One of the most successful Queens in History was Queen Elizabeth I.
The final Tudor Monarch would achieve brilliant victory against the Spanish Armada, which
at the time was the most feared naval fleet the world had ever seen.
She would manage to sort out a number of problems inside of her Kingdom, and she also had a
rather brutal side.
She would sentence Mary Queen of Scots to death, and she would executed a number of
other prominent people including some of her favourites.
To many people at the time, they believed their Queen was immortal, and she was known
as Gloriana however as the 1600s came around, she was becoming increasingly more frail.
One thing that has not been cleared up though is what killed the final Tudor Monarch, and
there are a number of interesting ideas as to what was the final cause of Elizabeth I’s
death.
But what is the story of this?
Elizabeth I by 1603 was old, and she knew that an old Queen would not appeal to the
younger people, who were almost waiting for her death to signal in the birth of a new
dynasty on the throne.
It’s believed that for a number of years the Queen had been suffering with her mental
health, but she was no longer a graceful and charming monarch.
She had grown paranoid and rather bitter in her last years, and especially she grew very
lonely as many of her close friends passed away.
She would execute one of her former favourites, Robert Devereux the Earl of Essex who had
planned to rebel against Elizabeth I, and even seize her during his uprising.
Devereux lost his head inside the walls of the Tower of London, but his execution signalled
that the Queen was very much in control.
But Elizabeth I did allegedly grieve Devereux, and she nurtured him as a young man, and the
Queen would sit in dark rooms and would cry after considering his brutal end at a young
age.
But by the winter of 1602, Elizabeth was feeling very ill, and she had caught a chill following
walking in the cold winter air.
She was also complaining of a sore throat, as well as aches and pains.
Inside of her private apartments she would sit and lay on cushions, and many would tell
her to go to bed, but she would refuse.
She claimed that ‘I am not well,’ but refused to be seen by doctors, and many believed
that Elizabeth I would get over her illness and make a full recovery, however it could
be conceived that the Queen did not want to get better.
She was old, frail and tired and she was losing her friends, and she may have been ready to
die.
She would have believed that her friends would have gone to heaven, and possibly Elizabeth
I was ready to join them.
As her condition got worse, the Archbishop of Canterbury was summoned to her side, and
he held her hand and spoke to her about getting better.
Archbishop Whitgift spoke to her about heaven, and the Queen just squeezed his hand and could
not speak at this time.
It was known to all of those who attended on the Queen that Elizabeth I was dying.
Her ladies in waiting then began to take a vigil around her death, and in the early hours
of the 24th March 1603 after falling into a deep sleep, Queen Elizabeth I died.
The death of Elizabeth I was announced on the streets of London and people responded
with a stunned silence, for 45 years they had been ruled by Elizabeth I and they knew
no other monarch on the throne.
However Queen Elizabeth I had stipulated a number of things before her death, she requested
that her body was not embalmed however this was not adhered to and she was embalmed before
her remains were placed inside of a lead coffin.
But another thing Elizabeth I said that she did not wanted after her death was a post
mortem.
With this, it left the question as to what killed Elizabeth I without an answer, and
despite Tudor medicine not being great, if she had a post mortem it would be clearer
as to what killed the last Tudor Queen.
One of the biggest theories regarding what killed Elizabeth I related to her makeup that
she was infamous for wearing.
When she was in her late 20s, Elizabeth I caught smallpox and she was very ill but she
did recover.
Smallpox left her face severely scarred, and Elizabeth a woman who was once proud of her
beauty then struggled to accept the scars on her face.
She wore a type of makeup which was common in the period, which was known as ‘The Spirits
of Saturn.’
This helped the Queen have smoother skin and a very white complexion, and it stayed on
for a long period of time, up to around a week.
However the makeup was very dangerous, and one of it’s main ingredients was lead.
This was very dangerous especially if consumed, and people in the Tudor period did not know
about the dangers of lead poisoning, and it was actually present in many products at the
time, especially in makeups.
Elizabeth I continued to use lead makeup heavily even in her final days, and some historians
have claimed that she may have suffered from blood poisoning caused by the lead in her
final days, and that this could have contributed to her death.
There may have been other substances that poisoned Elizabeth I too, as the lipstick
and rouge she wore also contained mercury which of course is also poisonous.
The product she used to even remove her makeup contained mercury, and this could have contributed
to her illness.
Other theories regarding her death relate to more diseases and illnesses that the Queen
could have contracted.
She may have had cancer, and this at the time was not very well known about, and it was
not as well researched as it is today.
If Elizabeth I did get cancer, there was no chance of her having treatment, or the cancer
removed at all.
Tudor surgery and medicine was nowhere near up to this standard.
The Queen may have also contracted pneumonia which could have developed from her earlier
illness or cold and fever that she had.
As she was elderly by the standards of the time also, this was a possible dangerous illness
that could have killed her.
She may have also had some form of bacterial infection.
But interestingly her mental state and depression could have led to her death and her giving
up.
It was clear that the Queen was depressed and was struggling, having lost many of her
best friends who she had known for decades.
Many of these had also known Elizabeth from when she was a child, and she was in decline
with her mental health.
She was incredibly low at times, but she tried to push forwards when she should have taken
rest.
She may have been ready for death, and may have not been willing to fight her final illness,
and her mind may have told her body that she was ready.
As mentioned as Elizabeth did not permit a postmortem to be done of her body, it’s
impossible to say what for certain killed Elizabeth I. It may have been her makeup,
or an illness which she could not shake, but it may also have been just the time for the
Queen.
She may have believed that her time was up having valiantly reigned over England for
decades, and her reign was a great period of change for England.
The Queen was given a magnificent funeral, and her coffin was covered in purple velvet
and was drawn by four horses who were draped in black.
She was buried inside Westminster Abbey, and today is housed inside of a huge and ornate
tomb.
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