LGBTQ Queens, Princesses & Duchesses 

I love seeing women like me throughout history

“They were praised for their chasisty as neither cheated on their husbands.” So… who was going to tell them…

Royals: *educate a girl* The girl: *does well* Royals: how odd

"Her intellect is as striking as her body." DAMN THAT WAS SMOOTH AF THOUGH-

History will say “they were roommates”

Historian be like: " they were close friends, VERY close friends"

I want to grow up to be a woman the Pope describes as "a queen without a country, a Christian without faith, and woman without shame."

Not gonna lie, Louisa marrying her lover on her deathbed to make sure she lived her life in comfort brought tears to my eyes...

Imaging educating a single woman and being impressed by her intellect only to assume that it was her personal inherent nature as opposed to her education that made her "not like other girls".

"Neither of them were interested in cheating on their husbands...with men." Well no s***! 😆

“she slept only 3-4 hours a night” Me: *Wants to keep sleeping after sleeping for 9 hours.*

As a Korean American, it makes me feel happy that my birth nation's history is talked about. The crown princess of Joseon was known as Lady Bong, daughter of Bong Ryeo before she entered court (as that was her last name and therefore the name of the clan she came from, the second part refers to who her father was), and only after she married was she called Sun-bin Bong (her full title before her demotion was Crown Princess Sun of the Haeum Bong clan). She was the second wife of Munjong of Joseon, the immediate successor to his famous father Sejong the Great (who is still revered in South Korea today), and after she was demoted (EDIT: the official decree for her demotion doesn't mention anything about her sleeping with her maid, only that she sent palace supplies to her birth family and that she received visitors without her husband knowing) and banished (she's not the only woman demoted and banished for one reason or another in Korean history; her predecessor, Crown Princess Hwi of the Old Andong Kim Clan met the same fate for practicing witchcraft and was known as Deposed Consort Kim from that point on. There have been many women demoted and banished from the royal family for different reasons and not honored with posthumous names), it was his third official wife, Queen Hyeondeok of the Andong Kwon clan (we don't know her real name too; she was, like all women of her time, only known as Lady Kwon, daughter of Kwon Jeon before becoming queen), who was the mother of his heir and immediate successor, Danjong of Joseon. Aside from marrying three times, Munjong of Joseon had multiple concubines just for producing a male heir, like many, if not all, kings of Joseon and previous dynasties (the three queens regnant during the Silla period never married) did. Almost all the time, the previous king had to be succeeded by a son, even if the son was born to a concubine (EDIT: the female hierarchy in terms of wives and concubines of a king goes as follows: Queen, Royal Noble Consort, Royal Consort, Consort, and Court Lady) and therefore technically illegitimate (EDIT: they still had inheritance rights, and some kings were the sons of royal noble consorts, but it was preferable that a king be succeeded by a son born to his official wife), so one could argue that these succession laws were harsher than even Salic law in the West. The patriarchy was very strong in Korea during the Joseon days; even noblewomen were usually referred as Lady and their last name, no first names given, and also as their fathers' daughters. We also only know queens by that kind of reference, the names they received when they entered court, and their posthumous names (if they were ever given one), which are the names we know them by today. There are a few exceptions to women being mostly unknown aside from their names, the names of their children, and such, including Shin Saimdang, but even the few exceptions were mostly yangban or upper-class (EDIT: they were two separate classes with yangban ranked lower than nobles in the social ladder). Women also retained their maiden names even after marriage, because although they left their birth families for good after getting married, they were still viewed, to a degree, as outsiders to the families of their husbands (EDIT: The patriarchy in Joseon was considerably stronger than in previous dynasties. Women had more rights in those days, including inheritance rights, not to mention Silla had three queens regnant. There's also been one instance of female-to-female succession, where the first of the three queens regnant was succeeded by her cousin, who became Silla's second queen regnant. Women definitely had more rights in the older dynasties than in Joseon, that's for sure, especially if female-to-female succession happened at least once.). Yeah, I came from a country where one could argue that the patriarchy was much stronger than even the West. I talked a lot, but I can't help but go into a tangent whenever Korean history comes up and I know a lot about the period described.

"She got married to her 3rd cousin twice removed and they were very unhappy together. But, her relationship with her good friend Sarah was unmatched." Literally all of these stories wrapped up into two sentences.

“They were presented as extreme friendships” *r/SapphoAndHerFriend intensifies*

Next time some homophobe tries to tell you that you’re going against the religion: Tell them to research king james who had a Bible named after him.

Father: What's more important, your own child, or some common poet! Margaret: Poet. * Moves out * Husband: She didn't even think about it.

12:45 Actually Kristina emphatically thought of herself as a king. This is a pretty well known fact. She considered queens to be merely the wives on kings, whereas kings were rulers in their own right. Whether or not she identified as male or female aside, she identified herself as a king.

The first one kinda makes me wanna write a story that takes place in an ancient east-Asian inspired world where the king has many concubines and among those concubines is the queen’s childhood best friend who she had a crush on so they go and have a relationship and then later on in the story it’s found out that the king only had the concubines around as kind of a reputation thing(huge harem makes him seem more powerful) and that he’s been sleeping around with soldier recruits

4:53: Margaret really said "There's your heir AND a spare...well an heir anyway. I'm done, peace out, no sex again with this man. Thank you."

“her intellect was as striking as her body” DAAAMN

As a queer Korean, i didn't know about the first one, and hearing and learning about this made me so happy. I've never Known any openly LGBTQ person in Korean history, so this was fun. Thank you ❤

Can you do more Asian royalty videos? We spend a lot of time in Europe!

Queen Christina was dope AF. Of course they had to exhune her to see, if she was at least partially a man. In their mind, no woman could ever be like her.

Contemporaries of La Domia and Margaret: "they're just great gals being pals!"

It was great to hear about the Korean and Hawaiian queer ladies - can you do more of non-western queers in general? There's gotta be more than just two royals, right! Thanks for the great video!

I would love an "intense friendship"

christina could have just been a masculine woman. just bc she wore masculine clothing does not mean she’s trans.

I know you mostly focus on European monarchs but I would be very intrested in a video about Hawaii's monarchy

Happy pride month to my fellow bisexuals! And everyone else of course haha 🌈🏳️‍🌈💖💜💙🏳️‍🌈🌈

And historians are just"and they were best friends"

I'd rather see someone with a unique personality then a boring-cold person...

My spanish history teacher in la Sorbonne was a close personal friend of the Duchess of Medina Sidonia and her daughter was allowed to do her wedding in the palace of Sanlúcar de Barrameda were the archives are. My teacher was able to organise a trip with us to Sanlúcar to visit the archives and the dowager duchess, who was very nice, guided our visit

Hortense Mancini was a badass.

I've always thought Christina was peak "I'm nOt LiKe oThEr giRLs" lol

I love hearing about lesbian royalty. I can feel the lesbian power running through me as I watch this

Thank you!!! As a lesbian history nerd, it's really hard to not have a ton of talk about women in history like me. There isn't much about gay men in history class, and even way less than that about lesbians.

Oooh I love when Lindsey covers not-so-mainstream royals like Sun-bin Bong. Plus, I always found Christina to be a rather interesting monarch. I like how she insisted on being called a King despite being a woman.

All throughout history: "And they WERE REALLY GOOD FRIENDS!"

"They were best friends" "They were Roommates" "They were buddies"

Christina of Sweden makes me so happy as a queer swede who likes history. She’s really interesting, and probably the Swedish royalty I know the most of

Shame I’m not on there, I wish I had a lady escort 😉

Louisa and Liliana's story is amazing. I had tears stinging my eyes ❤

One thing about the video… there WERE concepts of being trans in Europe at the time and before Christina’s time. However, I do think there is a chance those concepts were not yet very accessible even to a queen in a time of relatively limited information spread. I think rather than trans (although being trans/nb seems fitting, too!), she may have just been butch/masculine as she herself described.

Kind of related: I've always been fascinated with this story from a history of the late Roman Empire, in particular the marital relationships of the Emperor Valentinian I: Justina being thus bereft of her father, still continued a virgin. Some time after she became known to Severa, wife of the emperor Valentinian, and had frequent intercourse [note: not that kind of intercourse to our knowledge] with the empress, until their intimacy at length grew to such an extent that they were accustomed to bathe together. When Severa saw Justina in the bath she was greatly struck with the beauty of the virgin, and spoke of her to the emperor; saying that the daughter of Justus was so lovely a creature, and possessed of such symmetry of form, that she herself, though a woman, was altogether charmed with her. The emperor, treasuring this description by his wife in his own mind, considered with himself how he could espouse Justina, without repudiating Severa, as she had borne him Gratian, whom he had created Augustus a little while before. He accordingly framed a law, and caused it to be published throughout all the cities, by which any man was permitted to have two lawful wives. I wouldn't draw any conclusion from it, as we know little about Severa herself (Justina would become a pretty important figure in the history of early Christianity), but it does crack me up imagining two women bathing together and then one saying "hey you're hot, please marry my husband!

"Intense friendship" I think they did more than chat lmao

Lindsay you should make about the von habsburg monarchs like you did with the monarchs of england

It's nice to know that there are historical records of sapphics existing, especially royalty. I like knowing that people like me weren't completely erased from history, no matter how hard people tried

I would love a series about the crusader kings!! For example Baldwin IV the leper king ☺️

Look at all these amazing women. Despite being known for it they weren’t remarked by their sexuality but by their accomplishments in history

The fact that you uploaded this during Diversity Week, Fab! This video could possibly spread awareness also the members of the Community would be honored to Watch this video! Thank you Lindsay!

Love the video, the only part I disagree with is that you hint at a few (if they lived now) likely identifying as trans. Just because a woman is more masculine or a man more feminin doesn't mean they would feel like the opposite sex.

That was interesting though a tad incorrect. 휘빈 김씨 was not demoted because she practiced witchcraft (this is a very western take, witchcraft and witches in general) but because she used medicine to make the crown prince fall in love with her but thank you for adding a Korean princess.

I’d love to see more information on the Hawaiian royal family history!

Thank you for doing an LGBTQI focused video. Sometimes people don't realize that these identities have been around the whole time.

A video on Julie D'Aubigny would be great, speaking of LGBT icons.

I've always loved Queen Kristina. As a Swedish queer woman it was always nice to have a historical figure that most people knew of and knew that she likely wasn't a straight woman. It always felt validating. And she also just sounds like she was an incredibly interesting person.

I love this so much. It's great hearing about women throughout history like this. Makes me even more proud to be sapphic and be 'against the grain', because even today, there are still plenty of people who seem to treat women within the LGBTQ+ as abnormalities. Not saying that men within the LGBTQ+ don't get treated badly, but it just feels like being a queer woman isn't taken seriously. Though, it could be more of a problem with institutionalised sexism more than anything. Sorry for going on a tangent. Love this video and it's really awesome to learn about LGBTQ+ history!

Thanks for videos like this, I often wonder about how things that are still fighting social stigmas today were coped with in the past. So I really love that you explained this 🤩

Wow the detail in that painting of Margaret are incredible 😲 It looks more like a photograph!

Pre colonized Filipino is actually matriarchy. And we are also very open-minded in regards to LGBTQ++ since we have gay and lesbian gods and goddesses.

another fabulous and enlightening video, thanks Lindsay! and thank you so much for your continuing coverage and support of pride. love is love!

I love your LGBT+ royal videos! As a lesbian, this may be my favorite video of the series so far.yay for representation!! happy pride lovelies♥️🏳️‍🌈

Omg I’m Dutch and I learned about the whole Dutch rebellion and the role of Margareta van Parma but this is so much more interesting

I always wondered where the word sapphic came from! Thank you for teaching me something new!

I loved the entirety of this compilation. Thank you so much for including Hawaii at the end.

I love when you do these videos

If the Spain royals ratings go up will Spain still have a royal family

Forgot Elizabeth II. THESE are my queens!!!

I love your videos on historical figures because you never skip over lgbt figures like so many other people do!! It makes me feel seen for who I am!

Damn, even european monarchs had sword duels with their girl friends in the equivilent of denny's parking lots.

As someone who has looked over the habsburgs and Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa's reign, in my opinion I think a heterosexual relationship between Princess Isabella of Parma and Archduchess Christine of Austria as unlikely. They were however, really close friends. Isabella was depressed and had suicidal ideation and her feelings to Christine was philia. In the midst of their friendship, Christine fell in love twice, first with the Prince of Würtemburg and second with Prince Albert of Saxony. Before Isabella died, she gave advice to Christine on how to get the opportunity to marry Albert. If Isabella really had an eros love towards Christine, she might have made it vocal and not give her advice or be hopeful or in other terms, made ways to avoid a marriage between Christine and Albert. This is however my opinion.

Thanks for the upload!

Another amazing video Lindsay! You are the queen on you tube in my eyes! Your videos are the best!!!

Totally enjoyed this video. Fascinating history and important information. Thank you and keep them coming

This is a lovely commentary on women through history. Only a decade or so ago I became aware that the many women in the 19th century who never married, but had a lady friend who shared house and expenses were, in fact, lesbians. Sheer prudery and fear of scandal prevented family members from outing them. It was enlightening.

Finally ! THANK YOU !!! We SO need our history to come out. We need the stories of the famous and not so famous, *those diversely identified*, who added to or massively benefited society, to be told AND to be ☆¡celebrated!☆. Is there an LGBTQIA2S+ history month ? There damn well should be !

I find your videos fascinating, I absolutely love history, and you bring it to life.

Wife cheating: *tragic ending* Husband cheating: *oh well...he's a man*

This is actually interesting! I didn't know a lot of this information, probably because I never really looked. Good video.

I wonder if Christina would still be dismissive of women not like her if she was alive today. I mean that like being in an age where women have more opportunities to show their intelligence and different personalities than they did in her time.

Christina of Sweden was so young when becaming queen

George and Ann must have been quite the power couple, both were respectful to the other and liked the same sex :D

This is such a fascinating part of history. thanks for sharing ! Also the art was so beautiful.

I need a score card to keep up with this 🤷🏿‍♀️, except for the contemporary stories. Still, a great slice of history. I won't remember all of it tmrw, but I enjoyed listening tonight👍🏽🙆🏽‍♀️

Christina of Sweden is the wlw (possibly trans?) ace representation we deserved

WOW I JUST FOUND YOU AND LOVE YOUR VIDEOS (sorry for yelling but you're awesome!)

A recent male example was Sultan Qaboos of Oman, a much liked reformer who had ruled the country since deposing his tyrannical father in 1970. Qaboos was widely rumored to be gay, though he had had a couple of brief marriages to women, neither of which produced any heirs. When he died at the beginning of 2020 with no obvious heir, many Omanis feared that their country would descend into chaos, hardly an unlikely outcome in that part of the world. Fortunately, Qaboos had written a letter to be opened upon his death, naming a cousin as his heir. So far everything seems to be going well.

one of the best channels of all time!

The Act of Settlement has been updated, it no longer favours male progeny over female (if Charlotte was born before George, she would have been the heir to the throne)

I love this channel so much , I learn so much more trough here than in school , these videos are so interesting 😊😊

Hi Lindsay! I would love to see a video about the crown jewels from around europe!

This is so cool. Thanks for making such an informative video of 🌈 strong women in history.

One the best RU-vid channels!

the most educational 27 minutes of my life

A much earlier example of England's pretty much only known gay king is Edward II, father of King Edward III who started the hundred years war. Edward II married the French princess Isabella, one of the reasons his son was able to claim the French throne.

Ive shared your channel with my friend. Your voice and storytelling is great to fall asleep to ❤❤ sending love and peace

Thank you for this outstanding video!!!!!!

Love this video as usual! 😊 A suggestion though, when including people from non English speaking countries maybe you could look up how their names should be pronounced. It would improve the experience of watching your videos in my opinion, and in my experience Google translate does a good job with showing how names should be pronounced. You cover people from so many countries and you do an amazing job, and nobody has perfect pronunciation in all the world's languages, but as someone who has enjoyed at least 50 of your videos, this is an area (the only one i can think of!) that could be improved. For example, Ebba Sparre is pronounced differently than in this video. Thanks again for making great videos and I hope my suggestion doesn't offend you. 💐

Excellent video! TY for the upload! I’ve watched similar videos, only about Hollywood Royalty. So many defensive, triggered comments of non-belief from people. Commentators “defending” the reputations of long-gone entertainers. As if the revelations of famous people’s hidden sexuality matters after one dies, or something!!!

Lovely video! Please continue posting them! TYFS