History Main / EvilMatriarch

* Lady Prospera Mercury in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'' is the mother of the protagonist Suletta, and a [[ManipulativeBitch manipulative]], AffablyEvil CharClone who [[AbusiveParents indoctrinated her daughter into acting as a pawn]] to further her goals to the point that Suletta sees her mother saying BecauseISaidSo as a valid reason to commit murder. [[spoiler:And Suletta got off easy; Prospera's favorite child [[PoweredByAForsakenChild was turned into a Gundam]] by her (albeit as an EmergencyTranformation).]]

* Beatrice Horseman from ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'', mother of the eponymous protagonist, blames her son's birth for ruining her life and leaving her stranded in a horrible loveless marriage, which led her to becoming a horrible abusive mother and heavily contributing towards Bojack becoming an extremely messed up individual with deep emotional scars. Season 4 goes into great detail explaining her backstory and humanizing her, but the show still makes it clear that regardless of what happened to her, [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse the way she treated her son was not acceptable simply because she had a difficult life]].

* The Diamond Authority from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' are a council of {{Galactic Conqueror}}s that are called matriarchs of all of gemkind. While they are the gems' parents [[MonsterProgenitor in a sense]], [[BadBoss they are ANYTHING]] [[WeHaveReserves but motherly]]. [[spoiler:Except for [[TokenGoodTeammate Pink Diamond]].]]

* Various FinalBoss characters from ''FFranchise/TouhouProject'' have shades of this, since the setting has an ImprobablyFemaleCast. Eirin treats her disciple Reisen like dirt (mostly PlayedForLaughs); Yuyuko is quite eccentric much to Youmu's woe. Yukari uses Reimu and Kanako uses Sanae, respectively, in their proxy conflict for supremacy over Gensokyo.
** Absolutely {{Inverted}} with Byakuren, who is a MessianicArchetype for her {{Youkai}} followers.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': [[Characters/RobinDamianWayne Damian Wayne's]] mother [[Characters/BatmanTaliaAlGhul Talia al Ghul]] falls here during ''ComicBook/BatmanGrantMorrison'', taking control of her son's nervous system to kill his older brother/mentor [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson]] and then revealing to Damian that she had begun cloning him when it became clear to her that he was no longer doing what she wanted him to do in ''Franchise/{{Batman}} & Robin'' # 12. When Damian asked why she couldn't love him for who he was (showing a [[SpoiledBrat rare]] hint of Woobie-ism), Talia replied "No. I'm too much of a perfectionist" and declared him an enemy of the House of al Ghul, where he spent at least the first three quarters of his life. Oh, and he's ten. [[spoiler:Culminates in OffingTheOffspring when she allows the clone, Heretic, [[AlasPoorScrappy to brutally kill Damian]].]] Of course she already had hints of this as she raised Damian to think he needed to kill [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim]] to replace him in his father's household.

* ''ComicBook/{{Hound|2014}}'': Morrigan encourages Setanta to pursue what he's best at since his childhood, referring to herself and him as mother and son. He eventually discovers that she's a cruel and manipulative goddess who wants him to surrender his humanity for the sake of war, which is her domain.

* In an earlier adaptation of this period in history, the titular character from G.F. Händel's 1709 opera [[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E7DD1439F931A25751C0A963948260 Agrippina]] is similarly preoccupied with securing the throne for her son Nero. Expertly manipulating everyone around her, she manages to maneuver around a number of setbacks -- such as her husband, the emperor Claudius, [[spoiler:surviving the shipwreck that was supposed to have killed him]] -- at the expense of the only morally upright character in the entire piece. In contrast to the other Roman examples listed here, the opera's happy ending allows for Agrippina's scheming to be played for (admittedly pretty nasty) comedy.

* ''Theatre/TheOresteia''. This is the play where a woman and her boyfriend plot to kill her husband, and then her children kill them.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Justice for All'' has [[spoiler:Pearl's mother and Maya's [[EvilUncle Evil Aunt]], Morgan Fey]], who [[spoiler:plans to murder her niece Maya (using the spirit of her ''other'' daughter, Dahlia Hawthorne) so the ChildProdigy Pearl will become the head of the Fey clan.]]

* ''VisualNovel/SablesGrimoire'' has [[spoiler:Meave, the mother of Lisha and a manipulative, power-hungry dark elf who treats all of her children as pawns. In the base game she [[OffingTheOffSpring murders her daughter Lim]] for [[YouHaveFailedMe failing her]]. In the sequel ''Man and Elf'', she forces her son Hagan—a child—to obey her commands through MindControl, and plans to enslave Lisha after breaking her spirit through psychological torture.]]

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''

* Athalie from ''Webcomic/{{Muted}}'' is the matriarch of the Severin witch family, and abusive to her daughter and niece with unrealistic expectations for them. Her foremost goal is to uphold the family traditions, and to reach that she stops at nothing [[spoiler: not even murdering family members and sacrificing her unborn firstborn's soul to a demon for that]]. In a gut-wrenching scene she admits that she never wanted children, never loved her daughter and only got her because it was expected of her. Apparently, she got that way because her mother was an evil matriarch, too.

* ''Webcomic/NothingSpecial'': The first ArcVillain turns to to be [[spoiler: Callie's mother, Layla, a wood nymph, who's, well, a little out of sorts with reality. Killing any unfortunate mortals that wander into her woods and using their souls as "decorations". When Callie was conceived, Layla wanted to smother her in moss ''when she was a baby'' but Callie's father wouldn't allow it and spirited her away before Layla got the chance. Years later, Layla uses her plants to kidnap him and bring her to her wood which prompts the quest to find him and naturally a confrontation.]]
* Vidalia Blackford in ''Webcomic/BinaryStars'' seems like a typical aloof businesswoman of a mother to the protagonist, Anastasia, but after she's kidnapped her evil bonafides are made quite clear when she has two of the men keeping tabs on her daughter ThrownOutTheAirlock.
* In the DarkFic ''Webcomic/ThePowerpuffGirlsReimagined'', [[TheVamp Sedusa]] was Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls' biological mother and CameBackWrong as a result of TheProfessor's experimentation with [[AppliedPhlebotinum Chemical X]], with her SplitPersonality turning into a SuperpoweredEvilSide that causes her to attempt OffingTheOffspring while [[BreakThemByTalking using their fears and insecurities against them]].

* The 2018 15-second horror film, ''Last Number Dialled'', has a young girl calling her mother while she is tied up and threatened by a masked maniac, [[spoiler:only for her own mother to be revealed as the attacker when she reaches to answer the phone.]]

* ZigZagged by Numbuh Two's Grandma Lydia in ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor''. She's an [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior abrasive]] JewishMother who serves as the matriarch of his family, using intimidation and ComedicSpanking to keep the kids in line while moonlighting as a supervillain (with a HumongousMecha to boot). However, she only takes a real antagonistic role in one episode, which stemmed from a misunderstanding. The rest of the time she's shown to be close enough with her daughter Betty to be invited over on a regular basis (although Betty displays a bit of a neurotic side, potentially as a consequence of her harsh parenting style).

* Lady Imperia, the aunt of Prince Gerard, who in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' episode "The Clockwork Smurf" attempts to be coronated as queen in her nephew's place.

* Malory Archer, the mother of Sterling ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'', who is the reason why [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood Archer]] is...[[{{Jerkass}} Archer]]. Malory has set up many awful and stupid acts (like killing the Prime Minister of Italy, or not paying her employees enough), and uses ISIS's own money for her excesses. Worst of all, she's trying to pass down her worst traits to her infant granddaughter.
* Nerissa from ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' is revealed in season 2 to be [[RebelLeader Caleb's]] MissingMom. He's not happy.
* The Diamond Authority from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' are a council of {{Galactic Conqueror}}s that are called matriarchs of all of gemkind. While they are the gems' parents [[MonsterProgenitor in a sense]], [[BadBoss they are ANYTHING]] [[WeHaveReserves but motherly]]. [[spoiler:Except for [[TokenGoodTeammate Pink Diamond]].]]
* While Frances Clara Censordoll of ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' physically ''can't'' become a mother [[spoiler:thanks to her own mother removing her reproductive organs in a form of female castration]], she regards herself as the matriarch of the entire town of Moralton. A town she is constantly playing MoralGuardian in. She once even ran for town "mayor-triarch". [[spoiler:She withdraws upon realizing her opponent Clay has a massive [[ChildSupplantsParent oedipus complex]] and plays up to it to become his 'mommy' and manipulate him that way.]]
* The High Priestess from ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' Season 5 is a truly brutal and chilling example of this trope. She is the leader of an all-female [[ReligionOfEvil cult]] that worships [[GodOfEvil Aku]], and [[AbusiveMom raised]] her seven daughters quite [[TykeBomb literally from birth]] to be her [[ChildSoldiers enforcers]]. She holds the dubious distinction of being [[KnightOfCerebus one of the darkest villains]] in the show due to lacking the comedic quirks and LaughablyEvil traits from previous antagonists, and setting the tone for [[DarkerAndEdgier Season 5]].
* Beatrice Horseman from ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'', mother of the eponymous protagonist, blames her son's birth for ruining her life and leaving her stranded in a horrible loveless marriage, which led her to becoming a horrible abusive mother and heavily contributing towards Bojack becoming an extremely messed up individual with deep emotional scars. Season 4 goes into great detail explaining her backstory and humanizing her, but the show still makes it clear that regardless of what happened to her, [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse the way she treated her son was not acceptable simply because she had a difficult life]].
* Odalia Blight from ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' is a powerful and amoral businesswoman who controls every aspect of her children's lives, including Amity's social life--she interferes with any friendship she deems detrimental to Amity, which is literally ''any'' genuine friendship Amity makes, leaving the poor girl stuck in a clique of bullies she can't stand being around until a horrible mistake with Willow's memories causes her to be dragged into Luz's circle of friends. [[spoiler:She's also emotionally abusive to her husband, overworking him in Blight Industries under threat of getting the kids involved and showing no regard for his opinions. It's eventually discovered that she knew Emperor Belos was a genocial witch hunter all along, but went along with [[FinalSolution the Day of Unity]] anyway because she thought the Blights would somehow be spared by virtue of their "superiority", and she's downright ''[[EvilCannotComprehendGood baffled]]'' when this revelation causes her family to sever all ties with her.]]

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1341622382058017800
%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.

* Anne-Marthe dubut from ''Innocent'' by Creator/ShinichiSakamoto is a good exemple. She manipulates both her sons, Charles-Jean-Baptiste and Nicolas-Charles Gabriel Sanson. She manipulated Jean-Baptiste so much that he allows her to run his life even though he is an adult with a stable job, married with children. Nicolas-Gabriel was neglected as a child by his mother, only to have her praise him in adulthood so he can be a "good little helper". To her grand-children, she isn't any better. She grooms her grandson Charles-Henri into becoming an executioner with a mixture of heavy CorporalPunishment and flattery and she litterally used a hot iron on the six year old Marie-Josephe. On top of it, she is quite dismissive of Jeanne, her daughter-in-law.

* ''Kichikujima'':Mariko Glaccias Yoshikazu' estraged wife and Otoki Yoshikazu's mother.
* Ragyo Kiryuin from ''Anime/KillLaKill'', the powerful head of the Kiryuin Conglomerate and GreaterScopeVillain of the series. A sinister EvilutionaryBiologist that has used her own family in experiments and subjects her daughter to rather.....[[ParentalIncest disturbing]] displays of affection. Little surprise that [[spoiler:Satsuki stabs her in the back. Too bad it didn't take, since she's a Life Fiber-fused monster that can reattach her own ''head'']]. [[spoiler:And then there's what she did to her ''other'' daughter, and her husband, and..]]. Ragyo is often considered the reigning champion of 'Anime's Worst Mother'.
* [[spoiler:Ren Gyoukuen]] from ''Manga/MagiLabyrinthOfMagic''. She claims responsibility for the horrible deaths of her first husband and her two elder sons and later off-handedly wonders if she should kill her daughter as well. All in front of her youngest son, whom she taunts for being powerless to do anything about it. He is very screwed up as a result...and that's almost certainly intentional on her part. She's also TheUsurper of an empire and the leader of an organization that wants to summon a GodOfEvil to kill everyone on the planet. [[spoiler:Actually subverted since Gyokuen ''used'' to be a kind and good mother in the past, but she was subjected to DemonicPossession by Arba (the leader of the evil organization Al-Thamen and pretty much the BigBad) and shit hit the fan from then on.]]
** [[spoiler:And speaking of [[StealthPun the devil]] Arba herself is an exaggeration of this trope. First, she was the mother figure to TheHighQueen Sheba, then she killed her cold-bloodedly despite Solomon and Sheba believed her so much. Then after Ugo moved the people of Alma Torran to the current world, she comes along with Al-Thamen. Unlike the other Al-Thamen members however, she can maintain almost all of her power [[MagicKnight (be it magical of physical)]] ,[[GrandTheftMe with possessing her own children]], [[BodySurf and if her previous vessel have grown too old, she will move to the child of the previous vessel]]. She prefers women as her vessel, but she can possess men too if she didn't have a daughter at any generation.]] Truly a wicked mother...
* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has Charlotte Linlin aka "Big Mom", one of the Four Emperors. Despite her horrifying physical appearance, she has 39 daughters ([[spoiler:one of which is to be married to [[RebelPrince Sanji]] as part of a political alliance with the Vinsmoke BigScrewedUpFamily]]) and 46 sons, each of which she marries off in order to extend her power. This doesn't stop her from [[OffingTheOffspring murdering one of her own children]] on a whim during a hunger-motivated, psychotic episode, plus actively encouraging her young children to be violent and psychotic- even against their own siblings-. Her son Charlotte Opera flat out notes that ''she'll consciously kill him herself'' if she finds out that he failed to stop [[spoiler:Jimbei]].
* ''Manga/OokuTheInnerChambers'':
** Technically speaking, Kasuga was merely Iemitsu the Elder's wet-nurse, but for all intents and purposes she was the evil matriarch behind the throne, who spoiled Iemitsu to the point of smothering, then, when he died without an heir, arranged for the mother of his illegitimate daughter to be murdered, kidnapped his illegitimate daughter, and forced her to pose her father until she could conceive a heir to place on the throne. To that end, she more or less imprisoned Arikoto to be the GlorifiedSpermDonor and murders anyone who could reveal an impostor's on the throne. [[spoiler:However, she actually has good intentions for going to such extremes: she lived through the SengokuPeriod, and lost her family and home in the process, and was desperate to keep Japan from having another civil war.]]
** However, she pales in comparison to Tokugawa Harusada, mother of Shogun Ienari. After copious amounts of [[KickTheDog kicking the dog]] to get to the top, she abdicates in favor of Ienari to be the power behind the throne without the need to produce heirs. She then proceeds to run the country into the dirt with excessive spending, drives out advisors for petty reasons, poisoned her loyal retainer, suppressed attempts to find a cure for the Redface Pox to keep herself and other women in power, and finally, [[spoiler:poisoned her own ''grandchildren'']], and it's implied she did that because she was ''bored''.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' gives us [[spoiler: Kaguya Otsutsuki, the first person in the Ninja World to utilize chakra. In addition to being a [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen tyrannical ruler]], she viewed her sons as her property and did not want them to have any independence from her. After discovering they had inherited chakra for her, she sought to destroy them in order to regain the lost chakra, forcing them to seal her away. Before this, however, she created Black Zetsu, who manipulated the Uchiha Clan, who are among her descendants, into creating the Infinite Tsukiyomi, which revived her -- essentially making her the BigBad of the entire series. Upon seeing her descendants, Sasuke and Naruto for the first tie and noting their resemblance to her sons, she weeps out of lingering affection....and then proceeds to try to drain their chakra, declaring her hatred for her sons.]]

* In Literature/{{Child Ballad|s}} ''[[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch076.htm The Lass of Roch Royal]]'', the mother turns away her son's lover and his baby, although they will (and do) die in the cold weather.
* ''Both'' of the mothers in ''The Drowned Lovers'' (traditional, but arranged and performed by Kate Rusby) fit this trope, and both succeed in killing their children by their malice.

* [[Characters/RobinDamianWayne Damian Wayne's]] mother [[Characters/BatmanTaliaAlGhul Talia al Ghul]] falls here during ''ComicBook/BatmanGrantMorrison'', taking control of her son's nervous system to kill his older brother/mentor [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson]] and then revealing to Damian that she had begun cloning him when it became clear to her that he was no longer doing what she wanted him to do in ''Franchise/{{Batman}} & Robin'' # 12. When Damian asked why she couldn't love him for who he was (showing a [[SpoiledBrat rare]] hint of Woobie-ism), Talia replied "No. I'm too much of a perfectionist" and declared him an enemy of the House of al Ghul, where he spent at least the first three quarters of his life. Oh, and he's ten. [[spoiler:Culminates in OffingTheOffspring when she allows the clone, Heretic, [[AlasPoorScrappy to brutally kill Damian]].]] Of course she already had hints of this as she raised Damian to think he needed to kill [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim]] to replace him in his father's household.
* ''ComicBook/EdgeOfSpiderVerse2022:'' Queen Mysteria angrily rails against this trope (in ''song'', no less)... [[NotHelpingYourCase while she's setting a tentacled villain on people at a ball she threw with intent to kill]], before obliviously attacking her daughter when she tries to stop her.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman''
** [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Queen Clea uses her own daughter as a disposable henchman.
** [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 Vol 2]]: One of the villain Queen Clea's most ardent enemies is her own daughter Ptra, who has teamed up with Wondy to defeat her tyrannical mother.
* Also from Marvel, the mother of Patsy Walker, aka ComicBook/{{Hellcat}}, Dorothy, had the slightly bad thing of [[ComicBook/PatsyWalker making comics based on her daughter]], who hated the notoriety those books brought her... and the outright unforgiving fact that she tried to bargain away Patsy's life in exchange for her own in a DealWithTheDevil (well, A Devil), though thankfully, [[ComicBook/TheDefenders Hellcat's superhero teammates]] thwarted the demonic possession.

* In Creator/CharlesPerrault "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/diamondstoads/index.html Diamonds and Toads]]" -a French version of "Literature/MotherHolle"-, the evil mother favors the daughter who's like her, and hates the one who's like her father. Originally explained that the younger daughter was mistreated because she was the stepdaughter. Perrault changed it to have an evil mother to make the story less similar to "Literature/{{Cinderella}}".

* Armenian tale "Literature/NourieHadig" ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nourie_Hadig here]]) and Creator/JosephJacobs' "Literature/GoldTreeAndSilverTree" also feature an evil mother.

* ''Fanfic/TheImmortalGame'' has Queen Terra, Celestia and Luna's sociopathic mother.

* ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'' has Heratia, the mother of the Seven Brothers of Orre. Each of them grew up to become a notorious criminal in his own right ([[WhiteSheep barring one who managed to escape from her]]), but she was ''way'' worse to them when they were children, forcing them to learn skills she could use to commit her crimes (like reading complex languages, use of weapons and Pokémon raising), [[AbusiveParents and punishing them whenever they failed]]. Unsurprisingly, as soon as they saw the chance they killed her in retaliation.

* ''Fanfic/TheKingNobodyWanted:'' Urrigon paints his late mother as this for the Iron Islands. She shaped her older sons' ambitions of conquest, and engaged in dark magic. Urrigon says she also [[spoiler:killed her husband's first wife (by knocking her off a bridge [[CallForward the same way that her son Balon is killed in the books) as part of Euron's InheritanceMurder]] and stepsons (one of them by exposing him to greyscale, although, according to canon, Euron finished that son off)]].
--> '''Urrigon:''' When the history of my brother's revolt gets recorded, the maesters and singers will search for causes to wring some sense from it. And the true cause was Ingraboda Sunderly [whispering] ambition to her eldest sons in the cradle, and fed it to 'em with her milk.

* The jealously possessive villain mother Madame Sebastian in ''Film/{{Notorious|1946}}''.

* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', all organized crime is expected to be managed by an evil matriarch, as families are very close, and usually all members of a family are brought to court for a crime one of them committed. Rank is determined by age, the eldest sister in a family is named Eldest and becomes Mother Elder when she has her first child. The evil matriarch in any given family of criminals is therefore the Mother Elder. Strictly enforced discipline, and the fact that criminal individuals are thrown out of lawful families, more or less guarantees that a family that turns to crime will have an evil matriarch in charge. [[spoiler:The villains actually murdered their own mothers (who were in on the conspiracy, so likely evil matriarchs themselves) in order to shut them up, as the family "doesn't age well" and tends to senility. The main villain has already one child, and is the Eldest of the family, so she is well on her way to becoming an evil matriarch herself.]]

%% * ''Literature/ThePrincessDiaries'': Grandmere.
%% * ''Literature/TheCasterChronicles'':
%% ** Sarafine is Lena's mother.
%% ** Also, the apparent matriarch of the family, Genevieve. Though becoming evil was a spell backfire.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''

* A lot of Creator/VCAndrews' stories contain this:
** Olivia Foxworth, the terrifying grandmother from ''Literature/FlowersInTheAttic''. She convinces her daughter to hide her four children in the attic of the family mansion in order to avoid being erased from the family line of inheritance. The children are starved, beaten, and terrorized by the grandmother, and eventually neglected. It later emerges that Grandmother, in combination with her daughter [[spoiler:schemed to kill the children by poisoning their food with arsenic]]. She is somewhat redeemed in one of the sequels, although this may be partial CanonDiscontinuity because it was completed by the ghostwriter who succeeded Andrews after her death.
** Olivia Logan in the Literature/LoganSeries.
** Lillian Cutler in the Literature/CutlerSeries.

* In Creator/JKRowling's ''Literature/HarryPotter'', Sirius Black's mother Walburga is heavily implied to have been an Evil Matriarch. Sirius is known to exaggerate, however, her [[{{Pun}} portrayal through her portrait doesn't paint a very good picture of her]] when it appears in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' and ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]''. Essentially, she and the rest of her family disowned any decent people.

* Anne-Marthe from the Mémoires des Sanson (a semi-reliable source, semi-memoir, semi-fictionnal famous source) is described by the author(s) as "mad and cruel".
* Geleth Pa'Dar in the Franchise/StarTrek novel ''[[Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch The Never-Ending Sacrifice]]''. A product of the traditional Cardassia, where life was a struggle for survival on a starving planet, she is utterly ruthless and quite unrepentant about it. At one point, she suggests with total ease and in full seriousness that her son should have her grandson Rugal killed. Rugal ends up in an ongoing battle of wills with Geleth after coming to live in the family home. Finally, just before dying of old age, she shares her secrets with Rugal, which involve casually having an innocent man arrested and executed on false charges.
** In ''Literature/StarTrekForgedInFire'', Lady of the House Moj'ih would rather kill her albino baby than allow his condition to bring shame to the family. She is following Klingon custom here; the HonorBeforeReason nature of her culture blunts the individual evil to some extent. She still fits the trope, though.

* The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse has Ta'a Chume, the queen of the Hapes Cluster, who arranges her eldest son's murder so that Isolder (the youngest) would take the throne. When her son found a fiancé who was pacifistic Ta'a Chume had her murdered had made it look like a suicide. Then she plans to seduce her future daughter-in-law's [[Creator/MarkHamill brother]] and kill him. ''Then'' after her son finds another woman and [[LateArrivalSpoiler Leia marries Han]], she tries to kill granddaughter and great-granddaughter because the former and her boyfriend (a.k.a. the latter's father) are Jedi. [[note]]An aside: Technically, Tenel Ka lets Jacen use her fleet in exchange for an heir. But male prostitution for females is common in myth, and these are [[AuthorAppeal Troy Denning]] books.[[/note]] Jacen {{Mind Rape}}s her, ending her tyranny. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Guess who becomes a Sith in a few years?]]
* Melesandra [=DeMarian=] in ''[[Literature/TalesOfTheBranionRealm The Stone Prince]]'' is a [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen cold-blooded ruler]] who terrifies her son and heir by teaching him and her other children (by bloody example) to be as ruthless as her.

* Marisa Coulter from ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' wishes to have her daughter live with her, but isn't beyond killing her when she learns her offspring is the chosen one. At least initially. Regardless of how much she tries to redeem by the end of the series, Lyra never stops viewing her as an enemy.
* Mrs Herriton in ''Literature/WhereAngelsFearToTread'' will go to any lengths to uphold the family reputation.
* ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'': Prim, although this isn't expanded on until the revelations in ''Literature/PraeludiumOfRed'' and ''Literature/PraefacioOfBlue'' where it becomes apparent she [[spoiler:raped the king of Lucifenia and used the resulting child as little more than a spy slave, manipulated every aspect of her son's life to make him a king he didn't want to be (including letting him get possessed by a demon), and triggered 20 years of international warfare just to get back at a former friend, who was already dead halfway through those 20 years.]]
* In ''Literature/TheCasterChronicles'', Lena's mother is Sarafine, who is considered one of the Darkest Casters ever and proves this [[spoiler:by very briefly killing Ethan in ''Beautiful Creatures'']]. Then [[FromBadToWorse she gets worse]].
* ''Literature/JoePickett'': Brenda Cates in ''Endangered''. She has all of the men in her family bent to her will and willing to commit murder for her.
* ''Literature/TheHaunting'': Great-grandmother Scholar is largely crotchety, but her darker nature comes out as it's revealed that she neglected and browbeated Great Uncle Cole in an effort to get him to forsake his magic.
* Catherine of Medici, widow of [[UsefulNotes/LetatCestMoi Henry II of France]], longtime regent for her sons Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III, and mother-in-law to the future Henry IV, is usually portrayed as an evil matriarch in fictional treatments of her era, the most famous of which are ''Literature/LaReineMargot'' by Creator/AlexandreDumas and ''Die Jugend des Königs Henri Quatre'' ("The Youth of King Henri Quatre") by [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Heinrich Mann]]. Just exactly how evil this matriarch is made out to be beyond her involvement in the Night of Saint Bartholomew depends on the writer, but it certainly is quite common to accuse her of poisoning her enemies, since that is something many of her contemporaries suspected her of -- after all, she came from Italy!
* In the novel ''Goya'' by Lion Feuchtwanger, Maria Luisa of Parma, consort of King Charles IV of Spain, clearly fulfills the "matriarch" part, being the mother of fourteen children and largely controlling her husband, but is probably [[TooDumbToLive far too stupid]] and besotted with her favourite, Manuel Godoy, to be truly considered evil.
* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAncientDarkness'': In ''Outcast'', the fourth part of the series, it's revealed that [[spoiler:[[FemmeFatale Seshru]] the Viper Mage]] is [[spoiler:Renn's]] mother. [[spoiler:Seshru]] gave birth to [[spoiler:Renn]] only so that she could make her newborn her personal [[DemonicPossession tokoroth]]. After that failed, [[spoiler:Seshru]] wasn't anyhow interested in [[spoiler:Renn]], who in turn knew of her bloodline since her father's death and refused to study Magecraft due to her mother's legacy as a Soul Eater. It's not before ''Outcast'' that [[spoiler:Seshru]] realizes their connection, but she merely sees it as a tool to drive a wedge between the heroes. Not only that, but the sequel series reveals that [[spoiler:Seshru managed to create a tokoroth out of Renn's younger half-brother Naiginn who becomes the new BigBad]].
* ''Literature/PercyJackson'' Gaea is the ultimate evil matriarch — besides manipulating her children into killing their father, and then manipulating her grandchildren into fighting her children in myth, in,the series she is indirectly responsible for all the happenings of the first series (being the mother of Kronos) and directly responsible for all of the second: she leads the Giants, and the Titans are still in Tartarus, bitterly complaining that when their mother realizes that they are her first and better children they will be freed again. She takes the 'Matriarch' part pretty seriously too, and tries to manipulate her family members all the time— she once asked Calypso, as her granddaughter, to kill [[spoiler:Leo]] in exchange for her freedom.
* ''Literature/TalesOfTheFrogPrincess'' [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen]] Olivine becomes this after the curse affects her when Chartreuse and Grassina are in their mid teens, and makes their lives miserable and tragic. While she doesn't plot anything evil on a large scale (she's already the queen) she doesn't allow her daughters to attend their father funeral and turns them into animals just to be cruel. On at least one occasion Chartreuse was very nearly caught and killed as a turtle. Oh, and she turns 14-year-old Haywood, Grassina's fiancé, into an otter. For at least fifteen years. And when they finally break that spell, [[spoiler:they find Olivine has rigged it so that when he turned back into a man, Grassina would fall under her own curse, turning her into an ugly, evil old hag just like her mother.]]
* ''Literature/BooksOfKings'':
** Queen Jezebel is portrayed as being a bad influence on her sons even after two of them became kings.
** Queen Athaliah took this to another level, when she tried to have all of her own grandchildren killed. Supposedly, she did that to keep all the power to herself. Only one of her grandsons survived.
* ''Literature/TheToughGuideToFantasyland'': The "bad mother" variety of bad queen, who's regent of her young son while bringing him up dependent on her. She'll maintain all her acts are on his behalf, but obviously does not intend to ever let him truly reign.
* ''Literature/InCryptid'': [[AbusiveParents Ingrid]] is Sarah Zellaby's biological mother. Seeking a new world for the cuckoos, an invasive predator species, to infest, Ingrid orchestrates an elaborate plot to [[spoiler:turn Sarah into an ApocalypseMaiden and tear a hole between dimensions]]. Uncaring that this would destroy Earth and [[MySkullRunnethOver fry Sarah's mind]], Ingrid plans to [[spoiler:use her as a [[BreedingSlave sex doll to breed new super-powerful Johrlac queens]]]]. Ingrid also reveals that she had Sarah for the sole purpose of creating a Johrlac queen, and was behind the murder of her foster parents that led to Angela adopting her.[[note]]Cuckoos normally leave their children as {{Doorstop Bab|y}}ies with human couples, hence the name.[[/note]] She also ordered the murders of the family who lived in the house that the hive randomly chose as a base of operations.

-->-- '''Does This Cape Make Me Look Fat?''' By Chelsea Cain and Marc Mohan

* While Frances Clara Censordoll of ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' physically ''can't'' become a mother [[spoiler:thanks to her own mother removing her reproductive organs in a form of female castration]], she regards herself as the matriarch of the entire town of Moralton. A town she is constantly playing MoralGuardian in. She once even ran for town "mayor-triarch". [[spoiler:She withdraws upon realizing her opponent Clay has a massive OedipusComplex and plays up to it to become his 'mommy' and manipulate him that way.]]

* ''Fanfic/Flashpoint2AdventSolaris'' has Lady Mairghread, Elise's corrupt & abusive aunt - as well as Granny Goodness ''and'' Talia al Ghul.

* Hydia from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie''. She does nothing but mistreat her daughters, going so far as to even punish them for calling her "mama". Since Reeka and Draggle get quite the CharacterDevelopment and ''especially'' since they seem to be [[PunchClockVillain punch clock villains]] rather than actually evil, it's actually hard not to feel bad for them. (''Specially'' Draggle since she's the one who gets treated worse.)

* [[EpilepticTrees Certain fan theories]] regarding ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' peg [[spoiler:Yui Ikari]] as one of these, based largely on the fact that [[spoiler:''End Of Evangelion'' has a short flashback towards the end that reveals she knew, to some degree, [[DeityOfHumanOrigin what would happen]] [[HauntedTechnology to her]] [[HumongousMecha after the]] Contact Experiment, but seemingly didn't know just how far off the rails Gendo would go to get her back, if the fact that Unit 01 bites Gendo's head off is any indication. This [[FridgeHorror also means]] that she possibly knew what was going to happen to Toji and her son and how broken they'd be by the end]].

* Victoria Grayson, the matriarch of the Grayson family, from ''Series/{{Revenge}}'' fits the second variety of this trope to a T.
* ''Series/{{Rome}}'s'' Atia of the Julii is another ancient Evil Matriarch. She uses sex to get what she wants, verbally abuses her children and everyone around her, arranges the murder of her daughter's ex-husband (whom her daughter still loved), and sabotages her uncle's romance. (Oddly enough, some of these actions might have been prompted by a sincere desire to help her family, but her motivations are, for the most part, selfish.)

But if the character is really unlucky and isn't suffering from ParentalAbandonment, the character's mother will be an Evil Matriarch, and chances are she will make that character's life a living hell.

* ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'': Prim, although this isn't expanded on until the revelations in ''LightNovel/PraeludiumOfRed'' and ''LightNovel/PraefacioOfBlue'' where it becomes apparent she [[spoiler:raped the king of Lucifenia and used the resulting child as little more than a spy slave, manipulated every aspect of her son's life to make him a king he didn't want to be (including letting him get possessed by a demon), and triggered 20 years of international warfare just to get back at a former friend, who was already dead halfway through those 20 years.]]

'''Comedic''': Usually used in the DomCom, this variety is usually the mother of one of the two parents on the show who comes to visit every so often, and someone on the cast dreads it. Given the tone of these shows, "evil" tends to be somewhat of a stretch, but the matriarch in question may still be a {{Jerkass}}. Usually (though not always) this variety of Evil Matriarch is a {{meddling parent|s}}, often to an [[KnightTemplarParent irrational extreme]]. Classically, this is [[ObnoxiousInLaws a Mother-in-Law situation]], but from time to time, [[ParentalIssues the kids themselves, or even the child of the mother is the one that dreads it]]. In some cases, everyone hates the Evil Matriarch, like in ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', where everyone dreads Lois's mother coming to visit. In other cases, her visit is appreciated by everyone but the daughter or son of the Evil Matriarch, like in ''Series/FamilyTies'', where the matriarch is evil because her daughter feels [[StepfordSmiler she can't live up to mom's perfection]]. Expect this variety of Evil Matriarch to have PowerHair and other FashionableEvil.