female monarch - a female sovereign rulerCleopatra - beautiful and charismatic queen of Egypt; mistress of Julius Caesar and later of Mark Antony; killed herself to avoid capture by Octavian (69-30 BC) Isabella I, Isabella the Catholic - queen of Castile whose marriage to Ferdinand V marked the beginning of the modern state of Spain; she sponsored the voyages of Christopher Columbus (1451-1504) Mary Queen of Scots, Mary Stuart - queen of Scotland from 1542 to 1567; as a Catholic she was forced to abdicate in favor of her son and fled to England where she was imprisoned by Elizabeth I; when Catholic supporters plotted to put her on the English throne she was tried and executed for sedition (1542-1587) |