ABSTRACT
The beginning of the early modern era was a period of women’s rule in many European countries. Even though the Salic law excluded females from succession to the throne,1 sixteenth-century France was ruled for many years by Catherine de Medici and in the seventeenth century by the female regents, Marie de Medici and Anne of Austria. In England the two Tudor princesses, ‘Bloody Mary’ and Elizabeth, became rulers and, in Scotland, Mary Stuart succeeded to the throne. In the Netherlands Margaret of Austria, Maria of Hungary and Margaret, Duchess of Parma, ruled the Low Countries in the names of Emperor Charles V and King Philip II. Finally, Margaret of Savoy was nominated viceroy of Portugal in the seventeenth century.
