George Lucas speaks about Queen
Amidala Padme as featured in The
Phantom Menace:

"The old Star Wars films are
very vague about what happens before
A New Hope. I planned it that way
specifically because I didn't know
exactly what I would be doing with
the story for the Star Wars prequel
trilogy. One of the characters we
couldn't really explore in the old
movies is the biological mother
of Luke and Leia Skywalker.

Luke and Leia's mother is not
mentioned by name in the old films
because her character name didn't
exist at the time I completed
Return of the Jedi.

Whenever I got involved in the
back story of a character like
Darth Vader, it always turned out
to be a mistake. Obi-Wan reveals
details about Anakin Skywalker
to Luke in the first Star Wars,
which turns out to really be
false after what is revealed at
the end of The Empire Strikes
Back.

That's why The Empire Strikes
Back and Return of the Jedi
don't have any secret revelations
about the prequel era. Qui-Gon Jinn,
Mace Windu, Jar Jar Binks, Count
Dooku and Darth Maul to name a
few aren't mentioned in the old
films because those characters
didn't exist until after I started
writing the script for The Phantom
Menace in 1995.

If I had made references to prequel
era characters in the old films, then
I would be essentially trapped. Such
a character would have to be in the
Star Wars prequels out of necessity.

It's impossible to plan a screenplay
decades in advance. There is no
master plan. I enjoy making up Star
Wars as I go along with no careful
planning.

The old films focus on Anakin, Luke
and Leia while the new ones are about
Anakin, Padme and Obi-Wan. It's
really the story of Anakin. His rise,
fall and ultimate redemption.

Padme is integral to the plot because
she is the most important person in
Anakin's entire life. However, she
has to have a tragic fate in Revenge
of the Sith because if she hadn't
perished Darth Vader would have
spent every waking moment trying to
locate her if Padme had gone into
hidden exile.

It was best to end Padme in the
prequels so the audience can
understand why Vader won't allow
Darth Sidious to destroy Luke. In
the end, Anakin's eternal love and
devotion to Padme saves Luke."
(Source: George Lucas, the
unparalleled gigantic intellect
behind Star Wars.)

Above is a picture image photo of Queen Amidala Padme