The Reign Continues: 27 Captivating Facts about Queens – Part 2

At the age of 16, Queen Anne of Romania fled from the Nazi Germans in 1939 and eventually escaped to the United States. She attended college in New York and worked as a sales assistant at Macy’s department store. In 1943, she volunteered for military service in the French Army, where she received the Cross of war.

Empress Irene of the Byzantine Empire, among other things, became empress by winning a beauty contest, after her husband died became the first empress to rule in her own right in Byzantine History, and blinded her own son in order to retain power.

The 17th century Swedish Queen Christina surprisingly abdicated her throne. Very bright, and a lover of arts, she almost bankrupt Sweden in her extravagance. Speculators suggest her abdication was a result of her proclivity towards "men's pursuits," wearing men's clothing and refusal to marry.

Queen Soraya Tarzi of Afghanistan fought hard to improve the rights of women in the 1920's. She was also the minister of education for Afghanistan and the first Muslim consort to appear in public with her husband. In 1929, her husband was deposed and all their reforms were undone.

Isabel Ingram (Right from image) was an American tutor to Wanrong, the Empress Consort of Puyi, the Last Emperor of China. From age 20, she lived in the Forbidden City, where she taught Wanrong the speech, modes, and manners of the West. The two also tried to look like one another and traded clothes.

Hatshepsut was the most successful female pharaoh of ancient Egypt. But after her death, her successor destroyed her statues to obliterate her memory.

Empress Dowager Lüi of the Han Dynasty tortured one of her husband's concubines by hacking off her hands and feet, putting out her eyes, deafening her, and forcing her to live in a pigpen sty.