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Worldwide
Guide to Women in Leadership
HEADS OF ASSEMBLIES
Prior to the 20th century
Prior to the introduction of parliamentary
democracies,
Heads of State also often acted as
Head of the Assembly if any existed.
Listed are some of the women
who acted held this position.
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664 Presiding over
the Synod of Whitby Abbess Hilda of Whitby and Hartlepool (United Kingdom)
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In
657, she had founded a double monastery of both monks and nuns at Whitby.
She was a patroness of the arts and was a notable teacher, whose advice was
sought by Kings and Abbots alike. At the Synod of Whitby it
was decided that the Northombian Church it should follow the teachings
of the Roman Church rather than those of Celtic Irish Iona. Hilda
herself was, of course, sympathetic to the latter party, but she
accepted the council's ruling. After
her death, after a long and painful illness lasting some six years,
miracles were soon reported at her tomb. She was venerated as a saint
and her bones suitably enshrined. St.
Hilda was the daughter of Prince Hereric of Deira, and lived (614-680)
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705 President
of River Nith
Abbess Elfleda of Whitby of the Synod (England)
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She was the successor of
Abbess Hilda. Before that five Abbesses had been present at the Council of Becanfield in 694, where they
signed the decrees before the presbyters. Later Abbess also took titles from churches impropriated to
her house, presented the secular vicars to serve the parochial churches, and had
all the privileges of a landlord over the temporal estates attached to her abbey.
The Abbess of Shaftsbury held of the king by an entire barony, and by right of
this tenure had, for a period, the privilege of being summoned to Parliament.
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1424-27 President of the Estate Generals
Yolande de Aragón
of Anjou and Provence
(France) |
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Titular Queen of Sicily,
Napoli, Jerusalem, and
Aragón
1400-42
she was
Regent of Anjou and Provence
1417. Daughter
of Juan I, king of Aragón, she was initially called Violenta. Her father
was succeeded by Martin as king of Aragón. Her marriage to Louis II of
Anjou in 1400, who spent much of his life fighting in Italy for his
claim to the kingdom of Napoli. She was appointed guardian of her
son-in-law the Dauphin Charles who became Charles VII in 1422, but his
title was still challenged by the English and their Burgundian allies. In
this struggle, Yolande maneuvered to have the duke of Bretagne
break from an alliance with the English, and was responsible for the
Breton soldier, Arthur de Richemont, becoming the constable of France in
1425. Yolande's early and strong support of Jeanne d'Arc, when others
had reasonable doubts, suggests the Duchess' possible larger role in the
orchestrating the Maid's appearance on the scene. Her younger daughter, Yolanda, was married to the heir of Bretagne, her youngest
son René inherited Lorraine in 1431 and after her older son's Louis
III's death, and three years later he also became duke of Anjou and heir of
Sicily. She lived (1379-1442). |
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1527
Presiding over the Hungarian
Assembly
Dowager
Queen Maria von Habsburg
of Bohemia-Hungary
(Dec.)
1530 Presiding over the Austrian
Landtag (January) |
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17, she married King Lajos II Jagello of Hungary, who was 15. Four years
later, the Turks over-ran half his kingdom, including the capital,
Budapest. Louis was killed at the battle, and Maria fled west,
taking the Hungarian treasury with her. She acted as
regent, and she
called the Assembly which elected her brother, Archduke
Ferdinand von Österreich king
of Hungary. In 1530 she Presided over the Landtag in his name. Her brother, Karl V, appointed
her Governor of the Netherlands after the death of their aunt, Margaretha
and she was in office until 1555.
Maria
was
grand-daughter of Duchess Marie of Burgundy, had no children, and lived (1505-58). |
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1730-33
Sovereign Dame Susan Le Gros Le Pelly of Sark (English Crown Dependency) |
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As
Dame du Serq
she was President of the Chief of Pleas, the Assembly. She bought the fief after the death of
the former owner, the Englishman James Milner, from his executor.
She was daughter
of the former Judge, Jean Le Gros, and widow of Nicolas Le Pelly, her cousin who
had died in 1719. Her purchase which was an indication of the wealth derived
from her late husband's privateering ventures, initiated a line of Le Pelly Seigneurs
that lasted for some 120 years until 1852. As the Le Pelly family had
long been prominent in the public and commercial life of Guernsey, their acquisition
of the fief further strengthened Sark's association with Guernsey,
and the consequent weakening of the ties with Jersey. The new Dame decided to remain in the Le Gros family house at La
Perronerie,
which was extensively rebuilt as the new Seigneurie, and a Colombier
(Pigeon-house), the exclusive privilege of the owner of a fief hubert, was
erected in the grounds to mark the house's newly acquired status. In the winter of 1731 the island suffered its worst outbreak of smallpox.
Constituting about ten percent of the whole population. She was succeeded by her son Nicholas who died childless in
1742, and the Seignory passed to his younger brother Daniel who died in 1752.
She lived (1668-1733). |
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1888-1900
Leader of the Council of Chiefs
Makea Takau Ariki
of the
of Cook Islands |
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She was Ariki
of Roatonga and Aurua
1868-1901,
Supreme High Chiefess of
the
Cook Islands
1874-1911 and
President of the Executive Council
1891-1901.The Cook Islands federation lasted until 1901 when it was
incorporated into New Zealand.
In 1885 4 of the 5 high chiefs of Rorotonga were women. Queen Makea was married
to Chief Ngamaru Rongotini (d. 1903) and was succeded by son. She lived (ca. 1845-1911) |
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1852-53
Dame
Marie Alliére-Collings
of Sark (Crown Dependency of the British Monarch) |
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As
Dame du Serq she
was President of the Chief of Pleas, the Assembly. The discovery in
1833 of copper and silver loads in Little Sark led to the formation of
the Sark Mining Company. To finance the venture the Seigneur got Crown
permission to mortgage the island to John Alliére, a Guernsey man grown
wealthy through privateering. The results were disappointing and by the
time the mines were abandoned in 1847 the Seigneur was deeply in debt.
The Le Pelley mortgage could not be financed from the meager rates and
tithes paid in Sark. In 1852, with Crown permission, Peter Carey Le
Pelley sold the fief to Marie, widow of T.G.Collings; she had inherited
the mortgage from her father John Alliére. La Dame du Serq, as she was
also known, died within a year and her son the Reverend W.T.Collings
became Seigneur. She lived (1791-1753). |
Last update 12.04.07
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