The Warrior Queens: The Legends and the Lives of the Women Who Have Led Their Nations in War

in This Panoramic Work Of History, Lady Antonia Fraser Looks At Women Who Led Armies And Empires: Cleopatra, Isabella Of Spain, Jinga Mbandi, Margaret Thatcher, And Indira Gandhi, Among Others. publishers Weekly in A Series Of Cleverly Linked Biographies, Fraser Here Tells The Stories Of A Long Line Of History's ``warrior Queens,'' At The Same Time Exploring And Illuminating The Myths, Paradoxes And Ambiguities That Attend Their Status As Aggressive Female Leaders, And The ``mingled Awe, Horror, And Ecstasy'' That They Inspire. She Begins With The British Queen Boadicea, Who In A.d. 60 Led A Massive But Doomed Rebellion Against The Roman Occupation (and Whose Spirit Haunts The Entire Book), And Ends With The Modern Trio: Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi And Margaret Thatcher. In Between Come The Likes Of Isabella Of Spain, Elizabeth I, Catherine The Great And The Beautiful Rani Of Jhansi, Who, Wronged By The British, Earned Herself A Permanent Place In Indian Legend By The Heroic Role She Played Against Them In The So-called Mutiny Of 1857. Fraser ( Mary Queen Of Scots ; Cromwell ) Buttresses Her Book With Sound Scholarship, While Her Insights And Enthusiasm Make It Beguiling. Illustrated. 60,000 First Printing; Bomc And Qpbc Alternates. (mar.) In this panoramic work of history, Fraser looks at women who led armies, empires and rebellions: Cleopatra, Tamara of Georgia, Isabella of Spain, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Jinga Mbandi of Angola, the Rani of Jhansi, and the 20th-century "iron ladies" Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi, among others. Her touchstone is Boadicea, the first-century Briton who led 120,000 compatriots in a revolt that temporarily shook the Roman hold on her country. With her as a vibrant centerpiece, Fraser brings forward a constellation of 17 women who, through accidents of fate or descent, or sheer genius for power, have been cast in the role of Warrior Queen--seen by her contemporaries as (often simultaneously) monster, angel, honorary male, one who shames men into bravery--and seen, long after her reign, as the focus of a golden age.--From publisher description. The author looks at women who have led armies and empires. Boadicea, the Celtic chieftain who led a bloody uprising against Roman rule in the first century A.D. Cleopatra, who relied less on sexual guile than on political acumen. The grimly devout Isabella of Spain. The majestic and murderous Jinga Mbandi, who became the bane of Portuguese colonists in the seventeenth century Angola. Also are the moder "iron ladies": Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, and Golda Meir