Queen Dowager

A Queen Dowager or Dowager Queen is a title or status generally held by the widow of a deceased king. Its full meaning is clear from the two words from which it is composed: queen indicates someone who served as queen consort (i.e. wife of a king), while dowager indicates a widow who holds the title from her deceased husband.

Related Topics:
Queen consort - Dowager

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A Queen Mother is a particular type of queen dowager who is simultaneously a former queen consort and the mother of the current monarch.1 Therefore, every queen mother is by definition also a queen dowager. However, not all queen dowagers are queen mothers (i.e., the mothers of the reigning monarch). For example, a queen dowager may be the widow of the older brother of the reigning monarch.

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Not every mother of a reigning monarch is a queen mother or a queen dowager. For example, the mother of Queen Victoria of Great Britain, the Duchess of Kent, was never a queen dowager because her late husband, the Duke of Kent, had never been king. Similarly, the mother of King George III of the United Kingdom, the former Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, was not a queen dowager because her husband, Frederick, Prince of Wales, was never king. Instead, she held the title of Dowager Princess of Wales.

Related Topics:
Queen Victoria of Great Britain - Duchess of Kent - The Duke of Kent - George III of the United Kingdom - Augusta of Saxe-Gotha - Frederick, Prince of Wales

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Finally, it is entirely possible for there to be a queen mother and one or more queen dowagers alive at any one time. This situation occurred in the United Kingdom in the period between the ascension of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952 and the death of her paternal grandmother on 24 March 1953. For slightly over a year, there were three queens in Great Britain:

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - Queen Elizabeth II - 6 February - 1952 - 24 March - 1953

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• Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch.
• Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the widow of the recently deceased King George VI and the mother of the reigning queen. Queen Elizabeth, the former queen consort, specifically adopted the appelation "Queen Mother" to distinguish herself from her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
• Queen Mary, the widow of King George V, the mother of the former king Edward VIII (the then Duke of Windsor) and of the late King George VI. Queen Mary had been the queen mother between the death of her husband in 1936 and the ascension of her granddaughter in 1952. However, she continued to be titled and styled "Her Majesty Queen Mary."

A queen dowager continues to enjoy the title, style, and precedence of a queen consort. However, many former queen consorts do not formally use the word "dowager" as part of their titles.

Related Topics:
Style - Precedence

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Queen Dowager: British Queen Mothers ►