Moreover he also arranged to marry her to his son, Radama. When Radama had been crowned King Radama I, Ranavalona was his first wife out of his twelve wives.To secure the line of succession it was essential to have an heir to the throne.
While at this position, her children would be the natural heirs to the throne. But King Radama and Ranavalona did not have any children. This became an issue when the King died without having any children. Their marriage was said to be a very unhappy affair, one which had failed to have an heir to the throne.
Brutal & Cruel
According to the law, the next in succession to the throne was Rakotobe who was the son of the elder sister of Radama. He was known to be well educated. But when her husband died, Ranavalona played a trick and took over the throne for herself.
It was said that though she seemed to be out of focus from the public during the last few years of Radama’s reign. During that time, she had been busy scheming to take hold of the throne. She wanted to take over the control of the throne and with the assistance of some influential and wealthy supporters she had eventually taken control.
She was considered to be tough and cruel. Thereafter her reign of terror began. For three decades, Queen Ranavalona had reigned over the island nation of Madagascar off the coast of South Africa. She was known to be very brutal and had been the cause of death of millions of people.
Not Feeble & Ignorant Woman
When she had captured the throne, at her coronation she made it known that she was not a woman to be toyed with. She stated “Never say, she is only a feeble and ignorant woman, how can she rule 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, only those of my ancestors.
The ocean shall be the boundary of realm and I will not cede the thickness of one hair of my realm”. Her earliest actions were detecting and killing possible threats to her throne. It started by capturing and executing members of the husband’s family. Probably she could have been taking revenge for all that her husband had done earlier to her very own family.
During her initial time of her reign, Ranavalona who was considered to be a cold-blooded Queen had stated that her country was independent. She had all intention of keeping it that way, not permitting any outsiders to sabotage the system of culture and laws.
This was not accepted by the large number of Christian missionaries who had been visiting the island for a long time. Ranavalona had given a warning for those influencing on her subjects.
Probably she was doubtful about her power being sufficient enough to guarantee that her subjects would be obedient. Hence in 1835, she officially prohibited Christianity on that island. Finally her obsession extended to the other foreign interference, specially the French and the British.
The focus of Ranavalona’s years of reign was mostly on foreign intrusions. She was ruthless to the core and her subjects had to bear the brunt of her cruelty for the most unimportant crimes. Her act of brutally comprised of:
Hanging – The guilty were left hanging for several days over steep cliffs, where their relatives were forced to watch them till their ropes would fray out and the guilty would meet their end with a plunging death.
Boiling, burning, burying alive. Thousands of criminals were the victims of this brutality which was observed by friends and relative as a sign of warning from Ranavalona.
Beheading – As a means of another warning to those intending to invade the island, Ranavalona had executed heads of captured French soldiers which had been skewered along the beach of the island.
Poisoning – Ranavalona aimlessly carried out loyalty test by ordering poison on some subjects due to which only few of them survived.
Brutal forced labour- Ranavolona seemed whimsical and would unexpectedly make unrealistic construction projects utilising thousands of natives or captured prisoners.
Ranavalona due to her cruelty to her subjects, had been given the title of the `World’s Most Murderous Woman. When she died in 1861, Madagascar had a nine-month long mourning period for her death.
