“Unveiling the Fearless Warrior Queens Who Changed the Course of History: Are You Ready to Meet the Legends?”
Gudit of Ethiopia
Gudit of Ethiopia is perhaps history’s most savage queen. Flourishing sometime around 960, Gudit laid waste to Axum and its land, destroying everything in her wake. While she is mentioned occasionally in historical accounts, most of what we know about Gudit has been passed down through oral tradition.
One historian, Paul B. Henze wrote, “She is said to have killed the emperor, ascended the throne herself and reigned for 40 years. Accounts of her violent misdeeds are still related among peasants in the north Ethiopian countryside. On my first visit to the rock church of Abreha and Atsbeha in eastern Tigray in 1970, I noticed that its intricately carved ceiling was covered in black soot. The priest said it was the work of Gudit, who had piled the church full of hay and set it ablaze nine centuries before.”
Amanitore of Meroe
2,000 years ago the ancient realm of Meroe in Nubia (modern-day Sudan) was home to some awesome queens, called kandakes. Amanitore was one of the best, reigning alongside her son in the 1st century BCE. What we know about Amanitore is limited, but one of the Romans, Strabo, recorded an encounter with a one-eyed Nubian queen who fought fiercely.
Amanitore was as brave as any man, if not braver, marching into battle to oppose the Roman forces. Although Rome would triumph through sheer numbers and force, they would later come to a treaty which put Meroe in good stead.
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