England's Virgin Queen: Her Story & Facial Reconstructions Revealed | Royalty Now

hello everyone and welcome back to royalty now where we recreate famous figures from the past and talk about their history today we're talking about elizabeth the first of england one of the best monarchs england has ever had we'll talk about her life and fascinating history and then of course reveal some recreations of her appearance at the end so let's go ahead and get started [Music] elizabeth was born on september 7th 1533 to king henry viii and his second wife anne boleyn after divorcing his first wife catherine of aragon for failing to give him a male heir elizabeth another daughter was an earth-shattering disappointment to king henry her birth would mark the beginning of king henry's anxious downfall and obsession with having a son by the time elizabeth was two years old her mother had been executed and she would be sent away declared to be nothing but an illegitimate heir to the throne as the years went by it became clear to elizabeth's tutors that she was very bright it was also noted that she was a very serious child we still don't know how much of an emotional impact her mother's death had on her in fact we don't have a single record of elizabeth ever mentioning it anne boleyn's death was such a scandalous subject at the time that it was literally not spoken of it was simply erased the one glimpse that we have into elizabeth's feelings on the matter is the checkers ring a double portrait ring that she wore throughout her life holding images of her and her mother at a very young age elizabeth was already holding her cards close to her chest this would begin a pattern in her life there would always be a gap between her demure exterior and her most vulnerable feelings in fact the gap is so wide that we may never know the true elizabeth in 1547 king henry viii died leaving his kingdom to elizabeth's younger brother edward who was just 10 at the time elizabeth now 14 was placed under the guardianship of her stepmother catherine parr catherine was an intelligent and successful woman she was the first woman to publish a book in england and she had grown close to elizabeth while married to king henry but only months after henry's death she was convinced to secretly marry a former love interest of hers named thomas seymour thomas was described as very attractive to the ladies of the court he was handsome ambitious and becoming very important in england but to the people that knew him best he was known to be forceful reckless and power-hungry within days of elizabeth's arrival at chelsea manor he began to work his charm on her according to kat ashley elizabeth's close friend and governess seymour began to flirt with elizabeth and confided to her that he had always wanted to marry her before catherine there's never been a confirmation of how elizabeth felt about this but whatever her true feelings were we know for sure that thomas began to behave in an overly familiar way with elizabeth it began as affectionate tickling then wrestling which led to smacks on the behind while elizabeth was in bed soon thomas was attempting to sneak into elizabeth's room in the early hours of the morning elizabeth would wake up earlier and earlier trying to avoid him surrounding herself with maids but he would continue to try unfortunately catherine saw nothing wrong with the behavior and even participated in it a few times chalking it up as innocent fun but one day she walked in on seymour holding elizabeth in his arms the embrace seemed too affectionate to ignore and elizabeth was sent away in 1548 elizabeth would never see her stepmother again catherine would die less than a year later thomas no longer married devised a plan to convince elizabeth to marry him on the night of january 16 1549 thomas seymour was caught attempting to break into king edward's bedroom with a loaded pistol it's believed that his plan was to kidnap his nephew force him to give the crown to elizabeth and then marry her and take it for himself agents were sent out to question anyone that could have been involved but they focused especially on elizabeth the agents convinced that they could bully a confession out of her questioned her for weeks on end the only thing they found was that elizabeth was incredibly clever defiant and a master of logic they had been outwitted by a teenage girl in nearly every conversation no evidence was ever found connecting her to thomas seymour's plan seymour would be executed for treason on march 20 1549 it was said that when elizabeth received the news she betrayed not one hint of emotion around this time king edward was beginning to suffer from poor health causing concerns about the succession this political moment in england was all about one thing religion it was what had caused the upheaval while henry viii was seeking a divorce and it was also the main factor in the succession the tension between catholic and protestant was at an all-time high when the protestant king edward died in 1553 his older half-sister mary succeeded him initially he had passed the crown to fellow protestant lady jane gray who was further down the line of succession she had only been queen for nine days when the catholic mary the first seized the throne by force mary was extremely zealous in her faith and her attempts to convert england back to catholicism earned her the gory title bloody mary at one point in 1554 elizabeth was even imprisoned for nearly a year and almost executed by mary for suspicion of being involved in wyatt's rebellion against her although she was questioned and fearing greatly for her life elizabeth was eventually cleared of all charges what's interesting is that elizabeth kept her private religious convictions largely to herself throughout her life successfully toeing the line between catholic and protestant now some historians interpret this as being self-preservation trying to keep things as shades of gray so that she couldn't be implicated either way but elizabeth made it clear in her reign that she couldn't be bothered with the intricacies of what she considered to be a tired religious debate she only cared that all were united under the same god upon the death of mary in 1558 the 25 year old princess elizabeth became queen elizabeth the first to the sounds of crowds cheering and bell's tolling elizabeth was crowned queen and paraded throughout the streets of london in a grand procession it became clear that elizabeth had a great personal charm something that her sister and predecessor mary just didn't have one observer wrote if any person had either the gift or the style to win the hearts of the people it was this queen during the tudor period women were thought of as inferior not just physically but also intellectually it was thought that women were dominated by impulse and passion not a rational mind most hooder men believed a woman wouldn't even be capable of being a fair ruler being a female sovereign also added a new layer who would be the king the question of marriage was the question throughout her early reign and seemed an impossible one to answer if elizabeth took a foreign husband maybe cementing an alliance with another great power it could be perceived that her husband would rule through her putting the needs of his own country before england's on the other hand if she took an english husband she would be marrying one of her subjects who would effectively be beneath her there was also the matter of favoritism if it was someone from the english court who would she choose and why it could cause a lot of infighting there was just no satisfying diplomatic outcome for the young queen on a more personal note elizabeth herself had something of an aversion to marriage she at one point had remarked that she knew she would never get married and had known since she was eight this isn't surprising considering elizabeth's entire upbringing was basically a parade of failed tutor marriages the most obvious example is that her mother was executed by her father's own hand henry the eight's fifth wife catherine howard was also executed by henry coincidentally elizabeth witnessed catherine's shocking downfall when she was eight it was clear to elizabeth from these events that no matter what a king had absolute authority and could do what he wished on top of that elizabeth had been taken advantage of if not sexually abused by thomas seymour it seemed that in the tudor court love power and control were one and the same it is no surprise that elizabeth's biggest fear was being ruled by another at first it seemed that the young queen was happy to entertain various marriage proposals if not for her own vanity than at least to keep her counselors from hounding her the first candidates she considered were from foreign courts first she turned down philip of spain the husband of her dead sister mary then she entertained proposals from eric the 14th of sweden the danish prince adolf charles ii the archduke of austria and two french vowel princes among others but she was very skilled at delaying the outcomes by 1559 it was clear that elizabeth finally had a favorite at court robert dudley a friend of hers since childhood they were becoming inseparable and it became obvious to the court and her foreign suitors the two were deeply in love even during mary tudor's reign robert had always been there for elizabeth at times even risking his own safety for her well-being they had a lot in common and he was a true comfort to her at a time when she just didn't have much but robert dudley was also incredibly unpopular at the time the dudley name was essentially synonymous with treason both his father and brother before him were implicated in schemes against the crown he was also arrogant and considered a bit too grasping for his own good but elizabeth loved his company it was said that no one in the world made her laugh like lord dudley it seemed like he could be the one man to genuinely tempt her to marry in the fall and winter of 1559 it seemed that elizabeth was truly leaning toward this but there was a glaring problem lord dudley was already married his wife amy didn't live at court and it seemed to be a marriage in name only but amy was ill apparently suffering from a breast tumor and it was thought that she might not live long elizabeth's counselors were extremely opposed to the match not only was the deadly name disgraced but it would eliminate all other chants of a strong foreign alliance the foreign dignitaries were beginning to be made really uncomfortable with just how affectionate elizabeth was towards dudley in public it made them feel like their efforts to secure a marriage alliance were completely in vain to the relief of her counsel 1560 was the nail in the coffin for this chapter of elizabeth and robert amy dudley was found mysteriously dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs in their country home despite the fact that the coroner could find no obvious signs that she was murdered the scandal absolutely rocked england it was thought that elizabeth and lord dudley had conspired to rid him of his wife even if dudley was innocent the council would never approve the match elizabeth would have to move on it would become yet another personal sacrifice that the queen would have to make to secure her throne [Music] in october of 1562 another nagging question reared its ugly head elizabeth came down with smallpox and was so ill that she couldn't speak her physicians feared that her death was imminent and there was no heir to the throne if elizabeth died from her illness chaos would ensue in england in her delirium elizabeth asked her advisors to make lord dudley the protector of the realm should she die she also hazely insisted that nothing improper had ever happened between the two of them not wanting to make her more anxious her counselors hesitantly agreed but were relieved when elizabeth began to recover the next day when she finally fully recovered elizabeth found her skin scarred in an effort to cover the scars she began to wear white makeup this pure white look was almost otherworldly and would become iconic in the years to come after elizabeth's sudden brush with death it became clear that the question of her successor needed to be answered she was unmarried and there were nearly no legitimate male heirs to claim the throne after her the best and most dangerous claim came from elizabeth's catholic cousin mary stewart the queen of scots mary had lived her life in france and was in fact married to king francis ii until his untimely death at only 16. by the mid-1560s mary sent an ambassador to england to convince elizabeth to announce her as the heir apparent and although elizabeth recognized that no one had a better claim than mary a life of traumatic experiences left her incredibly fearful of betrayal elizabeth devised a plan she would recognize mary as the heir but on one condition that she marry the one man she had come to trust robert dudley she knew that robert would never allow mary to cause her harm initially very skeptical about the idea mary had actually warmed to this proposal and even though the union could have resolved the succession robert dudley was in love with elizabeth and had no interest in a marriage with mary angry at her willingness to offer him to someone else he finally accepted that their love could never exist in this life after a brutal argument in front of the entire court elizabeth lashed out at dudley i will have one mistress and no master if it wasn't going to be dudley then elizabeth would marry england from then on she would cultivate a powerful persona the virgin queen after elizabeth's refusal to name her as heir mary had remained in scotland and married a man named henry stewart who had his own claim to the english throne but shortly after the birth of their first child together henry stewart was murdered the main suspect was a man named james hepburn in a shocking turn of events only two months after her late husband's death she would marry his alleged murderer it was rumored that hepburn had forced her into the marriage but the scottish nobles didn't care they rebelled and she was forced to abdicate and flee to england seeking protection from elizabeth unfortunately for mary just as she would arrive the pope would issue a public decree denouncing elizabeth as queen of england and granting english catholics authority to overthrow her mary who was seen as a true catholic queen was now too much of a threat to elizabeth elizabeth decided to imprison her in england although she allowed her to live very comfortably in the following years elizabeth's reign would finally hit its stride even after the papal decree elizabeth's views on religion remained moderate allowing for more personal religion in the realm she famously stated that she did not wish to make windows into men's hearts or secret thoughts she would fund the arts and exploration sending sir francis drake on expeditions to the new world and was even able to clear the crown's debt which had been close to bankruptcy at the start of her reign this newfound stability in england would cause its economy to flourish and its status abroad to rise but even then elizabeth was always on her guard in 1586 a major plot to murder elizabeth was discovered and the perpetrator was mary queen of scots now the letters that actually implicate mary of the crime are debated forgeries possibly framing her involvement but this was too big of a threat for elizabeth to ignore mary was still living under elizabeth's custody as her prisoner and elizabeth made the harrowing decision to convict mary of her perceived collaboration with the babington plot she ordered mary's execution in 1586 the two women had never even met in person in the late 1580s english raids on spanish commerce led king philip ii of spain to plan the conquest of england a giant fleet was soon under construction in spain at this time spain was the seafaring powerhouse of europe any spanish fleet was considered to be near indestructible on may 19 the armada set sail on a mission to take control of the english channel luckily for the english bad weather caused many delays and dwindling supplies for the spanish forces who didn't arrive until months later on july 19th this gave england plenty of time to plan a counter-attack the english forces made use of their long-range heavy artillery and began attacking the spanish ships from a safe distance they also sent out eight burning ships to greet the spanish were forced to cut their anchors and sail away or risk catching fire the defeat was quick and decisive by the time the spanish had limped back home they returned with only half of their original armada and down fifteen thousand men to celebrate the victory and england's rise as a military power elizabeth commissioned the iconic armada portrait one of her most well-known images unfortunately for elizabeth her joy would not last long less than a year later robert dudley the man she called eyes and others called the love of her life died unexpectedly she had received a letter from him only six days before his death when her grief was finally bearable she would place that letter beside her bed with the words last letter written on it she would never be the same her latter years would be spent surrounded by a new generation of men some good some corrupt all jarring for her power she would spend a lot of her time at the theater her funding for the arts had begun in english renaissance producing the likes of william shakespeare and christopher marlowe men who still influence us to this day in 1603 after 45 years as the queen of england elizabeth died in her sleep beside her they found robert's last letter although she never publicly named an heir it was decided that she would be succeeded by james the son of mary queen of scots elizabeth had proved that she could rule as well as any man and her reign is considered a golden age [Music] so what did elizabeth really look like we have many portraits of her to view today about which is the most accurate and do any reveal the true elizabeth we know from her life that in order to establish power as a female monarch elizabeth could not let one crack of her personal vulnerability show her portraits are much the same they show elizabeth in great wealth and splendor depicting her as a youthful trim woman even in her old age it was remarked more than once that elizabeth could be very vain even outside of personal vanity and the desire to appear beautiful to her subjects her image also had to reflect the evergreen power that england was anna whitelock wrote that the queen's body was held to be one in the same as england she was painted more than once by the artist nicholas hilliard who remarked that elizabeth was very particular about the images that she approved he even explained why many portraits of her look a bit flat kind of lacking this light and shadow that adds more interest to art much the way we take selfies with good lighting today elizabeth insisted that she be painted while sitting in the open light so that no shadows would come across her face portraits of her do look really consistent a few that i find very accurate looking are those from her early reign as queen elizabeth was never described as a great beauty something that she was keenly aware of but her portraits have this kind of noble watchful quality about them that i really like one of my favorite features that i love looking for on portraits of elizabeth is this double crease that she has in her eyelid i just love this feature and you can see it on so many portraits of her elizabeth was always described as taking more after her father king henry viii but i really love that she got her mother's famous dark eyes similar to that of her mother and bolin elizabeth had a kind of charm that was difficult to measure in a portrait it was said that she was incredibly witty and charming in person sir robert cecil once wrote many painters have done portraits of the queen but none has sufficiently shown her looks or charms her majesty forbids the showing of any portraits that are ugly until they are improved as elizabeth aged she became more and more self-conscious her bout of smallpox did leave her with some scars although not super severe she remedied this by using a common makeup product at the time called venetian ceruse what we now know is that this is a toxic mix of vinegar and lead the makeup wasn't quite as cakey as we think of today it was more like a medium coverage white makeup that would blend in with the skin not as much a layer of paint although she did have to wear more and more layers of it as her life went on due to the negative effects on her skin that it had near the end of her life we know that she had bad teeth from heavy sugar consumption and was partially bald she took great pains to conceal these perceived weaknesses under heavy cosmetics and wigs one of the last portraits of elizabeth that can really be trusted to show anything close to her true appearance is called the darnley portrait painted around 1575 this image shows elizabeth approximately the age of 41. i love that it includes fine lines around her mouth chin and eyes elizabeth liked this portrait so much that she approved its use as a pattern for the rest of her life essentially allowing the queen to freeze time on this public persona and not age this exact same face was used over and over in the coming years with the clothing and other styling change to match the occasion and fashion moment art historians often refer to this portrait as her mask of youth as no surviving portraits between 1596 and elizabeth's death in 1603 show the asian queen as she truly was for my interpretation of queen elizabeth i've used one of my favorites painted in the 1560s this was painted by an unidentified painter shortly after she had ascended the throne and was in private hands for a long time it was probably circulated as an image of elizabeth for a potential marriage alliance i also have a modern day version of her created from the darnley portrait so let's go ahead and check out some recreations of elizabeth the first now [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you all so much for watching if you're interested in learning more about elizabeth's life we have some great book recommendations this week first is blood fire and gold by estelle perronk it's a new book exploring the intertwining lives of elizabeth and catherine de medici we also recommend the biography of elizabeth by ann somerset which was a great resource in the making of this episode please check out our etsy store for prints and bookmarks of your favorite subjects and of course comment with who you'd like to see next and we'll see you all for the next video [Music] you

Channel: Royalty Now Studios

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Keywords: real face of, what historical figures would look like, true face of, true faces of, real faces of historical figures, true faces of historical figures, what historical figures would look like today, royalty now, roylaty now, English Monarchs, English Monarchs real faces, Elizabeth I Makeup, Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth I Reign, Elizabeth I true face, Real face of elizabeth I, True face of Elizabeth I, What did Elizabeth I look like, Elizabeth I facts, elizabeth i

Id: RRlh8ivGXmQ

Length: 25min 48sec (1548 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 24 2022