Mothers, wives, concubines, entertainers, attendants, officials, maids, drudges. This groundbreaking work opens a new perspective on the monarchies that have dominated much of human history by offering the first comparative view of the women who have lived, worked, and served in royal courts around the globe. Written by leading historians, anthropologists, and archeologists, these lively essays take us from Maya states to twentieth century Benin in Nigeria, to the palace of Japanese Shoguns, the Chinese Imperial courts, eighteenth-century Versailles, Mughal India, and beyond. They explore topics including palace architecture, popular art, diaries, and religious records as they piece together women's lives inside palace walls. Together they investigate how women's roles differed around the world, how these roles have changed over time, and how their histories can illuminate the various structures of power and societies in which they lived. This provocative work also furthers our understanding of how royal courts, created to project the authority of male rulers, maintained themselves through the reproductive and productive powers of women.