Random Different Physical Sizes Of British Monarchs (13 items)

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  (#1) Henry VIII of England

  • Dec. at 56 (1491-1547)

  Height: 6'2"

  Weight: Over 300 pounds

  Reign: 1509-1547

  As a young man, Henry VIII - who, like his grandfather Edward IV, had always been tall - enjoyed an active lifestyle. But a painful leg injury from a jousting tournament in 1536 curtailed his athletic endeavors.

  Consequently, Henry's waistline expanded. At the time of his passing in 1547 at the age of 55, Henry weighed well over 300 pounds.
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  (#2) Edward IV of England

  • Dec. at 41 (1442-1483)

  Height: Around 6'3"

  Reign: 1461-1470, 1471-1483

  Edward is historically described as a robust, imposing ruler. This was confirmed in 1789 when his remains were exhumed from their resting place in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. Edward's skeleton was over 6 feet long. While clad in armor, Edward would have stood even taller than his official height. 

  Edward wasn't just one of the tallest British kings - he may have been one of the best-looking monarchs, too. One of Edward's contemporaries even admitted, "I do not remember having seen a more handsome prince." 
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  (#3) Elizabeth II

  • 92

  Height: 5'1" - 5'4"

  Shoe size: 6.5 (US)

  Reign: 1952-present

  As is normal for someone in her 90s, Queen Elizabeth II has lost some inches over the course of her adulthood. At the time of her coronation in 1953, she was 5 feet 4 inches. In 2019, she is estimated to stand at 5 feet 1 inches.

  One of the perks of being queen: Elizabeth doesn't have to deal with the blisters that come from breaking in a new pair of shoes; she has a servant break them in for her. As Angela Kelly, her former dresser, recalls, "The Queen has very little time to herself and not time to wear in her own shoes, and as we share the same shoe size it makes the most sense this way."
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  (#4) Charles I of England

  • Dec. at 49 (1600-1649)

  Height: 5'4"

  Reign: 1625-1649

  Charles I's average height was a sore spot for him most of his life. He thought that kings should be physically tall to reflect their status as divinely ordained rulers.

  Consequently, Charles became obsessed with shaping his image. His official portraits made him look taller than he actually was. Charles even preferred to wear boots that had heels - no doubt as a way to add some height to his royal figure.
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  (#5) Queen Victoria

  • Dec. at 82 (1819-1901)

  Height: 5'0"

  Waistline: 50 inches at the time of her demise

  Reign: 1837-1901

  Queen Victoria may have been one of the longest-reigning, strongest-willed monarchs in British history, but she wasn't a very tall person. Though she was short in reality - around 5 feet tall - Victoria never officially acknowledged her size. The queen's height was always publicly proclaimed to be 5 feet 2 inches in a bid to increase her stature. She got away with this because the vast majority of her subjects never saw her in person.

  Victoria's weight changed over the course of her life. She was a 19th-century foodie, and at least one of her prime ministers subjected her to lectures about living a healthy, balanced lifestyle. Moreover, she was frequently pregnant - giving birth to nine children over her lifetime - which understandably increased her waistline. 
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  (#6) Mary, Queen of Scots

  Height: 5'11"

  Reign: 1542-1567

  Mary Stuart of Scotland may not have been a successful monarch, but she was a physically striking one. In adulthood, she was just shy of 6 feet tall. 

  Mary's figure was relatively slender. She stayed active, enjoying activities like dancing and horseback riding.
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  (#7) George IV of the United Kingdom

  • Dec. at 68 (1762-1830)

  Waistline: At least 55 inches

  Reign: 1820-1830

  By the time George IV became monarch in 1820, he had already been performing kingly duties for nine years as the prince regent during his father's health crisis.

  Though a devoted and cultured patron of the arts, George IV was not a popular royal. His robust appetite for food and drink led to an expanding waistline, and his critics turned this into a political tool by equating his size with his perceived excess.

  George was depicted as hedonistic and pompous, and the British press lampooned him by making fun of his weight.
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  (#8) Edward I of England

  • Dec. at 68 (1239-1307)

  Height: 6'2"

  Reign: 1272-1307

  Standing at over 6 feet tall, Edward I of England had a personality as imposing as his height. Known as the "Hammer of the Scots," he was notorious for aggressively attempting to bring Wales and Scotland into submission.

  His height even inspired one of his other nicknames: Edward Longshanks ("longshanks" means "long legs"). 
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  (#9) Elizabeth I of England

  • Dec. at 70 (1533-1603)

  Height: Around 5'4"

  Reign: 1558-1603

  Elizabeth I may have been her father Henry VIII's successor in spirit, but she was much smaller in size. Elizabeth never bore any children, so she remained trim throughout her life.

  Though famous for her reddish-blond hair, Elizabeth relied more and more on wigs during the second half of her life. In her final years, she had scars on her face from a bout with smallpox in 1562, and her love of sweets turned some of her teeth black.
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  (#10) Anne, Queen of Great Britain

  • Dec. at 49 (1665-1714)

  Reign: 1702-1714

  As a young woman, Anne was not a famous beauty, but she embodied 17th-century ideals of feminine attractiveness, including pale hands. In adulthood, at least 17 pregnancies - none of which resulted in an heir - and a painful case of gout ravaged her once-slender body.

  By the time she became queen in 1701 at the age of 36, Anne's body was so swollen with gout that she had to be carried to her own coronation.
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  (#11) George III of the United Kingdom

  • Dec. at 82 (1738-1820)

  Reign: 1760-1820

  America's last king was not a small figure. According to Horace Walpole, "His person is tall and full of dignity, his countenance florid and good natured, his manner graceful and obliging, he expresses no warmth or resentment against anybody."

  George is better known for his mental state than his physical one. He suffered from several bouts of mental illness in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Consistent with medical practices of the day, the tall king would be strapped into a straitjacket during these episodes.
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  (#12) Richard III of England

  • Dec. at 33 (1452-1485)

  Height: Less than 5'8" due to scoliosis

  Reign: 1483-1485

  Recent tests on the skeleton of Richard III confirm that the maligned medieval monarch suffered from scoliosis, or a curvature of the spine. According to the size of his skeleton, Richard should have been 5 feet 8 inches tall, but his scoliosis probably shaved off a couple of inches.

  While Richard may have appeared smaller than he truly was, he was almost certainly not the hunchbacked "toad" depicted in Shakespeare's Richard III.
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  (#13) George VI

  • Dec. at 57 (1895-1952)

  Reign: 1936-1952

  King George VI - father of current monarch Elizabeth II - was tall and slender for most of his life. He was also a chain smoker who is believed to have burned through 50 cigarettes every day.

  His tobacco use and the stress of leading the United Kingdom through WWII took a physical toll on George's physique. Over the course of a few months in 1947, the already trim king lost 17 pounds. George's unexpected weight loss that year anticipated a lung cancer diagnosis a few years later.

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