Töregene Khatun
She was an powerful person in a society that was usually led only by men. She was able to control the many powers within the empire, and even within the family of Genghis Khan, over a 5-year period in which she not only ruled the empire, but helped her son Güyük as Great Khan become ruler. During Töregene's reign, people arrived from the far away parts of the empire to her capital at Karakorum or to her moving imperial camp. The Seljuk sultan came from Turkey—as did people from the Caliph of Abbasid in Baghdad. So did two people wanting the throne of Georgia: David Ulu, the son of the old king that could not legally take the throne—and David Narin, the son of the same king who could. The highest-ranking European was Alexander Nevsky's father, Grand Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich of Vladimir and Suzdal, who died just after eating dinner with Töregene Khatun.