Home
Period
General History
Royal women, with Professor Kate Williams

Royal women, with Professor Kate Williams

In this six-part video series for the HistoryExtra Academy, Kate Williams uncovers the little-known stories behind some of history’s most famous queens

Published: April 21, 2026 at 8:39 AM

6 items

Join Professor Kate Williams for a six-part HistoryExtra series uncovering the little-known stories behind some of history’s most famous queens.

You’ll meet Cleopatra, the brilliant strategist who fought Rome for Egypt’s survival – Marie Antoinette, the queen blamed for a revolution she couldn’t control – and Elizabeth II, whose image shaped modern royalty.

Across millennia, we’ll explore how royal women navigated power, politics, and expectation and how their legacies were shaped long after their deaths.

Showing 1 to 6 of 6 results

Membership

Episode 1Elizabeth II: the queen who redefined an era. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

What made Elizabeth II such an enduring figure? In episode one of her HistoryExtra Academy series on royal women, historian Kate Williams explores the life of a queen who took on the crown in a new age of technology and progress
Membership

Episode 2Cleopatra’s rise and fall. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Cleopatra is remembered as a romantic figure, but she was one of the most formidable leaders of the ancient world. In episode two of her HistoryExtra Academy series on royal women, historian Kate Williams considers a life of power, risk and survival
Membership

Episode 3Marie Antoinette: the French queen who became the target of a revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Few historical figures have been as vilified – or as misunderstood – as Marie Antoinette. In episode three of her HistoryExtra Academy series on royal women, historian Kate Williams explains how the cards were stacked against this young queen
Membership

Episode 4Mary I: England’s most misunderstood queen?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

In the fourth episode of her HistoryExtra Academy series on royal women, Kate Williams explores the life and reign of Mary I, England’s first crowned queen regnant, whose rule has long been overshadowed by her reputation for religious persecution
Membership

Episode 5Queen Victoria: a symbol of empire. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Coming to the throne as a young and inexperienced royal, Queen Victoria faced a society that was both sceptical of women’s power and rigid in its expectations of gender roles. So how did she come to be a figurehead of imperial progress? In the fifth episode of this of her HistoryExtra Academy series, Professor Kate Williams explains more
Membership

Episode 63 royal women who changed the world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How did three very different royal women set a new course for women in power? In the final episode of her HistoryExtra Academy series on royal women, Kate Williams shares the stories of Boudica of the Iceni, Queen Liliʻuokalani of Hawaii and Princess Grace of Monaco

See more Royal women, with Professor Kate Williams