Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Elizabeth's Bedfellows: An Intimate History of the Queen's Court > Status Update

‘Zuccaro’s blanched, mask-life face pattern was thereafter inserted on portraits of every size throughout the 1580s and early 1590s. The first of the so-called ‘sieve portraits’ adopted the Darnley face. No other face pattern of the Queen was to be so widely disseminated and this is testament to the government’s ability to control the royal image during this period.’

‘Elizabeth proved resistant and Sir Christopher Hatton and her councillors tried to convince her that her tooth needed to come out. Finally the aged John Aylmer, Bishop of London, offered that one of his few remaining teeth might be extracted to reassure the Queen and encourage her to submit to a similar procedure.’

‘There had been rumours of a flirtation between Lettice and Dudley ten years before, when Lettice had come to court heavily pregnant with her son Robert. Then it seemed that Dudley was acting out of jealousy of the Queen’s relationship with Sir Thomas Heneage, and he stopped courting Lettice as soon as Elizabeth displayed hurt and anger at his betrayal. Now it seemed Dudley had renewed his suit.’

‘Since the earliest days of her life, when Blanche rocked the princess’s cradle, Elizabeth and her devoted Welshwoman had a close bond which evolved and deepened as Elizabeth grew up. They shared a love of books and horses, and until Blanche grew too old and blind, they would often ride out together.’

‘It was perhaps her need to deny her own scarring that led her to regard with hostility other people’s pockmarked faces. Rather than show compassion to Mary Sidney, the woman who had nursed her through her illness and been so badly scarred as a result, Elizabeth regarded her with disdain. Later the queen would also make very clear her distaste for a marriage with the Duke of Alençon, another smallpox sufferer’

‘That Elizabeth adored Dudley was painfully obvious. Together they danced, hunted, shared private jokes and were rarely out of each other’s company; it was their easy familiarity and affectionate displays which spawned the rumours as to the nature of their relationship... But in truth she must have known, particularly after the death of Amy Robsart, that marrying Robert Dudley would never be possible.’