| MARY | First queen to rule England in her own right; or, the forename of the cook described in 11 Across (4) |
| USERFRIENDLY | Employer led in new cook described as easy to work with (4-8) |
| MOON | Earth's satellite, Luna, by which the unit of time described in 11 Across is traditionally measured (4) |
| GENOISE | An Italian version of a chiffon or sponge, served as a cake in its own right or as the basis of a lady's finger, madeleine or mokatine (7) |
| SUPER | Capital in its own right, or in retirement? (5) |
| CHARLOTTE | A classic pudding of stewed apples or other seasonal fruit baked in a bread-and-butter or sponge cake casing; or, the forename of the Bronte sister who penned Jane Eyre (9) |
| PEER | An aristocrat, equal, fellow or noble; or, the forename of the figure "Gynt", depicted in a play by Henrik Ibsen (4) |
| DOROTHEA | Patron of brides, florists, gardeners and love, with a feast-day on February 6; or, the forename of the Middlemarch heroine, whose marriage to Edward Casaubon was an unhappy fix (8) |
| RANK | List one of these in 11 across (4) |
| RUBY | Girl used in 11 across (4) |
| MARYI | The daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon who became the first queen to rule England in her own right (4,1) |
| JOAN | Known as the Fair Maid of Kent, the forename of the wife of Edward the Black Prince who was the mother of Richard II (4) |
| ZELDA | First name of the wife of F Scott Fitzgerald, a novelist in her own right (5) |
| MOLLY | A female mule; the forename of the figure commemorated in Dublin's "Cockles and Mussels" anthem; or, a guppy-like tropical cyprinodont (5) |
| WOLFGANG | One of the forenames of The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute composer (8) |
| IRIS | One of the forenames of The Sea, the Sea author Dame Murdoch (4) |
| ELEANOR | The forename of the wife of King Henry II (7) |
| EMPRESS | A woman who holds the rank of emperor in her own right (7) |
| MARIATHERESA | Female ruler of the Habsburg dominions in her own right 1740-80 (5,7) |
| NIUE | Island country in the South Pacific east of Tonga and west of the Cook Islands; capital, Alofi (4) |
