Was Queen Elizabeth the First a man?

[bizzylizzy]

A friend of mine swears that she read a piece somewhere that suggested that the young queen died and had been replaced by a man, who disguised himself and took the place of the queen. Yes, I know, I thought she was pulling my leg too. But she's absolutely insistent that she saw it somewhere. Can anyone else shed any light on this err strange statement.
Thank you.

[Loosehead]

Sound's like an early conspiracy theory, total *&^%$cks

[andy hughes]

This is indeed a conspiracy theory, and highly unlikely to be valid.

Court ettiquette in those times dictated that the monarch was almost never alone - always dressed and undressed by several of her attendents. It would have been impossible to keep such a decpetion secret in such gossip-ridden places as the Queen's palaces.

[tubeway]

No it is absolutely true - God bless Queen Lionel

[dave_c]

While we're at it let's clear up another myth.......

She once said she's "Maried to England" or something is it true thing by cutting out her womanhood?

[Tatty Rollox]

....... and here is Queen Elizabeth, and here she is again (this portrait is at Hever), and here, just for interest, is her signature.

[Tatty Rollox]

Ignore the second "here" above - someting went wrong I know not what. This should be the Hever portrait.

[KebabMeister]

Sounds like an episode of Blackadder II :) 

"Now, if only I can get the voice right" ;)

[Tatty Rollox]

Hoorah, it is !!!!!!

[jno]

hadn't heard that one before but it seems implausible - Elizabeth lived a fairly public life, she couldn't just vanish for a while and return with an unxplained five o'clock shadow and have nobody notice. As andy says, she was seldom alone. Any idea where the story came from?

[Peter Pedant]

no it is untrue

Elizabeth was er checked by privy Councillors to be a girlie before teh negatiations for marriage with the Dike of Anjou - whenever that was

Unsuccessful

the Duke - my liddle frog the Q referred to him - was ugly possibly gay possibly infected with syphilis and died a few years later.

[janesmythe22]

This is not directly related to the question but to another similar story about 'mistaken gender':

Although OED gives somewhat different explanation to the origin of word 'test', this sounds more entertaining:

"Testiculos habet et bene pendentes" � "He has testicles, and they dangle nicely." 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Joan

 

 

[jno]

that's rather poetic jane... in fact there's a line in the Aeneid - 'beware of Greeks bringing gifts' - timeo danaos et dona ferentes, which sounds so close to your one that I wonder if it was deliberately done as a spoof 

[janesmythe22]

Verily, Verily, I Say Unto You, He That Believeth on jno, the Works That S/he Doth, Shall He Do Also�
Quite frankly jno, I truly appreciate your point of view on (nearly) all other AB topics. To continue in the same vein (a bit of show off) �Sapienti sat�.

[Octavius]

Queen Elizabeth was very much a woman!  The idea that she was really a man, or half-woman/half-man, probably stems from the idea that a woman could not successfully rule a kingdom, and so she had to have been secretly a man. It may also have stemmed from the idea that every woman wanted to marry, and if she did not, there had to be a reason for it.

And she wasn't bald either, all hogwash.

[jno]

oooh-err jane just reread my contribution and detected an implication that the spoof was by you - that wasn't my intention, sorry! Possible though that whoever came up with the pendentes line had Virgil in the back of his mind? That could quite easily happen in a well-stocked classical brain.

[janesmythe22]

Fair-and-square, jno.

[Solarjunkie]

You're all thinking of the Gloucestershire legend of "The Bisley Boy" which basically states that while on a visit to nearby Berkeley Castle as a child, Elizabeth suddenly died.

Panicking officials substituted the most suitable red headed child, who happened to be a boy.

Elizabeth went bald, never married, left explicit instructions forbidding a postmortem, and was fond of saying she had "the heart of a man". Hmmmm.

A skeleton of a young girl in tudor dress was found in the area a few years ago.

[bizzylizzy]

Eureka.

Solarjunkie you are a star. That's exactly what she was talking about. Many, many thanks.

And as for the rest of you. My thanks to you guys too. What an entertaining thread this has been. Starting with total *&^%$cks and ending with Virgil we arrived at the right answer. What could be better than that. :-)

[jno]

fascinating - see here 

[bizzylizzy]

Yes, as you say, very interesting.

Rather like the Piltdown man hoax.

I wonder how many more hoaxes are out there waiting to be debunked. Man landing on the moon (or not) seems to be the current favourite.