Why The King’s Mother Had A Throne

By Matthew Fumi

August 27, 2026 • View profile •

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash

Part 8 of She Magnifies the Lord: Why Catholic Devotion to Mary Leads Us to Christ

A Catholic response to common objections about Mary, Scripture, the Church, and the Communion of Saints

New to the series? Start here: Before We Talk About Mary, We Need to Talk About Truth

Missed the previous article?
Read it here: Before Mary Is Queen, Christ Is King

In the previous article, we began where the Church begins: with Christ. Scripture revealed Jesus as the promised Son of David, the heir to David’s throne, and the King whose Kingdom will have no end. Mary’s Queenship can be understood only within His Kingship.

Once Scripture establishes that Jesus is the restored Davidic King, the next question is: what place did the mother of the king have in the Davidic kingdom?

Was she simply another member of the royal household, or did she occupy a recognized position? Why was the king’s mother given a throne, privileged access, and the ability to present petitions? And how does this biblical institution illuminate Mary’s place in the Kingdom of Christ?

I. The Gebirah: Mary as Queen Mother in the Restored Davidic Kingdom

Once Scripture establishes that Jesus is the restored Davidic King, the next question is: what place did the mother of the king have in the Davidic kingdom?

The Queen Mother in the Davidic Court

In the Davidic kingdom, the queenly figure was not primarily the king's wife. The kings of Judah could have many wives, and because of that, no single wife necessarily held the stable royal position we might associate with a queen. Instead, the queenly figure in the Davidic court was the king's mother. She was known as the Gebirah, often rendered "Great Lady" or "Queen Mother," a term related to strength, might, and lordship a recognized royal position of honor and influence, which included privileged access to the king.

This is not an arbitrary Catholic invention. It is a biblical pattern attested repeatedly in the Books of Kings. Historically, this position appears to have served as a stabilizing factor in the dynasty, as wife of the former king and mother to the present king, the queen mother embodied dynastic continuity in a way that no individual wife of the reigning king could.

Bathsheba: Honor, Access, and Intercession

The clearest biblical example is Bathsheba, the mother of King Solomon. While David was still living, Bathsheba came before him and bowed. But when Solomon ascended the throne and Bathsheba became queen mother, the scene changed dramatically. When she went to speak with King Solomon, he rose to meet her, bowed to her, and then had a throne brought for her and set at his right hand (1 Kings 2:19). The reversal is striking. Everyone else rose in Solomon's presence. He rises for his mother. Everyone else bowed before the king. He bows to her. And then, uniquely, she is given a throne at his right hand, the position of honor in the ancient world, associated with favor, dignity, and royal nearness (cf. Psalm 110:1).

This scene also introduces the intercessory pattern that defines the Gebirah's role. When Adonijah approaches Bathsheba to present a petition to the king, his reasoning reveals how the queen mother functioned: "Pray ask King Solomon — he will not refuse you" (1 Kings 2:17). When Bathsheba brings the request before her son, Solomon says: "Make your request, my mother; I will not refuse you" (1 Kings 2:20). Solomon receives his mother with honor and hears her petition. He does not, in the end, grant the actual request, because once its political implications become clear, doing so would threaten the kingdom. Solomon’s refusal defines the boundaries of the office: the Gebirah has real honor, privileged access, and maternal intercessory dignity, but the king remains sovereign. He is not compelled. He listens and he decides. The queen mother's role is to bring the need before the king in maternal advocacy, not to command, and not to inform him of things unknown to him, but to place the concern of her heart before the heart of the king.

This pattern of privileged intercessory access illuminates Mary's role at Cana (John 2). When the wine runs out, Mary brings the need before her Son. Jesus responds in a way that may seem like a refusal, but then acts. What Cana shows is Mary's maternal intercession and Christ's free, sovereign response, not a mother who commands, but a mother whose intercession is heard and whose concern is honored. The king remains king. The queen mother brings the need. The king decides.

The Mother of the Promised King

Jeremiah 13:18 addresses the king and queen mother together as royal figures implicated in Judah's leadership and humiliation, evidence that the queen mother had recognized public significance within the Davidic dynasty, not merely a personal domestic role.

The prophetic expectation of the Davidic restoration also includes a maternal figure already present wherever the mother of the promised Davidic child comes into view. Isaiah 7:14 names the mother of the coming child. Micah 5:2–3 points toward Bethlehem as the origin of the ruler whose origins are from of old, and then speaks of "she who is in labor" bringing forth, the mother of the messianic king is integral to the scene, not incidental to it. These texts prepare the reader to notice the mother of the messianic king as a figure of significance.

Now apply this pattern to the New Testament, not as a forced allegory, but as the fulfillment of a structure God embedded in the Davidic dynasty from the beginning. In Solomon and Bathsheba, we see a pattern that helps illuminate the New Testament fulfillment. Jesus Christ is the Son of the Most High, heir to the throne of David, whose Kingdom will have no end (Luke 1:32–33). He is the eternal Davidic King. And Mary is His mother.
From a Catholic typological reading, this pattern finds its fulfillment in Mary's relationship to Christ and His Kingdom. The Gebirah was honored but derivative, influential but dependent, intercessory but never independent of the king. Mary's queenship and intercessory role are exactly this: real, but entirely derived from her Son.

Received in the Church’s Teaching

This is precisely what Ad Caeli Reginam (1954) teaches. Pope Pius XII writes that "the Most Blessed Virgin is queen not only because she is Mother of God, but also because, as the new Eve, she was associated with the new Adam." Her queenship is not a competing sovereignty. It is a participation in her Son's reign, rooted in her unique association with Him in the work of redemption.

Lumen Gentium §60 affirms that "Mary's function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power." §62 is equally clear that her titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix are "so understood that it neither takes away anything from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficacy of Christ the one Mediator."

Because Lumen Gentium §62 includes the title Mediatrix, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 2025 doctrinal note Mater Populi Fidelis provides further clarification. The note acknowledges that Mary fulfills a real mediating role at Cana when she presents the needs of the newlyweds to Jesus and directs the servants to obey Him (§26), but it requires "special prudence" when applying the term Mediatrix to her (§24). It explains that the Second Vatican Council preferred the language of cooperation and maternal assistance, particularly "manifold intercession" and "maternal help" (§27). Strictly speaking, there is no other mediation in grace apart from that of the Incarnate Son. Mary’s action remains real, maternal, participatory, and entirely dependent upon Christ’s unique mediation.

In its central features, the Old Testament institution of the Gebirah points toward the one who would occupy that role perfectly, the Mother of the King whose Kingdom has no end. The queen mother had a throne, but it was the king who placed her there. She had access, but the king remained sovereign. She interceded, but the king decided.

The question is not whether Catholics invented the idea of Mary as Queen. The question is whether, when God structured the Davidic dynasty with a queen mother at the king's right hand, an intercessory figure, a position of maternal advocacy, a maternal figure already present in the prophetic expectation of the Davidic child, was He doing so without purpose? The consistent Catholic reading of Scripture and Tradition says: God was preparing His people, across centuries, to recognize the one who would occupy that role in the Kingdom that has no end.

In summary

The Davidic kingdom identifies the queenly figure not primarily as the king’s wife, but as his mother, the Gebirah. Bathsheba’s place beside Solomon reveals the character and limits of that office. She is honored with a throne at the king’s right hand, receives privileged access, and presents petitions, yet the king remains sovereign. She intercedes; the king decides.

This biblical pattern helps illuminate Mary’s place in the restored Davidic Kingdom. Jesus is the eternal King, and Mary is His Mother. Her Queenship is real but derivative, honored but dependent, and intercessory without ever becoming sovereign apart from Christ. The throne is given by the King, and every dignity of the Queen Mother directs us back to Him.

In the next article, we will turn to the woman clothed with the sun in Revelation 12. Does she represent Mary, Israel, or the Church? Must we choose only one of those meanings? And what do her crown, her child, and the dragon’s war against her offspring reveal about Mary’s place within the people of God?

Until we meet again, go forth in the peace of Christ. Seek truth over victory, speak with charity, and magnify the Lord. Read on:

Part 9 of She Magnifies the Lord: Who Is the Woman Clothed in the Sun?

About the Author

Catholic365 Contributor

Matthew Fumi

I am a Catholic, husband, father, systems engineer, and writer. My writing grows out of my own return to the Catholic faith after years of living largely apart from it, and from an ongoing interest in how the truths of the faith are actually lived in ordinary human life: in families, friendships, work, suffering, failure, repentance, vocation, and the slow work of conversion. My nonfiction writing focuses primarily on Catholic theology, catechesis, apologetics, and the spiritual life. I have written a theological work, God is Love. Love is not God., which is under ecclisial review, exploring charity as the organizing principle of the Christian life and examining ordered love, sin, grace, repentance, Confession, the sacramental life, Christian witness, and the human heart’s capacity both to receive and resist God’s love. I also regularly write and engage with questions of Scripture, Church authority, Catholic moral theology, conversion, ecumenism, and the relationship between doctrine and lived discipleship. Alongside that work, I am developing The Long Way Home, a Catholic middle-grade fiction series centered on ordinary family, school, and friendship life. Rather than using fiction primarily as a vehicle for explicit instruction, I want the characters’ choices and consequences to dramatize realities such as sin, grace, conscience, temptation, repentance, mercy, friendship, family, and ultimately vocation. The faith is therefore woven into the characters’ lives rather than placed alongside the story as a lesson. The larger project follows its characters as they grow, allowing questions of marriage, parenthood, priesthood, religious life, suffering, and death to emerge naturally over the course of their lives. Professionally, I work as a senior systems engineer in aerospace, where much of my work involves systems thinking, architecture, requirements, safety, and tracing complex relationships across a larger whole. That same habit of thought inevitably influences my writing. I tend to approach theology and fiction alike by asking how individual truths, choices, relationships, and consequences fit within the larger structure of a human life.

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