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Kings, Queens, and
Emperors Part 1 is the first in a two-part series spotlighting glbtq rulers.
Click here to
view Part 2. |
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Edward II, King of England
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Alexander the Great
(356-323 B.C.E), King of Macedonia, was a conqueror who vastly
expanded the empire he inherited from his father,
Philip II.
The great soldier was renowned for his passionate love of his
comrade-in-arms, Hephaestion. |
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Anne, Queen of
England (1665-1714)
was the last of the
Stuart monarchs. She conducted romantic friendships with several women,
including Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. |
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Julius
Caesar (ca 100-44 B.C.E.) was one of the most powerful men of the
ancient world. Some of his contemporaries publicly addressed him as
"queen" and one Roman poet even disparagingly called him a
cinaedus, or
passive homosexual. |
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Christina
of Sweden (1626-1689),
officially declared "King of Sweden" in 1633, was an enigmatic monarch
and enthusiastic patron of the arts who shocked Europeans by her
aversion to marriage, her "mannish" ways, and her love for women. |
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Edward II, King of
England (1284-1327) was an early fourteenth-century king
who formed intense relationships with his male favorites. Those
relationships ultimately
cost him his throne and led to his violent death. |
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Elagabulus (204
or 205-222) briefly ruled Rome. His reign was so legendary for its sexual
excesses that he became an emblem of the debauched, sexually perverse
ruler. |
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Frederick
the Great, King of Prussia (1712-1786) was a military genius and
cynical diplomat who vastly expanded his kingdom through a series of
brutal wars. Though his homosexuality was an open secret during his
lifetime, subsequent historians have often tried to conceal it. |
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Gustav III, King of
Sweden (1746-1792) was an enlightened despot who encouraged a
remarkable flowering of art and culture. His contemporaries, including
his mother, assumed he was homosexual. |
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Gustav V,
King of Sweden (1858-1950), the last monarch to exert direct power over
his nation's government, was a successful king whose bisexuality was
covered up during his lifetime. |
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Related Special
Features |
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Kings,
Queens, and Emperors Part 2
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Photo
Credits:
Image of Julius Caesar courtesy Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division. Remaining images courtesy Clipart.com. |
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