How will these resources help you?

All too often, the lives of royal women, particularly outside of a British and European context, are missing in wider histories, textbooks and the curriculum. Yet looking at pre-modern east Asia offers a multitude of exciting examples of royal women with considerable agency, from rulers like Wu Zetian, Empress Suiko and Seondeok of Silla, to powerful dowagers and regents and the consorts and concubines of the ‘inner palace’. Their individual stories and the wider perspective of the place of women in Asian monarchies offer excellent comparisons to their British and European counterparts, and aid in teaching both women’s and global history.