Margaret, Lady Brooke, Ranee of Sarawak (born Margaret Alice Lili de Windt; 9 October 1849 – 1 December 1936) was the Ranee of the second White Rajah of Sarawak, Charles Anthony Johnson Brooke. She published her memoir, My Life in Sarawak, in 1913. The memoir offers a rare glimpse of life in The Astana in Kuching and colonial Borneo. The Ranee became legendary during her lifetime as a woman of strength and intelligence, as well as on account of her status, which she shared with the other White Rajahs, of being at once a British subject and an Asian monarch.
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Life
Born Margaret Alice Lili de Windt, she was the daughter of Captain Joseph Clayton Jennyns de Windt, of Blunsdon House (between Swindon and Highworth, in Wiltshire, England), and Elizabeth Sarah Johnson. Her younger brother, Harry de Windt, was well known to the west at that time as an explorer and travel writer.
She married Rajah Charles, at 20 years old, at Highworth on 28 October 1869. After the marriage, Rajah Charles automatically appointed her the title of Ranee of Sarawak with the style of Her Highness. She was the first to hold the position, the previous White Rajah, James Brooke being unmarried. The Astana was built for her as a wedding present by her spouse. Ranee Margaret Brooke was described in her book as intelligent, forceful, non-sentimental and with the ability to dominate by her presence. Though her relationship with Charles soon deteriorated, she secured an independent position for herself and left Charles in the 1880s.