Lady Van Tassel (Sleepy Hollow)

Lady Van Tassel (Miranda Richardson) is the hidden primary antagonist of Tim Burton's 1999 film, "Sleepy Hollow". She is a murderous witch who summons the Headless Horseman, the ghost of a Hessian mercenary killed during the American War of Independence, to kill those whose estates she covets. (She kills a couple of people with her own hands, as well.)
As children, she and her sister were evicted from their homes and eventually forced to seek refuge in the woods. After both their parents died, they witnessed the execution of the Hessian, whereupon the future Lady Van Tassel sold her soul to Satan, becoming a witch. She secretly killed a nurse and married the nurse's husband, Baltus Van Tassel, and summoned the Hessian to kill Peter and Dirk Van Garrett, Emily Winship (who was pregnant and secretly married to Peter Van Garrett), Jonathan Masbath, Magistrate Samuel Philipse, and Beth Killian (a midwife with a loose tongue), as well as Beth's husband and son, and, last, Baltus Van Tassel, in the hopes of enriching herself. She kills with her own hands her sister crone, and, later, a maid (Sarah), whom she beheaded and dressed in her own clothes so it would appear that Lady Van Tassel was also a victim, as Baltus had mistakenly believed.
However, before she could have the Horseman kill her last surviving target -- her stepdaughter, Katrina Van Tassel, who would inherit her father's estate -- a visiting New York police constable named Ichabod Crane has unraveled most of the mystery/conspiracy and thwarts Lady Van Tassel by taking the Horseman's skull, throwing it to him, and thus allowing him to break Lady Van Tassel's curse. Free from her control, the Horseman pulls her into Hell to fulfill her end of her bargain with Satan.
==Trivia==
*Miranda Richardson appeared as the Witch in the 1988 episode "The Three Ravens" for the TV series "The Storyteller".
*Miranda Richardson appeared as Queen Elspeth in the 2001 fantasy adventure television film "Snow White: The Fairest of Them All".
* Miranda also played Mrs. Tweedy in the 2000 CGI DreamWorks film Chicken Run.
==Gallery==
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