In the 1998 film "Elizabeth" with Cate Blanchett?

Question

Could some one tell me about that scene in the movie, where her lady in waiting tries on a dress meant for the Queen that was a gift, and later dies in it because of some poison or substance in the material?

What kind of poison could someone had put in the fabric of that dress that would cause someone to die?

I have seen this movie several times and could never get a satisfactory answer from any of my other friends who enjoyed the movie.

Answer 1

An anthrax powder, or a Murcury powder perhaps, or maybe Arsnic.

Elizabeth is my most favorite movie of all time! I always wondered that myself and pretty much concluded it to be Murcury.

Answer 2

  It would be a contact poison that is absorbed through the skin and at the vintage of Elizabeth, it would be natural but perhaps refined

http://www.rudimentsofwisdom.com/pages/n...

  if you look at the MSDS for various things on the page you might get a clue.  I note that strychnine and arsenic are not contact poisons, but very dangerous if inhaled, so it applied like talcum powder might puff in the face and poison the wearer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison#Biol...

Answer 3

I've never read anything factual about this happening at the court of Elizabeth 1, but it certainly did happen more than once at the French court, led by a de Medici queen, and in various Italian places too - the Italians were recognised as World Champion poisoners.

Not so much a dress tried on, but gloves - because they were skin tight, excluding air, they could be soaked in some form of organic poison - almonds? - and presented as a sweet smelling gift, so the recipient would take a sniff every so often, and so draw poison into her lungs.

Far fetched, but then the movie also shows Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush)murdering one of his informers, and based on what I have read about him he was physically incapable of such a violent act - though he may have done the poison bit perhaps.