When Women Ruled the World

Making the Renaissance in Europe

By: Maureen Quilligan

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

A leading Renaissance scholar shows in this revisionist history how four powerful women redefined the culture of European monarchy in the glorious 16th century.

Library Journal, "Books and Authors to Know: Titles to Watch 2021"

Sixteenth-century Europe was a time of destabilization of age-old norms and the waging of religious wars - yet it also witnessed the remarkable flowering of a pacific culture cultivated by a cohort of extraordinary women rulers who sat on Europe's thrones, most notably Mary Tudor; Elizabeth I; Mary, Queen of Scots; and Catherine de' Medici.

Recasting the dramatic stories and complex political relationships among these four women rulers, Maureen Quilligan rewrites centuries of scholarship that sought to depict intense personal hatreds among them. Instead, showing how the queens engendered a culture of mutual respect, When Women Ruled the World focuses on the gift-giving by which they aimed to ensure female bonds of friendship and alliance. Detailing the artistic and political creativity that flourished in the pockets of peace created by these queens, this book offers a new perspective on the glory of the Renaissance and the women who helped to create it.

©2021 Maureen Quilligan (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

it's good! even if your familiar with the subjects

just about the the time you think the author of being bias, you get an intelligent, honest, and thoughtful accounting of the facts.. good and bad. there is depth to the submissions and cleaning it many bad facts. a great take on figures I've been well acquaintained with fot a long time

NO GIANTS AMONG US

Maureen Quilligan's book, and Kati Marton's "The Chancellor", illustrate how mistaken society is in forsaking women as leaders of the world. Quilligan argues four famous women “…Ruled the World” in the 16th century. Maureen Quilligan’s history is less convincing about women who ruled the world because it relies on recollected details from scant original documents and facts proffered by other historians.

Quilligan’s book about women that ruled the 16th century world seems hyperbolic. It is only marginally convincing. Quillian’s argument for at least one woman of the 16th century who ruled the world is credible based on Elizabeth I’s long reign and her acclaim by most historians.

What both Quilligan and Marton make clear is that the world loses half the world’s intelligence and capability by not recognizing women are equals of men. There are no giants among us. We are all human, neither omniscient nor unerringly correct.