You probably have heard of Elizabeth I of England, the Virgin Queen. And you may wonder why she decided to remain unmarried for most of her life, but you just have to look around her. The 1500s was an interesting time because there were many women in high positions of power, and it demonstrated to her the problem with marriage: Although a woman may be a monarch, at that time being a submissive wife took priority. Let's take her older half-sister, Mary. Her reign was only five years long, but it was a fucking disaster. She decided to marry a foreigner, Philip II of Spain. He got into some wars with France, and being his wife Mary was expected to join in on it. The whole affair was a fiasco and in the process England lost its last territory in continental Europe, Calais, as well as a shit ton of money. Money that Elizabeth was still paying off well into her own reign.

Then there as Elizabeth's cousin, Queen Mary of Scotland. She decided to marry someone local, Henry Stuart.^* Unfortunately because he didn't have his own crown to fall back on for power, he kept on trying to usurp hers. She spent years trying to fend him off as he plotted literal rebellions against her, even murdering her secretary right in her presence. And eventually she did lose her crown and spent the rest of her life in imprisonment in England.

On the other hand, there was Catherine de Medici, Queen Mother of France. She lived through three of her sons' reigns and was essentially running the country during most of it because they were too young to rule in their own right. However until her husband Henry II died in a tournament, she was out of favor since he couldn't stop sleeping with so many mistresses. In fact he had one favorite in particular, Diane de Poitiers, who was the most powerful woman in France. It was only with the death of the king that Catherine was able to take control.

For a woman who spent so much of her life insecure — her mother executed and she became a bastard, her half-sister imprisoning her — it's understandable Elizabeth avoided marriage. She flirted with the idea several times, but ultimately her head probably told her it wasn't worth it. That's why she was able to remain a prominent figure throughout her life since she didn't have to share jack shit with anyone. And even today that remains somewhat the same: Elizabeth II's husband was not given the title of king, but remains merely as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

^* OK, yeah, Stuart was actually English. But he decided to stick around in Scotland and after the marriage never returned to his homeland.