There are plenty of powerful couples in history, but these women are known for something else. From empresses to “Black Widows”, here are 20 women whose lives as wives were marked by intrigue, violence and a thirst for power (listed from the ancient world to the modern era).
Cleopatra (69–30 BC, Egypt)
Although a brilliant diplomat, her marriages were strategic and often tumultuous. She wed two of her brothers (Ptolemy XIII and XIV) in accordance with Egyptian tradition, and later fought them. Her subsequent marriage to Mark Antony triggered a civil war in Rome and the eventual fall of the Egyptian empire.
Messalina (c. AD 17-48, Roman Empire)
The third wife of Emperor Claudius, Messalina was infamous for her influence over the Roman court and her legendary infidelity. She was executed for conspiracy after allegedly marrying her lover bigamously in the absence of Claudius.
Agrippina the Younger (AD 15-59, Rome)
The ultimate player, she wed her uncle, Emperor Claudius, and allegedly fed him poisoned mushrooms. She did this to ensure the succession of her son, Nero, but in turn, he had her killed to free himself from her influence.
Theodora (c. 500-548, Byzantine Empire)
Theodora, a former actress, was the wife of Justinian I. She was a feminist and a brutal ruler, ordering the massacre of thousands of rioters to protect her husband’s reign during the Nika riots.
Wu Zetian (624–705, China)
The sole female Emperor of China, she started out as a concubine. Married to Emperor Gaozong, she was accused of killing her own infant daughter to implicate the current Empress Wang, allowing her to become the sole ruler.
Emma of Normandy (c. 985–1052, England)
Emma, Queen of England twice (to Æthelred the Unready and Cnut the Great), was a survivor. She was accused of neglecting her children from her first marriage to prioritise the power of her sons with the Viking King Cnut.
Isabella of France (1295-1358, England & France)
Dubbed the “She-Wolf of France”, she was fed up with her husband King Edward II’s preference for his male courtiers. She fled to France, gathered an army with her lover Roger Mortimer, and led a successful invasion of England to depose her husband.
Lady Macbeth (Fictional, Scotland)
Not a real person, she is the archetypal “deadly wife”. Shakespeare’s character famously berated her husband for his “milk of human kindness” and encouraged him to kill King Duncan to achieve their ambition of the throne.
Margaret of Anjou (1430–1482, England)
Wife of Henry VI, she was the real power behind the Lancastrian cause in the Wars of the Roses. Her intransigence and her ruthless, sometimes vindictive methods earned her a reputation as a divisive figure who prolonged England’s most violent civil war.
Lucrezia Borgia (1480–1519, Italy)
Daughter of Pope Alexander VI, her name is associated with the Borgia family’s poisonings and incest. Although historians now consider her more of a political tool for her father and brother, she remains the archetypal Renaissance “femme fatale”.
Catherine de’ Medici (1519–1589, France)
The wife of Henry II, she exerted immense power over her sons’ reigns. She is also remembered as a nefarious character who employed spies and is alleged to have encouraged the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre to rid herself of her political and religious enemies.
Mary I of England (1516–1558, England)
As the wife of Philip II of Spain, “Bloody Mary” was determined to restore Catholicism to England. She burned hundreds of religious heretics at the stake, a passion that overshadowed her marriage.
Elizabeth Báthory (1560–1614, Hungary)
The “Blood Countess” was a noblewoman whose husband was frequently at war. She was left to her own devices and allegedly tortured and murdered hundreds of young girls, with some stories suggesting she bathed in their blood to stay young.
Irina Godunova (c. 1557–1603, Russia)
Irina was the wife of Tsar Feodor I, who was weak in mind and body. The efforts by her family to maintain her position on the throne after his death led to the “Time of Troubles” in Russian history.
Mary Ann Cotton (1832-1873, United Kingdom)
A serial killer from Britain, she is suspected of poisoning three of her four husbands and many children and stepchildren, mostly for the insurance money.
Belle Gunness (1859–c. 1908, United States)
Weighing more than 200 pounds and standing six feet tall, “Hell’s Belle” was a Norwegian-American widow who allegedly killed both of her husbands and all of her children for insurance money, as well as several suitors who responded to her lonely-hearts advertisements.
Jiang Qing (1914–1991, China)
She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong and the leader of the “Gang of Four”. She wielded her power to persecute artists and other political enemies during the Cultural Revolution, wreaking havoc in China.
Elena Ceaușescu (1916–1989, Romania)
She was the wife of Communist Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, and was despised for her vanity and greed. She was preoccupied with titles and ostentation while the Romanian people starved, and was shot to death with her husband by a firing squad.
Griselda Blanco (1943-2012, Colombia & United States)
The “Black Widow” and Godmother of cocaine was rumoured to have had all three of her husbands killed. She was a violent leader in the Miami Drug War of the 1970s and 80s.
Imelda Marcos (1929, Philippines)
She was the wife of Ferdinand Marcos, and the symbol of “conjugal dictatorship”. She is known around the world for her shoe collection of more than 3,000 pairs, a symbol of the wealth she and her husband stole from the Philippines while the population lived in abject poverty.
