Star Trek: Everything We NOW Know About The Klingons
5. Azetbur Was Not The First Female Chancellor
Star Trek: Discovery introduced some of the most radical and long-lasting changes to Klingon lore in the modern era of Trek. Putting aside the aesthetic differences, there is a seismic shift in politics that changes the context of all of the series that would chronologically follow. In 1991, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country depicted the assassination of Gorkon. His daughter Azetbur was named Chancellor of the High Council in his place.
At the time, it was inferred that she was the first female Klingon to reach this position in the Empire. While women were fully capable warriors in the Klingon defence forces, they were not allowed to sit on the Council. However, that was the situation in the 24th Century, when the Duras Sisters used their nephew, Toral, as a proxy in their bid to lead the Empire.
Azetbur rose to power in the 23rd Century and little is known about her Chancellorship. Before here, there was L'Rell.
L'Rell served as one of T'Kuvma's devotees before and during the Klingon-Federation War in 2257. That conflict ended with her rise, effectively holding Qo'Nos to ransom with several well-placed explosives, dotted throughout the planet's crust. She oversaw the development of a new Klingon fleet, featuring the D-7 battlecruiser, and also led the task force that saved the Enterprise and the Discovery from Control's Section 31 fleet.
Political machinations often changed the landscape of Klingon society. Perhaps L'Rell, and later Azetbur, challenged the male heads of several Klingon houses' masculinity to the point that they helped ban women from leading the Council in the future.
As of the 32nd Century, they seem to have been the only two women to lead the Klingons in history.