When Elizabeth was nine (or perhaps twelve), the plague was raging in London and to avoid it she was sent to Overcourt, a manor house at Bisley, a small village in the Cotswolds. There she befriended a boy of about her own age. He was her nephew, although sometimes described as her cousin: an illegitimate boy fathered by Henry Fitzroy, who was an illegitimate son of Henry VIII. The boy had been sent to Bisley to conceal his existence. Elizabeth died of the fate she had been sent to Bisley to avoid. The servants were terrified to tell the tyrannous but distant Henry VIII, who was about to visit. The illegitimate nephew was pretty, of about the same age and, most important, he rather resembled Elizabeth. It was easy to pass him off as 'Elizabeth' for a visit of Henry who was certainly not affectionate and was rather in a hurry.However having started the imposture it proved impossible to let it go. The embarrassment of the boy's existence meant that very few questions were asked about his disappearance. An alternate version says that the boy was from the local village and had not actually met Elizabeth.
The replacement Elizabeth became Queen of England, Ireland and France in 1559 after the deaths of her supposed half-brother Edward, and her half-sister Mary. She reigned until she died in 1603 at the age of 69.
She never married; she became bald later in life and wore wigs; she left explicit instructions that there should be no post-mortem on her body; she took suggestions that she was androgynous and made a legend out of them. At Tilbury in 1588 during the crisis of the Spanish Armada, Elizabeth spoke to her troops, saying: "I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King".
The story was researched and popularised by Bram Stoker, the theatre manager and author of Dracula, who published it in his book Famous Imposters, 1909. A friend of his came across the legend while looking for a house in the area. Stoker visited the manor house himself, and going over the story point by point, became convinced of it.
The standard biographies of Elizabeth do not bother to refute this thesis, they merely ignore it.
- Bram Stoker. Famous Imposters
. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, New York: Sturgis & Walton, Company, 1910: chp X.
- C. J. Bulliet. Venus Castina: Famous Female Impersonators Celestial and Human
. Mew York: Covici 308 pp 1928. New York: Bonanza Books. 1956: 179-184.
- Emi Wolters. “Ein Transvestit als Königin”. Das 3, Geschlect,5, May 1932: 16-25.
- Harry Ludlam. A Biography of Bram Stoker
, Creator of Dracula. New English Library. p162. 1977
- Chris Hunt. The Bisley boy. London: Gay Men's Press. 1995. A fictionalization of the story.
- Bisley, Gloucestershire: History. http://www.bisleyonline.net/content/view/15/55/ The web page for the village of Bisley certainly retells the story.
- Yvonne Sinclair. The Bisley Boy. yvonnesinclair.co.uk/stories/The%20Bisley%20Boy.html London Transy organizer retells the tale.
- Christopher Stevens. "Is this proof the Virgin Queen was an imposter in drag? Shocking new theory about Elizabeth I unearthed in historic manuscripts". The Daily Mail, 8 June 2013. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2337774/Is-proof-Virgin-Queen-imposter-drag-Shocking-new-theory-Elizabeth-I-unearthed-historic-manuscripts.html.
People have different opinions whether Jackson, Blanchett, Mirren or Richardson was the best cinematic Elizabeth Tudor, but the most appropriate was Quentin Crisp in Orlando, 1992.
Wow! I love it. Elizabeth I is a fav of mine. She is the epitome of the powerful woman...
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! But perhaps Elizabeth did not die but was intersex, explaining the baldness, lack of post mortem, and why she was shunned by her family.
ReplyDeleteAre you trying to rewrite history? I can't believe you are trying to pass along this rumor as fact. Unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteSee the quote from Oscar Wilde above.
DeleteAs I said in the posting: The standard biographies of Elizabeth do not bother to refute this thesis, they merely ignore it.
To ignore is not to refute. This version of history stands unchallenged.
I read about this idea a few years ago, and saw a TV documentary about it, which was so badly made as to be almost unwatchable. I may be biased (I'm a huge fan of strong women) but I came to the conclusion that this theory probably came about through the same snobbery which says Shakespeare couldn't have been an ill-educated low-born hick, i.e. that someone could not believe that a mere woman could possibly speak 5 languages fluently, write excellent poetry and be possibly the best speechwriter and politician of her lifetime. Not very feminine, so therefore not a woman. I actually believe she was. As you say, interesting to have the theory out there in public and make mention of it, but I think Elizabeth was a woman. Or possibly intersex as suggested above. I don't believe she was replaced. But I have no proof, of course.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she was bisexual back then. Some people know that she had a female servant in her room for warmth and comfort. Despite having male lovers, in addition she might have had a unknown chemical imbalance, abnormality, or something that might have caused her not want to get married. The subject of of her being bisexual or bi-curious is a so-so or whatever that some people might suspect of her. We didn't live in her era or time and people today would've had suspensions of unclean lust. Unless that type of information is secretly locked away somewhere to a point that no one could find it, nor the Queen Elizabeth 2 today.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is intersexed whose parents choose to raise them as a female but as she came of age she felt more as an man as many times happens. Hence her speech of I know I have this feeble body of a woman but the mind and heart of a king.
ReplyDeleteI don' think Elisabeth was a boy or a hermaphrodite person. It is my personal opinion of course. But being a chemist and having being told that she never menstruated, chances are that she suffered from a great hormonal unbalance. This would have been a systemic pathology causing baldness, or, the opposite, hirsutism. It is speculatory history.
ReplyDeleteThe biographies also ignore the idea that she was beamed down from a spaceship - oh, just me then?
ReplyDeleteYes, it is just you. The Bisley Boy tradition was recorded in the village of Bisley centuries ago, and the existence of the tradition is well recorded. While you just made up a fantasy with no research and no thinking through.
ReplyDeleteNobody else has cited any refutations - how come??
ReplyDeleteHere is one. David Skal in his Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula p472-3 attempts one. "Even in 1910, the whole story could have been readily debunked. For instance, on the occasions when offers of marriage were being considered, doctors were called upon to certify the Virgin Queen as fully intact. The real Elizabeth was also fond of occasionally displaying her bosom as décolletage."
a) all doctors at that time were male. Skal in his innocence proposes that one of them was permitted to put his finger up the royal vagina!! Really? He would just assert the fact after being told so by either her maj or by the ladies-in-waiting.
b) display of décolletage? This is centuries-old trick done by 16th-century boy actors, female impersonators and drag queens.
Is that is the best refutation that anyone can come up with?
Elizabeth I had an enormous mole on her right buttcheek.
ReplyDeleteRefute it. You can't? That means it must be true!
Alas, that is neither how logic nor history works.