Elizabeth I

We've known about white lead's poisonous properties for thousands of years, yet even in the 16th century, up until the 18th, people were wearing it on their faces as makeup in the vain hope of making their skin look whiter.

Queen Elizabeth I is said to have worn one of the most toxic mixtures of white lead makeup possible, with some theorizing it was partly to blame for her many health problems.

Yet, some hundreds of years later, industrialisation of the chemical industry ramped up production.

So how did making white lead actually work? Well, sheets of lead were left to corrode until they became covered in this thick white coating, and that coating was the white lead.

Okay.

So basically, after King Henry VIII died in 1547, there was almost like a century of his heirs, including Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, and James I, all flip-flopping between Protestantism and Catholicism.

See, I can't even say it.

Catholicism, I can do.

It was Lutheran, and it settled down a bit.

So it was a bit like the reformation that Elizabeth I would have known.

When you were little, you had a lot to do during recess.

Always negotiating and trading.

And instead we got a sister who, well, Mary, sad, rigid.

Then we got Elizabeth, fascinating, subtle, not easy, but perhaps the most congenial of the Tudors in many ways.

So no Edward VI, Elizabeth I instead.

Out of curiosity, I don't know how you see the Duke of Somerset in Edward VI's reign.

I love, there's a wonderful portrait of Serena Williams that was on the eve of her announcing her retirement that Annie Leibovitz took, and I think that this is just such a powerful image.

And I also love When Vogue does great portraits of people in costume of some of their most iconic characters, Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I in Photographed by Irving Penn is really one of the most amazing portraits because you see who the character is that she's embodying, but you also see that it is Cate in all of her power.

And so I love that.

You have been editor for about a year now, stepping into this.

Yeah.

They all know Queen Elizabeth I.

So it's kind of, yeah, we're still very obsessed with teaching kids about the royal

families.

He knocked it over.

And he's remembering when he wore that suit of armor in tournament, even the Virgin Queen herself, Elizabeth I, had commented on how good it looked.

And so he's remembering his past and wondering what is going on now because it is just not working.

The reason he had been sitting in that chair is because he had bruised himself so bad when the suit fell over.

Up eight places to number one, top of the pops.

James Lee Pevenhole says, Elizabeth I, Ireland, nine years war, Wikipedia page, list of participants in the nine years war, Tom Lee, 10 times great-grandfather.

Okay, your great-grandfather times 10.

Tom Lee.

They had chronic lead poisoning on their face.

Queen Elizabeth I had decaying teeth.

So was this the

precursor to makeup?