Who was the Ugliest of the English Queens?

Question

Without a doubt it's got to be Boy George.

Answer 1

Queen Victoria

Answer 2

Queen Victoria.  Too bad she didn't look like Victoria Beckham. :-)

Answer 3

Apart from Richard the Lionheart (difficult, because medieval art is notoriously unreliable from this point of view)  possibly Queen Caroline, scandalous bride of the scandalous George IV. (there again - Cruikshank's cartoons are possibly not too reliable either).

Henry VIII might possibly have voted for Anne of Cleves, though - given his own (probably apocryphal) reference to her as 'a fat Flanders mare'.

Just as an aside - what about the ugliest king???

Answer 4

Elizabeth ll is one ugly old hag...

Answer 5

Unless it's Elton John, or Edward II...

Seriously, James I's wife, Anne of Denmark, was not the most beautiful lady, not helped by her choice of hairstyle:

http://www.illusionjewels.com/renportrai...

It was also said that Queen Charlotte, George III's wife, was not a beauty - but she was a very good wife:

http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibi...

http://www.smic.be/mozart/english/biogra...

Caroline of Brunswick, wife of the Prince Regent (later King George IV), as mentioned:

http://www.georgianindex.net/princewales...  (The prince said, when he met her for the first time, "Harris, I am not well.  Pray get me a glass of brandy.")

Perhaps they had some charm, as portraits were known to be flattering.  As above, Henry VIII fell for the Holbein portrait of Anne of Cleves, but she didn't look like it:

http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/images/Clev...

Unfortunately, due to the inbreeding of royalty marrying royalty in those days, many princesses and queens were ugly - as were some kings, especially the Habsburgs.  Take a look at poor King Carlos II of Spain and his little wife:  http://www.xs4all.nl/~kvenjb/madmonarchs...

Answer 6

I would have to say Queen Mary (Bloody Mary) or Queen Elizabeth II.

Answer 7

Queen Victoria in her later years could stop a freight train with her face - yikes!

Answer 8

Difficult to say since all we have to go on for some are portraits painted by commissioned artists that had to make their sitters look good or not be paid (or worse).

Having said that, you wouldn't have to look much further back that Victoria for a fairly ugly person.