On March 9, 2026, La Poste (the French postal service) will issue a booklet of 12 postage stamps featuring Queens of France, or the monarchy in its feminine form.
In the Kingdom of France, no queen ever ruled in her own right. From the 14th century onward, the exclusion of women from succession to the throne was imposed by the interpretation of Salic law, limiting their power to indirect forms: regency, influence, and representation.
This booklet pays tribute to twelve queens, from the Capetian era to the Ancien Régime. The first dynasty of the French monarchy begins with Adelaide of Aquitaine and ends with Jeanne d'Évreux. Blanche of Castile and Anne of Austria ruled through regency, while Isabeau of Bavaria and Catherine de Medici exercised authority during times of crisis. Anne of Brittany sealed the union of Brittany with the crown, while Marie de Medici assumed power after the assassination of Henry IV. More on the periphery of the direct exercise of power, Louise of Lorraine, Marguerite of France, nicknamed Queen Margot, and Marie Leszczyńska preceded Marie Antoinette, who, on the eve of the Revolution, concentrated the tensions of the end of the Ancien Régime.
