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🌿|Elizabeth I|🌿

♠️ Elizabeth I♠️
Written by- -hmunelson

Elizabeth I, one of the most effective queens of England and the Tudor Dynasty. Elizabeth I was the only daughter and child of Anne Boylen and King Henry VIII.

She was brought up in a protestant culture of Christianity which her father brought before his marriage to his second Queen Anne. The Protest Christians believed that the King was the Head Governor of the Church and not the Pope, ultimately breaking ties with the Catholic Church of Rome.

Her reign over England brought about many changes in England's future in terms of culture, tradition and science. We will explore these changes and also examine Queen Gloria, The Virgin Queen of England.

Elizabeth as a young woman had suffered from smallpox that spread like a wildfire during that time. Many men, women, children died due to this and the ones who survived had scars of the dreadful disease. Elizabeth was one such survivor. Her father, King Henry VIII was a very ambitious person and had divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, but Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boylen to her death, his following other queens except for the last one, either was hanged for treason or died during childbirth or was divorced. Henry longed for a male heir, but all he got was 2 daughters from his first 2 queens, namely Mary and Elizabeth. Jane Seymour, his third queen finally gave him the son he desired, King Edward VI. This eliminated Elizabeth and Mary from the road of succession. His last wife, Catherine Parr convinced her husband to restore both of the princesses to the line of succession.

Since the rule that existed said that a younger brother, a male heir to the King is born then he will succeed the throne before his elder sisters, this was later changed in 2013. This was a setback for Mary and Elizabeth.

THE TALE OF THE TWO SISTERS:

Mary and Elizabeth now respectively in their late 30s and 20s saw their father's wrath and kind of formed a relationship of hatred for their father over their mother's fate. When Henry VIII passed away and their younger brother took the throne, they wanted to overthrow him and take over the throne, but his young age prevented them from doing so. Mary and Elizabeth also had another difference, they were of opposing religions in Christianity. Mary was brought up in the Catholic Church while Elizabeth as I mentioned before was brought up in Protestant Church. Opposing beliefs tended to push the sisters away. When their brother passed away at the young age of 16, Lady Jean Grey was forced to take the throne since they did not want Mary, who was a Catholic to take over the throne, but with her younger sister's help, she invaded England and took over the throne. In the course of her reign, she tried to establish Catholicism in England, demolishing all the churches and establishing the pope as the head of the church and her marriage to the Prince of Spain, trying to re-establish the ties with Spain but everything went down with her death and now in history, she is known as Bloody Mary due to amount of blood she is split in her reign in trying to restore Catholicism.

Being the last surviving child of King Henry VIII, Elizabeth took over the throne, bringing the protestant culture back to its glory and making sure everything was according to her wishes. People of England had a good time in her ascend to the throne.  

HER REIGN:

Elizabeth I was considered the most powerful queen to rule in entire Europe, broadly speaking due to her behaviour in her courtroom docket and the manner she treated her queen duties. Not only that, English was at her glory during her reign with William Shakespeare and many other famous poets and authors writing beautiful pieces. She supported and encouraged arts and music.

Her makeup, her dressing sense carried a lot of respect and radiated power. The puffy sleeves to the face covered in white face makeup to the blush and bright red lip and her wigs. Her face screamed female power.

The world was also revolutionising at the time with the inventions of printing machines and beautiful calligraphy and a lot of new things popping up. Elizabeth is chosen to adapt to the new inventions as well as maintaining the old traditions, much like England's current Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria.

MAKEUP: HARMFUL??

Elizabeth spent hours in her room getting dressed and makeup.
Her makeup contained Lead and Mercury, two of the elements that could really damage your skin and cause poisoning.
Let's go through each product.
Venetian ceruse is a mixture of Lead and Vinegar among other ingredients which she used as her white foundation, a way to cover her face since the age of 29 so that she can show that flawless skin she had always had before smallpox. The makeup would stay for a week or two. This was very common among the upper-class women in her regime.

Cleaning the makeup was equally horrifying, the cleaning solution was a mixture of Mercury, rose water, eggshells and honey. This was used to soften the skin because of the side effects of Lead makeup which left the skin grey and wrinkled and even sometimes raw and seemed like a layer of skin was ripped. This also called hair loss, that is why Elizabeth I always wore wonderful and elaborate wigs

When she hit her old age, it is said that she was sad and sick, one of the side effects of Lead poisoning. Her death is not clearly known but it is said she died of blood poisoning.

QUEEN GLORIA, THE VIRGIN QUEEN:

Her reputation precedes her as the Virgin Queen, the queen who never married and produced an heir. The main reason she did not marry was that she did not want male dominance in her reign and her queen duties. She had seen how her mother and her sister were tormented by their significant others and not allowed to carry on their lives as they wanted, she wanted to live her life as she pleased. Feminism she was she wanted and that is what she got. Hence, she was called Gloria, The Virgin Queen.
Elizabeth is someone to look up to, of course not her makeup but the way she leads life amidst the crisis she was surrounded by.

Love and hugs
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May 26, 2021 (Wednesday)