ABSTRACT
With one notable exception, Maria of Jever, there were no women in early modern Germany who ruled a territory in their own right. This stands in stark contrast to the number of widowed dynastic women who ruled territories as regents and co-regents for their sons until they came of age. These regencies could last for very extended periods and the transition of power from mother to son was not always without complications. The female regent had to come to terms with a marked change in her own status within the court system in which she was relegated to the position of dowager. Many women regents had steered their territories through difficult periods of political or confessional strife and were proud of their achievements – women like Amalie Elisabeth of Hessen–Kassel, who was recognized as a skilful military strategist and political negotiator in the Thirty Years’ War.
