In a Tudor portrait what did a red dress meant?

Question

I was looking at Elizabeth I 's portrait at age 13 and she is wearing a red dress what did that meant, all the tudor portraits were full of symbols.

Answer 1

It could have just meant that she had a red dress that enhanced her pale beauty. Then again...red was often a color associated with sin and impurity. Elizabeth I's mother, Anne Boleyn, was called "the Great Whore" by her Catholic detractors (the supporters of Mary I - Elizabeth's older sister and Henry's oldest daughter from his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon daughter of the Spanish Catholic Ferdinand and Isabella) . The red dress could have been a sly way of implying that the young Princess Elizabeth was the product of an unholy alliance between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

Answer 2

It could have meant as ckswife before me suggested or it could have no underlying meaning at all. Royalty was often considered above the common laws and standards of their time and certainly many of them looked at themselves that way.

Because Elizabeth was only 13 at the time it's highly unlikely that she was used to make some kind of social or political statement. It's much more likely that she posed in that dress because it was her favorite dress or that it was selected by the artist of her mother because one of them thought it suited the portrait best.

Answer 3

Elizabeth's only importance at 13 would have been her use as a political pawn in the international marriage market and the portait may have been produced in order to show to a foreign prince in order to set up a match. The dress may simply have been a favourite so don't get too hung up on symbology.