Kate Shelley
Random Princesses

Isabelle Eberhardt
This undefinable adventurer's life burnt bright but short: a wildcard of the Algerian revolution, she survived an assassination attempt by sabre, and died in a freak desert flood.

Caterina Sforza
The illegitimate daughter of a minor noble, after losing her husband, she became one of the most powerful and fierce women in Italy - commanding troops, insulting Machiavelli, and fighting Cesare Borgia with unmatched ferocity.

Princess Caraboo
This phony Asian royalty fooled rural England for some time - but the truth she was hiding was far darker.

Soraya Tarzi
1920s Afghanistan was a progressive and rapidly-modernizing country in large part to the most powerful, empathic, and maligned queen it had ever seen.

Benazir Bhutto
The exiled daughter of a deposed ruler, she could have been a fairytale bridge between worlds - but fairy tales are not real. Benazir, whose name means "without flaw," was anything but.

Trung Trac and Trung Nhi
Sisters who led an army on elephant-back to overthrow oppressive Chinese rule and establish a short-lived Vietnamese kingdom.

Eréndira
When horse-riding Spaniards invaded, she defied her tribe to befriend one of the abandoned horses, using her new bond to fight off the Spanish.

La Jaguarina
This undefeated half-Spaniard fencer was a household name in the 1800s - only to vanish into retirement (and obscurity) when she ran out of people to fight.

Tin Hinan
The greatest leader of the nomadic Tuareg tribe of northern Africa, who put their men in veils and let their…

Tirgatao
Abandoned and imprisoned, this real-life Amazon took back the life she had stolen away.