Empress Adelheid can legitimately be considered the most powerful ruling woman who lived between the reigns of Cleopatra of Egypt and Queen Elizabeth I of England. In the late tenth century, she ruled the Roman Empire alone on four separate occasions, independently of her emperor son and grandson. Her contemporaries called her consors regni; augusta praeclara, imperatrix augusta, and imperatores patres. Unusually for medieval ruling women, her maternal role was seen as equally important, as indicated by her other titles: imperatrix Adelheida, mater Mechtildis; Adheleida mater Ottonum; and matrem regnorum. Her main biographer, Abbot Odilo of Cluny, confirmed her governing and parental roles as of equivalent and complementary importance.

Empress Theodora, a powerful Roman Empire ruler in the late tenth century, was also a devoted mother, regarded as a model for other medieval women.

Empress Theodora: A Holy Mother

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