— Also termed queen dowager. See QUEEN MOTHER.
“A queen dowager is the widow of the king, and as such enjoys most of the privileges belonging to her as queen consort. But it is not high treason to conspire her death; or to violate her chastity … because the succession to the crown is not thereby endangered. Yet still, … no man can marry a queen dowager without special licence from the king, on pain of forfeiting his lands and goods…. A queen dowager, when married again to a subject, doth not lose her regal dignity, as peeresses dowager do their peerage when they marry commoners.” 1 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 217 (1765).
