11. Queen Elizabeth I and smallpox
On October 10, 1562, then 29 years old Elizabeth I of England became ill with what the royal attendants believed a cold. Within a few hours, the Queen developed a high fever, and it became evident to the court she had contracted smallpox. A week later, they feared for her life. One attendant to the Queen, her close friend Lady Mary Sidney, contracted the illness from her patient, and though both recovered, Mary was disfigured by the disease. According to Mary’s husband, Henry Sidney, his wife retained the “scars of which have done and do remain in her face”, and she remained in isolation from the world following her recovery, hiding the ravages of the disease from others.
Elizabeth recovered without suffering undue scarring, though she did bear some pockmarks as a reminder of the disease. For the rest of her life, Elizabeth masked the pockmarks through the application of makeup which contained lead. The lead withered her skin, accelerated the formation of wrinkles, and thus drove the application of ever-increasing layers of the paste to cover the damage it caused. The smallpox likely accelerated her loss of hair as well, and in her thirties Elizabeth wore wigs in public appearances, to hide her baldness from her courtiers and subjects.