The podcast "The Rest is History" did a series in the past year on Elizabeth I. Highly recommended, and their take is highly compatible with this research take -- Elizabeth seems to have been quite masterful and deliberate both in her choice of what she would communicate, and in composing and marshalling her team.
Yes, that podcast series is excellent. Elizabeth was lucky in having an excellent team of people working for her. Their lives depended on keeping her alive of course. They were also lucky that she didn't inherit her father's habit of decapitating the most able ministers.
Any time you see a female monarch who's in power for half a century, it's worth looking into, because you're gonna see a beautiful story about how to wield power. When you can't rely on being able to physically overpower your opponents directly - when "I'm the biggest guy in the room, so fuck you" isn't in your toolkit - anyone who gets and keeps power does so by some really, really sharp tactics.
(and yeah, napoleon, et al, but those are in the same vein - short guy runs the world, probably an interesting story there too.)
At the level of monarchs, personal physical strength rarely matters regardless of gender anyway. Occasionally it is useful to be able to overpower an adversary in a fight, but that's only either when you risk being assassinated, or you want to assassinate somebody else. Other than those situations, it's just political games all the way. (And like another commenter says, it's usually not "beautiful")
Sure, but who does the physical violence, and why isn't that guy in charge? That's the question - all power comes from the barrel of a gun, so why's the person in charge walking around unarmed?
Elizabeth ruled England for 50 years and is remembered fondly for building a global empire (by the English, don't get me wrong), and she was a woman. Yes, it's all relationships, that's the point.
Thats absurd. Physical prowess may help influce others to follow you but outside small tribe level interpersonal relationships simply being the strongest person or best swordsman is hardly the required quality of a leader.
The strongest guy isn't in charge of the kingdom because the queen has an army.
dsjoerg · · focus · HN ↗
sherr · · focus · HN ↗
roughly · · focus · HN ↗
(and yeah, napoleon, et al, but those are in the same vein - short guy runs the world, probably an interesting story there too.)
hnfong · · focus · HN ↗
roughly · · focus · HN ↗
Elizabeth ruled England for 50 years and is remembered fondly for building a global empire (by the English, don't get me wrong), and she was a woman. Yes, it's all relationships, that's the point.
malfist · · focus · HN ↗
The strongest guy isn't in charge of the kingdom because the queen has an army.
roughly · · focus · HN ↗