THE EIGHTH CENTURY witnessed a series of world-altering events. This was the century of Charles Martel, who secured the fate of Europe at the Battle of Tours in 732; at its close, the idea of a united western Europe was revived as Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome. At a wider glance, the world in the eighth century was diverse yet interconnected. The spread of the Arab empire not only challenged the area of the former Roman Empire but also fostered links between East and West. In the eighth century the story of the life of the Buddha was translated into Greek and attributed to John of Damascus via the Arabic text, the Kalīla wa Dimna. In Central and South America, this was the height of the classical period of the Maya. Arabs checked the power of the Chinese Tang at the Battle of Talas in the middle of the century, spreading Islam and Arab influence into Central Asia. At the beginning of the century the only regnant empress of China in 4,000 years, Wu Zetian, was removed from power. Yet, as Empress Wu was removed from power, different circumstances in two western European dynasties fostered a strengthening of queenship that was in many ways unparalleled by their forebears. This chapter examines the traditions of queenship in Mercia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom, and during the Isaurian dynasty in Constantinople, and the circumstances under which the status and power of the queen increased to never-before-seen levels. Although Irene of Byzantium (ca. 752– 803) and Cynethryth of Mercia (d. after 798) inherited very different traditions, the similar needs of their dynasties allowed them to produce similar articulations of queenly power.

The definition of which woman could be considered a queen varied widely in this period. Working on early medieval western Europe, including Anglo-Saxon England, Francia, and Italy, Pauline Stafford identifies an early medieval queen as the designated woman, sometimes anointed, whom a king married: