Random Thought-Provoking Historical Conspiracy Theories About Queen Elizabeth I (7 items)

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  (#3) She Was The Real William Shakespeare

  There’s a small sect in literary academia that believes someone other than William Shakespeare wrote all of the bard's famous works. One contender was Queen Elizabeth.

  There’s no real evidence to support this claim, but some scholars have argued that Shakespeare, who came from a rural area, did not have the necessary knowledge to write about life at court. Additionally, many of his plays served as Tudor propaganda, leading some to think that the author of these works might have strong ties to or be part of the Tudor dynasty. And finally, Elizabeth was known to write poetry and was considered to be an incredibly well-educated, witty person. You might think that some of Shakespeare’s content was too crude to have been written by the Queen, but in truth, she was known to curse like a sailor.

  As entertaining as this theory is, it’s difficult to imagine the queen having the time to write 37 plays and 154 sonnets.
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  (#5) She Was Not Henry VIII’s Daughter

  Rumors of illegitimacy have always plagued royals, particularly when their mother was famously executed for adultery. The flirtatiousness of Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother, is well known - that is, after all, how she won the then married King Henry VIII - but some argue that she took things a step further. Some scholars believe she slept with other men as a type of insurance. The most important thing for King Henry was securing a male heir; that’s partly why he ditched his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, for the younger, and presumably more fertile Anne. Anne, who was a clever woman, might have gone to bed with other men to ensure a pregnancy.

  If that were the case, the plan backfired, as Anne was accused of being unfaithful to her husband and charged with sleeping with at least five other men. Before Anne’s trial, Thomas Cromwell, the king’s chief minister, said, “the queen’s incontinent living was so rank and common that the ladies of her privy chamber could not conceal it.” This was long before the days of innocent till proven guilty. But even if Anne were innocent, it woudn’t have mattered. The King always got what he wanted. His six wives could attest to that.
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  (#4) She Was Francis Bacon’s Mother

  When Elizabeth and her childhood friend Robert Dudley were imprisoned in the Tower by Elizabeth’s sister, Queen Mary, it is said that they had a monk marry them. Allegedly, they kept their marriage a secret well into Elizabeth’s reign. Dudley was not a court favorite, and the Queen needed to remain single in case the need for a politically advantageous marriage arose. However, the two carried on and even had a child together. Supposedly, Elizabeth gave her child to her most favored lady in waiting and confidant, Anne Bacon. Anne and her husband, Sir Nicholas Bacon, gave Francis their last name and raised him as their own, and he became the famous philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon.

  Considering the fashion of the period, a pregnancy could have been easily concealed. However, it would have been difficult for Elizabeth to hide her baby bump from the Gentlewomen of the Bedchamber, who were historically tasked with bathing, dressing, and undressing the Queen.
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  (#1) She Was Secretly Replaced With A Boy

  As this conspiracy goes, when Elizabeth was ten, the bubonic plague hit London. As a precautionary measure, she was sent to the village of Bisley, far away from the dying masses in the big city. While she was there, she grew ill from some unknown disease and died. The governess who was tasked with caring for the future queen began to panic. The famously temperamental King, who had already executed Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn, was scheduled for a visit. So the governess searched the countryside for someone who looked like Elizabeth. She found an effeminate young boy who resembled the princess, and dressed him up in Elizabeth's clothes. The ruse fooled King Henry and the entire kingdom, as this boy would go on to rule England for over forty years.

  This theory seems absurd, but it gained credibility when Dracula author Bram Stoker published his book Famous Impostors in 1910. In it, he posits that “Elizabeth” was actually Henry VIII’s illegitimate grandson. Even Elizabeth's appearance was cited to add veracity to this claim: the Queen was said to have many masculine attributes, like long fingers and heavy facial stubble. Supporters of this theory said that Elizabeth wore heavy makeup to cover her stubble and a wig to hide a receding hairline. Some conjecture that this secret is the reasoning behind the monarch never marrying or giving birth.

  The existence of this theory shows how resistant people were to accepting a female ruler, even one whose reign was considered extremely prosperous. As for some of the “evidence” that supports this theory, Elizabeth suffered from a case of smallpox in 1562. The illness left heavy scars on her face which she covered with makeup. She wore a wig because it was considered fashionable to do so. And what about never getting married? Well, that particular course of action didn’t end too well for her mother or the five other wives Elizabeth’s father wed. By staying single, she kept all of the power for herself and brought about England’s Golden Age - without a man.
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  (#7) She Wasn't A Virgin

  Although Elizabeth was known as the “Virgin Queen,” many historians have speculated that that was merely a title. It was crucial that Elizabeth preserve her image of chastity in case she needed to marry to gain some political leverage. That said, Elizabeth was rumored to have had dalliances with Robert Dudley, Robert Devereux, and the Duke of Anjou.

  Elizabeth favored Dudley, who she had known since childhood, openly flirting with him in front of the entire court. Their fondness for one another was so apparent that it worried Elizabeth’s councillors, and they strove to find her a suitable husband in an effort to keep them apart. Unfortunately for them, Elizabeth had her mind set, and though she told her council that she was open to marriage if they could find her a suitable match, she had supposedly told Dudley at an early age that she would never marry.

  There were also accounts that Elizabeth was possibly molested when she was a young girl living with her guardian, Katharine Parr. It is said that Parr’s husband, Thomas Seymour, would sneak into Elizabeth’s bed early in the morning. Servants reported hearing odd noises coming from the bedroom. When Seymour was later accused of treason against King Edward, Elizabeth was implicated in the crime and the nature of their relationship was called into question. During the investigation, Elizabeth denied the rumors about her and Seymour and maintained that she was a virgin.
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  (#2) She Was A Hermaphrodite

  Queen Elizabeth was famously resistant to marriage, causing many history buffs to wonder why. Some authors have posited that Elizabeth was born with both male and female sexual organs and that she remained a virgin because of it.

  As researcher R. Bakan explains it, “characteristics of the testicular feminization syndrome are strikingly similar to descriptions of Elizabeth's appearance, personality, behaviour… [these] individuals typically present attractive, intelligent, practical females, above average in height, slim, active, athletic with notably long and beautiful hands. They have a normal life span and are free of related illnesses and obvious malformations. The only signs of abnormality are the lack of menstruation and the absence or foreshortening of the vagina.”

  Most historians have dismissed this theory for a number of reasons. Elizabeth was regularly examined by doctors. She also had many people spying on her. For example, one foreign ambassador was convinced the queen was unchaste and bribed one of Elizabeth’s laundresses to smuggle out evidence that proved the Queen was still menstruating. There are also accounts of Elizabeth having sexual liaisons with several men, most notably the man who has been called her one true love, Robert Dudley. If any of them saw something they weren’t expecting to see during their escapades, they would probably have shared that information.

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