Queen regnant

A queen regnant (plural: queens regnant) is a female monarch who reigns in her own right, in contrast to a queen consort, who is the wife of a reigning king, or a queen regent, who is the guardian of a child monarch reigning temporarily in their stead. An empress regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right over an empire.

A queen regnant possesses and exercises sovereign powers. A queen consort shares her husband's rank and titles, but does not share the sovereignty of her husband. The husband of a queen regnant traditionally does not share his wife's rank, title or sovereignty. However the concept of a "King consort" is not unheard of in contemporary or classical periods.

A queen dowager is the widow of a king. A queen mother is a queen dowager who is also the mother of a reigning sovereign.

History

In Ancient Egypt, Ancient Persia, Asian and Pacific cultures, and even some European countries, as noted below, female monarchs have been given the title king or its equivalent, such as pharaoh, when gender is irrelevant to the office, or else have used the masculine form of the word in languages where gender is needed. The Byzantine Empress Irene sometimes called herself basileus (βασιλεύς), 'emperor', rather than basilissa (βασίλισσα), 'empress' and Jadwiga of Poland was crowned as Rex Poloniae, King of Poland.

The Queen

The Queen may refer to:

Any queen regnant, for instance

Any queen consort, for instance

In arts and literature

The Queen (play)

The Queen, or The Excellency of Her Sex is a Caroline era tragicomedy. Though published anonymously in 1653, The play is now generally attributed to John Ford — making it a significant addition to the very limited canon of Ford's works.

The date and circumstances of the play's authorship and performance are unknown, though scholars can draw some inferences from the little factual information available. The first quarto edition of 1653 was published by the actor-turned-bookseller Alexander Gough. Gough had earlier been a member of the King's Men, and had been part of the cast of that company's production of Ford's The Lover's Melancholy in late 1628 or 1629. This suggests that The Queen may also have been acted by the King's Men. Since Ford is thought to have written for the King's Men only early in his career – just two of his earlier plays were acted by the company — The Queen may be another early work.

The play's internal evidence of style and textual preferences points to Ford; it shows, among other particulars, the pattern of unusual contractions (t'ee for "to ye," d'ee for "do ye," y'are for "you are") that typifies Ford's work. Furthermore, "the work's incidence of rhymes and double and triple endings relative to that of Ford's other plays" also favours an early date in Ford's career, which makes sense in terms of the King's Men connection. The assignment of the play to Ford, first made by the German scholar Willy Bang in 1906, is widely accepted.

Stargate Atlantis (season 5)

The fifth and final season of the military science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis commenced airing on the Sci Fi Channel in the United States on July 11, 2008, concluded on the same channel on January 9, 2009, and contained 20 episodes. The show itself is a spin off of its sister show, Stargate SG-1. The season upgrades previous supporting characters cast members such as Richard Woolsey (from Stargate SG-1) and Jennifer Keller. Amanda Tapping's character Samantha Carter was downgraded to recurring character in this season. The fifth and final season is about a military-science expedition team fighting against the Wraith from their base of operation, Atlantis. The Wraith primary goal is to gather a fleet to invade Atlantis and find their new "feeding ground", Earth.

The one-hour premiere "Search and Rescue", which aired on July 11, 2008, received 1.3 in Nielsen household ratings, in contrast a "Big" increase from the previous season ratings. The series was developed by Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper, who also served as executive producers. Season five regular cast members include Joe Flanigan, Robert Picardo, Jewel Staite, Jason Momoa, Rachel Luttrell, and David Hewlett. Stargate Atlantis was originally planned to be continued by a two-hour movie entitled Stargate: Extinction but executive producer Brad Wright has announced that the film has been permanently shelved.