Throughout human history, there have been queens who have dazzled with their beauty and charm.
Aspects such as elegance or education have something to do with wealth or social position, but certainly not beauty.
Here are some of the most beautiful queens in history:
Nefertiti
(1370-1330 B.C. approx., 40 years)
Ancient Egypt, 14th century B.C., in power was Pharaoh Akhenaten, responsible for an important revolution: he, in fact, elevated a single god above the traditional Egyptian pantheon, the god Aton.
Next to him, in this operation, a queen who has an excellent reputation and extraordinary power, Nefertiti.
She was mother of six daughters, her name meant “the beautiful has arrived” and she was beautiful.
To document this, in addition to her name, there is the famous bust that represents her and that is kept in the Neues Museum in Berlin.
Cleopatra
(70/69 – 30 B.C., about 39 years)
Cleopatra VII Thea Philopatore, known as Cleopatra was the last queen of Egypt.
There are no busts left to depict her appearance but only the representations on the coins issued during her reign and the descriptions of the historians.
The historian Cassius Dione described Cleopatra as “a woman of extraordinary beauty” even though Plutarch claimed more than a century before that “her beauty was not in itself completely incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her“.
Although Cleopatra’s beauty has entered the legend, also thanks to the seduction of Caesar and Mark Antony, there seems to be no irrefutable evidence about her physical appearance.
According to legend, she bathed in milk to preserve her beauty and youth.
Wang Zhaojun
(50-31 B.C., 19 years)
A woman with such beauty that birds forget to flap their wings
She was also very intelligent, expert in music and drawing, so much so that she was chosen as before the emperor’s concubines.
However, as was customary, he did not see her in person, using instead a portrait that the court painter made of all the concubines.
This portrait was not true, however: the painter always received a sort of “bribe” from the women, but Zhaojun, aware of his own beauty, did not want to give them.
For this reason the artist painted her behind a veil of tears and the emperor, not at all impressed, gave her to an ally from the north.
When he realised the mistake he had made, however, he sent the painter to his death.
Lady Godiva
(990-1067, 77 years)
(“Godiva” is the Latinised version of “Godgifu” or “Godgyfu”, an Anglo-Saxon name meaning “gift of God”)
Her husband Leofrico, Lord of Coventry.
The legend about Lady Godiva has to do with her desire to defend the people of Coventry oppressed by the excessive taxes imposed by her husband.
He always refused his wife’s requests, who wanted to eliminate part of the taxes, until, tired of the pleas, he replied that he would only accept her wishes if she walked the streets of the city naked on horseback.
The woman did not make him repeat it twice, and after he published a proclamation in which he required all citizens to close windows and doors, he rode through the streets of the city on horseback, covered only by her hair.
A certain Peeping Tom, a tailor, however, did not obey the proclamation, making a hole in a shutter so that he could watch the woman pass by. He remained, as a punishment, blind.
So it was that Godiva’s husband was forced to abolish taxes.
Melisenda of Jerusalem
(1105-1161, 56 years)
Melisenda was born in Jerusalem from the Armenian Mafia princess and the powerful Templar King Baldwin II, king of Jerusalem.
From Baldwin’s marriage no male children are born and the king immediately elects the firstborn Melisenda as his only heir for the powerful kingdom of Jerusalem.
Melisenda is educated from an early age to become queen, but not queen wife of king, queen with unique and absolute power.
Baldwin, however, wanted a husband for Melisenda, but he did not want a man who would obscure his daughter’s power, he wanted a man who would support her, protect her in need and, above all, make her have children to guarantee the dynasty.
Baldovino’s choice fell on Folco V D’Angiò and was of an ugliness, according to the chroniclers of the time “horrifying”.
Melisenda was beautiful and she was also hopelessly in love with another, the handsome cousin Ugo of Le Puiset.
The marriage was celebrated in 1129 and after only a year Prince Baldovino, the heir of the family, was born.
King Baldovino appointed Melisenda sole guardian of the little prince, ousting Folco from all future claims.
In 1131 Baldovino died and Melisenda and Folco ascended the throne as joint rulers.
Immediately afterwards, with the military support of his crusader knights, Folco excluded Melisenda from the granting of titles and patronage.
Folco even publicly accused the Queen of adultery with her famous and handsome cousin Ugo.
The accusation was considered unfounded slander and the High Court used it as a pretext for a palace revolt against D’Anjou.
Anne Boleyn
(1501-1536, 35 years)
Anne Boleyn was one of Henry VIII’s wives.
Although she is not remembered for being a beautiful woman, it is believed that she was quite sexy and attractive.
For centuries the figure of Anne Boleyn was overshadowed by her tragic end, being remembered as the first queen in history to ascend to the gallows.
Anne Boleyn had long, thick black hair, olive skin and deep black eyes, full of charisma.
Two imperfections marked her body, a showy black mole on her neck and a sixth finger, near the little finger of her right hand.
The arrest took place following the confessions of five men, who swore that they had been lovers of the woman; among the men, her brother was also present, so, in addition to adultery, Anna also had to suffer the accusation of incest.
In May of the same year, the woman was tried and sentenced to death by beheading.
In reality, as it was later discovered, the five men had confessed to the relationship under torture: it is said that the real accusation made against Anna was witchcraft and the reason why these accusations were made was the King’s desire to seek a male child elsewhere.
Marie Antoinette
(1755-1793, 38 years)
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, was an elegant and very seductive woman. It is thought that she had many lovers.
The queen, more than gifted with perfect beauty, was “delicate, slender, graceful, brilliant”.
Gervasus more synthetically writes: “The empress’s daughter was a pleasant but not beautiful girl”.
A strong myopia and a strabismus of Venus, made her look sweet and dreamy, the colour of her eyes was a blue shade inherited from her mother, a celestial one renamed “imperial blue” in honour of the empress.
Luisa of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
(1776-1810, 34 years)
Luisa Augusta Guglielmina Amalia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, known simply as Luisa of Prussia (Hannover, 10 March 1776 – 19 July 1810), was Queen Consort of Prussia, as wife of Frederick William III of Prussia.
The popular queen became famous for her charm and beauty, using her charm to learn about the affairs of state, developing ties with the most powerful Prussian ministers. This happy though short-lived union produced nine children, including the future Frederick William IV and the Emperor William I of Germany.
He died young, at the age of 34, after giving birth to the first kaiser, William I , after his marriage to King Frederick William III .
The couple also had Carlotta , the Czarina, executed by the Russian Bolsheviks together with her husband, Tsar Nicholas Romanov , and all her family.
Sissi of Austria
(1837-1898, 61 years)
Empress Elisabeth of Austria – Hungary known as “Sissi” had a real obsession with her own beauty and youth.
She underwent numerous daily beauty rituals, some of which were very strange and bizarre.
Sissi was afraid of losing her beautiful hair.
She had it combed every morning by her maids, she needed 3 hours of daily care.
She always slept in the same position, i.e. supine with her hair loose on her chest, so as not to damage her hair.
Because of the frequent attacks of migraine (due to the weight of her hair, which reached the ground) she hung her locks on the chandelier for some time before going to bed, so that her head and neck could rest.
The most famous hairstyle is the braid crown invented by her personal hairdresser, Fanny Angerer.
The empress used to undergo very strict diets to avoid getting fat.
She did not stop following them even when she was pregnant with her son Rudolf, and this fact helped to form the young archduke’s frail constitution.
To avoid getting fat, she did gymnastics every day and was careful not to sit down and never remain idle.
Sissi practiced all kinds of sports, especially swimming, horse riding and fencing.
She went to bed with cloths soaked in vinegar and wrapped around her hips.
She used to have a very tight bust around her waist so that she always had a waist of less than 50 cm in circumference, and her dressing lasted about 1 hour.
The ladies in her service had the task of measuring her waist and the circumference of her legs and arms every day, and to write it down in a notebook.
She never wore perfume, because she was convinced that it made her skin grow old.
She wore masks made of strawberries or veal on her face.
She slept without a pillow so as not to deform her spine.
After the age of 30, she stopped being photographed to pass on an image of eternal youth.
