu i Guell died in Barcelona.