AP Euro Important Women

Christine De Pizan

(1363-1434)- Renaissance writer who defended women and explored the reasons for their secondary status; she helped inaugurate the debate about women, gender roles and misogyny.

Isabella of Castile

(1451-1504)- strong co-ruler (with Ferdinand) who united Spain, completed the Reconquista, expelled non-Catholics, sent Columbus overseas and started Spain's the New World empire.

Catherine of Aragon

(1498-1536)- daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, was Henry VIII's first wife and mother of Mary Tudor; it was Henry's attempt to divorce her (and the pope's refusal to grant it) that led to the English Reformation.

Mary Tudor

(1516-1558)- daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, tried to reestablish Catholicism in England, was married to Philip II of Spain; sometimes called "Bloody Mary."

Elizabeth I

(1533-1603)- daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, reigned for 45 years, firmly established Anglicanism, expanded English power overseas, defeated the Spanish Armada, never married and the Tudor Dynasty died with her.

Angela Merici

(1474-1540)- a northern Italian woman who founded the Ursuline order of nuns (basically the female version of the Jesuits, or vice versa) and who helped promote the Catholic Reformation.

Marie de-Medici

(1575-1642)- wife/widow of France's Henry IV, became queen-regent upon his assassination and ruled in the name of nine-year-old Louis XIII until Cardinal Richelieu took over as first minister.

Madame de Pompadour

(1721-1764)- mistress of Louis XV who exerted much influence over the court at Versailles, she had many enemies who resented her scandalous influence over the king; she was also a great patron of the arts.

Madame du Chatelet

(1706-1749)- French aristocratic woman with a passion for science, she translated Newton's Principia Mathematica into French and was good friends with Voltaire.

Madame Geoffrin

(1699-1777)- hosted one of the most popular Paris salons during the Enlightenment, at which famous philosophes discussed literature, philosophy, science and politics.

Mary Wolstonecraft

(1759-1797)- English writer/feminist of the late Enlightenment who pushed for equal rights for women in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. She was also the mother of Mary Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein.

Maria Theresa

(1717-1780)- Austrian empress whose throne was guaranteed by the Pragmatic Sanction, but whom Frederick the Great successfully challenged in the War of the Austrian Succession (taking Silesia for Prussia), mother of the enlightened despot Joseph II.

Catherine the Great

(1729-1796)- enlightened despot who brought the Enlightenment to Russia, corresponded with Voltaire, expanded Russia's territory (at Poland and Turkey's expense), crushed rebellions and strengthened serfdom.

Olympe de Gouges

(1748-1793)- self-taught French writer/feminist of the late Enlightenment who pushed for equal rights for women in the Declaration of the Rights of Woman.

Marie Antoinette

(1755-1793)- Austrian princess who married Louis XVI, despised by the revolutionary Parisians for her extravagant lifestyle, considered disloyal because of her Austrian background, guillotined by the National Convention.

Mary Ann Evans

(1819-1880)- English writer/Realist author who examined how society shapes the individual in "Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life;" used the pen name George Eliot.

Queen Victoria

(1819-1901)- longest reigning monarch in UK history, who ruled Great Britain during its nineteenth century golden age (which is often referred to as the Victorian Age/Era/Period), and was not a big fan of the suffrage movement.

Marie Curie

(1867-1934)- Polish-born physicist who, along with her husband Pierre, pioneered the study of radiation and subatomic particles. She died from complications caused by exposure to radiation from her ground-breaking experiments.

Simone de Beauvoir

(1908-1986)- French writer and philosopher who worked closely with Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote the influential book "The Second Sex." A feminist icon who challenged many accepted, traditional, middle class beliefs.

Margaret Thatcher

(1925-2013)- "The Iron Lady" was a neoliberal British prime minister who confronted unions, promoted laissez-faire economics, fought and won the Falklands War, and was tough on Soviet communism. Not a fan of feminism.