(4. 1. 16 p. 90) relates that Herminthrud, the queen of Scotland, offered
herself to the young Danish king Amleth (Hamlet), saying that she herself
would be rated a king but for her sex, and that whoever she saw fit to take as
husband would be the king of her realm.
This mechanism does not necessarily contradict the elective principle.
Where there was a woman of a status such that union with her was seen as
desirable to legitimate the new king, the electors’ choice of king was at the
same time a choice of who should marry her. In the Mabinogion a king
of France dies leaving an only daughter with the dominion in her hands.
Llefelys, brother of Lludd the king of Britain, goes to seek her hand, sending
messengers to the French nobles to explain his purpose, ‘and by common
counsel of the nobles of France and its princes the maiden was given to
Llefelys, and the crown of the kingdom along with her’.^13
Why were such marriages held to confer legitimacy on a new king?
Several factors may be involved besides the ancient principle of matrilinear
inheritance. It might seem right and natural, and in the interests of con-
tinuity, that the man who was going to take over the royal house should also
take over the most royal female attached to it. Otherwise she might become
an asset to a rival. A living king could hope to secure his borders or extend his
influence by marrying his daughter to a friendly noble and setting him up as
ruler of a neighbouring territory.
But there are signs that the queen was more essential to the kingship than
is a modern sovereign’s consort, who receives a noble title and much respect
but is not an intrinsic part of the office. The correspondence between Vedic
ra ̄ ́jñı ̄ and Old Irish rígain points to the existence of an Indo-European title
‘ruler-female’, and it is not self-evident that the king’s wife would merit such
a special designation unless she had a particular role to play. The Hittite
queen, the tawananna, not only exercised important functions in matters of
cult and state, but held her position for life, even after her husband’s death,
and only on her own death passed it on to the current king’s wife. Her next of
kin in some circumstances formed essential links in the royal succession.^14
In certain cases there is something divine about the queen. Peisetairos, the
hero of Aristophanes’Birds, ends up as king of the new gods after Zeus is
forced to cede his sceptre to the birds and give Peisetairos Basileia ‘the Queen’
as his bride. Basileia, it is explained, is a beautiful maiden and the custodian
of Zeus’ power, wisdom, and justice.^15 In several Irish legends the king’s bride
(^13) Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys lines 15–29 (ed. B. F. Roberts, Dublin 1975).
(^14) See M. Finkelberg, Cosmos 13 (1997), 127–41; ead. (2005), 71–9, 177–82.
(^15) Ar. Av. 1534–43, cf. 1634, 1713, 1730, 1753. Βασλεια has a short final alpha and therefore
means ‘Queen’, not ‘Kingship’.
- King and Hero 415