Guest Author: Amanda McCabe

We're happy to welcome back Harlequin Historicals author Amanda McCabe as she celebrates the release of her Elizabeth-set Christmas romance, THE WINTER QUEEN What a gorgeous cover for such an evocative title!

Sent to Serve...
As Queen Elizabeth's lady-in-waiting, innocent Lady Rosamund is unprepared for the temptations of Court. She is swept up in the festivities of the Yuletide season and, as seduction perfumes the air, Rosamund is drawn to darkly enticing Anton Gustavson...

Seduced By A Master!
With the coming of the glittering Frost Fair, they are tangled in a web of forbidden desire and dangerous secrets. For in this time of desperate plots and intrigues, Anton is more than just a handsome suitor--he may have endangered the life of the woman he is learning to love...

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"A delightful holiday gift of romance and intrigue! McCabe mixes in historical fact with fiction to create a fascinating page-turner of a novel" -- Fresh Fiction Reviews

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When Elizabeth I became Queen of England in 1558, she inherited from her half-sister Queen Mary a war and religion-torn country on the verge of bankruptcy. It was an unpromising beginning, but Elizabeth was a brilliant politician, and she understood that what England needed was sparkle and pageantry. A majestic Court, with herself as its shining star and her ladies as her foils, would be her backdrop for a renewed and empowered England. Not all of her ladies were content to be mere background, though--and most of them didn't care to emulate Elizabeth in her famous virginity.

By 1564, the year when my story THE WINTER QUEEN takes place, the structure of the Royal Household had become very elaborate, with a definite hierarchy of service. There were the heights--the Ladies of the Bedchamber; the middle--the Ladies of the Privy Chamber; and the lowest (but still pretty good)--the Ladies of the Presence Chamber. The latter seem to have had no set duties except to attend on the Queen when she wanted to impress someone, such as a foreign ambassador.

The six unmarried Maids of Honor (the position of my heroine, Rosamund) went with the Queen on her morning walks and to church services, clad in the regulation white and silver. When the Queen took the throne, her old nursery maid Blanche Parry was named Chief Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber, while a Mistress Eglionby had the unenviable task of shepherding the Maids of Honor.

Obtaining a place at Court was very difficult, with fierce competition whenever a position came open. It was especially tough in Elizabeth's time, as hers was the only household. (When there was a king and a queen, and presumably royal children, there were many more households with more attendants required). In return for their services, the ladies received modest stipends. Privy Chamber ladies got 34 pounds a year, while the Maids of Honor received 40 (as they were usually of very high families). In addition, the Court was responsible for their room and board while they were on duty, and they had a lively social life and a measure of influence they wouldn't have otherwise.

Not that life was all banquets and strolls in the garden! Elizabeth was a very strict employer. Ladies couldn't be absent from Court without the Queen's permission, which was hard to obtain (she was very possessive). She also liked to berate her ladies, "her sarcastic tongue and withering wit...combined to render her an object of terror to her apprehensive attendants" (Somerset). She also sometimes threw things at them in a fit of Tudor temper, which couldn't have been much fun!

The housing was also not the most luxurious. The Maids of Honor lived in one dorm-style room, and a palace could only be lived in for a short time before the stench of so many inhabitants became overwhelming. Several of the Queen's ladies defied her by indulging in love affairs with her courtiers, and some (like her cousins Katherine Gray and Arbella Stuart) paid for it with stints in the Tower.

Despite those drawbacks, the life of lady-in-waiting gave upper-class women an opportunity they could find nowhere else. They were at the very center of power in Renaissance England at a pivotal moment in history. All the intrigue and glamour also makes it a terrific backdrop for novels!

Here are a few fun sources I used to research THE WINTER QUEEN:

Ladies in Waiting by Dulcie M. Ashdown (Arthur Barker, 1976)
The Palaces and Progresses of Elizabeth I by I. Dunlop (Jonathan Cape, 1962)
Elizabeth and Leicester by Sarah Gristwood (Viking, 2007)
Tudor Women by Alison Plowden (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1979)
Elizabethan Renaissance: The Life of a Society by A.L. Rowse (Macmillan, 1971)
Elizabeth I by Anne Somerset (Knopf, 1991)
Ladies in Waiting: From the Tudors to the Present Day (Orion, 1984)
The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir (Ballantine, 1998)
Queen Elizabeth's Maids of Honor by Violet A. Wilson (Bodley Head, 1922)

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*sigh* I just love history. Thanks so much for sharing with us, Amanda. Now readers: If you leave a question or comment for Amanda, you'll be entered to win a copy of THE WINTER QUEEN of your own--just in time for holiday reading! Void where prohibited. I'll draw a winner next Sunday. Best of luck, and thank you again to Amanda for sharing with us today!

Famous People: Queen Elizabeth I

By Marianne LaCroix

"I may not be a lion, but I am a lion's cub, and I have a lion's heart." ~ Queen Elizabeth I

Instead of rewriting or summarizing the life of this fabulous and legendary Queen of England, I am going to list seven interesting (more personal) facts about her. The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, touch on the more well known facts about her life, even though they are sensationalized by Hollywood.

1. Elizabeth was extremely fond of horseback riding. She'd spend many hours riding fast around the palace grounds much to the disapproval of her council. They feared she'd fall and kill herself by accident. Even through to her sixties, she'd tire her ladies in waiting and ride hard and fast. At the beginning of her reign, she had her Master of the Horse, Robert Dudley, import horses from Ireland because of their power and strength.

2. Elizabeth enjoyed watching tennis and one time disguised herself as one of her ladies in waiting to watch her friend Robert Dudley play a match.

3. Elizabeth loved music and dancing. She would dance the difficult and demanding dance, The Galliard, to keep fit. She enjoyed dancing with her courtiers and was fond of The Volta.

4. Elizabeth loved literature and poetry. She even wrote poetry. The following is one of those poems, and probably her best known:

On Monsieur's Departure

I grieve and dare not show my discontent,
I love and yet am forced to seem to hate,
I do, yet dare not say I ever meant,
I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate.
I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned,
Since from myself another self I turned.

My care is like my shadow in the sun,
Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it,
Stands and lies by me, doth what I have done.
His too familiar care doth make me rue it.
No means I find to rid him from my breast,
Till by the end of things it be supprest.

Some gentler passion slide into my mind,
For I am soft and made of melting snow;
Or be more cruel, love, and so be kind.
Let me or float or sink, be high or low.
Or let me live with some more sweet content,
Or die and so forget what love ere meant.

5. Elizabeth followed fashion and often wore plain, simple gowns in private. However, for public appearances, she dressed to impress. Expensive clothes were a status symbol, and no one was allowed to outshine the Queen--especially not one of her ladies in waiting. There is a story of her anger at one of her ladies who dared wear a gown much too fine in rival to the Queen.

6. Elizabeth's gowns were made of fine fabrics and heavily embroidered with colored threads. Jewels like diamonds, sapphires, and rubies were also decorated the gowns. (Can you imagine the fuss when a jewel fell off the gown?)

7. Elizabeth wore little makeup in her early years. After a smallpox outbreak in 1562, she wore heavy makeup made of white lead and vinegar upon her face to hide her smallpox scars. She also wore rouge upon her lips and painted her cheeks with red dye and egg white. Of course, the lead in her makeup was not healthy and did slowly poison her through the years. She also wore many wigs as was fashionable at the time.

Research source: http://www.elizabethi.org/

Standards of Beauty:Elizabethan Ideal Beauty

By Marianne LaCroix

The definition of the "ideal" beauty changes over time. These days, fashion magazines portray beautiful women with luscious tans and long flowing hair as the ideal beauty to many modern women. As such, women do their best to imitate this ideal with tanning beds, cosmetics and hair extensions. The imitation is not much different now than it was in Elizabethan times.

The Elizabethan ideal beauty was one with alabaster white skin, red lips and cheeks, bright eyes and fair hair. Pale skin was extremely important to the definition of the courtly beauty of the time. It was s sign of nobility, wealth and delicacy. Ceruse, an ointment of white lead and vinegar, was applied to the face and neck to help achieve this look. Only the very wealthy could afford ceruse, and the lead was very unhealthy and did cause numerous skin problems. Some advised against its use, opting for other products made from egg white, talc, alum and tin ash. In a time of small pox, the use of this type of concealing face paste hid many imperfections. For the lips and cheeks, mercuric sulfide was favored for its vermilion color.

High hairline, perfectly arched brows and bright eyes were also standards of Elizabethan beauty. Many plucked their eyebrows and their hairline back at least an inch to give that aristocratic look of the fashionable high forehead. Kohl was used to outline eyes, and sometimes, women used belladonna to brighten their eyes.

Women strove to achieve fair hair by dying their hair. One substance (by today's standards, completely disgusting) used was urine. Those who could not achieve the fair look typically wore wigs. Wigs were also used for those who went bald or to simplify their lives rather than dealing with their own hair. The hair styles varied, but the tightly curled front was the most popular.

Queen Elizabeth I was the guiding image of ideal beauty. She set the standard that many women of her time tried to imitate. No other queen in English history had such an impact on fashion as her.

Marianne LaCroix
The Gladiator - New Concepts Publishing
Sea Hawk's Mistress - Ellora's Cave
Stolen by the Sheikh - Red Rose Publishing
Crossed Swords - Ellora's Cave 11/23/2007