drottningar

Drottning is the Swedish term for a queen, a female monarch or the wife of a king. The plural form is drottningar. In contemporary usage, the word can refer to both a reigning queen and a queen consort, depending on context. In biology, drottning also denotes the queen bee or queen ant in a colony, from which the colony’s reproduction originates.

In monarchy, the title drottning has historically described both ruling queens and wives of kings. Sweden has had queens regnant, such as Christina (reigned 1632–1654) and Ulrika Eleonora (reigned 1718–1720). The term is also used for a queen consort—the wife of the reigning king—who holds a ceremonial and symbolic role rather than constitutional authority in the modern Swedish state. The social and political duties of a queen consort have varied across periods, influenced by the constitution and the dynamics of the royal household.

In biology, a drottning is the queen of a eusocial insect colony, most notably bees and ants. The drottning lays most of the eggs and thus drives the colony’s reproduction. In beekeeping, beekeepers may raise new drottningar through targeted larval feeding and queen-rearing practices, enabling colony replacement or expansion. The queen’s pheromones help regulate colony behavior and cohesion, while a colony may replace an aging or failing queen by producing a new one.

Drottning as a term thus spans political history and natural biology, linking human rulership with the reproductive center of insect societies.