In this course we will examine the topic of women monarchs, prime ministers and other powerful females in Europe from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries. We will look at the historical experience of women at the highest level of government – as queens, heads of state, military commanders, regents, consorts and official mistresses of reigning kings – and as symbols within the political discourse of their times. Through close reading and discussion of primary sources, such as trial records, government manifestos, novels, poetry and films and material artifacts such as portraits, costumes, palace architecture and commercial art we will delineate the element of gender in the European discourse of power. Using an interdisciplinary approach – history and political theory will be augmented by literary criticism, art history and gender analysis- we will examine the image of female potency as a basic paradigm which continues to structure both the politics of culture and the culture of politics down to the present time.