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| 8 | <title>Primary Sources: A contemporary description of Queen Mary I, 1557</title>
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| 20 | <p align="center"> <br>
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| 22 | <img border="0" src="marydesc.gif" width="405" height="100"><p align="center"> </td>
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| 30 | <td valign="top" width="48%" bgcolor="#FFFFE8"><font size="2">This
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| 31 | description of Queen Mary I was written by Giovanni Michieli, the Venetian
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| 32 | ambassador to her court.</font><p><font size="-1">He mentions Mary's
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| 33 | infamous menstrual problems, the cause of great physical and psychological
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| 34 | stress for the queen, as well as her near-sightedness.</font><br>
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| 35 | </td>
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| 36 | <td width="4%"></td>
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| 37 | <td valign="top" width="48%">
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| 38 |
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| 39 | She
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| 40 | is of low rather than of middling stature, but, although short, she has
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| 41 | not personal defect in her limbs, nor is any part of her body deformed.
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| 42 | She is of spare and delicate frame, quite unlike her father, who was tall
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| 43 | and stout; nor does she resemble her mother, who, if not tall, was nevertheless
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| 44 | bulky. Her face is well formed, as shown by her features and lineaments,
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| 45 | and as seen by her portraits. When younger she was considered, not
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| 46 | merely tolerably handsome, but of beauty exceeding mediocrity. At
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| 47 | present, with the exception of some wrinkles, caused more by anxieties
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| 48 | than by age, which makes her appear some years older, her aspect, for the
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| 49 | rest, is very grave. Her eyes are so piercing that they inspire not
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| 50 | only respect, but fear in those on whom she fixes them, although she is
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| 51 | very shortsighted, being unable to read or do anything else unless she
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| 52 | has her sight quite close to what she wishes to peruse or to see distinctly.
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| 53 | Her voice is rough and loud, almost like a man's, so that when she peaks
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| 54 | she is always heard a long way off. In short, she is a seemly woman,
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| 55 | and never to be loathed for ugliness, even at her present age, without
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| 56 | considering her degree of queen. But whatever may be the amount deducted
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| 57 | from her physical endowments, as much more may with truth, and without
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| 58 | flattery, be added to those of her mind, as, besides the facility and quickness
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| 59 | of her understanding, which comprehends whatever is intelligible to others,
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| 60 | even to those who are not of her own sex (a marvellous gift for a woman),
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| 61 | she is skilled in five languages, not merely understanding, but speaking
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| 62 | four of them fluently - English, Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian, in
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| 63 | which last, however, she does not venture to converse, although it is well
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| 64 | known to her; but the replies she gives in Latin, and her very intelligent
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| 65 | remarks made in that tongue surprise everybody....
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| 66 | <br>Besides woman's work, such as embroidery of every sort with the needle,
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| 67 | she also practices music, playing especially on the clavichord and on the
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| 68 | lute so excellently that, when intent on it...she surprised the best performers,
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| 69 | both by the rapidity of her hand and by her style of playing. Such
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| 70 | are her virtues and external accomplishments. Internally, with the
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| 71 | exception of certain trifles, in which, to say the truth, she is like other
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| 72 | women, being sudden and passionate, and close and miserly, rather more
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| 73 | so than would become a bountiful and generous queen, she in other respects
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| 74 | has no notable imperfections; whilst in certain things she is singular
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| 75 | and without an equal, for not only is she brave and valiant, unlike other
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| 76 | timid and spiritless women, but she courageous and resolute that neither
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| 77 | in adversity nor peril did she ever even display or commit any act of cowardice
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| 78 | or pusillanimity, maintaining always, on the contrary, a wonderful grandeur
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| 79 | and dignity, knowing what became the dignity of a sovereign as well as
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| 80 | any of the most consummate statesmen in her service; so that from her way
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| 81 | of proceeding and from the method observed by her (and in which she still
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| 82 | perseveres), it cannot be denied that she shows herself to have been born
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| 83 | of truly royal lineage.
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| 84 | <p>[She is also subject to] a very deep melancholy, much greater than that
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| 85 | to which she is constitutionally liable, from menstrous retention and suffocation
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| 86 | of the matrix to which, for many years, she has been often subject, so
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| 87 | that the remedy of tears and weeping, to which from childhood she has been
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| 88 | accustomed, and still often used by her, is not sufficient; she requires
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| 89 | to be blooded either from the foot or elsewhere, which keeps her always
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| 90 | pale and emaciated.<p align="center"> <p align="center"><a href="primary.html">
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| 91 | <font size="2">to Primary Sources</font></a></td>
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| 92 | </tr>
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