The Most Beautiful Woman of All Time?

Titles like the »most [whatever] of the world« have always fascinated – and irritated – people. And justly so.

First of all, judgements are always subjective, even if many people seem to agree with them; and secondly… whoever has seen all the men, women, you-name-it, to dare make such a judgement?

So, before anyone’s blood pressure goes through the roof, let’s be appropriately bureaucratic and state quite clearly that by »the most beautiful women« we mean those who were declared to be so in public writing (before the present-day »boom« of tabloids and media outlets in general), or there is solid evidence that the general public opinion about their beauty was fairly unanimous.

Rulers are excluded for obvious reasons (possible sycophancy), – even though Alienor (or Eleanor) of Aquitaine, the perpulchra (”more than beautiful”, in Latin), was thought to be genuinely very beautiful (in addition to being intelligent, accomplished – and immensely powerful), as was Elisabeth of Austria, also known as »Sissi«. And in the early 20th century, the last Russian imperial family was arguably the best-looking royal family of the time.

So, here are just a few of the women whose beauty has been sung long and loudly enough for the echos to reach us.

* Helen of Troy

Annoyingly ubiquitous as she may be, the »fair Helen«, whose beauty has been sung by both Homer and Sappho, whose face “launched a thousand ships” (Christopher Marlowe), is impossible to overlook. If there ever was a mythical beauty, she is it.

* Rosamund Clifford (before 1150 – c. 1176)

We may not mention Alienor, but we must bring up her rival, the »fair Rosamond«.
This quintessential “English rose” (her name literally meant “Rose of the World”, in Latin) was also called by many other names, some of them not very polite. But the legend of her beauty has endured through the centuries.