Queen Mother

"Greetings to the esteemed Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium."

The Queen Mother was the hereditary sovereign of the Hapes Consortium.

Overview

In the Hapes Consortium, she was referred to as Ereneda, "she who has no equal". As the people of Hapes believed that males were unfit to rule over the Consortium, if a Queen Mother had only sons, then the wife of the eldest son became Queen Mother upon the death or abdication of her predecessor.

Some New Republic sources claimed that the name for this position in the Hapan language was Ta'a Chume, but it is possible that these sources were incorrect, and that the title was simply Chume, used as an adjunct to the Queen Mother's given name: Chume is certainly the term used for "Queen Mother" in other Hapan royal titles, such as Chume'da.

Behind the scenes

There is some inconsistency in canon as to whether the title translated as "Queen Mother" is Ta'a Chume or simply Chume in the original Hapan.

In Cracken's Threat Dossier, Ta'a Chume is treated as the royal title, implying that Isolder's mother, who is always called by this name, had surrendered her birth-name on taking the throne. However, in later continuity, Queen Mother Ta'a Chume has continued to be known as Ta'a Chume after her abdication, while her mother Ni'Korish, daughter-in-law Teneniel Djo and granddaughter Tenel Ka Djo have all reigned under their given names. More recently, the Hapes: Ladies First entry in the Planet Hoppers series of online articles has referred to the Queen Mother's crown simply as "the headband of the Chume". [1]

It is unclear what Dave Wolverton's original intention was in The Courtship of Princess Leia, the novel in which the title of Queen Mother and the character of Ta'a Chume were both introduced. Although the Queen Mother is sometimes referred to here as the Ta'a Chume, this form can be compared with a number of real-world royal styles incorporating given names—for instance "the Lord Edward", the title by which Edward I of England was known as heir-apparent before his accession to the throne and the late Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon who was best known as The Queen Mother after her husbands death and her daughters ascension to the throne. The inconsistencies in Cracken's Threat Dossier can be retconned as in-universe inaccuracies, as the relevant sections of the text are written to be read as though they were the reports of a New Republic Intelligence Service officer within the setting of the story, Captain Baden Lathe.

A case can thus be made that Chume is the correct royal title, with the full styles of successive reigning Mothers being Ni'Korish Chume, Ta'a Chume, Teneniel Chume, and Tenel Ka Chume. If so, then the Hapan capital city of Ta'a Chume'Dan must have changed its name whenever a new Queen Mother took power.