How did one woman rise from a harem to the throne? And did a pair of concubines really launch a coup? Here are five women who upgraded from side piece to the crown.
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00:00How did one woman rise from a harem to the throne? And did a pair of concubines really
00:06launch a coup? Here are five women who upgraded from side piece to the crown.
00:12The most recent mistress-turned-royalty is the former Camilla Rosemary Shand,
00:17also known as Camilla Parker Bowles, who became the Queen Consort of the United Kingdom on
00:23September 8, 2022. Camilla was born on July 17, 1947, to a wealthy family of British aristocrats,
00:31and being a mistress even runs in the family, as Camilla's great-grandmother, Alice Keppel,
00:37was a favorite mistress of King Edward VII. Camilla first met Charles through a mutual
00:42friend in 1971, and they started seeing each other by the following year. However, Camilla
00:48was also seen Andrew Parker Bowles, whom she would later marry. Prince Charles married Diana
00:53Spencer in 1981, and briefly stopped seeing Camilla, but remained attached. Time magazine
00:59reports that Charles even bought Camilla a personalized bracelet right before the wedding,
01:04and wore cufflinks from her on his honeymoon. Prince Charles and Camilla resumed their affair
01:09in 1986, and continued to see each other throughout the rest of Prince Charles' marriage to Diana.
01:16In 1995, Camilla divorced her husband, and Prince Charles divorced Princess Diana
01:22the following year. They began seeing each other publicly within five years,
01:26and in April 2005, Prince Charles and Camilla were officially married,
01:32with Camilla becoming known as the Duchess of Cornwall. Upon the death of Queen Elizabeth II,
01:38Camilla assumed the title of Queen Consort, as Prince Charles became King Charles III
01:44of the United Kingdom.
01:45I count on the loving help of my darling wife, Camilla."
01:50Little is known about Harem Haseegi Sultan's early life. Even her original name is unknown,
01:56though it's believed to be Anastasia, or Alexandra, Lisowska. Harem was born around
02:021505 in the Kingdom of Poland, and when she was less than 15 years old, she was kidnapped by
02:08Crimean Tatars who raided her village. She was subsequently trafficked to Constantinople
02:13in the Ottoman Empire to be sold into sexual slavery. The collector writes that in Constantinople,
02:20Harem was reportedly purchased by someone who gave her to Sultan Solomon as a gift around 1520.
02:26In 1521, Harem gave birth to a son, which was the second son of the Sultan. According to the
02:32Ottoman Empire, 1300 to 1650 by Colin Imber, this typically would have meant that the Sultan
02:38ceased seeing the mother of his son. But Solomon continued to see Harem and had six more children
02:44with her. In 1533, Sultan Solomon married Harem, making her sultan, and freed her from living in
02:51the harem. Harem lived in the palace for the rest of her life until her death in April 1558.
02:59Born around 1500, Anne Boleyn first showed up in the royal court of King Henry VIII of England
03:05in March 1522. Her sister, Mary Boleyn, was already a mistress of King Henry VIII,
03:11but although Henry became interested in Anne as well as her sister, Anne resisted his advances.
03:17Anne left the royal court in 1526 in a further attempt to avoid having to begin a relationship
03:23with the king and went to stay at her family home, Hever Castle. While she was away from the
03:28royal court, Henry wrote numerous letters to her making clear his obsession from at least May 1527
03:34to October 1528. According to the Sheridan Libraries and University Museums, Henry is
03:40believed to have proposed marriage to Anne at some point in 1527. But no matter her answer,
03:46he was still technically married to Queen Catherine of Aragon, and Pope Clement refused
03:51to grant him a divorce. It took over six years for Henry VIII to come up with a solution. In 1533,
03:58he rejected Pope Clement VII's refusal to annul the marriage, started his own religion as the
04:04supreme head of the Church of England, divorced and banished Queen Catherine, and married Anne.
04:10But being crowned Queen of England did little to protect Anne from the king's whims.
04:14Henry turned on Anne when she proved difficult and failed to quickly birth a living son.
04:19After she was found guilty of adultery in a sham trial, she was beheaded on May 19, 1536.
04:27And may God have mercy on Anne's soul.
04:30Wu Zetian is one of the earliest women to move from being a concubine to the highest seat of
04:36power. Born in 624 in Tang China, Wu is believed to have been born into an aristocratic merchant
04:43family. And in The World of Wu Zhou, Anne Harry Rothschild writes that she became Emperor Taizong's
04:49concubine at the age of 14 when her father died. According to the Association for Asian Studies,
04:55when Wu first became a concubine, she was made a fifth-ranked concubine, a fairly low level.
05:01After Emperor Taizong died, Wu became a Buddhist nun, as was required of all royal consorts.
05:07But the new emperor, Gaozong, had become enamored with Wu while she was Taizong's concubine,
05:13and brought her back to the royal court from the temple. But this time, Wu was made second-ranked
05:18concubine. At this time, Emperor Gaozong was married to Empress Wang and had another favored
05:24concubine, Zhou. But Wu continued to win his favor, especially after having several sons by him.
05:31Smithsonian Magazine writes that Wu possibly consolidated her power by accusing both
05:37Empress Wang and Zhou of infanticide, resulting in their executions. But once they were gone,
05:43Wu became Empress Wu. After Emperor Gaozong lost his eyesight in 660, Empress Wu took over
05:50the Tang Dynasty. She was overthrown in 705.
05:55Considered to be the most powerful empress in the history of China, Empress Dowager Cixi was
06:01once just one of the emperor's many concubines. Born Yihe Nara Xing in 1835 to a family of
06:09government officials in China, Cixi was taken to be a concubine by Emperor Wenzong of Qing when she
06:15was just 16 years old, according to The Guardian. Cixi was initially a lower-ranked concubine,
06:21but she became more highly regarded after she had a son, Zaichun, after the death of the emperor.
06:27Cixi joined forces with Empress Dowager Zhen, who had also previously been a concubine,
06:33and the pair launched a coup to take control of the empire.
06:37Cixi and Empress Dowager Zhen ruled together until Zhen died in 1881,
06:43at which point Cixi became the sole ruler of China as Empress Dowager.