Famous Mothers in History: Ancient Through Modern

In honor of Mother's Day, here are some of history's more famous (and infamous) mothers and women who were given the nickname Mother.

Abigail Adams

Abigail Adams was married to one US president and was also the mother of a president. She managed the family's business when her husband was overseas.

Aelfgifu

Aelfgifu was the mother of the long-serving Anglo-Saxon king, Aethelraed, sometimes known as "the Unready." She disappears from history when her husband was overthrown and then returned to power when he married Emma of Normandy, known for marrying two different kings and for bearing each an heir who became king.

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker adopted twelve children after World War II to make her home a model of world "brotherhood." She's known less for this, though, than for her career as a performer.

Anne Beauchamp

Anne Beauchamp was the mother of Anne Neville (the Princess of Wales, when married to Henry VI's heir, and later Queen of England in her marriage to Richard III) and Isabel Neville (married to George, Duke of Clarence, who attempted for a time to become king of England). Anne Beauchamp's husband, Richard Neville, the 16th Earl of Warwick, was famous for his roles in the Wars of the Roses as "the Kingmaker," switching sides several times.

Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Isabella I, was the mother of Queen Mary I of England, who died childless.

Lydia Maria Child

Lydia Maria Child wrote books in the early 19th century to guide mothers in raising their children and running a home; she was also an active abolitionist. And she's also the author of a long-beloved lyric used as a Thanksgiving and winter holiday song.

Marie Curie

Marie Curie, known as the "Mother of Modern Physics," was twice a Nobel Prize winner (in different fields). Her daughter Irene also was awarded a Nobel Prize, sharing it with her mother.

Margaret Douglas

Margaret Douglas's son, Henry Steward, Lord Darnley, married Mary, Queen of Scots, and gave his family name to the royal family following the Tudors, the Stuarts. Margaret Douglas was a niece of Tudor king Henry VIII and granddaughter of Henry VII, first Tudor king of England. She was also a friend of England's Mary I.

Read More

Famous Mothers and Daughters in History

By Jone Johnson Lewis

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine was the mother of three kings; her daughters married into the royal houses of Europe; she's been called the Mother of Europe.

Elizabeth, Queen Mum

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was the mother of Queen Elizabeth II.

Elizabeth of York

Elizabeth of York was the daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville and was the queen consort of Henry VII and the mother of Prince Arthur, Henry VIII, Mary Tudor, and Margaret Tudor.

Elizabeth Woodville

Elizabeth Woodville married Edward IV, disrupting plans of some of his allies to marry him to European. Her descendants from her first marriage to Sir John Grey and her second to Edward IV included many key figures in history.

Isabella I of Castile

Isabella I of Castile was the mother of five living children, including Queen Juana, known as "the Mad," her heir; Catherine of Aragon; her first heir; Juan who died before his parents did; and Isabella and Maria, who successively married Manuel I of Portugal and had many descendants, many of whom intermarried as part of the Habsburg dynasty.

Mary Queen of Scots

Mary, Queen of Scots was the mother of James I of England, first Stuart king.

Mother Jones

Called the "most dangerous woman in America," all four of her children died in a yellow fever epidemic long before her career as a labor organizer.

Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda was the mother of Henry II, first Plantagenet king.

Cecily Neville

Cecily Neville played a role in the conflicts later called the Wars of the Roses in medieval England. Her 13 children included Edward IV of England; Margaret, who married the Duke of Burgundy; George, who was a contender for the throne of England for a few years; and Richard III.

Olympias

Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great, was also known as an ambitious and violent ruler.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was the mother of John F. Kennedy, jr., Caroline Kennedy, and the short-lived Patrick Kennedy.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Anne was a pilot herself, married to the famous Charles Lindbergh; their son was the subject of a tragic kidnapping.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a women's suffrage leader and mother of eight; one daughter also became a leader in the movement.

Lucy Stone

Lucy Stone was a suffrage leader alone with her daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell.

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa of Calcutta won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work as part of an order of nuns serving in Calcutta.

Margaret Tudor

Margaret Tudor was the grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots, and of her husband Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft was famous as an early feminist; her daughter, Mary Shelley, wrote the novel Frankenstein.