Funny fact, Queen Kristina of Sweden was called "King" back in the day because she was the ruler. Also funny fact: it was she who banned women from becoming regents after she abdicated.

@1001000300 According to what I know, if I'm not wrong, it's because she didn't want other women to go through the same sh*t as she did.

@Rayati We can't know for sure, but it sure is a possibility. The other explanations I've heard are the added stress of producing a successor, and the third is that maybe she eventually adopted the biased views on women from her ministers.

This is too funny. Women rule! Literally AND figuratively!!!

Actually, quite recently in The Netherlands, the queens Wilhelmina, Juliana and Beatrix were of course called queens, but their formal position according to the constitution was King of The Netherlands. So they were sort of king and queen at the same time.

Actually, a better example would be Queen Jadwiga (Hedwig) of Poland. She was crowned king in 1384 and ruled for one year, just because of the lack of a proper law.

@mocna
I was going to add her.

I wonder how many people around the world today would know about her if Harry Potter hadn't named his snowy owl "Hedwig"? ^_^

@Hinoron
Dunno about the world but at least in Poland everyone does. It's a very basic fact in our history, we learn about her in elementary school. I didn't know 'Jadwiga' translates as 'Hedwig' though and I doubt many Polish people do. Still, everyone knows the owl Hedwig as well haha ;)

@RedfishFish

I have no explanation for the dual names. Any references I found of her usually list her name much the same way as Mocna above us listed it, with the other name in brackets.
, but no explanation of why she has two versions of her name.

Still, if (like most modern, non-Polish folks) a Harry Potter had never heard the name before, and was inclined to looking up the very unusual name for his owl, The girl-king of Poland is the reference that comes up immediately in search results. ;)

@Hinoron

She's a featured leader in Civilization 6, so at the very least gamers would know.

@Illjwamh
I'll be honest, that's where I learned about her too. ^_^

The owl's unusual name, in the setting of a community of exceedingly strange British wizards and witches, did not inspire me to learn the name's origins until I saw it again in Civ6 and realized "Hedwig" was a real name and not just gibberish.

King Mary. Now I like the sound of that.

So girls count as kings? Pretty cool, to say the least.

@nemoleeexe The Trope is called She Is the King. Quite a few of those in fiction too. I like the way dragons do it in Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles. That is-- they have a contest to decide who is the king of dragons, and it's a gender neutral title. They also have a separate job called Queen of Dragons which is also gender neutral...

'*click* nice'
Michael Rosen

Hopefully England isn't one of the countries.. I love saying "The Queen of England!"

@LovesStereotypas Actually there is no queen of England. There is a queen of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

@Klaus That is not true. The Kingdom of England is in her titles.

@Henlaar #9800780

Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

There has been no kingdom of England since the formation of the kingdom of Great Britain in 1707.

@Klaus , Exactly, but The Kingdom of England is the main title that is in The Kingdom of Great Britain. Her Crown of State is The Crown of Wessex. She has many unofficial Titles, she is the Sovereign Sherrif of the Channel Islands.

In Journey to the west, we have the king of women’s country, filled with nothing but women.

Similarly, in Japan Emperor is always an Emperor (Tenno) regardless of sex. Current constitution does not allow female Emperors, but there have been several in the past. Title "Empress" is reserved to Emperors' consort.

@cohkka
I seem to remember some of the earliest European visitors to the Japanese isles, describing it as "A queen's country". I have no date or name for this reference, I'm afraid. :P

@cohkka So if Japan has a female emperor her husband is the new Empress?

Well who cares the title's gender. if they ruled better then others. Go girls.

or just mostly cause they didint want a husband to be the next to rule and some weamon did not have rights after the queens

Don't they know thou, that a lot of the great rulers and leaders were indeed female? Take Queen Elizabeth I, and Joan of Arc? >:P Yoish.

@potatoe4life And Hatshepsut, of course.

@Klaus yup :3

Though they call them both queens as well, and the references are spotty, Wikipedia does seem to support the calling of Anna and Mary as kings:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Queen_of_Hungary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Jagiellon (see Regnal Titles at the bottom)