Firsthand Descriptions Of What 15 Historical Royals Really Looked Like

By the time King Henry VIII of England perished in 1547 at the age of 55, he weighed nearly 400 pounds. But as a young man, he was heralded as an athletic, handsome ruler who embodied kingly ideals. 

One eyewitness to the young king's appearance was Sebastian Giustinian, the ambassador from Venice. In 1519, he wrote that 29-year-old Henry was "extremely handsome" and that "nature could not have done more for him." He continued:

He is much handsomer than any other sovereign in Christendom; a great deal handsomer than the king of France; very fair, and his whole frame admirably proportioned. On hearing that Francis I [of France] wore a beard, he allowed his own to grow, and, as it is reddish, he has now a beard that looks like gold.

For Marie Antoinette, appearances were undeniably political matters. But no matter how much she worked to cultivate the image of a regal, extravagant queen of France, many continued to define her through her Austrian origins - a perspective that marked her as a foreigner. 

Her personal hairdresser Léonard-Alexis Autié (Marie Antoinette loved a good hair style) defended his patron after her execution. After first meeting Marie Antoinette shortly after her arrival in France in 1770, Autié recalled that the young Dauphine was on the verge of becoming a truly French royal:

Marie-Antoinette was then neither beautiful, pretty, nor attractive. There were only promises of beauty in her. Her figure, well-set, slender, but disparaged by an extreme thinness, still lacked grace, without however being disfigured by that Austrian stiffness, which Her Highness had fortunately left on the banks of the Danube.

The hair of the daughter of Marie-Thérèse, which was then a pale blond, seemed to me very badly arranged; but perhaps people may think that this part of my judgment should be accepted with distrust as that of a rival Larseneur. The eyes of the Dauphine were azure blue with a quick, witty, but somewhat bold, expression.

She had a high forehead, a nose of a too pronounced aquiline shape, a small mouth, thick lips, but of great freshness, a complexion of dazzling whiteness and set off by natural but rather high color. Marie-Antoinette carried her head high; there was haughtiness in her manner, but a haughtiness tempered by a sweetness of countenance and tone which captivated at the very moment when one was about to feel offended at the pride which this kindness successfully belied.

Queen Mary of Scotland did not get much praise for her politics during her reign from 1542 to 1567 - she abdicated the throne before she was 25.

Her appearance, on the other hand, was highly regarded. According to a diplomat from Venice, the queen was "personally the most beautiful in Europe." She was also tall - Mary's height was almost 6 feet.

Holy Roman Emperor Charles V first reigned as king of Spain in 1516. That year, the courtier Sancho Cota described the new, 16-year-old Spanish king:

He was of medium height, with a long face, blond hair, beautiful light-blue eyes, a narrow but well-proportioned nose, his mouth and chin not as beautiful as his other features... He was a graceful man in very good shape; an upright man in his life, eating and drinking in a measured fashion, very clever for his years; liberal and magnificent and very virtuous.

Cota's description of Charles's "long face" and unattractive chin were veiled references to his so-called Habsburg Jaw, or a chin that markedly protruded. Thanks to the Habsburg dynasty's shallow gene pool - they intermarried frequently - many of the members of the royal family had this distinct physical feature.

Henry VIII created his own Protestant church so that he could divorce his first wife and marry Anne Boleyn in 1533. 

But what did Boleyn - the woman who changed English history forever - actually look like? In 1532, Mario Savorgnano - a diplomat from Catholic Venice - wrote of Boleyn:

Madam Anne is not one of the handsomest women in the world, she is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised, and in fact has nothing but the English King's great appetite, and her eyes, which are black and beautiful, and take great effect on those who served the Queen [Catherine of Aragon] when she was on the throne.

Elizabeth I first became queen of England when she was 25 and ruled until her passing at the age of 69. Her appearance understandably changed dramatically over the course of those many decades.

Paul Hentzner, a German lawyer, visited Elizabeth's court in the late 1590s. He recalled that the 65-year-old monarch still appeared "very majestic" and, though her body had aged, she continued to ornament herself as ruler of England:

[H]er face oblong, fair, but wrinkled; her eyes small, yet black and pleasant; her nose a little hooked; her lips narrow, and her teeth black; (a defect the English seem Subject to, from their too great use of sugar) she had in her ears two pearls, with very rich drops; she wore false hair, and that red; upon her head she had a small crown, reported to be made of some of the gold of the celebrated Lunebourg table; her bosom was uncovered, as all the English ladies have it, till they marry; and she had on a necklace of exceeding fine jewels; her hands were small, her fingers long, and her stature neither tall nor low; her air was stately, her manner of speaking mild and obliging.