War Queens

Each week father-daughter team Jon and Emily Jordan examine the incredible stories of history’s most powerful female battle leaders. These are the brilliant methods and maneuvers history’s “killer queens” used to defend themselves and their people from enemy forces—and how each generation appreciates these incredible women. From ancient Persia to modern-day Britain, experience the daunting thresholds these exceptional women had to cross and the clever, sometimes violent ways in which they smashed obstacles in their paths.

History’s killer queens come in all colors, ages, and leadership styles, and from countries and cultures around the world. Elizabeth Tudor and Golda Meir played the roles of high-stakes gamblers who studied maps with an unblinking, calculating eye. Angola’s Queen Njinga was willing to shed (and occasionally drink) blood to establish a stable kingdom in an Africa ravaged by the slave trade. Caterina Sforza defended her Italian holdings with cannon and scimitar, and Indira Gandhi launched a war to solve a refugee crisis.