FUN FACTS ABOUT ELIZABETH I

Now you can have your own Elizabeth I Barbie doll...if you can find one.

Queen Elizabeth I became a Barbie doll in 2004 and is now a collector's item going for $350 plus.  The doll is dressed in a sumptuous gown with the famous upstanding ruff, a golden crown and elaborate jewelry...so regal, It needs its own palace.

The First "007"

With his long, pointed white beard, droopy moustache and somber expression, Dr. John Dee, Elizabeth Tudor's astrologer. was not as handsome as James Bond, in any of his incarnations.  But Dee did talk with angels...just not the blond kind, when he wasn't spying for Elizabeth Tudor.  He was her personal spy about her palaces, bringing her tales of foreign ambassadors attempts to bribe her attendants and the hi-jinks of naughty courtiers.  He signed his correspondence "007."

Elizabeth's Sugar Habit   

Although the queen was famous for being slender and having a very tiny waist, "eating smally" as one courtier wrote, she had a bad, bad sugar habit.  She loved marchpane, a kind of marzipan made of sugary dried fruits.  She kept them in her pocket to nibble on through the day with the result that she had very bad teeth.  In her old age, they turned black.  In order not to show white teeth when their sovereign's weren't, the ladies of the court blackened their teeth.  How far would you go to please the queen?  

The Queen Did Not Drink Water

Water was considered undrinkable and probably was since rivers were running sewers, including the Thames.  The Queen drank weak ale, called small ale.  There were three kinds of ale brewed: single, double and double-double.  Elizabeth drank the single and soon banned the brewing of double-double, not wanting her subjects to stagger about all day.  Still, everyone from the queen down must have had a bit of a buzz on most days.

Vestiges of small ale carried over in the British Navy with it's grog ration.  Rum was later substituted for ale, and the custom continued until 1970.

Elizabethan Perfume Garden

The original recipe for Queen Elizabeth I's favorite perfume has been recently found in a book at the Royal Horticultural Society's library.

Want to try it?

"Take eight grains of musk, and put in rosewater eight spoonfuls. Three spoonfuls of damask water and a quarter of an ounce of sugar. Boil for five hours and strain."

In Good Queen Bess's time, musk was obtained from a deer carcass hoisted into a tree until it was ripe. Fortunately, musk is now produced synthetically.

This Perfume Garden from the 2009 Chelsea Flower Show won the "Most Creative" prize for Laurie Chetwood and Patrick Collins

Elizabeth's Cosmetics

Today with our many cosmetic lines containing strictly regulated ingredients, it is hard to imagine the products in daily use by Elizabeth I and the ladies of her court.  Since pale faces were in fashion, lead and arsenic were pressed into powder cakes to achieve the white-faced, virginal look most admired.  For the queen, it also helped to hide the smallpox scars she retained after her near fatal bout with the disease in 1562.

The queen's many red wigs were kept red by using a powder made of sulfur and safflower petals.  The powder caused headaches, nausea and frequent nosebleeds, all of which Elizabeth suffered.

Kenilworth Garden

This recreated garden which opened in June, 2009 is a replica of the garden planned by Robert, Earl of Leicester for Queen Elizabeth during his famous Kenilworth festivities of 1575 (so expensive they nearly bankrupted him). Elizabeth's Robert built a new wing with huge windows to flood the queen's chambers with light and situated the garden under the windows for her viewing pleasure. I imagine them walking in these gardens at dusk in His Last Letter (August, 2010), when he asks her for the last time to marry him.

Who Invented Gingerbread Boys?

Next Christmas when you’re baking or eating Gingerbread Boys, remember that you’re taking a bite out of history. It is said Queen Elizabeth I invented them. She had her bakers and confectioners make ginger cookies in the likeness of Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, and then decorated with icing to represent his clothes. Since he was a noted sharp dresser, they were quite elaborate cookies. They became so much an indication of her favor all her male courtiers wanted one. Later, she gave many gingerbread men to her handsome favorites, of which there were always several lurking near her throne.

Elizabeth’s Ghost

Elizabeth, at least in the afterlife, seems to have a liking for Windsor Castle. She has been “seen” standing at the window of the Deans Cloister and in the Royal Library, walking from room to room. She is always reported to be dressed in a black gown and a lace shawl. It’s true that Elizabeth preferred the colors black and white during her later years because in that time these were the colors of virginity.