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Rumors that her penchant for heavy make up late in her reign being due to small pox scarring are likely incorrect.

1. Apparently, her bout with small pox caused some hair loss, although she is supposed to have still had thin grey hair at the time of her death. 2. In a portrait c.1542-7, a young Elizabeth is depicted with a square cut neckline that shows most of her shoulders. In the really famous one from late in her reign (1592), she is wearing a low cut gown. Later portraits tend to be idealized, however. She is described as wearing low cut gowns well into old age by contemporaries. An example of such a gown can be found in an unflattering letter home from the French ambassador in the 1590's. He describes her in scathing terms, including, "her b***m is somewhat wrinkled." This isn't absolute proof of lack of visible pock marks, but considering his description of her rotting teeth, he wouldn't have spared her completion. 3. She enjoyed hunting, dancing, and long walks until the last few months of her life. She was glimpsed through a window dancing Galliards with her maid when she was in her sixties. As a young woman, she was prone to colds and flu, but many of these illnesses were awfully convenient, since they kept her away from her sister's court at times when attendance would be even more dangerous to her health. She was prone to migraines, but this is not surprising, all things considered. 4. She lived to be 70, extreme old age for the period, and was extremely healthy through most of, except for the smallpox at 29 and the pneumonia that carried her off.