Here we are, almost at the end of 2025, and women’s history is still considered a niche topic to many. We make up half of the population but we are considered an after thought. So I go out of my way to find and read books about women’s history, written by women. (I don’t care if it is repetitive, it needs repeating!) I was excited to spot this book on Kobo Plus, as royal history is an area typically dominated by kings and princes. And it did not let me down! Let’s get into Regina by Emily Murdoch Perkins.
Regina: The Queens Who Could Have Been, Emily Murdoch Perkins
What queens would England have had if firstborn daughters, not firstborn sons, had inherited the throne?
We may think of princesses as dutiful and elegant, wearing long flowing dresses, but the eldest daughters of England’s kings have been very different.
Political intriguers. Abducted nuns who demanded divorces. Murderers.
It’s time we rediscovered the politicians we lost, the masterminds we see negotiating nunneries not armies, the personalities shining brilliantly even hundreds of years later: the queens who should have been.
Let’s meet them.
Why You Should Read This…
You will occasionally hear about royal daughters from history if they happened to cause some sort of scandal or married particularly well. (Typically you hear of them if they become a consort to a monarch.) But if primogeniture and similar laws of succession had not governed much of Europe and beyond for centuries, we could be asking similar questions about princes who were forgotten for their reigning sisters.
This is a great intro text to royal daughters in Britain across the centuries. I love that it starts in the late ninth century- we aren’t focusing on the Tudors and the Victorians like so many texts and shows do, but following these women from all dynasties and periods. While there isn’t always a ton of info, Murdoch Perkins does a wonderful job of covering their lives and what they might have been like had they taken the throne. The question of what if is an interesting one, and I think pushes us to reframe how we think about these women.
I will say, there is not a lot of space for each biography, and it does tend to be a fairly positive biography. (ie. A lot of the more difficult parts of history are not addressed, such as slavery.) I understand pages and words are limited, but I would have liked slightly more. These women are not perfect, and I think that is an important part of their stories. In any case, I do think that this is a worthwhile book to pick up, with the knowledge that it is brief.
Is Regina by Emily Murdoch Perkins on your to-read list?
Cheers,
The Historian
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