La palabra inglesa "dowager" no parece tener una traducción fácil. La principal acepción, que es la que me interesa, corresponde a "viuda", pero con matices muy concretos:
La definición de Cambridge Dictionary es
A woman of high social rank whose husband is dead but who has a title and property because of her marriage to him: a dowager queen
En Oxford Living Dictionaries lo traducen como
1 (widow) viuda de un noble
En Babylon, como
viuda de título
Parece que la traducción sería, por tanto, "viuda de un noble" o "viuda de título".
Sin embargo, en Wikipedia aparece una definición más amplia:
A dowager is a widow who holds a title or property—a "dower"—derived from her deceased husband. As an adjective, dowager usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles.
Sin embargo, a continuación introduce una explicacion acerca de su uso:
In the United Kingdom, the widow of a peer may continue to use the style she had during her husband's lifetime, e.g. "Countess of Loamshire", provided that his successor, if any, has no wife to bear the plain title. Otherwise she more properly prefixes either her forename or the word Dowager, e.g. "Jane, Countess of Loamshire" or "Dowager Countess of Loamshire" (In any case she would continue to be called "Lady Loamshire").
