Bloody Facts About History's Most Ruthless Matriarchs
“If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?” —Milton Berle
In the telling of history, strong moms occupy a precarious place. Sometimes, they’re villainized as power-hungry, domineering harpies who just want to control their children. Other times, they’re over-idealized as domestic angels with impossibly low levels of self-interest. Moms just can’t catch a break. Nevertheless, the specter of motherhood looms large in tales of powerful dynasties.
Although it’s by no means universal law, motherhood was one of the few ways a woman could assert her right to property and agency within patriarchal societies.
Sure, the primal instincts to protect one’s young was strong, but it was hardly the only reason that mothers in power would so fervently defend their turf, especially when the brood in question were heirs to large empires.
With such stakes, is it such a surprise that mothers would go so far? From in-law massacres to ponytail strangulations, witness the limits of motherly love with 25 soothing facts about history’s most ruthless matriarchs.
History's Most Ruthless Matriarchs Facts
25. Mommy Massacre
Could a single fact ever hope to contain the raw power of Catherine de Medici, arguably the most ruthless Queen Mother of France? Throughout the 16th century, Catherine saw three of her sons as Kings of France through the Wars of Religion. She also masterminded the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre—a purge of French Protestants that conveniently also killed Catherine’s daughter’s most pesky in-laws. Seeing as she also introduced early-modern Frenchwomen to the concept of underwear, Catherine is a mother that you should royally read more about.
24. A Split End
In 1648, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire was just a seven-year-old boy named Mehmed IV. As a result, Mehmed’s grandmother, Queen Regent Kösem Sultan, and his mother, Turhan, fought viciously for control of his regency.
Turhan most likely ordered the successful assassination of her own mother-in-law. Some allege that the elderly grandmother Kösem was asphyxiated by a curtain, others say Kösem was betrayed by her own luscious locks and strangled with her own hair.
23. Mom Left You Something in the Fridge
Shoving her Sultan/husband’s dead body into an icebox was Nurbanu Sultan’s first act as Valide Sultan (Queen Mother) of the Ottoman Empire. When Selim II died suddenly in 1574, Nurbanu’s son, the assumed heir, was living out of town.
News of Sultan Selim II’s death would have enticed their rivals to seize the throne in the prince’s absence.
Thus, for 12 entire days, Nurbanu played things chill, and she told almost no one about the Sultan-flavored popsicle in her freezer until her son arrived home, to everyone’s cold surprise.
