Why is the king powerless and the queen powerful? Historically, real kings were powerful (Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte etc.) and women were powerless. The game of chess began in Asia, some say, and the women were definitely powerless there. Maybe Cleopatra was powerful, but still doesn't explain why the people who created modern chess made the king so powerless and hopeless, hiding behind his army and his queen
Is it because of Queen Mary, aka Bloody Mary Was she the one who influenced the people who created the modern chess? Is she the reason why kings are hopeless and queens are ruthless?
Practically speaking, if the king were any more powerful, checkmate or capture would be impossible.

The Queen originated as the Advisor.  The Advisor was powerful, but not as powerful as the modern Queen, however.  Why did the Advisor become the Queen?  Having more than one Queen per side would debase the game, and there are two each of the other pieces.  Thus, the Advisor is the only candidate.

Why is there a piece with huge Queen-like powers at all?  It looks like the Europeans wanted to speed the game up.  So they made a more powerful Queen, pawns started moving 2 squares on the first, and castling was created.

Finally, I am not sure that the piece we call the Queen is called that in other languages.  The game and its ancestors have piece names like camel, elephant, advisor, minister, horse, etc.