Elizabeth I was reported to have a full inch of makeup on her face

At the time of her death, Elizabeth I was reported to have a full inch of makeup on her face.

By this point, she had lost most of her teeth, suffered hair loss, refused to be attended to or bathed.

Close to the time of her death, Elizabeth’s coronation ring had grown into her flesh.
This was due to the fact that she never removed it during her 45 year reign.

Her doctors insisted that the ring had to be removed – and within a week Elizabeth died.

Towards the end of her life, Elizabeth began to suffer from bouts of melancholy.

This was due to the deaths of several of her close companions, including her long-serving lady-in-waiting Katherine Howard.

Elizabeth was especially tormented by the exEcution of her former favourite, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

During her final days, Elizabeth expressed regret about ordering the exEcution of her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots.

Sir Robert Carey recorded that Elizabeth –

“shed many teares and sighs, manifesting her
innocence that she never gave consent to the death
of that queene.”

Lady-in-waiting Elizabeth Southwell, reported that the Queen was haunted by visions of her frail body.

It was also reported that a playing card with a nail through its head, was found on the Queen’s chair, toward the end of her life.

Elizabeth’s emotional and physical ailments escalated to the point that she took to standing in her bedchamber up for 15 hours, without assistance.

She would then collapse onto the floor which her ladies-in-waiting had covered with cushions.
It is said that Elizabeth resisted lying down, out of fear that she would never rise again.

Elizabeth lay speechless on the floor for four days, before her servants finally managed to settle her into bed.

Elizabeth communicated her instructions for who would succeed her on the English throne with a hand gesture.
By the time succession arrangements were being made, Elizabeth’s illness had robbed her of her powers of speech.

When asked if it was her wish for James VI of Scotland to inherit the crown, Elizabeth apparently, gestured with her hands, drawing a circle around her head to indicate a crown – confirming that this was her wish.

Elizabeth I died at Richmond Palace, on 24th March 1603, at the age of 69 after a reign of 45 years.
Many now believe she died by blood poisoning, but a post-mortem at the time wasn’t permitted.

The Queen’s Lady of the Bedchamber refused to allow Elizabeth’s body to be subject to a post-mortem.

Some argue that this was a way to safeguard the Queen’s reputation as a virgin

Elizabeth’s rumoured last words were –

“All my possessions for one moment of time.”

Elizabeth’s embalmed body was guarded in Whitehall Palace for three weeks before being laid to rest in a lavish funeral ceremony on 28th April 1603.

Thousands turned out to watch the funeral ceremony procession through London.

At the funeral, an effigy of Elizabeth I was placed on top of her lead coffin.
Dressed in royal robes, the effigy was so lifelike that it made mourners gasp.

Elizabeth I is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Her body was first placed in the vault of her grandfather King Henry VII.

However in 1606 Elizabeth’s coffin was transferred to the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and placed beneath a monument to her erected by King James I.

Elizabeth’s coffin is in the same vault as her half sister, Mary I.
The Latin inscription at the base of the tomb reads –

‘Partners in throne and grave,
here we sleep Elizabeth and Mary
sisters in hope of the Resurrection.’