List of female monarchs in the context of "List of regents"

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and was the monarch of 15 realms at her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the longest of any British monarch, the second-longest of any sovereign state, and the longest of any queen regnant in history.

Elizabeth was born in Mayfair, London, during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King George V. She was the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother). Her father acceded to the throne in 1936 upon the abdication of his brother Edward VIII, making the ten-year-old Princess Elizabeth the heir presumptive. She was educated privately at home and began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In November 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, a former prince of Greece and Denmark. Their marriage lasted 73 years until his death in 2021. They had four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.

Toshiko (Japanese: 智子; 23 September 1740 – 24 December 1813), posthumously honored as Empress Go-Sakuramachi (後桜町天皇, Go-Sakuramachi-tennō) was the 117th monarch of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. She was named after her father Emperor Sakuramachi, with the word go (後) before her name translating in this context as "later" or "second one". Her reign during the Edo period spanned the years from 1762 through to her abdication in 1771. The only significant event during her reign was an unsuccessful outside plot that intended to displace the shogunate with restored imperial powers. As of 2025, she remains the most recent empress regnant of Japan as the current constitution does not allow women to inherit the throne.

Empress Go-Sakuramachi and her brother Emperor Momozono were the last lineal descendants of Emperor Nakamikado. Her nephew succeeded her as Emperor Go-Momozono upon her abdication in 1771. Go-Momozono died eight years later after a serious illness with no heir to the throne. A possible succession crisis was averted when Go-Momozono hastily adopted an heir on his deathbed upon the insistence of his aunt. In her later years, Go-Sakuramachi became a "guardian" to the adopted heir, Emperor Kōkaku, until her death in 1813. In the history of Japan, Go-Sakuramachi was the last of eight women to take on the role of empress regnant.