królowe

Królowe is the Polish plural noun meaning "queens," the feminine counterpart to król (king). It can refer to a queen as a sovereign, to the wife of a king (queen consort), or to queens in general within historical, ceremonial, or contemporary contexts. In Polish historical writing, królowe may designate individual queens as well as the category of royal women who held the throne or shared it through marriage or succession.

Etymology and form: the word derives from król with the feminine suffix -owa, yielding królowa for the singular. The nominative plural is królowe. Polish declension follows standard patterns, so genitive plural is królowych, among other case forms.

Usage notes: the title for a ruling queen (queen regnant) is typically królowa, the same form used for a queen consort. The distinction between sovereign and consort is made by context and historical description rather than by a separate title. Polish history includes notable królowe who ruled in their own right or acted as central figures in dynastic politics.

Notable example: Jadwiga of Poland (Jadwiga Andegaweńska) reigned as queen of Poland from 1384 to 1399 and is remembered as a major medieval monarch who helped shape the Polish–Lithuanian linkage. She has been canonized as a saint, highlighting the cultural significance of the title in Polish history.

In modern usage, królowe appears in encyclopedic and biographical writing when discussing Poland’s royal history, or in discussion of contemporary royal families where Polish-language texts refer to reigning or former queens.