Why is Mary queen?

The liturgical Feast of Christ the King honors the kingly dignity of Jesus Christ and was established in 1925 by Pope Pius XI. Mary's royal dignity is parallel, although subordinate, and the Feast of the Queenship of Mary—now celebrated on August 22—as a festive prolongation of the Feast of Mary's Assumption, was instituted by Pope Pius XII and her queenship proclaimed with the encyclical letter, Ad coeli Reginam, promulgated on October 11, 1954.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is repeatedly referred to in the Catholic Church as “Queen,” and often called the “Queen of Heaven and Earth.” Why is that?

Mary is called a queen because of an ancient tradition that dates back to the time of King David. In the Old Testament monarchy, the Queen of the Davidic Kingdom was the Queen Mother. The Kings, for reasons of state and human weakness, had many wives, none of whom fittingly could be called Queen. That honor was reserved for the mother of the King, whose authority far surpassed the many ‘queens’ married to the king. We see this is the role Bathsheba played with respect to King Solomon and the occasions when the Queen Mother acted as regent on behalf of juvenile successors to the throne.

There are references to the queen mother in the Old Testament, for example in the Second Book of Kings, “Then King Jehoiakim, along with his advisers, nobles, and officials, and the queen mother, surrendered to the Babylonians” (2 Kings 24:12).

The queen mother in the Davidic Kingdom would hear the pleas of the people and bring them to the king for consideration. Is this not exactly what the Virgin Mary does, as Queen of Heaven and Earth? For these reasons the Church has always seen Mary as a queen seated next to her Son in Heaven.

Sources: Dayton & Aleteia