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Princess Elizabeth Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, at about 14. The witty, intelligent, and charismatic Anne, often rumored to be a witch, was beheaded for alleged adultery and treason when her daughter was not yet three. Apparently Henry was not amused that Anne had “only” managed to produce a female heir to the throne. Elizabeth herself was a scholarly girl, well-read and fluent in several languages, pronounced by her tutor “more learned than any six gentlemen of the Court.”
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Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603) at her coronation. The ill-fated Anne Boleyn’s “mere” girl heir cannily endured many dangers under the reigns of her younger half-brother, Edward VI, and her older half-sister, Mary I (the infamous fanatical Catholic “Bloody Mary”), but outlived them both to ascend the throne in glory at age 25. She later became known as Elizabeth the Great, reigning considerably longer than both siblings put together over England’s greatest Golden Age.
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 Jehanne d’Arc (1412-1431), whom the extremely fallible Roman Catholic Church first burned as a “heretic,” then 489 years later decided was a “saint.” One of Jehanne’s most heinous “crimes,” as charged, was having arrogated to herself the wearing of men’s clothes as a soldier.
Only 19 at the time of her death, she severely frustrated the extended tribunal by brilliantly holding her own during many pages of testimony, and it was said after her horrific execution at the stake that her heart would not burn.
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Who was this Mystery Heroine? Isadora is writing a biography about her, and will be posting a story about her soon in “From the Lady’s Pen.”
Stay tuned for details!
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