The daughter of Queen Jezebel, Queen Athaliah controlled Jerusalem around 840 BCE. Many times Athaliah directed her soldiers in defense of the city until the day her only son fell in battle to the sword of a warrior of the house of David. The event turned the Queen from her efforts to enhance Jerusalem’s prestige to obsession with vengeance for her deceased son. Athaliah swore that she would destroy all the descendants of the house of David, and she nearly succeeded in her war. Before the daughter of Jezebel was finished, she had killed most members of the Jerusalem branch of the family she held accountable for her son’s death.
-excerpted from David E Jones “Women Warriors” ISBN# 1-57488-106-X
