BACKGROUND: Female monarchs down the ages and across the world

Feb 6, 2012, 12:02 GMT

London - Although there have been comparatively few female monarchs down the ages, those that have ruled in their own right - rather than just as queen consorts - have made an indelible mark. Here is a selection of the most remarkable:

CLEOPATRA VII (Egypt, 48-30 BC):

Immortalized by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 film, Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII is legendary for her reputed beauty and relationship with Julius Caesar, dictator of the Roman Empire.

Warring over the Egyptian throne with her younger brother - to whom she was also married, as was custom - she had herself wrapped up in a carpet and smuggled into Caesar's quarters in order to gain his help in securing the kingdom. It was the beginning of a much-chronicled love affair.

After Caesar's death she allied herself with Roman general Marc Antony, who was locked in a dispute with Caesar's successor Octavian. She killed herself along with Antony, some say by the bite of an asp, to avoid capture by Octavian.

WU ZETIAN (China, 690-705):

The only empress ever to rule China in her own right, Wu Zetian began her path to power in her early teens as the emperor's concubine. While admired as an efficient ruler, whose reign saw the expansion of the empire and a period of stability and economic growth, she was also ruthless.

Some even accuse her of killing her own newborn daughter in order to frame the emperor's wife to take her place. She is later said to have killed her two oldest sons and deposed the third and fourth, to seize power after the death of her husband, the Emperor Gaozong.

QUEEN ELIZABETH I (England and Ireland, 1558-1603):

Despite a shaky start to life - her father Henry VIII famously executed her mother Anne Boleyn when Elizabeth was just two years old - the flame-haired Virgin Queen went on to reign over one of the proudest eras of English history.

Elizabeth's sailors dominated the oceans and defeated the Spanish Armada in one of England's most famous victories, and she also presided over a flourishing of the arts. Playwright William Shakespeare wrote many of his best works during the Elizabethan period.

CATHERINE THE GREAT (Russia, 1762-96):

The Prussian-born Empress of Russia was as legendary for her lovers as for her successful reign, which saw the expansion of the Russian empire and the Westernization of its culture - although she also tightened the grip of the gentry over serfs.

She succeeded her husband Peter III after a coup - it is not certain whether she had a hand in his later death - and often elevated her lovers, who included Grigori Potemkin, to positions of power and prestige.

MAKOBO CONSTANCE MODJADJI, THE RAIN QUEEN (Limpopo Province, South Africa, 2003-05):

Makobo Constance Modjadji was the last and youngest ever Rain Queen, ruler of the Balobedu people of South Africa's Limpopo province. The tribe's system of monarchy in one of the few in which only a female can inherit the throne.

Makobo was reportedly a reluctant ruler, as it meant she had to live in seclusion, apart from her boyfriend and father of her two children - only the royal council can choose a man to father the queen's children.

She died at the age of 27, just two years into her rule, in slightly mysterious circumstances. While the official cause of death was meningitis, it is rumoured that she died of AIDS. Her daughter is to be the next queen when she comes of age, although because of her father she has not been officially recognized by the council.