Queen Elizabeth I

9 Pages 2261 Words

rred to her in 1597 as looking old, her face being long and thin, her teeth yellow and decayed, but her figure being fair, tall and graceful in whatever she does. In 1598, Paul Hentzner’s description of the Queen at Greenwich remains the most detailed existing description, “her face oblong, fair but wrinkled; her eyes small, yet black and pleasant; her nose a little hooked, her lips narrow….her hair….an auburn colour, but false….” (Strong, p. 19).

It was recorded in 1557 that above all the Princess Elizabeth had a beautiful hand, of which she greatly displayed. It was described how the English Queen would take off and on her gloves while entertaining guests. It was noted by a very observant man that, “she drew off her glove and showed me her hand, which is very long and more than mine by three broad fingers. It was formally very beautiful but is now very thin, although she is still most fair” (Strong, p.19). Her vanity seemed to have possibly accounted for some of her curious poses in her portraits, where she holds one hand before her breast clasping gloves or a symbolic jewel.

It was said that when anyone spoke of her beauty she would say that, “she was never beautiful, although she had that reputation thirty years ago” (Strong, p.19). She spoke of her beauty as often as she could. Queen Elizabeth had an extreme sensitivity over her personal appearance and her awareness and fear of its decay. In her portraits this was reflected in a policy of deliberate transformation to her look. This may not have reflected vanity as much as that she was just very aware that her looks were an important part of being a royal in relation to being Queen of England. As a result of this, sometime in 1594 a government decision was made that the official image of the Queen in her final years was to be of legendary beauty, ageless, and unfading. This vision contained an element of tr...