Legend of Queen Elizabeth's slipper

According to a legend, the soul of Queen Elizabeth I (Queen of the Tudor dynasty that ruled England from 1558 until her death in 1603) resides in Etna, due to a pact she made with the devil in exchange for his help. to ascend the throne of England.

According to popular tradition, Queen Elizabeth I had many lovers but never wanted to marry and for this reason she was called the Virgin Queen. When the queen died, Satan was at her bedside. As soon as she expired, the devil took her away. He flew over the stormy sea, crossed France and Italy, tired from the journey and the weight, to rest from the fatigue of the long flight, deposited the Queen's body on top of Rocca Calanna. Having resumed flight, a jewel-studded slipper fell from the Queen's foot, the footprint of which, it is said, remained imprinted on the rock.

Rocca di Calanna (Internet source)

A long time later, a shepherd boy, while he was grazing his sheep, saw his slipper glisten in the sun: admired he wanted to touch it, but what was not the surprise when he burned his hands! An exorcist friar was then called, thanks to which the slipper flew away, going to rest on a tower of the castle of Maniace, near Bronte. The slipper was talked about again; almost two centuries later, when in 1799 the castle of Maniace was donated by the Bourbons to the English admiral Orazio Nelson, during a dance party held in Palermo; because on that occasion a mysterious lady (the ghost of Queen Elizabeth) secretly gave Nelson a precious casket, inside which the fateful slipper was kept; and he advised him never to show it to anyone and to take very jealous care of it; but Nelson got it from his mistress, Emma Hamilton; and that same night the mysterious lady appeared to him in a dream, and said to him: “Wretch! You have lost your luck! ”. A few days later Nelson died in the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.

Nelson Castle

Places indicated in the IWB register of the Sicily Region (Places of Identity and Memory) - Sector "Places of the legends of ghosts"

• Rock of "Rocca Calanna" (Maletto, province of Catania)
• Abbey of S. Maria di Maniace today Nelson Castle (Bronte, province of Catania)

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