Definition
Further information: queen motherA queen mother is a person satisfying the following criteria:
- She is the mother of the current monarch.
- She is a queen dowager
- She must have been queen consort, but not having ceased to be so due to a divorce or annulment.
A further condition is that the term "queen mother" applies only if a male monarch is married. If he is unmarried, his mother retains her title of queen. (This is analogous to the mother of a peer, who is called a dowager if the peer is married but not otherwise.)
Contrary to myth, queen mother does not necessarily mean mother of the Queen; it applies whether or not the monarch is male or female.
A queen mother retains the style of Her Majesty that she enjoyed as queen, but there is no further coronation ceremony to reflect her changed status.
Read more about this topic: British Queens Dowager
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