Female Caligula: Ranavalona, the Mad Queen of Madagascar

Ranavalona is a character that needs to be understood and appreciated in our modern world. She is an example of what the friction between a world of aboriginal tribal life and our "civilized" society can produce. And the story is just wild. She is a character that is so out of this world that nobody would come up with her in a fictional novel. One hell of a read.

Admirers of George Macdonald Fraser's 'Flashman' saga will already be acquainted with the terrifying Queen Ranavalona of Madgascar, who appears in 'Flashman's lady' If you do not already know of her be warned, her story is not for the squeamish. Ranavalona was one of the wives of King Radama, 'the Malagasay Napoleon'. On his death in 1828 she seized the throne and held onto it for the next 33 years. During her bloody reign at least a third of the population of Madagascar is estimated to have died on her orders, either executed or worked to death as forced labour. Criminals, traitors (real or imaginary) and anyone she happened to take a dislike to, were put to death by gruesome means. She had a particular loathing for Christians, who were persecuted with great savagery. Despite her hatred of foreign influence, she formed a surprising alliance with a young French merchant, Jean Laborde, who was shipwrecked on the west coast of Madagascar in 1831. She found she could make use of him to manufacture cannon, muskets and gunpowder, and he appears to have been useful to her in other ways too, since he was rumoured to be the father of her only son. Despite her hatred of foreigners, she was fascinated by all things Euroepan, and she and her courtiers dressed in a bizarre mixture of French fashions of various periods. She discovered a passion for fale flowers, which Laborde manufactured for her, and which she and her ladies wore in such quantities that one account described them as 'floral porcupines'. Despite all her cruelties and excesses, she seems to have been able to inspire great awe and reverence in her subjects, one of the lavish ceremonies she performed was the Queen's Bath, which she took in public, afterwards sprinking the adoring crowds with her used bath water, a great honour. A coup engineered against her in 1857 involved Laborde and other foreigners, including the indomitable lady traveller Ida Pfeiffer, who was visiting the island at the time and was drawn into the conspiracy. The coup was a failure, but the foreigners escaped with their lives, being banished from the island. It is evident that, in spite of her great cruelty and brutality, Keith Laidler does not altogether disapprove of Queen Ranavalona. He writes of her: Unlike many other African and Asian kingdoms, while Ranavalona held power Madgascar had successfully defied all attempts at colonisation. The island had remained an independent state despite the best efforts of both Britain, and, especially, France, to bring it under European sway. For all her manifold faults, the Female Caligula had fulfilled the sacred promise she had made more than three decades before, standing proudly on the sacred coronation stone as the young and beautiful Queen of Imerina: "Never say 'she is only a feeble and ignorant woman, how can she rule such a vast empire.' I will rule here, to the good fortune of my people and the glory of my name! I will worship no gods but those of my ances