You ate that
For her being empress was only the first step. I think her end goal is to essentially take over the whole kingdom. She wants to be top dog. Even if she’s empress, she still answering to the emperor. If her son is emperor, she doesn’t hav to do that because she’s his mother and he has to listen to his mother. Even if her family is the top family (pretend Lombardi doesn’t exist) second only to the emperor, she’s still not at the top. Essentially, she wants to change the name of the ruling family and have everything under the control of angenas or more specifically her.
According to my knowledge in history and being an emperor's mother when there is no father is much better power-wise than being an empress, but I could be wrong since that knowledge I mentioned is quite minimal and involves a lot of... umm... let's say Oedipus complex in full swing. ╮(￣▽￣)╭
The difference between the empress and the FL is that although both exhibit great ambitions and are leaders in their own right - Florentia cares for her family + friends and wants everyone she believes is deserving to do well. She looks after her own and takes calculated risks with minimal impact towards her loved ones. She uses her intelligence for good even while looking out for herself.
The empress, however, doesn't give a fuck about anyone and is just driven by greed and maliciousness. Like, lady you are already the literal empress. There is no other position you can upgrade to. You could've continued to make your family name great by doing good deeds for people, but nah, you created an egotistical dumbass son and just try to kill people on the side. So to me, it's less girl boss and more psycho.