The Dark Truth Behind Elizabeth I’s Iconic White Makeup

Elizabeth, in case you didn’t already know, was the daughter of Henry VIII’s much-maligned second queen Anne Boleyn. And as history has it, she nearly missed out on the throne altogether. But when Elizabeth finally found power, she was determined to do everything possible to hold on to it. In a man’s world, that meant she needed to remain beautiful – whatever the cost.

And that distinctive look was seemingly inspired by the Renaissance – a movement that was gaining popularity in England when Elizabeth was on the throne. The queen actually played an important role in its development as a supporter of the arts and literature. She was also influenced by the beauty ideals associated with this era, and from what we know she strove to recreate these throughout her life – at any cost.

A pale complexion, light hair, scarlet lips and sparkling eyes were all considered highly desirable during the Renaissance. This was not an easy ideal to maintain, though, in a time when rampant illnesses and diseases could easily leave a woman disfigured. So, how did Elizabeth and her contemporaries create such flawless appearances?

Well, for the woman known as the Virgin Queen, one answer lay in the thick, white makeup that she painted religiously over her skin. This ritual became even more integral to retaining her beauty and power as she grew older. But the look that would come to define Elizabeth also concealed at least one brutal truth.

And Elizabeth was just 25 years old when she became Queen of England, meaning she fixed her image at a young age. Some six years previously, her half-sister Mary had taken the throne as the country’s first female monarch. Little had changed in the male-dominated court, though, by the time that the crown was passed on.

English society was intensely patriarchal at this time, and women were still considered the property of their husbands. An unmarried woman such as Elizabeth had to be truly special, then, if she wanted to succeed. Luckily, she was considered a beauty in her youth, and she is thought to have used her feminine charms to her advantage at court.

This brought suitors, of course. Yes, Elizabeth was wooed by some of the most powerful men in Europe after her coronation. Yet while she frequently teased her subjects with the possibility of such a liaison, she never committed to one. Instead, she filled her court with handsome men – a habit that launched many rumors about the so-called Virgin Queen.

Throughout this, Elizabeth meticulously maintained her looks. Speaking to the BBC in 2015, British historian Dr. Anna Whitelock explained, “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.” Maintaining an attractive physical appearance was therefore integral to the queen’s success. And in her later years, she went to great lengths to convince the country of her beauty.

Probably the most iconic part of Elizabeth’s carefully cultivated appearance was her striking pallor. At the time, this was regarded as highly desirable in England’s homogeneous population – believed to signify girlhood and fertility. According to some, the appeal was also in its symbolism of class and position, since a suntan would indicate a life of manual labor in the outdoors.

So, Elizabeth strove to maintain a dazzling white complexion. And in order to achieve this, she used a concoction known as Venetian ceruse. This mixture was created by combining lead with white vinegar and was exceedingly toxic – especially when worn for long periods.

Many women of the time would wear such a combination on their faces for days at a time before finally cleaning it off. When she died, even Elizabeth herself was wearing a layer of makeup that was, apparently, an inch thick. But while we’re more knowledgeable about the dangers of lead poisoning today, most people in the 16th century were unaware of the risk.

As if dying for beauty wasn’t bad enough, Venetian ceruse actually ended up making you less attractive in the long run. The substance not only coated the skin in toxic lead, but it also left the wearer’s complexion lined and discolored. And to top it off, it’s likely that Elizabeth used the same method to remove the mixture as many other women of her time. Alarmingly, that involved a concoction containing mercury.

Of course, mercury is also toxic, and so using it as a cleanser would have damaged the skin even further. It’s unknown whether or not Elizabeth herself applied it, although there were many other bizarre beauty practices common during her reign. For example, some women took to removing freckles and other perceived imperfections with harmful substances such as turpentine, mercury and sulfur.

What we do know, however, is that Elizabeth had at least one more toxic product in her cosmetic arsenal. Reportedly, she used black kohl to line her eyes in order to create a dramatic look. This is actually a practice that continues to this day – even if many have expressed concerns about its safety.

You see, in Elizabeth’s time, kohl was made from powdered antimony – a substance that has been known to cause harmful side effects. And to complete the look, women used drops made from a poisonous plant called deadly nightshade to widen their pupils. Supposedly, this had the desired effect of making the eyes glimmer.

Elizabeth also followed the fashion for plucking her eyebrows into arched lines and painting her lips a vibrant red. According to experts, this scarlet shade was created with a mixture of plant dye and beeswax, while the queen’s cheeks were sometimes rouged using animal products.

Still, there were some aspects of Elizabeth’s appearance that she struggled to hide with clever makeup as she grew older. For one, her love of sugary treats meant that she was plagued by black, decayed teeth in later life. But this didn’t put the English people off – quite the contrary. Since the queen was so beloved by her subjects, dark teeth apparently became an unlikely fashion trend.

There’s another disturbing secret behind Elizabeth’s beauty regime, too. At 29 years old, the queen was diagnosed with smallpox – a feared disease that may have killed almost a third of the people it infected at the time. According to records, in October 1562 Elizabeth experienced a high fever while in residence at London’s Hampton Court Palace.

Then eminent physician Dr. Burcot confirmed the diagnosis: sadly, Elizabeth did indeed have smallpox. But this was something that the queen refused to accept at first. In fact, she reportedly preferred to dismiss Burcot as incapable rather than deal with the truth.

Elizabeth’s reaction to the news was not surprising, as English society was terrified of smallpox. At the time, the infectious disease had surpassed the plague to become the most-feared contagion in Europe. And while smallpox wouldn’t actually reach its peak until hundreds of years later, the monarch had every right to be concerned.

According to experts, the early stages of smallpox were categorized by fever and pains. Then there was a terrifying next stage, which was probably the most worrying for a queen so concerned with beauty. Once the condition had progressed, it would cause patients to break out in disfiguring lesions.

Those who survived smallpox would then have the scars from the lesions for the rest of their lives. There was also no known treatment or cure in Elizabethan times. And smallpox remained a feared condition until as late as the 1960s, when approximately 12 million people were recorded as contracting the disease every year.

Yet Elizabeth continued to deny that she had smallpox even as her condition continued to deteriorate. Then, finally, Burcot was summoned to her bedside for a second visit. And this time, it seems that the queen reluctantly accepted the diagnosis. Apparently, she responded in a particularly dramatic fashion, too.

“God’s pestilence,” Elizabeth is reported to have cried. “Which is better? To have the pox in the hand or in the face or in the heart and kill the whole body?” And for a while, it seemed as though the ailing monarch would find out for herself. Over the course of several days, her health worsened, leaving her ultimately struggling to speak.

For Elizabeth’s devoted courtiers, the situation was bleak. Tragically, it appeared all too possible that their beloved queen would die. Worse still, there was little in the way of medical treatment available. At the time, physicians believed that smallpox was the result of imbalanced humors within the body – an idea that has, of course, long been discredited.

The Four Humors theory – which was inspired by ancient Greek scholars – posited that the human body is made up of yellow bile, black bile, blood and phlegm, and it held great sway in 16th-century England. This hypothesis also provided a slither of hope for the physicians helpless against the ravages of smallpox.

Yes, doctors attempted to redress any apparent humor imbalance in order to treat the infectious disease. In Elizabeth’s case, that meant being enveloped in a red cloth in the hope that this would take care of the scarlet lesions. At the same time, the monarch’s devoted servant Lady Mary Sidney apparently performed a constant ritual at the royal bedside, ready to hand with a supply of water and tea.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Elizabeth’s ministers began to make plans for the succession. And as the queen had no heirs, there were fears amongst her Protestant supporters that the throne of England would pass to the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots. But there was a stroke of luck for these ardent believers. Thankfully for them, Elizabeth started to get better before an alternative option could be proposed.

The queen eventually returned to full health, although she was left permanently scarred by the smallpox that nearly took her life. And Lady Sidney fared even worse. Owing to her lengthy vigil at the queen’s bedside, she also contracted the disease – and was said to have become disfigured as a result.

Lady Sidney was reportedly so ravaged by smallpox, in fact, that even her own husband was disgusted by her appearance. Of his spouse, Henry Sidney wrote in his memoirs, “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.”

The smallpox was a disaster for Elizabeth, too – certainly when it came to retaining power. Up until she had fallen ill, she had relied on her beauty as a way to wield influence in a society dominated by men. And with those permanent scars, how could she continue to project the image that she had so carefully cultivated over the years?

Well, Elizabeth apparently began religiously covering her face in Venetian ceruse in order to cover up her blemishes. In fact, she was rarely seen without it. And the blindingly white makeup is still an integral part of virtually every portrayal of the Virgin Queen on stage and screen – even several centuries later.

At court, only the women who were part of Elizabeth’s inner circle ever caught a glimpse beneath the makeup. All the while, the queen’s real face grew ever more horrific as the toxic lead concoction destroyed her skin. But those in the know remained silent, and Elizabeth’s reputation as a beauty remained largely unsullied thanks to her fittingly named “mask of youth.”

Elizabeth’s carefully crafted look slipped on at least one occasion, however. Tired of being kept waiting, Robert Devereux – the Earl of Essex and previously the queen’s favorite – barged into the royal chamber. There, he caught sight of the monarch before her makeup had been applied.

And Devereux was supposedly so disgusted by Elizabeth’s true appearance that he made jibes about her to his friends, cruelly referring to her “crooked carcass.” Some believe that this incident was the motivation behind Devereux’s 1601 execution – although his plot against the monarch seems reason enough in itself.

Elizabeth then became even more reliant on her white makeup to hide her true appearance as she grew older. At court, she also restricted the other ladies to dresses of simple black and white, while she would appear in gowns of the most vibrant hues – ensuring that all eyes were always on her.

Still, Elizabeth was doing something right. The hugely popular queen was dubbed Gloriana and celebrated for her successes against threats such as the Spanish Armada. Even today, she is remembered as one of the greatest rulers to ever take the English throne.

Unfortunately, though, Elizabeth’s outlandish beauty routine may also have caused her death at the age of 69. As she grew older, her hair began to fall out. Then there were the feelings of extreme tiredness, lapses in memory and digestive issues she experienced. Today, a modern doctor would recognize those symptoms as signs of lead poisoning.

So, did Elizabeth’s obsession with projecting a flawless image eventually prove her undoing? Well, before she passed away, she did not grant permission for her body to be examined, so we cannot be certain what caused her death. Over the years, this decision has fed many rumors, including the notion that the monarch was not actually a virgin or even a woman. And it also means that experts cannot prove what many suspect: that vanity ultimately led to the queen’s demise.

Naturally, we do know plenty of other things about Elizabeth – including, of course, the contents of that famous white make-up. But what of her stepmother Anne of Cleves? Anne, as British history buffs will immediately remember, was Henry VIII’s fourth spouse out of six. And she led a remarkable life all on her own – even after she and the king parted ways.

Unlike two of Henry VIII’s other wives, Anne of Cleves managed to extricate herself from her union with the English king with her head still firmly on her body. And she certainly lived to tell the tale. Indeed, Anne not only survived the Tudor monarch himself, but she also outlasted all of his other spouses. But what made the German woman’s fate so different from the rest? Well, the following facts about Anne may just clue you in.

Tudor royalty weren’t exactly set on finding romance when it came to selecting spouses; instead, matches were made based on the potential political benefits that marriage would bring. And Henry VIII’s union with Anne Of Cleves was no exception to this rule. The princess had come into the world as the daughter of a German nobleman named John III, and in the eyes of Thomas Cromwell this ancestry made her an ideal wife for the king.

It turned out, you see, that Henry and Anne’s father had one important thing in common: they both opposed the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. John III and Charles V had fought over land, while the emperor and Henry were practically at polar ends of the spectrum when it came to the Protestant Reformation. Given this joint resistance towards the Spanish ruler, then, Henry’s chief minister believed that it would be strategically advantageous to marry the king to the duke’s daughter.

Today, we pretty much take photos for granted; after all, even kids can snap a selfie or ten. In the Tudor period, though, there was definitely no such thing as a cell phone, and photography as a medium was still several centuries away. The only way to see what someone looked like before actually meeting them, then, was through art – more specifically in a portrait.

And Henry therefore commissioned paintings intended to depict both Anne and her little sister, Amalia, as he saw the two women as potential fourth wife material. Yet the king apparently had a particular order for artist Hans Holbein the Younger. Yes, it’s said that Henry demanded the portraits be as true to life as Holbein could manage, and he didn’t want the Germans portrayed in a falsely favorable light, either.

As a German princess, Anne was naturally often seen in the fashions of her home country. And as a result, she wore dresses that were distinctly different in style to those sported by her English counterparts, with the sleeves in particular being a snugger fit. But as Henry’s courtiers would discover, one garment in particular would end up hindering the king’s preparations for marriage.

You see, Anne and her sister both wore dark veils and were known for hiding their faces. And, obviously, this concealment may have made it rather tough for Henry’s men to give accurate reports on the women’s looks. Ultimately, though, Holbein managed to deliver portraits to the king that ostensibly depicted the siblings in full.

It seemed, too, that the princess came highly recommended by her contemporaries. At the very least, French diplomat Charles de Marillac saw fit to praise her “medium beauty and [her] assured and resolute countenance.” Historian Edward Hall was similarly effusive, writing in a tome published in 1548 that Anne’s “French hood... set forth her beauty and good visage [and] that every creature rejoiced to behold her.”

Yet Henry seemingly wasn’t that impressed with Anne. Yes, according to author and historian John Schofield, the king believed that his wife-to-be was “nothing so fair as she hath been reported.” By contrast, Henry thought that her looks were ordinary, and he soon took steps to scold those who had suggested otherwise.

Despite Henry’s seeming dismay at Anne’s appearance, however, the two married on January 6, 1540. At that time, the 48-year-old king was double Anne’s age and so old enough to be her father. And Henry was not exactly in his physical prime back then, either, if historical reports are to be believed.

In fact, it’s said that as Henry approached 50, he had a waist measurement of 48 inches – something that would only increase as he got older and in turn more sedentary. And his lifestyle apparently brought with it a whole host of ailments, too; the monarch eventually experienced prolonged bouts of constipation and became covered in sores. All in all, then, he really may not have had much of a leg to stand on when it came to judging Anne’s looks.

It’s worth noting, though, that Anne didn’t exactly fall head over heels for the king during their initial encounter. And Henry’s first attempt to charm his bride-to-be her sounded like a rather awkward affair to boot. That first meeting came on New Year’s Day 1540 – a couple of months prior to the wedding – after Anne had made her way to Rochester Abbey. Then, while the princess was watching bullbaiting out of the window, Henry entered the room to make his famously mediocre first impression.

Disguise and dress-up was popular in the Tudor court, and this is exactly how Henry attempted to impress Anne. Yet by all accounts, this bid to win around the German woman failed. In the book Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII's Unwanted Wife, Sarah-Beth Watkins quotes Henry’s imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys as saying of the get-together, “Suddenly, [Henry] embraced and kissed [Anne]... and she being abashed and not knowing who it was thanked him.” Throughout the pair’s subsequent conversation, however, Anne “regarded [the king] little [and] always looked out the window.”

Upon marrying Henry, each of his six wives was given a royal motto. Jane Seymour’s, for example, was “Bound to Obey and Serve,” while Catherine Howard possessed the credo “No Other Will but His.” Naturally, then, Anne had a motto, too, and these words – “God Send Me Well to Keep” – were ultimately etched onto her wedding ring.

When the royal couple’s marriage was annulled, however, Anne actually gave the ring back to Henry so that it could be broken in two. It’s since been said that she wanted to emphasize the irrevocable failure of their union – and splitting her jewelry was a way to make that clear.

Given Anne and Henry’s apparent lack of affection for each other, it’s perhaps no surprise that their wedding night was something of a damp squib. Yes, while the king had reportedly tried to seduce his new bride, he had nevertheless found himself so put off by Anne’s body that he couldn’t complete the deed. And there are even purported accounts of Henry’s impressions of his queen consort.

The monarch was hardly complimentary, either, reportedly complaining that Anne “[had] very evil smells about her.” Owing to “the looseness of her breasts,” Henry also assumed that that she was spoiled goods. Yet there may have been another factor at play in the couple’s failed attempt to consummate the marriage. Given Henry’s age and bulk, it’s assumed that he may have been impotent.

It appears as though sparks didn’t exactly fly between Henry and Anne even after their wedding night. At the very least, in February 1540 the new queen’s words to her lady-in-waiting, the Countess of Rutland, suggest that the pair’s relationship remained a chaste one.

In her 2010 work Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride, Elizabeth Norton quotes Anne as having said of Henry, “When he comes to bed he kisseth me, and he taketh me by the hand and biddeth me ‘Good night, sweetheart.’” But Lady Rutland apparently didn’t hesitate to educate the newlywed. “Madam, there must be more than this, or it will be long ere we have a duke of York,” she is thought to have said.

Henry subsequently took steps to annul his marriage to Anne, with the failure to consummate the union apparently playing a big part in the decision. And mere months after the couple were married, Anne was thus told to move to Richmond Palace. The king had apparently been dismayed at Anne’s lack of beauty; he was also said to be of the opinion that she wasn’t entirely pure.

And as a means to tackle the rumors of his impotence, Henry claimed that he’d recently had two “nocturnal pollutions” in his sleep – which meant exactly what you’re thinking. Seemingly this assertion sufficed, too, as evidence that everything was fully functioning on his part. His and Anne’s marriage was consequently annulled on July 9, 1540.

Henry and Anne were wed, then, for a mere six months, making theirs the shortest of all the king’s legal companionships. In fact, even though he has a reputation for chopping – sometimes literally – and changing wives, Henry was married to his first spouse, Catherine of Aragon, for a grand total of 24 years. All in all, then, Catherine and Henry were together for a longer period than the rest of his unions combined.

However, as we know from the famous rhyme “divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived,” Anne got off rather lightly compared to two of Henry’s other wives. This may be somewhat surprising, too, given the royal couple’s fraught time together. And not only did the German princess escape the axe, but the king also saw fit to equip her with a number of parting gifts – which we’ll take a look at a bit later.

It should also be said that Henry was well known – and often feared – for his unpredictable outbursts of rage. And as he got older, the Tower of London became full of people whom the king had deemed in need of incarceration. It’s perhaps, unsurprising, then, that he wanted to hold someone accountable for the failure of his union with Anne.

The unlucky subject of Henry’s wrath turned out to be Thomas Cromwell. Word has it that on June 10, 1540 – so a day after the marriage was officially annulled – Cromwell was removed from an important meeting and taken straight to the Tower. He was then sentenced to die without a trial. And at the end of July, Henry’s former chief minister was finally beheaded in front of a crowd in London.

But while Cromwell met a grisly end for his fateful decision to push Anne on the king, the erstwhile queen consort appeared to bring out Henry’s charitable side. Following the dissolution of her marriage, she was bestowed with both a palace beside the Thames and a castle in East Sussex. And after the annulment, it’s even said that Henry and Anne struck up an unlikely friendship.

Yes, even though he and Anne were no longer man and wife, Henry appeared to still hold the German in high regard. Anne even ultimately earned the nickname of “the King’s Beloved Sister” – perhaps down to her peaceful acceptance of his decision to end their union. The former queen also went on to spend further time in Henry’s court.

And Anne not only went on to be buddies with Henry, but it seems that she also had a way with his children – Mary and Elizabeth in particular. Despite a rocky start to the relationship, Anne came to befriend Mary during her time with the king. Even after the annulment had been finalized, Anne spent time with her ex-husband’s eldest daughter, or so it’s said.

Then, when Mary took over the throne in 1553, Anne had pride of place at the coronation proceedings. For the occasion, the German woman traveled with Princess Elizabeth in an elaborately decorated carriage; she also attended the celebratory banquet that took place on October 1 of the same year. And Anne even brought up her stepdaughters in her will by asking the two women if her servants could join them in their respective royal abodes. It seems, then, that she trusted the workers would be in good hands.

Henry’s next bride after Anne was Catherine Howard, and the two were married on July 28, 1540 – the same date on which Thomas Cromwell lost his head. Mary apparently didn’t warm to her father’s new choice of bride, though, instead seeming to favor her former stepmother.

Catherine had actually been one of Anne’s ladies-in-waiting, and this is said to be how Henry had gotten to know her. But while you may assume that Catherine’s new romance caused a bit of friction between her and Anne, this apparently wasn’t the case at all. At the very least, Henry’s ex saw fit to present the couple with two horses decked in velvet. The two women’s first meeting after Catherine had become queen was apparently civilized and drama-free, too.

And it seems that Anne wasn’t the only charitable royal of the trio. Upon her trip to Hampton Court in January 1541, she was invited to continue dancing into the night with Catherine, with the ex-queen staying to eat with the newlyweds the following day. Reportedly, Catherine also chose to bestow Anne a couple of gifts: a pair of dogs and a ring from the king himself.

Little did Anne know, however, that at least one of these presents wouldn’t be for keeps. In the months that followed, Catherine would come to be accused of adultery and so faced death for her alleged treason. And owing to this apparent betrayal, Henry wrote a brusque note to Anne in which he asked her to give back the ring that she was gifted.

Catherine Howard was subsequently executed in February 1542, meaning the young queen may have been only 19 when she died. And as we already know, Henry and Anne’s marriage didn’t quite get off to the flying start that everyone had hoped. But this seemingly didn’t put the king’s ex off wanting to have another go. Yes, it’s said that both Anne and her brother presented the idea of rekindling the match to Henry; history suggests, though, that the monarch was not convinced.

And the kindness that Anne had shown towards Catherine Howard did not appear to extend to Henry’s next choice of spouse. Indeed, according to Alison Wier’s 2007 work The Six Wives of Henry III, the Spanish ambassador claimed to have once heard Anne say that Catherine Parr was “not nearly as beautiful as she [was].” Perhaps there was at least some sympathy towards the new queen, however, as the German woman also purportedly remarked, “Madam Parr is taking a great burden on herself.”

In the end, though, Anne got one over on Catherine Parr by surviving the other woman by nine years. Henry, too, died in 1547 – a whole decade before his fourth wife would eventually meet her end. Yet while Anne ended up outliving the rest of Henry’s spouses, she doesn’t hold the accolade for reaching the eldest age. Henry’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was 50 years old when she passed away in 1536.

And the fact that Anne managed to leave her marriage both unhurt and with quite the fortune means she’s perhaps Henry’s most fortunate wife. She got to enjoy her later years living a life of luxury, after all, while still remaining at a distance from her ex-husband’s capriciousness if she so wanted.

It seems, too, that Anne wouldn’t have been saddled with the unfortunate nickname of “The Flanders Mare” before she died. That epithet may have only arisen more than a century later, after the then-Bishop of Salisbury Gilbert Burnet used the phrase to refer to the former queen in 1679. There’s also no record of Henry ever having delivered the insult, either.

Nevertheless, the opinion that Anne wasn’t very attractive remains arguably one of the most commonly held beliefs about Henry’s fourth bride. And this is despite the fact that historians today have tended to question the validity of her famous nickname. Holbein’s portrait, for one, definitely doesn’t show the queen as being very horse-like in appearance.

In July 1557 Anne passed away at her home in London at just 41 years old – perhaps as a result of cancer. And thanks to that friendship with Henry’s daughters, Mary I ensured that Anne had a burial fully fit for a former queen of England.

Gold cloth therefore shrouded Anne’s coffin, while nearby tapers continued to burn around the clock. And the late queen was ultimately interred at Westminster Abbey on August 3, 1557 – making her the sole wife of Henry’s to be laid to rest at the prestigious site. Her epitaph plainly reads, “Anne of Cleves, Queen of England. Born 1515, died 1557.”