For Hillary, pearls of wisdom from Elizabeth I?

My history major daughter has always loved to pore over the lives of medieval queens.

They flounce around in gold-threaded costumes, banish disloyal subjects and utter blood-chilling commands: “Off with their heads!”

Before you write to suggest she study a subject a tad more marketable – advanced botox injection techniques, the formulation of quick-acting tooth-whiteners – just give me a moment.

I’m coming down off a veritable queen-fest lately, beginning with an evening of watching Helen Mirren’s granite-faced performance as Elizabeth II in “The Queen.”

I was so mesmerized by her portrayal of this aging British icon – so constrained by tradition and emotional reserve, yet still so powerful within her narrow sphere – that I had to rent Mirren’s portrayal of her ancient counterpart in HBO’s “Elizabeth I.”

In both films, Mirren stepped out of the official portraits to reveal the woman behind them. One began with white face powder and lace-trimmed ruffs, the other with steely gray curls and patent-leather handbags, yet they both wound up lessons on the exercise of authentic female power.

These images are so bloody rare, as the first QE might lament.

My daughter’s on to something. Never has it been more important to study the ways women have wielded power throughout history. Baby Boomer women have matured into their blazing-star years – and they’re not a generation likely to go meekly into that good night.

Our first female speaker of the house just donned a silver Armani suit and stepped into the line of presidential succession. And last week, the news was filled with reports of our former first lady who’s named a campaign manager and started making phone calls to Iowa.

But before we start reacting to the prospect of Hillary Clinton running for president, we’d do well to examine how Elizabeth I stunned the world with her masterful command of power. She subjugated her private passions – which apparently were many – to the relentless public decisions her role demanded. She displayed brutality and compassion, ruthlessness and integrity – the worst and the best of us all.

She was an absolute ruler, a medieval monarch enthroned not by popular vote, but by God. In one scene Mirren admonishes, “If you can’t read my silence, you’re nothing.”

No contemporary American political leader will ever have such raw power. Yet there’s something primal about our reactions to women who pursue those roles.

The prospect of a Hillary Clinton candidacy reminds us that no leader can be more deeply loved, or more profoundly despised, than the woman who takes charge.

It’s odd. With her pearls and her pantsuits, her blond highlights and her shimmering white teeth, Clinton doesn’t look much different than so many other Baby Boomer women. Yet no one on the political landscape, save the current president himself, inspires such polarized opinions. People deeply admire her, or they loathe her.

We Americans don’t know what to do with powerful women, especially those we suspect may harbor a flaw or two. That’s because at a deep level they remind us of the women who reigned long ago when we were small and so utterly vulnerable.

We never quite trust them. Those flaws, we fear, have the capacity to devastate.

Think of Spokane’s Kim Thorburn. Had she been a man, would her lack of communication with the health board seemed so egregious? Would the debate have hinged on fashion choices and noon luncheon snubs?

Of course not. The career trajectory of a male public health official, equally intelligent, equally convinced, equally tone-deaf, would have gone another way.

Now we’re all set to respond to Hillary Clinton with the same outsized reactions. We look at her and project a medieval monarch. We forget she’d be simply the head of a 21st century democracy, brandishing a flag lapel pin, neither a scepter nor a crown.

My daughters and their friends might take note. There are no doubt career opportunities ahead in age-defying pore refiners, in bioidentical hormone compounds and in eagle-embossed yoga mats. As Hillary’s campaign ramps up, the demand for the accoutrements of mature female power shall surge.

But don’t expect heads to roll.