Origin
Not much is known of the Queen of Hearts from the original tale before Alice‘s entry into Wonderland, although is the Queen of the kingdom of hearts, and is typically depicted as being a cruel wicked woman who enjoys the decapitation of those who try to oppose her or if she just feels like it.
She has relation to the White Queen and the Red Queen, who are often believed to be her daughters, although in some versions of the story the Red Queen is the Queen of Hearts and others the Queen adopted them seeing their potential in power.
The Queen of Hearts’ hate for Alice, comes from disturbing her people by inspiring them to overthrow her, and sees Alice as a threat to her reputation as the Queen, since to her Queens must be ruthless women willing to do whatever it took to show power and keep their kingdoms in their order.
Creation
The Queen of Hearts is the villain from the fairy tale novel, Alice In Wonderland from 1865 written by famous author Charles Dodgson under the alias Lewis Carroll.
Other Media
Alice In Wonderland (1951)
The Queen of Hearts was part of Disney’s animated feature of the classic story from 1951, and one of the earliest depictions of the Red Queen and The Queen of Hearts being the same person, with this version taking elements from both villains. The story follows the novel closely, although to appeal to a wider child audience, the brutality of the Queen of Hearts is dialed down. She was voiced by late actress Tress MacNeille.
Alice In Wonderland (2010)
The Queen of Hearts was the main villain of the live action adaptation of Alice In Wonderland, played by Helena Boham. This version is depicted with a bigger head, and using old time white face paint to show beauty in fair skin, an old belief of expectations of beauty. Her role in the movie is fairly similar to the one in the animated movie, although is shown to be more brutal, with the movie aiming for an older audience was able to show the darker parts of the Alice fairy-tale.
Once Upon A Time
The Queen of Hearts in the Disney live action series was named Cora Mills and was the mother of The Evil Queen (Regina) and the Wicked Witch of the West (Zelena). Being based on the Mill’s daughter from Rumpelstiltskin story, she was a common miller who wished for riches, she ended up making a deal with the dark one to help her get engaged with a handsome prince, only to find herself drawn to Rumpel’s darkness instead. This didn’t last, with Cora refusing to give in to love, ripping out her own heart after he had taught her how to use magic.
Years later, she forced her daughter, Regina into marrying the king after saving his daughter, Snow White. Cora used her magic to force her daughter into whatever she wanted, going as far as killing Regina’s lover to insure she’d marry the king.
Regina got her revenge later, by pushing Cora through a Looking Glass, trapping her in Wonderland where she’d take on the name of The Queen of Hearts, becoming the main villain of the first half of the second season, but was accidentally killed by her own daughter.
Cora would continue to appear in flashbacks to Regina’s childhood, and returned in the fifth season when the heroes traveled to the underworld. Cora finally met her second daughter, Zelena. Cora helped the two sister push past their problems, to become sisters for the first time since childhood. Cora despite her horrible actions, eventually made peace with her daughters and was redeemed, leading to her leaving the underworld being welcomed into heaven.