Plain Queen, Gorgeous King: Tudor Royal Faces

Abstract

The fifth Tudor monarch and the second Tudor queen, Elizabeth crafted her queenship with a wisdom derived from historical hindsight, endeavoring to adopt, adapt, or discard her predecessors’ policies and strategies for running the complex business of a well-governed state. As the observers gazed at this queen, her face was subject to the same expectations and vulnerabilities as those of the faces of the earlier Tudors who were observed with a scrutiny potentially leading to adoration or assault. A logical response on the part of Elizabeth and her official image-makers, who knew that crafting her royal image could bolster her ability to rule, was to fulfill the positive expectations and strengthen the vulnerable aspects pertaining to her appearance. Yet, both the overt praises to the queen’s nonpareil beauty as well as seemingly objective representations of this monarch inevitably carried with them ambivalent tendencies inherited from the earlier Tudors.