Jadwiga, Woman King of Poland, (1373 – 17 July 1399

Jadwiga (pronounced Yad-veega) was one of King Louis of Hungary. When he was dying, the sonless Louis decreed that the three kingdoms he ruled, Poland and Hungary should be ruled by one of his daughters. Jadwiga, who was only nine at that time, was crowned "Rex" or "King" by the Polish nobles. In Poland at that time, sons and daughters inherited equally. She remained King of Poland until she married, at which time she and her husband ruled jointly.

The Poland that Jadwiga inherited was beset on many frontiers The Teutonic Knights were using the excuse of traveling to Lithuania to oust the pagan king of that country and convert its people to Christianity to overwhelm and take over Poland as well. In addition, besides pagan Lithuania , Poland was beset by Muscovy, the Mongols and Tartars on the east. At home Jadwiga was threatened by descendants of Poland's former king, Casimir. Because of the threats from all sides, the nobles made her renounce her betrothal to a prince of Austria, and to marry the King of Lithuania, Jagiello, who was "an old man" three times her age. For the sake of her country, she agreed, so on the understanding that he converted to Christianity. This suited the nobles just fine, since it would weaken the cause of the opportunistic Teutonic Knights. They were married in February 1386. He adopted the name Wladyslaw.

Jadwiga, now Queen of Poland, was active in affairs of State, becoming known as a peacemaker. Though she only lived for a dozen more years, dying as a result of giving birth to a daughter who also died, she accomplished much. She supported the Church in Poland, strengthened the University of Krakow, the oldest in Eastern Europe, which she helped finance by selling her own jewels. On the diplomatic stage she bringing about the reconciliation and conversion of his cousin Witold with her husband Wladyslaw. When she met with the master of the Order of Teutonic Knights, she is said to have so shamed him he made the order cease their predatory ways.

She died on July 17, 1399, at the age of 26.

Her body has been exhumed three times to move it to more suitable locations. The latest exhumation moved her intact skeleton, along with a mantle and a cap, to a carved sarcophagus which is at what used to be called the Krakow Academy, now Jagiellonian University. She is represented with a dog at her feet, symbolizing her faithfulness to her people and the Church. Her modest orb and sceptre are on display next to her burial place.

Shajar al-Durr, Sultan of Egypt (died 1257 AD)

Shajar al-Durr (also called Shagrat al-Durr) was a former bondswoman of Turkoman origin whose intelligence and ambition led her to become one of the few women rulers in the Islamic world. She was Sultan of Egypt, both in name and in fact, and is responsible for radical changes in the control of Egypt in spite of opposition to her power in a masculinist society.

We do not know where or when she was born, but first learn of her when as-Salih Ayyub, the future Sultan of Egypt, purchased her in the Levant in the 1230s. By 1249 when he returned to Egypt, he had married Shajar al-Durr, who was the mother of his son, Khalil al-Malik al-Mansour. Sultan as-Salih Ayyub became deathly ill just as he prepared to fight the crusaders under King Louis IX of France landed at Damiata, at the mouth of the Nile. When the sultan died, his wife Shajar al-Durr and other leading members of his government hid the fact so as not to lend strength to the crusader cause. Shajar al-Surr continued to rule in his name. In 1250 the crusaders finally learned of the sultan's death and crossed from Damiata to fight but Shajar al-Durr led the Mamluk armies, defeating the crusaders and taking Louis IX prisoner.

Shajar al-Durr, herself a Mamluk, won the loyalty of the armies made up of former Turkish slaves, so when her husband's heir, Turan, came back to Egypt and claimed his father's throne, the Mamluks were unhappy. Turan was an abusive sultan, and the Mameluks assassinated him and made Shajar al-Durr the Sultan of Egypt. The legitimacy of her rule as Sultan was seen in the minting of coins that feature her name and the inclusion of her name and all her titles in the daily prayers throughout the country.

Unfortunately, the Caliph of Baghdad declared that no woman could rule an Islamic nation, so her reign lasted only a few months. The Caliph set a new Sultan on the throne of Egypt, a man named Aybak. Shajar al-Durr married Aybak and appears to have dominated him, having coth their names put on the coins and in the prayers and effectively ruling Egypt over him.

Shajar al-Durr had made Atbak divorce his current wife, and when in 1257 he began to talk about marrying a third time, she murdered him while he was bathing after a polo game. She gave out that Atbak had died suddenly in the night, but her formerly loyal Mamaluks did nto believe her. Under torture, her servants confessed to aiding her in the crime, and Atbak's 15 year old son by his former wife, al-Mansur Ali was installed as Sultan by those same mamaluks. Though the latter wanted Shajar al-Surr to be imprisoned for the rest of her life, al-Mansur Ali was's bondmaidens sought her out and beat her to death in 1257.

Not only was Shajar al-Durr notable as one of few women to be called Sultan of an Islamic nation, she could as well boast the significant defeat of the Seventh Cursdae and the capture and ransom of King Louis IX of France. She established the Mamaluk dynasty in Eqypt, moved the capital to Cairo, both harbingers of a new era in Eqyptian gistory and a new power in most of the souther Mediterranean for years to come.

Sarojini Naidu , 1879-1949

One of great women in the history of India, Sarojini Naidu was a poet, a rebel alongside Mohandes Mahatma Gandhi, an activist for the rights of women, the poor and racial minorities, and a politician.

Naidu was born Sarojini Chattopadhyaya in Hyderabad in 1879, the daughter of a scientist and a poetess. She was a child prodigy, graduation from Madras University when she was twelve years old. She attended King's College in London and also Cambridge University. She spoke several languages, including Urdu, Telugu, English, Persian and Bengali. While she was in college, she fell in love with and married Dr. Muthyala Govindarajulu Naidu when she was nineteen in spite of laws forbidding intercaste marriages.

During a period from 1903 to 1917, Naidu became increasingly involved in the Indian independence movement along with Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. She became a prominent leader of the movement after the partition of Bengal by the British in 1905. When the British enacted the act which made illegal the possession of any seditious writings, Naidu along with Gandhi and others was imprisoned. She was released due to ill health, but was later imprisoned for 21 months because of her continuing activism in the independence movement.

Besides her work for Indian independence, Naidu was an activist for women's emancipation. When in New York in 1928 she was disheartened by and spoke out against the conditions of the African American and Native American peoples of the United States. She was a strong advocate for the poor.

During her life Naidu held numerous political and diplomatic offices. She was the ambassador to England of the Home Rule congress. When India won its independence, on August 15, 1947, Naidu became the Governor of the United Provinces (presently Uttar Pradesh), and India's first woman governor. She died in office of a heart attack in 1949.

Naidu's poetry is characterized by its lyrical quality, winning her the title of the Nightingale of India. Her published works include The Golden Threshold (1905), The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring (1912), The Broken Wing: Songs of Love, Death and the Spring (1917), The Sceptred Flute: Songs of India (1928), and The Feather of the Dawn (published posthumously by her daughter in 1961.)

Naidu wrote:

Shall sweet love prosper or high dreams have place
Amid the tumult of reverberant strife
'Twixt ancient creeds, 'twixt race and ancient race,
That mars the grave, glad purposes of life,
Leaving no refuge save thy succoring face?