Was the young Queen Victoria incredibly beautiful or nay?

[MorrisZapp]

Movies and TV suggest she was stunning as a young woman, but all the pictures of her that are widely familiar today are of a plain fizzog.

Was she hot or not?

I didn’t realise she was an extra in the film and I had to do a double take!

If you have to ask the question re Charles II then back to the history books with you! 😜

Charles II would have shown you a good time for sure. His father, not so much.

That picture of Princess Beatrice posted earlier looks remarkably like this portrait of Victoria!

THIS portrait!

Chinless, beaky nose and jowls. Not your classic beauty...

There's a great book (sorry, can't remember the title) about, when it became clear that George iv would have an heir, his brothers raced to produce one.
I love the fact that when anaesthesia was developed, some churchmen felt that it shouldn't be given to women in childbirth, and she roundly told them to take a jump.

Would NOT have an heir. After his daughter, and only child, died in childbirth.

Beatrice is a LOT better looking.

She looks like Sonia from Eastenders here!

her face transformed when she smiled I think.

there are a few photos of her smiling taken when she was older

This one

As a young woman she was quite pretty, I think, although portrait artists did often exaggerate the looks of their subjects.

After Albert died she only ever wore widow's weeds, and a severe hair style, portraits of her as a young woman show her in beautiful dresses and beautifully arranged hairstyles. She did become overweight. I don't think age was kind to her.

I loved that film Young Victoria with Emily Blunt (amazing soundtrack) and also enjoyed Victoria and Abdul with Dame Judi Dench

No even in her youth she wasn't pretty. Her nose and chin and face shape aren't to proportions that are conventionally attractive. It doesn't matter though. Not everyone is and her looks weren't relevant to her job.

Yes, there is a theory it may have caused a blood thinning condition.

It's difficult when we're judging by today's standards. I imagine most of today's female royals have Botox, fillers etc and much more advanced skincare regimes!

This is exactly what’s interesting about the discussion though: we (as a culture) can’t accept that and we find looks extremely important to the (female) actor’s job, so we (again as a culture) would prefer to misrepresent the reality of her looks because we believe looks are of vital importance. IYSWIM.

Its hard to judge because its well known that royal portraits back then were purposely made to look flattering. So, paintings were like the old versions of modern day filters. Photos of her show she was very plain and not attractive at all.

She was young and she was Queen. That's quite enough to make you very attractive indeed.

However, I think it almost impossible to tell for sure, because so much of someone's attractiveness can come through how they move and speak, how their face comes alive in a way that pictures won't capture. How they make you feel in their presence etc.

I'm always intrigued by the hairstyles and dresses then; the hairstyles are so unflattering by modern taste, and hairstyles really heavy and bizarre shapes to our sensibilities. Presumably this is down to what was considered an aesthetic of womanhood then. Can't imagine many of them coming back into fashion. Hairstyles can change a face so much.

That portrait of her as a toddler is very off putting, no desire for children to look like children then, just a mini overdressed adult.

Not everyone is and her looks weren't relevant to her job.

I don't know - I'd argue that image (which includes but is not exclusive to looks) was important and that, maybe, she was the very first monarch for whom her image was of massive importance to her success.



A rare photo of her smiling and what a difference it makes



Also fizzog one of my favourite words op, and criminally underused.

Unlike hairstyles which I used too many times in my previous post.

Yes I think everyone will remember what she looks like even now!