Elizabeth I’s Iconic White Makeup: The Underlying Dark Truth

Maintaining Her Beauty And Keeping Up With The Trend

And that particular appearance seems to be influenced by the Renaissance, which was gaining popularity in England during the time Elizabeth was on the queen. As a promoter of the arts and literature, the queen had a significant influence on its development. She was also impacted by the beauty norms of the day, and from what we know, she tried to duplicate them at any cost throughout her life.

Maintaining Her Beauty And Keeping Up With The Trend

The Ideal Beauty

During the Renaissance, a pale appearance, light hair, scarlet lips, and glittering eyes were all thought beautiful. This was a difficult ideal to achieve in a time when sicknesses and diseases were common and could rapidly disfigure a woman. So, how did Elizabeth and her contemporaries maintain such immaculate looks?

The Ideal Beauty

Queen At 25

And because Elizabeth was just 25 once she became Queen of England, she was able to establish her image at an early age. Her half-sister Mary had succeeded to the throne as the government’s first female ruler six years before. By the time the throne was passed down, little had changed in the male-dominated court.

Queen At 25

She Was A Woman Of Substance

At the period, English society was extremely patriarchal, and women were still seen as the property of their husbands. If an unmarried lady like Elizabeth was to succeed, she had to be absolutely exceptional. Fortunately, she was a hottie in her youth, and she is said to have taken use of her feminine charms at court.

She Was A Woman Of Substance

Getting A Lot Of Attention

Of course, this attracted suitors. After her coronation, Elizabeth was courted by some of Europe’s most influential men. Despite the fact that she teased her subjects about the potential of such a relationship, she never went through with it. Instead, she surrounded herself with attractive men, a practice that sparked numerous tales about the so-called Virgin Queen.

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 hinged on her ability to maintain pleasing physical features. She went to a great extent in her final years to persuade the country of her beauty.

Perfect Appearance

Her White Skin

Elizabeth’s extremely white skin was probably the most famous aspect of her carefully groomed appearance. At the time, such a characteristic was highly prized, as it was thought to represent girlhood and fertility. According to some, the appeal was fueled in part by the use of pale skin as a mark of class and status, as a tanned face was associated with a life of physical labor.

Her White Skin

Venetian Ceruse

As a result, Elizabeth worked hard to keep her skin gleaming white. She utilized a mixture known as Venetian ceruse to do this. This hazardous concoction was made by mixing lead with white vinegar and was extremely toxic when worn over long periods of time.

Venetian Ceruse

People Didn’t Know Much About Lead Poisoning

Many ladies at the time would leave a combination like this on their faces for days before washing it off. Even Elizabeth herself was covered in a layer of makeup that was an inch thick when she passed. While we now have a better understanding of the consequences of lead poisoning, most individuals in the 16th century did not.

People Didn’t Know Much About Lead Poisoning

It Ruins Your True Beauty In The End

Venetian ceruse, as if dying for elegance wasn’t awful enough, actually made you less appealing in the long run. The chemical not only covered the skin in the poisonous lead but also lined and darkened the wearer’s complexion. To top it off, Elizabeth is likely to have employed the same approach as many other ladies of her period to remove the combination. That involved a mercury-containing mixture, which was alarming.

It Ruins Your True Beauty In The End

Using Different Toxic Substances

Of course, mercury is toxic, so using it as cleaning would have further harmed the skin. It’s unclear whether Elizabeth herself used it, although there were plenty of other strange beauty rituals popular throughout her reign. Some women, for example, used toxic compounds like turpentine, mercury, and sulfur to remove freckles and other perceived flaws.

Using Different Toxic Substances

Black Kohl

However, we do know that Elizabeth had at least one other dangerous cosmetic in her collection. According to reports, she lined her eyelids with black kohl to create a dramatic effect. This is a tradition that persists to this day, despite the fact that many people are concerned about its safety.

Black Kohl

The Deadly Nightshade

Because kohl was manufactured from powdered antimony in Elizabeth’s day, a chemical known to cause hazardous side effects. Women also used drops produced from a poisonous substance called deadly nightshade to enlarge their eyes to complete the image. This was said to have the intended effect of glimmering the eyes.

The Deadly Nightshade

Animal Products On Her Face

Elizabeth also wore her brows in arched lines and painted her lips a brilliant crimson, as was fashionable at the time. Experts say the scarlet color was achieved with a combination of plant dye and beeswax, and the queen’s cheeks were occasionally rouged with animal products.

Animal Products On Her Face

Dark Teeth Was Part Of The Trend

Even as she grew older, there were some parts of Elizabeth’s appearance that she fought to conceal with smart makeup. For one thing, her fondness for sugary treats caused her to develop black, rotting teeth later in life. However, this did not deter the English, quite the contrary. Dark teeth became an odd fashion trend due to the queen’s popularity among her subjects.

Dark Teeth Was Part Of The Trend

She Had A Smallpox

There’s another unsettling mystery lurking behind Elizabeth’s beauty routine. The queen was detected with smallpox at the age of 29, a feared disease that killed nearly a third of those sick at the time. According to archives, Elizabeth had a severe fever in October 1562 while staying at London’s Hampton Court Palace.

She Had A Smallpox

She Was In Denial

The diagnosis was then verified by prominent physician Dr. Burcot, who confirmed that Elizabeth had smallpox. The queen, on the other hand, first refused to accept this. Instead of dealing with the truth, she apparently opted to dismiss Burcot as incompetent.

She Was In Denial

People Were Frightened

Elizabeth’s reaction was understandable, given the fear of smallpox in English society. The infectious sickness had eclipsed the plague as the most dreaded epidemic in Europe at the time. Despite the fact that smallpox wouldn’t reach its height for hundreds of years, the king had every cause to be frightened.

People Were Frightened

Breaking Out

Fever and aches were used to classify the early stages of smallpox, according to doctors. Then came the most horrifying stage, which was certainly the most concerning for a queen who was so obsessed with her appearance. Patients might break out in disfiguring lesions once the illness had developed.

Breaking Out

Deadly Disease And Will Leave Lifetime Scars

Those who survived smallpox would be scarred for the rest of their lives by the sores. In Elizabethan times, there was likewise no recognized treatment or cure. Smallpox remained a deadly disease until the 1960s when it was estimated that 12 million individuals contracted the disease each year.

Deadly Disease And Will Leave Lifetime Scars

Accepting The Truth

Despite the fact that her condition was deteriorating, Elizabeth maintained to insist it was not smallpox. Burcot was ultimately summoned to her bedside for a second trip. And it appears that the queen grudgingly accepted the diagnosis this time. She, too, seemed to have acted 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?” For a time, it appeared as if the ill monarch might discover the truth for herself. Her health deteriorated over several days, and she eventually became unable to talk.

Her Condition Worsened

The Worst Thing That’ll Happen

The situation was gloomy for Elizabeth’s dedicated courtiers. Tragically, it seemed that their adored queen would pass away. Worse still, there was nothing in the way of medical assistance. Physicians at the time knew that smallpox was caused by a deficiency of humors in the body – a concept that has since been debunked.

The Worst Thing That’ll Happen

The Four Humors Theory

The Four Humors theory, which was influenced by ancient Greek philosophers, held favor in 16th-century England, positing that the human body is made up of yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm. This concept also offered a ray of hope to doctors who were helpless in the face of smallpox’s ravages.

The Four Humors Theory

Wrapped Up With A Red Cloth

Yes, in order to treat the viral condition, doctors endeavored to correct any obvious humor abnormality. In Elizabeth’s situation, this meant wrapping herself in a red cloth in the hopes of curing her scarlet lesions. By the same time, Lady Mary Sidney, the monarch’s dedicated attendant, appeared to execute a daily ritual at the royal bedside, ready to hand over a supply of water and tea.

Wrapped Up With A Red Cloth

Her Condition Improved

Meanwhile, Elizabeth’s ministers began making succession arrangements behind the scenes. Because the queen had no heirs, her Protestant allies were concerned that the throne of England might fall to Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic. But there was a bit of good fortune for these devout Christians. Fortunately for them, Elizabeth began to improve before another choice could be suggested.

Her Condition Improved

She Regained Her Strength

The queen eventually recovered her health, however, smallpox nearly killed her and left her traumatized for life. Lady Sidney had an even worse time. She got the disease as a result of her long vigil by the queen’s bedside and was claimed to have become deformed as a result.

She Regained Her Strength

Lady Sidney

Lady Sidney was said to have been so badly affected by smallpox that her own husband was appalled by her appearance.  “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

Smallpox was a disaster for Elizabeth as well, especially in terms of keeping power. She had depended on her attractiveness to exert influence in a society controlled by males until she became unwell. And how could she maintain the image she had worked so hard to build over the years with those permanent scars?

Flawless No More

Excessive Use Of Venetian Ceruse

Elizabeth, on the other hand, began religiously hiding her face in Venetian ceruse to conceal her flaws. She was almost never seen without it. Even several decades later, the blindingly white makeup is still used in practically every representation of the Virgin Queen on stage and in cinema.

Excessive Use Of Venetian Ceruse

Mask Of Youth

Only the women in Elizabeth’s personal circle were ever allowed to see beneath the cosmetics at court. The queen’s true face grew increasingly horrifying as the deadly lead concoction ate away at her skin. But those in the know stayed quiet, and thanks to her aptly called “mask of youth,” Elizabeth’s image as a beauty remained mostly unblemished.

Mask Of Youth

They Saw Her Bared Face

Elizabeth’s meticulously manicured look, on the other hand, faltered on at least one time. Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex and a former favorite of the queen, barged into the royal bedroom, fed up with being kept waiting. He saw the Queen there before she had finished applying her makeup.

They Saw Her Bared Face

Crooked Carcass

And Devereux was said to be so repulsed by Elizabeth’s genuine appearance that he made snide remarks about her to his acquaintances, calling her a “crooked carcass.” Some believe this episode was the catalyst for Devereux’s execution in 1601 – despite the fact that his conspiracy against the Queen seemed sufficient in and of itself.

Crooked Carcass

She Wants All The Attention

As she grew older, Elizabeth became ever more dependant on her white cosmetics to conceal her true features. She also required the other ladies to wear modest black and white gowns at court, while she wore gowns of the most bright colors, ensuring that all eyes were on her.

She Wants All The Attention

Queen Gloriana

Elizabeth, on the other hand, was doing something right. Gloriana, as she was known, was a very popular queen who was lauded for her victories against threats such as the Spanish Armada. She is still regarded as one of the greatest rulers to have ever sat on the English throne.

Queen Gloriana

Symptoms Were Showing

Unfortunately, Elizabeth’s bizarre beauty ritual may have contributed to her death at the age of 69. Her hair began falling out as she got older. Then there were the acute weariness, cognitive lapses, and intestinal troubles she was having. Those symptoms would be recognized by a modern doctor as evidence of lead poisoning.

Symptoms Were Showing

Death – Cause Of Vanity

So, did Elizabeth’s fixation with projecting a perfect image prove to be her undoing in the end? Because she refused to allow her body to be inspected before she died, we can’t say for sure what caused her death. This decision has sparked numerous stories throughout the years, including how the Queen was not a virgin or even a woman. It also implies that specialists are unable to establish what many believe: that the queen’s demise was caused by her vanity.

Death Cause Of Vanity

Her Stepmother

Naturally, we know a lot more about Elizabeth than that, including the ingredients of that iconic white make-up. But what about Anne of Cleves, her stepmother? Anne Tudor was Henry VIII’s fourth of six wives, as British history buffs will recall. Even after she and the king split ways, she enjoyed a magnificent life on her own.

Her Stepmother

She Lived To Tell The Tale

Anne of Cleves, unlike two of Henry VIII’s other wives, was able to break out from her marriage to the English monarch while keeping her head securely on her body. She lived to tell the tale, to be sure. Anne not only outlasted all of Henry VIII’s other wives, but she also lived the Tudor ruler himself. But what distinguished the German woman’s destiny from the rest? The following Anne facts may help you figure it out.

She Lived To Tell The Tale

They Were A Political Match

When it came to choosing partners, Tudor royalty wasn’t exactly looking for romance; instead, pairings were formed based on the political advantages that marriage could bring. The marriage of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves will be no exception. The princess was the daughter of a German nobleman named John III, and Thomas Cromwell saw her as an excellent wife for the king because of her ancestry.

They Were A Political Match

They Save Something In Common

Henry and Anne’s father, it turns out, had one vital trait: they both disliked the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. When it comes to the Protestant Reformation, John III, and Charles V had battled over land, while the monarch and Henry were practically on opposite sides of the spectrum. Given their shared opposition to the Spanish ruler, Henry’s chief minister reasoned that marrying the king to the duke’s daughter would be tactically advantageous.

They Save Something In Common

The Importance Of Portrait

We take images for granted nowadays; after all, even children can take a selfie or 10. However, there would be no such thing as a mobile phone during the Tudor period, and photography as a medium was still decades away. Art – notably, a portrait – was the only method to see what somebody looked like before meeting them in person.

The Importance Of Portrait

Genuine Portraits

As a result, Henry commissioned paintings depicting both Anne and her younger sister, Amalia, as he viewed the two women as prospective fourth wives. However, it appears that the king made a special request for artist Hans Holbein the Younger. Yes, Henry is claimed to have asked that the pictures be as lifelike as Holbein could make them, and that he didn’t want the Germans to be painted in a falsely positive light.

Genuine Portraits

There Was Something Wrong

Anne, as a German princess, was accustomed to wearing the clothes of her homeland. As a result, she wore gowns that were very different from those worn by her English counterparts, especially the sleeves, which were much tighter. However, as Henry’s courtiers would find, one garment in particularly would obstruct the king’s marital preparations.

There Was Something Wrong

It Was Hard To Portray Their Appearances

Anne and her sister, after all, were infamous for disguising their faces under black veils. And, clearly, this secrecy made it difficult for Henry’s men to give reliable information on the women’s appearances. Eventually, Holbein was able to deliver portraits to the king that purportedly depicted the ladies’ in their entirety.

It Was Hard To Portray Their Appearances

There Were A Lot Of Good Things About Her

The princess also seemed to come strongly recommended by her peers. 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

Henry, on the other hand, did not appear to be impressed with Anne. Yes, novelist and historian John Schofield claims that the king thought his future wife was “nothing so fair as she hath been reported.” Henry, on the other hand, thought her appearance was ordinary, and he quickly reprimanded anyone who said otherwise.

He Was Not Impressed

Huge Age Gap

Despite Henry’s apparent displeasure with Anne’s looks, the couple married on January 6, 1540. The 48-year-old king was double Anne’s age at the time, and so old enough to be her father. And, if historical accounts are to be accepted, Henry was not in his physical prime at the time.

Huge Age Gap

Getting Older

In fact, when he approached 50, Henry was claimed to have a waist measurement of 48 inches, which would only grow as he grew older and more sedentary. And his way of life appears to have brought him a slew of maladies as well; the monarch eventually developed constipation and was covered in sores. Overall, he may not have had much of a leg to stand on when it came to assessing Anne’s appearance.

Getting Older

Making The First Impression

It’s worth mentioning, though, that Anne didn’t immediately fall head over heals for the king when they first met. And Henry’s first attempt to captivate his soon-to-be bride-to-be sounded odd to boot. After Anne arrived at Rochester Abbey on New Year’s Day 1540, a few months before the wedding, they met for the first time. Then, as the princess was staring out the window at bullbaiting, Henry walked into the room to make his famously bad first impression.

Making The First Impression

It Was Not Something Good To Remember

In Tudor court, disguise and dress-up were common, and this is how Henry tried to impress Anne. Nonetheless, by all accounts, this attempt to win over the German woman was a failure. Sarah-Beth Watkins, in her book Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII’s Unwanted Wife, recounts Henry’s imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys as saying of the meeting, “Suddenly, [Henry] embraced and kissed [Anne]… and she being abashed and not knowing who it was thanked him.” Anne, on the other hand, “regarded [the king] little [and] always looked out the window.” during the pair’s ensuing chat.

It Was Not Something Good To Remember

The Wedding Ring

Each of Henry’s six brides was given a royal motto when they married him. For example, Jane Seymour’s motto was “Bound to Obey and Serve,” whereas Catherine Howard’s motto was “No Other Will But His.” Anne, of course, had a motto of her own, and these lines – “God Send Me Well to Keep” – were eventually engraved on her wedding ring.

The Wedding Ring

Ring Was Broken In Half

However, after the royal couple’s marriage was annulled, Anne returned the ring to Henry in order for it to be broken in half. It’s been speculated that she intended to emphasize their marriage’s irreversible demise and that separating her jewelry was a means to do it.

Ring Was Broken In Half

The Wedding Night

It’s perhaps unsurprising that Anne and Henry’s wedding night was a damp squib, given their apparent lack of enthusiasm for one another. Yes, despite the fact that the king attempted to seduce his new bride, he was turned off by Anne’s body and was unable to finish the task. There are even stories about Henry’s first impressions of his queen consort.

The Wedding Night

Was He Impotent?

Anne “[had] very nasty odours about her,” according to the monarch, who also wasn’t kind. Henry felt she was pampered because of “the looseness of her breasts.” However, there could have been another reason at play in the couple’s unsuccessful marriage attempt. Because of Henry’s age and weight, it’s presumed that he was impotent.

Was He Impotent?

There Was No Passion

Also after their wedding ceremony, it appears that there were no sparks between Henry and Anne. The new queen’s statements to her lady-in-waiting, the Countess of Rutland, in February 1540, at the very least, show that the pair’s relationship remained chaste.

There Was No Passion

What’s Written In The Book?

In her book Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride, Elizabeth Norton recalls Anne as saying about Henry, “When he comes to bed he kisseth me, and he taketh me by the hand and biddeth me ‘Good night, sweetheart.’” Lady Rutland, on the other hand, did not appear to be hesitant to teach the couple. She is believed to have responded, “Madam, there must be more than this, or it will be long ere we have a duke of York.”

What’s Written In The Book?

Marriage Was Annulled

Following this, Henry took efforts to have his marriage to Anne annulled, with the failure to consummate the relationship reportedly playing a major role in his decision. Anne was ordered to go to Richmond Palace just months after the couple married. The king was supposed to be horrified by Anne’s lack of beauty, as well as his belief that she wasn’t completely pure.

Marriage Was Annulled

Nocturnal Pollutions

To dispel reports of his impotence, Henry stated that he’d lately experienced two “nocturnal pollutions” in his sleep, which signified exactly what you’re thinking. This assertion seemed to satisfy as proof that everything was working well on his end. As a result, his and Anne’s marriage was canceled on July 9, 1540.

Nocturnal Pollutions

6 Months Marriage

Henry and Anne were married for only six months, making theirs the king’s shortest legal relationship. Henry was married to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, for a total of 24 years, despite his penchant for chopping – sometimes literally – and changing brides. Overall, Catherine and Henry were married for longer than all of Henry’s other marriages combined.

6 Months Marriage

She Survived

Anne, on the other hand, fared better than two of Henry’s previous wives, as the old rhyme goes: “divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.” Given the royal couple’s tumultuous relationship, this may come as a surprise. Not only did the German princess avoid the axe, but the king also thought it appropriate to bestow upon her a variety of parting presents, which we’ll discuss later.

She Survived

He Wanted Someone To Blame

It’s also worth noting that Henry was well-known – and feared – for his erratic fury outbursts. As he grew older, the Tower of London grew increasingly crowded with those whom the king had deemed deserving of imprisonment. It’s perhaps surprise, however, that he wanted to blame someone responsible for his marriage’s demise.

He Wanted Someone To Blame

Thomas Cromwell

Thomas Cromwell was the unfortunate recipient of Henry’s rage. Cromwell was reportedly removed from an important meeting on June 10, 1540, a day after the marriage was legally canceled, and transported straight to the Tower. He was then sentenced to death without being given a chance to defend himself. Henry’s former chief minister was finally decapitated in front of a throng in London at the end of July.

Thomas Cromwell

They Were In Good Terms

While Cromwell met a bloody end for his fateful decision to drive Anne against the king, the former queen consort seemed to bring out Henry’s generous side. Following the breakup of her marriage, she was given a palace on the Thames as well as a castle in East Sussex. After the annulment, Henry and Anne are reported to have formed an odd friendship.

They Were In Good Terms

King’s Beloved Sister

Yes, Henry seemed to hold the German in high respect, even if he and Anne were no longer man and wife. Anne received the moniker “the King’s Beloved Sister” as a result of her quiet acceptance of his decision to end their marriage. The former queen stayed at Henry’s court for a little longer.

King’s Beloved Sister

Her Stepdaughters Like Her

Anne not only became friends with Henry, but she also seemed to have a special connection with his children, Mary and Elizabeth in particular. Despite a rough start, Anne eventually became friends with Mary during her time with the king. Anne is alleged to have spent time with her ex-eldest husband’s daughter even after the annulment was confirmed.

Her Stepdaughters Like Her

Mary Taking Over The Throne

When Mary ascended to the throne in 1553, Anne was given the honor of being present during the coronation. The German woman rode in an elaborately decorated carriage with Princess Elizabeth for the occasion, and she also joined the celebratory supper on October 1 of the same year. Anne even included her stepdaughters in her testament, asking whether her maids may accompany them to their separate royal residences. She seemed to believe that the workers would be in good hands.

Mary Taking Over The Throneelizabeth i painting

Virgin Queen

One clue lay in the heavy, white makeup that the woman called the Virgin Queen applied constantly to her skin. As time progressed, this routine became increasingly more important in maintaining her beauty and power. The face that would come to define Elizabeth, however, hid at least one heinous fact.

Virgin Queen