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?

Beatrice really does look like her

No I agree but apparently she made it was clear she greatly disliked certain of her children. I don't think that would be acceptable in any day or age.

After having 2 monarchs who were irregular in their habits, a young woman was a breath of fresh air.

Lots of folks are not photogenic even today and many photos and portraits from the early to mid 1800s do not show attractive people by todays standards.

Photos then did not show the shadows that make your face. They were flat. In fact the vast majority would be considered unattractive in how their image was captured, but would have been attractive in real life.

she was very petite, at 4foot ten, and very slim in her younger years, with lovely hair. However at that time the average height of women was 5ft 2. So she was petite but not overly so for the time. I’m sure she was considered attractive in her own way.

I just don’t think you can judge by todays standards and from flat old photos.

different beauty standards back then? weak chins seemed to be a thing!

Surely beauty is subjective?

We can probably assume she was fairly plain for the era but she had the power of her breeding which is extremely alluring for most.

Princess Margaret though… phwoar!!

Didn’t Henry reject anne of cleeves because her portrait did not give a true likeness.

She loved sex though, her letters to Albert are dripping (no pun intended?) with it and she keeps moaning about the sex always resulting in children

Image has always been of massive importance to monarchy, but before decent portraiture it was only possible to convey that through dress, display and architecture. The first monarch to really use image as a tool of monarchy was Henry VIII, and of course Elizabeth I understood that perfectly. Everything she did and wore was to enhance her image as queen.

Yes and I'm sure she thanked her lucky stars many times over the years that he considered her too ugly for his bed chamber.

Did she reject some of her own children? I never knew that.
That paints a picture. Now I think she sounds a bit narcissistic. Not like Donald Trump but she had a vision of herself that was not 100% rooted in reality so she didn't actually need to be beautiful. She believed she was. She loved herself. Her husband loved herself. In a world where IMAGE was a new preoccupation, she was concerned with it. And had the capacity for self=deception?

Yes, I came on here to say that Beatrice always reminds me of a youthful Victoria.

No. Holbein was strictly instructed to paint a true likeness and kept his head and his job. Plus, contemporary accounts say Anne of Cleeves looked very nice.

Henry was disguised when he first met her (English courtly tradition) and was quite happy to embrace and kiss her. She didn't know who he was and didn't pay him much attention. He didn't like this.

He didn't call her a Flanders mare either. He did, after the wedding, start saying he didn't like her and didn't think she was a virgin etc etc. If there was a problem in the bedroom, it can't be because the king is in any way lacking. It can only be because the woman is so horrifically disgusting that she would repel even the most virile man on earth, you see. And if she looks fine to everyone else? Oh well, only a man with intimate knowledge would know how saggy and smelly she is with her clothes off. Obviously.

Much like Anne Boleyn must have cheated with five men, including a nobody and her own brother. Because while we need her to be an adultereress so we can ditch her, we can't have it look like the king couldn't satisfy her. So that's how insatiable and depraved she must be.

@Sausagenbacon I think your view of George IV and William IV is being kind. No monarch since has been as bad as them.

That paints a picture. Now I think she sounds a bit narcissistic. Not like Donald Trump but she had a vision of herself that was not 100% rooted in reality so she didn't actually need to be beautiful. She believed she was. She loved herself. Her husband loved herself. In a world where IMAGE was a new preoccupation, she was concerned with it. And had the capacity for self=deception?
How do you know how she felt about herself?

Clearly all her fault. Not his and his syphilis ridden cock

At least one historian reckons that arranging a marriage for Anne of Cleves was a mistake because she was by all accounts tall and big boned while Henry was seemingly attracted to small and graceful women. She also lacked accomplishments like speaking languages or being able to play a musical instrument - and accomplishments were very important for the queen of a Renaissance court. Henry also had a track record of marrying women he already knew and was attracted to - Anne of Cleves was the only one of his wives who was a stranger to him when they married.

The problem with Anne of Cleves is that she was narrowly brought up . No dancing, no music, and no English.
Of course Henry wasn't interested.

From any evidence I have seen, she was very unattractive.

Imagine being a powerful female figure in history and having everything you’ve ever done reduced to wether or not you were pretty.

sad.

@Popcorn121 it's true, in 200 years, people will read that Charles was much admired by the laydeeez. I don't think this was ever the case. He had relationships, he could attract women. But it's not like the nation was swooning over him. He wasn't considered attractive. It was more like, I suppose he's not unattractive. But in years to come, it will have been written down that he 'attracted' all these women!

Tudor court must have been eye opening and incredibly daunting. I hope the ladies were kind

Clearly all her fault. Not his and his syphilis ridden cock

Henry didn't have syphilis. He had a lot of other things, most likely type 2 diabetes among them, but it's been debated and studied and pretty much ruled out. As kings in the 16c go, Henry was sexually continent - especially compared to Francis I of France.

And yes, it was generally accepted that sexual malfunction in a man was the woman's fault.