Dear Friends,
This Halloween, don’t be a lady of the night. Have some class, and show off your knowledge
of history’s most remarkable women.
Consider the following series of ho-alternative Halloween costumes
inspired by a few of my favorite spinsters.
You’ll be proud to imitate these ladies, and your friends will admire
your creativity and éclat.
Elizabeth I
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| Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I in the 2007 film Elizabeth: The Golden Age |
Only two years after Elizabeth Tudor was born in 1533, her
father beheaded her mother. Rather, King
Henry VIII ordered Queen Anne Boleyn beheaded for
treason and adultery. He accused her of
sleeping with her brother and practicing witchcraft. Whether Anne Boleyn actually committed these
crimes, we may never know. But, the shadow of her death shrouded the young Elizabeth's childhood and taught her
that marriage could mean disaster. Better
safe and single than beneath the thumb of a jealous, dangerous man.
Upon her rise to the throne in 1558, Elizabeth refused to
marry. She rejected lords, dukes, earls, and princes. Rumors of an adulterous affair with Sir Robert Dudley and the murder of Dudley’s wife undermined
Elizabeth's “virgin” persona, but none of the
rumors could obscure the fact that Elizabeth ruled alone.
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| Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth I in the 2005 TV Miniseries Elizabeth I |
While Elizabeth ruled, England enjoyed
decades of peace. Her reign is now known as England’s
Renaissance and “Golden Age.” Art,
literature, and music flourished. Shakespeare wrote many of his greatest plays
under Elizabeth's patronage.
To Shakespeare and artists like him, Elizabeth was a goddess. Shakespeare’s Queen Titania,
queen of the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, is a homage to Queen Elizabeth.
Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene in her honor, an epic connecting her royal blood with King Arthur and her power with the supernatural. Artists worshiped her and so her people believed their queen more deity than woman; and that is exactly how
Elizabeth wanted it.
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| Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I in the 2007 Film Elizabeth: The Golden Age |
Elizabeth's genius lay in marketing. Where did
these men get the idea to call her “Fairy Queen” and “Virgin
Queen”? Why, from the queen, of course.
In a world of princes and kings, Elizabeth used the media of her time—poetry,
theatre, art, and song—to portray herself as strong, beloved, clever, and immortal. She had married
herself to her country, and the man who tried to take it from her would dearly
regret it.
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| Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I at Tilbury in the 2007 Film Elizabeth: The Golden Age |
When Spain launched a naval invasion against England in 1588,
Elizabeth rode to her country’s southern coast and saw the vast Spanish
Armada floating offshore. Amidst her
soldiers, she is said to have sat on horseback, a warrior queen, who cried, “I know I have the
body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king!” She acknowledged what they all knew—she was
female and an unlikely general—but with the turn of a sentence she transformed. She proclaimed herself brave enough to stand with her outmatched army and tough enough to cut down any Spaniard who stepped ashore. Appearances were
nothing. Strength lay in her love for her people and her willingness to do anything to protect them. By the grace
of God, the Spanish Armada sunk off the coast in a terrible storm, and Elizabeth returned from the field confident in her divine right to rule alone.
It is difficult to say whether Elizabeth really wanted to
marry. With Elizabeth's rumored love of Sir Robert
Dudley, it is hard to believe she didn’t marry because she never fell in
love. She likely did. But for her, to
marry was too great a risk. A husband could take her throne and subordinate her. He could want her for her power and not for herself. And no one could protect her people like she could. If that meant no man ever sat beside her, so be it.
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| Joseph Fiennes as Sir Robert Dudley & Cate Blanchett as the Princess Elizabeth in the 1998 Film Elizabeth |
It is rumored that in the last hours of Elizabeth's life she stood in her chambers, refusing to sit and succumb to death. Even as the shadow of death that had claimed her mother sixty-seven years before slunk toward her, Elizabeth fought to stay. Her life had been in service to England, and despite such a great burden, she never wanted it lifted. At last, on March 24, 1603, aged 69, England’s then
longest-serving monarch, its “Virgin Queen”, and its greatest patroness of
peace passed from the human world into the supernatural forever. She now lives in society's collective imagination, a beautiful, unshakeable queen star-crossed in love but loved by her people. She remains the "Fairy Queen" of English history and the imperfect woman who had the heart and stomach of a queen.
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| Glenda Jackson as Queen Elizabeth in the 1971 TV Miniseries Elizabeth R |
For more on Queen Elizabeth I, try the book Elizabeth by David Starkey.
You may also enjoy the film Elizabeth
(1999) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) starring Cate Blanchett, the TV Mini Series Elizabeth R (1971) starring Glenda Jackson, and the TV Mini Series Elizabeth I (2005) starring Helen Mirren.
For your Elizabeth I costume, try Ebay.com or
Amazon.com. Just make sure you get a
ruff, white face paint, a red wig, and a lot of jewelry.
Happy Halloween! Return soon to read my next suggestion for a Ho-Alternative Halloween.
Cheers,
The Super Spinster
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