Weeell, that's an interesting question. Certainly our 21st century standards of beauty don't match up with the Tudor standards. It's hard to judge the 6 wives, because their portraits vary widely - and there are some that we aren't truly sure who the subject of the portrait is.
I know that Anne Boleyn went against the standard for beauty in England - she had dark hair, dark eyes and sallow skin. Therefore, we could suppose that blue-eyed milk-skinned blondes were the height of beauty. However, three women from early to late Tudor years that held the claim of great beauty would be Elizabeth Wydville, Mary Rose Tudor and Mary Queen of Scots, and of the three, only Elizabeth had the true golden hair. But they all had beautifully shaped eyes (even if they don't look blue), great style of dress (we would call it 'chic') and beautiful white skin, in particular hands with long fingers.
(I believe that the nasty face paint you referenced to was to both keep the appearance of white skin & cover smallpox pits & scars.)
Here's Elizabeth Wydville, Edward IV's queen and the grandmother of Henry VIII and Mary Rose
And Mary Rose Tudor, onetime queen of France and later duchess of Suffolk (the large bearish man is her husband Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk!)
And the young Mary Queen of Scots and Dauphine of France (her later portraits seem to have been influenced by the politics of the artist)
If you haven't been, I'd suggest you visit our AMT Picture gallery - many many portraits of Tudor folk there.
terrilee
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
First 
We have quite a bit of fun mocking Jane Seymour's chinless state LOL but apparently Henry found her to be hot tamales 
LOL
Return to The Tudors
