You’re probably familiar with her appearance, even though she lived nearly 400 years ago. With her distinctive red locks, porcelain-like skin, and crimson lips, Elizabeth I is one of the most stunning monarchs in British history. It’s also a look that’s still iconic today, thanks to different media adaptations. Underneath this meticulously manufactured image, however, lurked a slew of terrible secrets. It’s even possible that the queen’s death had something to do with it.
Elizabeth I’s Iconic White Makeup: The Underlying Dark Truth
She Has To Be Beautiful No Matter What
In case you didn’t know, Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII’s much-maligned second queen Anne Boleyn. She was also on the verge of losing the crown, according to mythology. In a man’s world, however, Elizabeth was adamant about retaining her authority, which meant she had to maintain her beauty at all costs.
She Has To Be Beautiful No Matter What
Maintaining Her Beauty And Keeping Up With The Trend
The Renaissance, which was gaining prominence in England during Elizabeth’s reign, appears to have impacted that particular appearance. The queen had a great impact on the growth of the arts and literature as a booster. She was also influenced by the prevailing beauty standards of the time, and we know that she strove to imitate them at all costs throughout her life.
Maintaining Her Beauty And Keeping Up With The Trend
The Ideal Beauty
A pale complexion, light hair, scarlet lips, and sparkling eyes were all considered attractive throughout the Renaissance. In a time when illness and disease were frequent and could quickly disfigure a lady, this was a challenging goal to accomplish. So, how did Elizabeth and her contemporaries keep their appearances so impeccable?
The Ideal Beauty
Queen At 25
Elizabeth was able to build her image at a young age because she was just 25 when she became Queen of England. Six years before, her half-sister Mary had succeeded to the throne as the government’s first female ruler. Little had changed in the male-dominated court by the time the throne was passed down.
Queen At 25
She Was A Woman Of Substance
Women were still viewed as the property of their husbands at the time, and English society was strongly patriarchal at the time. Elizabeth had to be extraordinary if she wanted to prosper as an unmarried woman. Fortunately, she was a hottie in her youth, and her feminine charms are believed to have been used in court.
She Was A Woman Of Substance
Getting A Lot Of Attention
It’s no surprise that this attracted suitors. Elizabeth was courted by some of Europe’s most powerful men after her coronation. Her subjects were teased by her about the possibility of such a connection, but she never pursued it. The so-called Virgin Queen, on the other hand, surrounded herself with gorgeous men, an act that has spawned a slew of legends about her.
Getting A Lot Of Attention
Perfect Appearance
Throughout it all, Elizabeth kept her appearance spotless. “Elizabeth’s contemporaries believed that beauty amplified female power, and so they regarded the queen’s splendor as confirmation of her claim to the throne,” British historian Dr. Anna Whitelock told the BBC in 2015. The queen’s success was determined by her ability to keep a charming appearance. In her later years, she went to considerable lengths to persuade the country of her attractiveness.
Perfect Appearance
Her White Skin
The most well-known part of Elizabeth’s well-groomed appearance was perhaps her very white complexion. Such a trait was highly desired at the time, as it was supposed to indicate girlhood and fertility. The use of pale skin as a mark of class and position, as a tanned face was connected with a life of hard labor, according to some, fueled the attractiveness in part by the use of pale skin as a mark of class and rank.
Her White Skin
Venetian Ceruse
As a result, Elizabeth put in a lot of effort to keep her skin as white as possible. To do this, she used a concoction known as Venetian ceruse. When worn for long lengths of time, this dangerous combination was prepared by combining lead with white vinegar.
Venetian Ceruse
People Didn’t Know Much About Lead Poisoning
At the time, many women would keep a product like this on their skin for days before washing it off. When Elizabeth passed away, she was covered in an inch-thick layer of cosmetics. Despite the fact that we now have a greater grasp of the effects of lead poisoning, most people in the 16th century were unaware of the dangers.
People Didn’t Know Much About Lead Poisoning
It Ruins Your True Beauty In The End
As if dying for opulence wasn’t bad enough, Venetian ceruse also made you less attractive in the long run. The chemical not only encased the wearer’s skin in the toxic lead but also darkened and lined her skin. To top it off, Elizabeth is likely to have used the same procedure to remove the combo as many other ladies of her time. As a result, there was a mercury-containing combination, which was a red flag.
It Ruins Your True Beauty In The End
Using Different Toxic Substances
Because mercury is hazardous, utilizing it as a cleaning agent would have injured the skin much more. It’s not clear whether Elizabeth herself utilized it, but there was a slew of other bizarre beauty routines that were common throughout her reign. To erase freckles and other perceived imperfections, some women, for example, employed hazardous substances like turpentine, mercury, and sulfur.
Using Different Toxic Substances
Black Kohl
We do know, however, that Elizabeth had at least one additional potentially harmful cosmetic in her possession. To produce a dramatic look, she is said to have lined her eyes with black kohl. Despite the fact that many people are concerned about its safety, this is a custom that continues to this day.
Black Kohl
The Deadly Nightshade
Because in Elizabeth’s day, kohl was made from powdered antimony, a substance that was known to have dangerous adverse effects. To complete the look, women used drops made from a poisonous plant known as deadly nightshade to enlarge their eyes. Supposedly, this had the desired effect of sparkling the eyes.
The Deadly Nightshade
Animal Products On Her Face
As was customary at the time, Elizabeth also wore her brows in arched lines and painted her lips a vivid crimson. The queen’s cheeks were occasionally rouged with animal products, and the scarlet color was obtained with a combination of plant dye and beeswax, according to experts.
Animal Products On Her Face
Dark Teeth Was Part Of The Trend
Even as she became older, there were some aspects of her appearance that she struggled to hide with clever makeup. For one thing, she had black, rotting teeth later in life as a result of her love of sugary delicacies. The English, on the other hand, was not deterred by this. Because of the queen’s popularity among her subjects, dark teeth became a strange fashion trend.
Dark Teeth Was Part Of The Trend
She Had A Smallpox
Elizabeth’s beauty routine conceals another unpleasant mystery. At the age of 29, the queen was diagnosed with smallpox, a feared disease that killed about a third of those infected at the time. In October 1562, while visiting at London’s Hampton Court Palace, Elizabeth experienced a serious fever, according to archives.
She Had A Smallpox
She Was In Denial
Dr. Burcot, a well-known doctor, validated Elizabeth’s diagnosis and confirmed that she had smallpox. On the other side, the queen was initially adamantly opposed to this. Rather than confronting the facts, she appears to have dismissed Burcot as inept.
She Was In Denial
People Were Frightened
Given the fear of smallpox in English society, Elizabeth’s reaction was logical. At the time, the most feared epidemic in Europe was the infectious disease, which had overtaken the plague. The king had every reason to be concerned, despite the fact that smallpox would not reach its peak for hundreds of years.
People Were Frightened
Breaking Out
According to experts, the early stages of smallpox were classified based on fever and pains. Afterward, there was the most terrifying stage, which was undoubtedly the most frightening for a queen who was so concerned about her appearance. Once the sickness had progressed, patients may get disfiguring lesions.
Breaking Out
Deadly Disease And Will Leave Lifetime Scars
The sores would leave scars on those who survived smallpox for the rest of their lives. There was also no known medication or cure in Elizabethan times. Till the 1960s, when it was believed that 12 million people caught the disease each year, smallpox remained a terrible disease that killed millions of people.
Deadly Disease And Will Leave Lifetime Scars
Accepting The Truth
Queen Elizabeth continued to deny that she had smallpox, even though her health was worsening. In the end, Burcot was summoned to her bedside for a second visit. This time, it seemed that the queen reluctantly accepted the diagnosis. In a similar way, she appeared to be acting in a dramatic manner.
Accepting The Truth
Her Condition Worsened
Elizabeth is said to have shouted out, “God’s pestilence.” “Which is better? To have the pox in the hand or in the face or in the heart and kill the whole body?” There was a glimmer of hope that the ailing monarch would be able to find out the truth for herself for a while. Over the course of several days, her health deteriorated to the point where she was unable to talk.
Her Condition Worsened
The Worst Thing That’ll Happen
For Elizabeth’s loyal courtiers, the situation was bleak. Unfortunately, it appeared that their adored queen would die. Worse, there was no means to get help if you needed it. Smallpox was thought to be caused by a lack of humor in the body at the time, but that theory has since been disproven.
The Worst Thing That’ll Happen
The Four Humors Theory
In 16th-century England, the Four Humors theory, which was influenced by ancient Greek thinkers, posited that the human body is made up of yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm, was popular. Doctors who felt helpless in the face of smallpox’s devastation were also encouraged by this thought.
The Four Humors Theory
Wrapped Up With A Red Cloth
Yes, doctors tried to treat any evident abnormalities in the humor in order to treat the viral infection. Using a crimson cloth to wrap around Elizabeth’s scarlet lesions in the hopes of treating them was a good idea in Elizabeth’s case. By this time, Lady Mary Sidney, the monarch’s faithful attendant, appeared at the royal bedside, ready to pass over a supply of water and tea to the monarch.
Wrapped Up With A Red Cloth
Her Condition Improved
Behind the scenes, Elizabeth’s ministers began preparing plans for her successor. Because the queen had no heirs, her Protestant friends were worried that Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic, would take England’s throne. These devoted Christians did, however, have a measure of good fortune. Fortunately for them, before any option could be presented, Elizabeth began to improve.
Her Condition Improved
She Regained Her Strength
Smallpox nearly killed the queen and left her traumatized for the rest of her life, but she eventually recovered. Lady Sidney had a far worse experience than I did. She was said to have gotten deformed as a result of her protracted vigil by the queen’s bedside as result of the disease.
She Regained Her Strength
Lady Sidney
Lady Sidney’s appearance was believed to have been so adversely altered by smallpox that her own husband was shocked. “I left her a full fair lady in mine eye at least the fairest, and when I returned I found her as fowl a lady as the smallpox could make her,” Henry Sidney wrote in his memoirs of his wife.
Lady Sidney
Flawless No More
Elizabeth was also a catastrophe when it came to retaining power due to smallpox. Until she became ill, she had relied on her attractiveness to exercise power in a culture dominated by men. With those permanent scars, how could she maintain the image she had fought so hard to develop over the years?
Flawless No More
Excessive Use Of Venetian Ceruse
To hide her imperfections, Elizabeth, on the other hand, began religiously covering her face in Venetian ceruse. It was almost impossible to see her without it. Even after all these years, the Virgin Queen’s dazzling white makeup is still employed in almost every theatrical and film portrayal of her.
Excessive Use Of Venetian Ceruse
Mask Of Youth
At court, only the women in Elizabeth’s personal circle were allowed to see what was underneath the makeup. As the lethal lead concoction ate away at the queen’s skin, her true visage became more terrifying. They kept quiet, and Elizabeth’s beauty image was mostly unaffected thanks to her “mask of youth,” which she affectionately referred to as.
Mask Of Youth
They Saw Her Bared Face
On the other hand, at least once, Elizabeth’s immaculately manicured appearance slipped. Because he was tired of being kept waiting, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex and a previous favorite of the queen, barged into the royal bedroom. Before she had done putting her makeup on, he noticed the Queen there.
They Saw Her Bared Face
Crooked Carcass
Some believe this was the catalyst for Devereux’s execution in 1601 despite the fact that his conspiracy against the Queen seemed sufficient in and of itself. Devereux was said to have been so disgusted by Elizabeth’s genuine appearance that he made disparaging remarks about her to his acquaintances, calling her a “crooked carcass.”
Crooked Carcass
She Wants All The Attention
Elizabeth got increasingly reliant on her white cosmetics to hide her flaws as she grew older. At court, she also commanded the other ladies to wear modest black and white gowns, while she wore the most vibrant colors, ensuring that everyone’s attention was on her.
She Wants All The Attention
Queen Gloriana
On the other hand, Elizabeth was doing something right. Gloriana, as she was known, was a well-liked queen who was praised for her successes over enemies such as the Spanish Armada, which she defeated. She is still recognized as one of the greatest English monarchs to have ever reigned.
Queen Gloriana
Symptoms Were Showing
Elizabeth’s unusual beauty practice played a role in her death at the age of 69. As she grew older, her hair began to fall out. Then there was her chronic fatigue, lapses in memory, and gastrointestinal issues. A modern doctor would recognize those symptoms as indications of lead poisoning.
Symptoms Were Showing
Death – Cause Of Vanity
So, in the end, did Elizabeth’s obsession with creating a flawless image prove to be her undoing? We can’t say for sure what caused her death because she refused to allow her body to be examined before she died. Many legends have been told about the Queen throughout the years, including that she was not a virgin or even a woman. It also means that experts are unable to prove what many people believe: that the queen’s death was caused by her ego.
Death Cause Of Vanity
Her Stepmother
In addition to the chemicals in that iconic white make-up, we already know a lot more about Elizabeth. But what about her stepmother, Anne of Cleves? As British history lovers will recall, Anne Tudor was Henry VIII’s fourth of six wives. She had a splendid life on her own after she and the monarch parted ways.
Her Stepmother
She Lived To Tell The Tale
Unlike two of Henry VIII’s previous wives, Anne of Cleves was able to divorce the English monarch by maintaining her head on her shoulders. To be sure, she lived to tell the tale. Henry VIII’s other wives outlived Anne, but she also outlived the Tudor king himself. But what set the German woman’s fate apart from the rest? You might be able to figure it out using the following Anne facts.
She Lived To Tell The Tale
They Were A Political Match
Rather than seeking romance when it came to choosing companions, Tudor monarchs paired up solely on the political benefits that marriage could provide. Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves’ marriage will be no exception. Because of her ancestry, Thomas Cromwell saw the princess as an acceptable match for the king because she was the daughter of a German nobleman named John III.
They Were A Political Match
They Save Something In Common
They both detested Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, according to Henry and Anne’s father. In terms of the Protestant Reformation, John III and Charles V had fought over land, but Henry and the monarch were on opposite sides of the spectrum. Henry’s senior minister reasoned that marrying the king to the duke’s daughter would be tactically advantageous given their common animosity to the Spanish sovereign.
They Save Something In Common
The Importance Of Portrait
In today’s world, we take photographs for granted; after all, even youngsters can take one or ten selfies. During the Tudor time, however, there was no such thing as a mobile phone, and photography as a medium was still decades away. The only way to see what someone looked like before meeting them in person was through art, particularly a portrait.
The Importance Of Portrait
Genuine Portraits
Anne and her younger sister, Amalia, were commissioned paintings as a result of Henry’s desire to have them as potential fourth brides. But it appears that the monarch had a special request for Hans Holbein the Younger, the artist. Yes, it is said that Henry wanted the Germans to be represented in a falsely positive light and that he did not want them to be painted as lifelike as Holbein could make them.
Genuine Portraits
There Was Something Wrong
As a German princess, Anne was used to dressing in her native country’s attire. It meant that her dress was substantially different from those worn by her English equivalents, notably the sleeves, which were much tighter than those worn by her English contemporaries. However, as Henry’s courtiers would discover, one specific garment would hinder the king’s wedding preparations.
There Was Something Wrong
It Was Hard To Portray Their Appearances
After all, Anne and her sister were known for hiding their faces under black veils. And, as you can see, Henry’s men were unable to provide accurate information on the women’s appearances as a result of the secrecy. Holbein was eventually able to deliver portraits to the king that reportedly depicted the complete ladies’ lives.
It Was Hard To Portray Their Appearances
There Were A Lot Of Good Things About Her
The princess also appeared to be highly regarded by her contemporaries. At the very least, her “medium beauty and [her] assured and resolute countenance.” were praised by French diplomat Charles de Marillac. In a book published in 1548, historian Edward Hall wrote that Anne’s “French hood… set forth her beauty and good visage [and] that every creature rejoiced to behold her.”
There Were A Lot Of Good Things About Her
He Was Not Impressed
Unlike Anne, Henry, on the other hand, did not appear to be impressed. He assumed his future wife would be a “nothing so fair as she hath been reported,” according to historian and novelist John Schofield. She was ordinary to him, on the other hand, and he promptly rebuked anyone who said differently.
He Was Not Impressed
Huge Age Gap
The couple married on January 6, 1540, despite Henry’s evident dissatisfaction with Anne’s appearance. At the time, the 48-year-old king was twice Anne’s age, and so old enough to be her father. According to historical reports, Henry was not in his prime physical condition at the time.
Huge Age Gap