Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda land Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the
Speaker 1: third season of Criminalia. This season, we're exploring the lives
Speaker 1: and motivations of some of the most notorious impostors throughout history.
Speaker 1: I'm Maria Tremarqui and I'm Holly Fry. The woman we're
Speaker 1: talking about today was born Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Tudor
Speaker 1: on September seven, three me ring some bells for any
Speaker 1: history buffs in the crowd. She was the daughter of
Speaker 1: King Henry the Eighth and his second wife, who was
Speaker 1: in Bolyn. This episode is a little different from most
Speaker 1: of our other episodes this season. Instead of talking about
Speaker 1: the life of the impostor in the mix, we have
Speaker 1: to talk about the documented life story of this famed
Speaker 1: monarch before we delve into what is a persistent rumor
Speaker 1: of impostorism regarding her true identity. It was unlikely she
Speaker 1: would rule England, but she did ascend to the throne.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth had an older half sister, Mary Tutor, who was
Speaker 1: the king's first child with his wife, Catherine of Aragon.
Speaker 1: Mary was the only one of Henry and Catherine's children
Speaker 1: who lived to adulthood. Elizabeth also had a younger half
Speaker 1: brother named Edward. Edward wasn't just the king's first son,
Speaker 1: he was also considered to be the king's only legitimate
Speaker 1: son in the eyes of royalty. Edward was born to
Speaker 1: Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife. In fifteen thirty six, when
Speaker 1: Elizabeth was three years old, her father, the King, had
Speaker 1: parliament a null his marriage to his second wife, that
Speaker 1: was Elizabeth's mother, Anne, and then he ordered and to
Speaker 1: be beheaded, claiming it was because she did not give
Speaker 1: birth to a son during their marriage. Henry had always
Speaker 1: wanted a male heir who would replace him as king
Speaker 1: after his death, and there also was a little bit
Speaker 1: of a pinch of adultery and a little conspiracy thrown
Speaker 1: into this mix. Nothing is ever quite as lean or
Speaker 1: simple as it's usually stated in the historical record, generally
Speaker 1: very true with someone like Henry the Eighth. Henry and
Speaker 1: Anne's annulment meant that their marriage had never happened in
Speaker 1: the eyes of the church, and that meant that Elizabeth
Speaker 1: and her half sister Mary were now considered to have
Speaker 1: been born out of wedlock. That meant that they were
Speaker 1: removed from the line of succession, so Edward would be
Speaker 1: king and neither Mary nor Elizabeth would be crowned. Obviously,
Speaker 1: though that rule didn't stick, or we'd be here talking
Speaker 1: about a totally different king or a queen. It was
Speaker 1: later that a parliamentary act returned both Elizabeth and Mary's
Speaker 1: ability to ascend to the throne. After their father's death
Speaker 1: in seven it was Edward who was crowned king. He
Speaker 1: will be known from now on when we speak of
Speaker 1: him as King Edward the sixth And when Edward died
Speaker 1: just six years into his reign, Mary and a cousin,
Speaker 1: Lady Jane Gray, were both in line for the throne.
Speaker 1: But before he died, Edward had appointed Lady Gray as
Speaker 1: his successor. Mary, who thought that she would be crowned,
Speaker 1: had something that Lady Jane did not, and that was
Speaker 1: the support of the people of England. It was popular opinion,
Speaker 1: true or not, that Mary unseated Gray after she had
Speaker 1: been on the throne for just nine days. Lady Jane
Speaker 1: was actually deposed by the Royal Council. She was found
Speaker 1: guilty of treason and sentenced to death. But it was
Speaker 1: Mary who initially decided not to carry out that sentence
Speaker 1: on the fifteen year old. Fifteen year old. The next year, though,
Speaker 1: Lady Jane's family was once again embroiled in an insurrection
Speaker 1: attempt and Lady Jane was beheaded. Yeah, at that point
Speaker 1: it was like, Okay, this is your being treasonous. We
Speaker 1: have to get rid of you. The bids for power
Speaker 1: very dangerous, dangerous to have a fifteen year old in power.
Speaker 1: As all of this is playing out, Elizabeth was under
Speaker 1: the care of her stepmother, Catherine Parr. Parr had hired
Speaker 1: tutors on Elizabeth's behalf. Most girls during this period of
Speaker 1: time did not really go to school or have much,
Speaker 1: if any education. A lot of certainly poorer children, regardless
Speaker 1: of sex or gender, would not have had a lot
Speaker 1: of education. But even within the royals, the girls usually
Speaker 1: did not get a bunch. But Elizabeth, being a royal,
Speaker 1: did receive a formal education even though she was a girl,
Speaker 1: and since she was young, she was known for being
Speaker 1: quite an intellectual and it was said that she had
Speaker 1: quote an influential mind. At age fourteen, her curriculum included
Speaker 1: subjects such as mathematics, history, geography, and astronomy. Elizabeth also
Speaker 1: learned to play several musical instruments, and she loved to
Speaker 1: dance and ride horses and hunt. By the time she
Speaker 1: became queen, Elizabeth flewently spoke Greek, French, Italian, and Latin.
Speaker 1: But things are hardly idyllic. Staying with the Pars, tension
Speaker 1: rose between Catherine Parr, Catherine's new husband, Thomas Seymour, and
Speaker 1: Elizabeth was removed from the Par's home and sent back
Speaker 1: to the royal estate at Hatfield. This part of the
Speaker 1: story that we're about to tell is brief, but it
Speaker 1: includes ex litation of a miner and it may be
Speaker 1: triggering her or troublesome for some listeners. So if you
Speaker 1: need to mute us for a minute, or just jump
Speaker 1: ahead a little bit and we'll meet you right back here.
Speaker 1: So here's the situation Elizabeth was in. Thomas Seymour may
Speaker 1: have and likely did, have some sort of a relationship
Speaker 1: with Elizabeth. There are some stories that air kind of
Speaker 1: on the side of nothing inappropriate having happened between the two,
Speaker 1: but many other accounts tell a story of a young
Speaker 1: girl who has taken advantage of by an older man.
Speaker 1: Seymour's behavior really was inappropriate, though it was said he
Speaker 1: entered her chambers very early in the morning too, and
Speaker 1: we're going to quote this from several sources. Wake her up.
Speaker 1: When the allegations were later investigated, Seymour was found guilty.
Speaker 1: He was sentenced and executed for conspiring to marry the
Speaker 1: princess in an effort to gain power. So we're going
Speaker 1: to take a break here for a word from our sponsor,
Speaker 1: and when we're back we will talk about when Elizabeth
Speaker 1: became queen. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about why
Speaker 1: historians call Queen Elizabeth the first reign to be the
Speaker 1: Golden Age in English history. So Elizabeth, as we talked
Speaker 1: a little bit about earlier, was third in line to
Speaker 1: the British throne, between her younger half brother Edward and
Speaker 1: her older half sister Mary. Because most of Europe at
Speaker 1: the time was primarily Catholic, Elizabeth was still considered by
Speaker 1: many to have been born out of wedlock and all
Speaker 1: of this, that's the fact that she was a woman,
Speaker 1: made a lot of people feel that she was not
Speaker 1: fit to rule. After Edward's death, his older sister Mary
Speaker 1: ascended to the throne before Elizabeth did. But in fifteen
Speaker 1: fifty four, a man named Thomas Wyatt organized a rebellion
Speaker 1: against Queen Mary the First. It was in an effort
Speaker 1: to make Elizabeth the queen and to restore Protestantism as
Speaker 1: the official religion of England. When his plot was discovered,
Speaker 1: Mary ordered Elizabeth to be imprisoned in the Tower of London.
Speaker 1: Believing that her sister supported multiple plots to remove her
Speaker 1: from power. One might consider the tower punishment as retaliation.
Speaker 1: She went to the tower in March of fifteen fifty
Speaker 1: four and was released in May of fifteen fifty four.
Speaker 1: When Mary died in November of fifty eight, twenty five
Speaker 1: year old Elizabeth was crowned as Queen Elizabeth the First.
Speaker 1: As we keep touching on, a lot of the public
Speaker 1: continued to believe that she should not be able to
Speaker 1: inherit the throne. Furthermore, Catholics, both in and out of
Speaker 1: the country, regarded Elizabeth's cousin, Mary, Queen of Scott's, who
Speaker 1: was a Catholic, as the rightful queen. When Elizabeth became queen,
Speaker 1: she quickly realized she had inherited a country that was
Speaker 1: vulnerable from attack and from poverty. In the midt late
Speaker 1: sixteenth century, there was a deep divide and growing hostility
Speaker 1: between the Catholics and Protestants in England. Elizabeth herself was Protestant,
Speaker 1: but feigned to be Catholic when duty called for it.
Speaker 1: Queen Mary the First had been Catholic, and under her
Speaker 1: reign it said that she ruled with an iron fist. Literally,
Speaker 1: she earned the nickname Bloody Mary. Catholic or Protestant, whatever
Speaker 1: religion you practiced was a divisive topic. Elizabeth and her
Speaker 1: half brother Edward were raised Protestant, but as Queen Elizabeth's
Speaker 1: views on religion angered both the Protestants and the Catholics
Speaker 1: were not happy that she restored the country to Protestantism,
Speaker 1: and some Protestants just felt that she didn't go far enough.
Speaker 1: And then Elizabeth was excommunicated by Pope Pious the Fifth
Speaker 1: for her religious policies and practices in fifteen seventy Ten
Speaker 1: years later, Pope Gregory the announced that killing Elizabeth was
Speaker 1: not a sin. There was a plot to assassinate her,
Speaker 1: and maybe more than one plot. I just keep marveling
Speaker 1: and it's like, it's cool if you want to kill
Speaker 1: that lady. We don't like her, that's not that's good
Speaker 1: you could. God'll forgive you. It's Elizabeth Eliza. This interest, though,
Speaker 1: was more about power and consolidating the power of the
Speaker 1: Protestant Church under her than it was about the Catholics
Speaker 1: or the Protestants. She took a moderate approach to the
Speaker 1: religious conflict in England. Quote there is one Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: she would say. The rest is a dispute over trifles.
Speaker 1: A lot can happen when you rule a country for
Speaker 1: more than forty four years. Queen Elizabeth the First was
Speaker 1: and still is remembered for a great many achievements, including
Speaker 1: the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the end of
Speaker 1: England's war with France. Despite all of her victories, her
Speaker 1: legacy remains that she was we quote the virgin. Queen
Speaker 1: Elizabeth was also known for her red hair. As an adult,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth had what was described as a quote dazzling figure
Speaker 1: and that when she was quote submerged in the jewels,
Speaker 1: brocade and ornaments of her dress, she was more like
Speaker 1: a living icon than a human being. In addition to
Speaker 1: that striking red hair, you have probably heard that she
Speaker 1: also applied a thick white makeup on her face. But
Speaker 1: while the red hair was real. Modern analysis of her
Speaker 1: portraits suggests that the paint that was used to create
Speaker 1: those works has actually faded over time. Her pale complexion
Speaker 1: in them was likely much rosier when the portraits were made,
Speaker 1: and this breaks with the long standing belief among the
Speaker 1: public that she might have been concealing something under that
Speaker 1: makeup choice. The reality seems to be that Elizabeth only
Speaker 1: wore makeup during her later years, and it was quite pale. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have seen claims that at some points it was
Speaker 1: as thick as an inch, which seems terrifying. It said
Speaker 1: that Elizabeth did have relationships, and that she definitely did
Speaker 1: have many marriage proposals, including one from the Infamous even
Speaker 1: the Terrible. No one knows for certain if she actually
Speaker 1: was or was not a virgin queen, but there are
Speaker 1: two things that we know today. We know that she
Speaker 1: did fall in love with a man that she had
Speaker 1: previously known in childhood. And we know that she considered
Speaker 1: marriage as an undertaking that could and would jeopardize her
Speaker 1: authority and power as queen. She would often explain, quote,
Speaker 1: I have already joined myself in marriage to a husband,
Speaker 1: namely the Kingdom of England. Elizabeth's reputation among other royals
Speaker 1: was that she was shrewd. It dearly didn't matter because
Speaker 1: she was popular among the people of England. In fifteen
Speaker 1: eighty seven, adventurer and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh traveled North
Speaker 1: America from North Carolina to present day Florida. He named
Speaker 1: the region that is now Virginia in honor of his
Speaker 1: virgin queen has a historical asside. This is actually the
Speaker 1: same year that he sent the ill fated second group
Speaker 1: of Colonists to Roanoke. Yes, Sir Walter Raleigh's life was
Speaker 1: a whole other parcel to unpack. Shortly thereafter, in August
Speaker 1: of eight, military forces were assembled at Tilbury in Essex
Speaker 1: in preparation for an expected invasion by the Spanish Armada,
Speaker 1: and it was here that Queen Elizabeth the First delivered
Speaker 1: the inspirational and famous speech known as the Speech to
Speaker 1: the troops at Tilbury, and we quote from it probably
Speaker 1: her most famous line. I know I have the body
Speaker 1: of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the
Speaker 1: heart and stomach of a king, and of a King
Speaker 1: of England too, she proclaimed. It has said that the
Speaker 1: troops shouted Glorianna in response. Which means glory. Not too
Speaker 1: far later, in fifteen ninety, the poet Edmund Spencer made
Speaker 1: Glorianna the heroine of his poem The Fairy Queen. Under
Speaker 1: Elizabeth's reign, the arts really flourished. William Shakespeare's comedy Loves
Speaker 1: Labour's Lost was performed at the Royal Court on Christmas
Speaker 1: in Paintings to demonstrate devotion to the queen were commissioned. Actually,
Speaker 1: many paintings were commissioned, and many of those long galleries
Speaker 1: in Alisa Bethan country homes acted as a gallery just
Speaker 1: for her portraits. We're going to take a quick break
Speaker 1: here for a word from a sponsor, and when we're
Speaker 1: back we will finally talk about a rumor and conspiracy
Speaker 1: and possible impostor related to Elizabeth. Welcome back to Criminalia.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the rumor that Queen Elizabeth the First
Speaker 1: was actually a man. Finally, let's get to the story
Speaker 1: for real real. We're gonna talk about look alike. So
Speaker 1: lookalikes or decoys are sometimes chosen because they have an
Speaker 1: uncanny resemblance to the person that they impersonate. This would
Speaker 1: be a sanctioned so in this case, this is someone
Speaker 1: who has to conceal their identity and be good at
Speaker 1: deception on behalf of the person that they have been
Speaker 1: asked to impersonate, and they learn how to speak and
Speaker 1: act like the person that they're pretending to be, including
Speaker 1: all of those small mannerisms that all of us have.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're used as a way of confusing an enemy
Speaker 1: about one's movements, but there are actually many types of decoys.
Speaker 1: Some decoys might be, say like a stunt man or
Speaker 1: a stand in for say Owen Wilson's but which, by
Speaker 1: the way, I read that he used this information that
Speaker 1: people need. I think so it's fact. Decoys are also
Speaker 1: popular among politicians. Joe are, Reader and Under Secretary for
Speaker 1: the U. S. Army from to nine, has gone on
Speaker 1: record that a number of political figures around the world
Speaker 1: have used decoys, including Fidel Castro, George W. Bush, and
Speaker 1: Osama Bin lauden Ellis Slack, for instance, spent thirty years
Speaker 1: being a stand in during rehearsals for televised royal engagements
Speaker 1: on behalf of Queen Elizabeth the Second. When it comes
Speaker 1: to say, a crazy tale of impostors, though this political
Speaker 1: decoy was it, this was a child and this was
Speaker 1: a boy, and there was a rumor turned myth during
Speaker 1: Elizabeth's reign that tempted many people to believe that their
Speaker 1: queen was actually a man. This particular tale begins with
Speaker 1: young Elizabeth, who was a princess at the moment that
Speaker 1: we're now discussing, staying in the village of Bisley. At
Speaker 1: this point, the bubonic plague was raging in London, and
Speaker 1: the idea was to move Elizabeth to a safer place,
Speaker 1: a place away from the city and that rampaging plague.
Speaker 1: But during her time in Bisley, Elizabeth did it was
Speaker 1: believed contract an illness. Perhaps it was plague, but maybe not,
Speaker 1: and the rumor was that she died at age ten
Speaker 1: from that illness. There's a strange yet interesting twist to
Speaker 1: this strange yet interesting story. Afraid of how Elizabeth's father,
Speaker 1: the King, would react, her governess, Lady kat Ashley, and
Speaker 1: her guardian, Sir Thomas Perry, decided to fix the problem
Speaker 1: by doing, of course, what anyone would do. They planned
Speaker 1: to swap a local child for the deceased princess, and
Speaker 1: no one they expected would ever notice their deception. I
Speaker 1: like how one of the greatest historical rumors ever known.
Speaker 1: Is very similar to parents swapping the girl fit, except
Speaker 1: obviously much a grander scale because it's someone's child, so
Speaker 1: it's preposterous. I didn't see anything in our research about
Speaker 1: what the parents thought about this, and I don't know
Speaker 1: what happened. However, the pair ran into a bit of
Speaker 1: snag about that decoy's appearance. Elizabeth we know had flame
Speaker 1: red hair. We talked about it earlier, and there were
Speaker 1: no girls in Busiley with red hair or a similar
Speaker 1: body type as Elizabeth. But there was one person who
Speaker 1: did fit her description, at least mostly. But that person
Speaker 1: was a boy named Neville. Aside, no from the fact
Speaker 1: that the child was a boy named Neville, there was
Speaker 1: another problem. Neville didn't have red hair. Lady Ashley and
Speaker 1: Sir Harry fixed that problem with, of course, a wig.
Speaker 1: They cleaned him up and dressed him in Elizabeth's clothing, and,
Speaker 1: as the rumor continues, amazingly their ruse worked. Not only
Speaker 1: it was said, did Neville fool Elizabeth's father, the king
Speaker 1: he fooled Neville was the one who also inherited the
Speaker 1: throne as Elizabeth. Men of the time, royal or not,
Speaker 1: had wondered if a woman in power was an actual
Speaker 1: problem or a bluff. Elizabeth was a princess then and
Speaker 1: not yet crowned, but in general, a woman in a
Speaker 1: position of authority just did not sit right with a
Speaker 1: lot of people in the country. But for most people,
Speaker 1: this deception was not really about politics. This decoy story
Speaker 1: explained a few things the public had always wondered about.
Speaker 1: Why didn't there Queen Marian have children, for instance, And
Speaker 1: to those myth believers, because she always wore a wig,
Speaker 1: she actually was never seen without one. Clearly that wig
Speaker 1: was used to turn Elizabeth's decoy into a redhead, and
Speaker 1: she expressly forbid that an autopsy be performed on her body.
Speaker 1: If you put all this to other the public, we're
Speaker 1: really taken in that the queen must be a man
Speaker 1: in disguise. Lady Ashley and Sir Perry were in on
Speaker 1: the whole thing, the legend goes. In reality, though Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: the real Elizabeth, retained a very close relationship with both
Speaker 1: throughout her life. Yes, some people have suggested that that
Speaker 1: was evidence that Neville had to keep them close because
Speaker 1: because they were keeping the secret. Right, they'll tell the
Speaker 1: real story, The tale of the impostor really got a
Speaker 1: lot of attention of more than just the gossiping men
Speaker 1: in London, and in a much more recent instance, so
Speaker 1: author Bram Stoker in nineteen ten wrote what he said
Speaker 1: was a nonfiction book called Famous Impostors, and his book
Speaker 1: included real pretenders, the some that we've talked about on
Speaker 1: the show, like Perkin, Warbeck and Princess, all of who
Speaker 1: we will be talking about this season. And also included
Speaker 1: in Stoker's book was the story of what's colloquially come
Speaker 1: to be known as the Busley Boy. Although it first
Speaker 1: appears in modern print in this book, it was probably
Speaker 1: a story that had been told three years earlier and
Speaker 1: had clearly persisted enough that Bram Stoker was able to
Speaker 1: find evidence for it to put into his work. But
Speaker 1: it's inclusion really ignited the power of this myth. Was
Speaker 1: this story a work of fiction or was it real?
Speaker 1: Stoker had enticed people into thinking it had to be real,
Speaker 1: because this was, after all a nonfiction book. And yes,
Speaker 1: this is the same Bram Stoker who wrote Dracula. He
Speaker 1: was known to we've real life details into his fiction.
Speaker 1: It was part of what made the Dracula story so
Speaker 1: popular in its time, and it captured the imagination of
Speaker 1: readers as something that might be real, like actually real. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He was very good at doing a lot of research
Speaker 1: and then subbing out subtle things, adding in some extra
Speaker 1: so people be like, I know that ship. I remember
Speaker 1: hearing about that hip. That was real. Well it was,
Speaker 1: but not in the way that it played out here,
Speaker 1: and it was I could talk a lot about bram
Speaker 1: Stoker Today, historians have discredited this Busley Boys story as
Speaker 1: a myth and confirmed that Elizabeth was never impersonated by
Speaker 1: anyone named Neville from Busley or otherwise when she died
Speaker 1: on March three. Elizabeth's death ended the tutor period. Throughout
Speaker 1: her reign, she had been known as the Virgin Queen,
Speaker 1: Good Queen Best Best, in case you did not know,
Speaker 1: is sometimes a nickname for Elizabeth, and Glorianna, a nickname
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier. But she spoke of herself as quote,
Speaker 1: a queen in a man's world without an heir. She
Speaker 1: chose James the sixth of Scotland, who was the son
Speaker 1: of Mary, Queen of Scots, not to be confused with
Speaker 1: Mary the First, who was Elizabeth's half sister, to inherit
Speaker 1: the throne and so James became the first king of
Speaker 1: the Stewart dynasty. As King James the First, the starting
Speaker 1: a whole other history chunk. If you think of it
Speaker 1: like an organizational job, there' sony different branches on this. Hey,
Speaker 1: we can talk about this for a week. And that's so.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth the First cocktail excuse me, mocktail and cocktail? What
Speaker 1: season are we in? Oh? It's time for cocktail. Um.
Speaker 1: So this one got me thinking a lot, because I
Speaker 1: do love me some history, and Elizabeth the First is
Speaker 1: very fascinating to me. I started thinking a lot about
Speaker 1: the term mask of youth, which is often used in
Speaker 1: relation to Elizabeth. It's used to describe Elizabeth's constant portrayal
Speaker 1: as young and very healthy and vibrant in art throughout
Speaker 1: her life. In idealized portrait rule was instituted, and it
Speaker 1: actually became illegal to depict the queen in any way
Speaker 1: that might give offense, including depicting her as aging. This
Speaker 1: has sometimes pointed to as proved that she was vain,
Speaker 1: but that could have been part of it. But really,
Speaker 1: and more importantly, it was about representing her and as
Speaker 1: a consequence, the country as young and strong. It was
Speaker 1: like about her as a leader and being like, no,
Speaker 1: I am I am a young single woman who is
Speaker 1: married only to my work, and that is protecting and
Speaker 1: caring for this country. And so it was really more
Speaker 1: of a form of portrait propaganda, even the famed rainbow portrait,
Speaker 1: which is my favorite portrait of her, in part because
Speaker 1: there's some bananas wonderful imagery on there. That's the one
Speaker 1: For anybody who doesn't recall it offhand, but you've probably
Speaker 1: seen it. She's holding a rainbow, which is why it's
Speaker 1: called that. But moreover, her gown is this amber color
Speaker 1: and it just eyeballs and ears detroitered all over it.
Speaker 1: It's really beautiful. I love it. But that portrait was
Speaker 1: painted just a few years before she died at age
Speaker 1: sixty nine. But she looks very young and vibranty in
Speaker 1: that painting. For sure, I was reading during research she
Speaker 1: was very good at public relations and propaganda. So this
Speaker 1: all makes sense. Yeah, that's another one of the things
Speaker 1: that people have sometimes held up as proof of this myth.
Speaker 1: This me like, oh, she was so careful about managing
Speaker 1: her image because she didn't want people to realize like
Speaker 1: she had a more masculine jawline or whatever, and it
Speaker 1: said she was there's a whole other thing going on here, people.
Speaker 1: She literally just wants everyone to thinks she's strong. Forever
Speaker 1: thinking about all of this and this mask of youth
Speaker 1: and the fact that we mentioned earlier in the show
Speaker 1: about the portraits of her, really we've learned had more
Speaker 1: of a blush to them. I wanted to come up
Speaker 1: with a blushy looking drink that's called the Mask of Youth.
Speaker 1: This also I wanted to give a little nod to
Speaker 1: libations of the time. So it actually starts with honey,
Speaker 1: which is often mixed into wines and whatnot as a
Speaker 1: starter for meat. And so it starts with a table
Speaker 1: spoon of honey, and then to that you're going to
Speaker 1: add a half ounce of lemon juice. And you want
Speaker 1: to mix this together pretty carefully because honey is a
Speaker 1: little bit tricky to dissolve, so just stir it for
Speaker 1: a bit so let the lemon juice break it down
Speaker 1: a little bit. At this point, you don't want to
Speaker 1: put any ice in the mix at all, because that
Speaker 1: will slow that breakdown of sugar, make it more like
Speaker 1: a slow molasses have become very frustrating we know what.
Speaker 1: So once you have the honey and lemon juice mixed together,
Speaker 1: you're gonna add an ounce of Marishi no cherry juice.
Speaker 1: You know I love the marsh no cherry, right, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna keep stirring that together again. I I don't
Speaker 1: incorporate ice at all at any of this until they
Speaker 1: pour over because of that honey in there. Then you
Speaker 1: will pour that into your glass, which is good to
Speaker 1: have pretty chilled. You can even have a bit of
Speaker 1: ice in there, and then you're going to top it
Speaker 1: with ginger ale and garnish it with a Maraschino cherry
Speaker 1: if you wish. But it's this very peachy pink color.
Speaker 1: The blush on a very pale cheek would be like Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: It is very refreshing and delicious. I like to put
Speaker 1: it in kind of a round or a squared off
Speaker 1: version of a Nick and Nora glass, which people sometimes
Speaker 1: mistake for like a mini wine glass, but really it's
Speaker 1: an alternative to a Martini glass, and it looks a
Speaker 1: little like a goblet, so that's another nod to the
Speaker 1: time period. So delicious. I made three of them while
Speaker 1: I was getting ready to record, because they're so yummy.
Speaker 1: If you want to do an alcoholic version, this is
Speaker 1: also very yummy. You're not going to use that Maraschino
Speaker 1: cherry juice. You're gonna use cherry liqueur instead, and then
Speaker 1: you're gonna add a half ounce of vodka. And if
Speaker 1: you want to do a vanilla or a whipped vodka
Speaker 1: there it's very yummy. It tastes like whipped cream or
Speaker 1: like marshmallowy. I love a little whipped vodka. This version.
Speaker 1: Because the cherry liqueur usually is a little bit more
Speaker 1: towards a brown color than that bright red of a Maraschino,
Speaker 1: You're going to get more of an amber color, which
Speaker 1: to me seemed appropriate because it mirrors the color of
Speaker 1: the rainbow portrait gown when she was very adult, whether
Speaker 1: she was admitting it or not, so that is called
Speaker 1: the mask of youth. That is also not obviously quite
Speaker 1: as sweet. Even if you use a sweet vodka, it's
Speaker 1: not Maraschino cherry juice. It's just not quite as sugarcoated.
Speaker 1: Even with the honey and bumb both very yummy. I
Speaker 1: hope people try them and enjoy them, because I sure did.
Speaker 1: I sure will. The tail version is very much like
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that would be a great punch
Speaker 1: for a party. The bubbles make it super fun, and
Speaker 1: the color is really pretty. It's just a nice, bright,
Speaker 1: soft flavor. I also used a sugar free ginger ale
Speaker 1: in mind, which made it not heavy at all, which
Speaker 1: was very nice. Anyway, it's like a mock up of Champagne.
Speaker 1: I feel like that that is the mask of youth.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go make another after we finished. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for spending time with us today. We will
Speaker 1: be right back here next week, and we hope you
Speaker 1: join us for another imposter and more libations. Criminalia is
Speaker 1: a production of Shonda land Audio in partnership with I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.