The secret history of women

Sunday Mirror, Jan 2, 2000

beauty

Staying out of the sun isn't just a trend that has developed since we have learnt more about the harm UV rays can do to our skin.

In the 16th Century pale was not only interesting it was also the only way to be seen. The slightest hint of a tan and you were frowned upon for looking like a peasant. So women, including Elizabeth I (1533-1603), would smother their faces in chalky dusts and powders and add egg white for a smooth, satin finish.

Unfortunately, these powders often contained lead and if it got in your mouth then you'd be pale, interesting and dead ...or just bald if you were unlucky enough to use one with mercury in it.

Blemishes and freckles were scrubbed away with foul-smelling sulphur.

And if you wanted to add a touch of colour to your lips you'd apply a concoction of egg white and cochineal (crushed beetles). Yuk!

In those Tudor days, black rotting teeth were a big problem. Toothbrushes weren't invented until the 17th Century, so a piece of cloth was used with a bit of powdered pumice stone. It worked for a while - then it removed the enamel completely. Elizabeth I used a special powder made from honey, crushed bones, sugar and fruit peel. It was customary (if you could afford it) to rinse your mouth with wine to make the breath smell sweeter, but that only made the decay worse.

Wine was what Mary Queen of Scots also chose to bathe in. Milk was recommended for a pale skin. Plain water was considered downright unhealthy and the wife of Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) preferred to wash her face in puppy's urine.

A hundred years later and the perfect foundation was still a long way off. In 18th Century Italy more than 600 men died from getting too close to wives wearing arsenic make-up.

In 18th Century Britain, women didn't go in for shaving their legs - they attacked their eyebrows instead, then stuck on new ones cut from the skins of mice. High foreheads were also all the rage, so they shaved back their hair line and, to prevent it growing back, massaged in a mixture of vinegar and cat's droppings.

So you see we women have always been suckers for new beauty gimmicks. Even plastic surgery has been around for decades. In 1882 if you were worried about scrawny eyelashes you could have some false ones sewn on.

girl power

Contrary to popular belief, girl power has been around a lot longer than Margaret Thatcher and the Spice Girls. Long before Emma Bunton, aka Baby Spice, we had the likes of Emma of Normandy. In the 1st Century she married not one, but two English kings, and when her son, Edward The Confessor, confiscated her land and goods she defied Saxon tradition, which expected her to retire quietly to a convent, by staying in politics and commissioning her own biography, entitled simply, Emma.

Her Norman relations famously took over England after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. And can you guess who was holding the fort while William The Conquerer was over here conquering? Yes, it was a woman, called Matilda.

Even once the battle was won, the women were still calling the shots. Several French knights deserted their king and gave up their reward of free land in Britain because their wives demanded they return home.

Here are a few other women who have done their bit for girl power through the ages...

Kate Douglas risked life and limb (literally) to prevent assassins murdering James I of Scotland in 1437. This brave lady-in-waiting used her arm to bolt the door when they discovered the lump of wood usually used had been stolen by plotters. That gave the King enough time to escape. The only trouble was that the attackers charged the door and shattered her arm.

Lady Knyvet defended Buckingham Castle in Norfolk single-handed against Sir Gilbert of Debenham in 1461. She leaned out of a tower window and shouted: "If you try to attack the castle I shall defend it. I'd rather die defending it than give it up. My husband left me in charge and if I lose it then he'll kill me anyway." Sir Gilbert gave up and left.

Mary Frith, also known as Moll Cutpurse, dressed as a man, smoked a pipe and ran with London street gangs. But unlike her male counterparts, she soon realised that it was far more profitable to return stolen goods to their owners and get a reward than to try to sell them on. She set up a shop to return stolen property, and made a fortune.

Charlotte Carmichael was the only one to survive when a small group fled the massacre of 16,000 British colonists in Afghanistan in 1842. They set off over the mighty Khyber pass in winter and Charlotte made it, despite suffering horrific frostbite and attacks from Afghans. If it hadn't been for her, no one would have been able to tell the tale of Victoria's incompetent army.

underwear

Strange as it may seem, men were wearing underwear, in the form of loin clothes, long before we girls discovered its benefits.

We first started wearing it as a way to keep our "over" clothes clean.

At the beginning of the last millennium, baths were too cold and not considered healthy. Elizabeth I was a wonder of the Tudor age when it was reported that she took four baths a year "whether she needed one or not".