DESCRIPTIONS OF ELIZABETH I

Roger Ascham, Elizabeth's tutor (c. 1550)

No one's mind is quicker than hers, no memory more retentive... French and Italian she speaks like English; Latin with fluency.

 Giovanni Michieli, Venetian ambassador, report (May 1557)

She is tall with a good skin... she has fine eyes and above all, beautiful hands... Her intellect and understanding are wonderful... Proud and haughty, as although she knows she was born of such a mother, she nevertheless does not consider herself of inferior in degree to the Queen, whom she equals in self-esteem; nor does she believe herself less legitimate than her Majesty, alleging in her own favour that her mother would never cohabit with the King unless by way of marriage, with the authority of the Church.... She prides herself on her father and glories in him; everybody saying that she also resembles him more than the Queen does and he therefore always liked her and had her brought up in the same way as the Queen...

French Ambassador report to the French king (1595)

On her head she wore a great reddish-coloured wig... As for her face, it is very aged. Her teeth are very yellow and irregular... Many of them are missing, so that one cannot understand her easily when she speaks.

Paul Hentzner, a German visitor, met Elizabeth in 1598.

Her face was oblong, fair but wrinkled; her eyes small, yet black and pleasant; her nose a little hooked, her lips narrow... her hair... an auburn colour, but false.

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